Is Excalidraw really free?

Yes. Excalidraw is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. Whimsical, on the other hand, costs €11 a month.

Do I need to code to install Excalidraw?

No. The level is beginner and the install takes about 2 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.

How is it different from Whimsical?

Excalidraw does most of what Whimsical does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.

Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.

Free alternative

Free alternative to Whimsical

Whimsical costs €11 a month. Excalidraw does the same job for free, in open source: you install it on your machine or a small server, and you stop paying.

Public entry price, taken from Whimsical’s website (whimsical.com). Over a year, that is €132 that stays in your pocket.

What replaces Whimsical

The main alternative

Excalidraw

🟢 Beginner⏱️ ~2 min to installSave €11/mo

Excalidraw is an open source whiteboard that replaces Whimsical. Draw on excalidraw.com with no account, or host it yourself with Docker: shapes, arrows that stay attached when you move them, ready-made libraries, including wireframe kits. Working together is free: share a link and everyone draws live, end-to-end encrypted. PNG or SVG exports, no watermark. The Claude trick: have it write your sales process in Mermaid, paste it into Excalidraw and touch up the drawing by hand. The limit: the free version keeps a single drawing at a time in your browser. To keep several, save them as files, or take Excalidraw+ (about €5 a month) and its unlimited online saving.

Loucash’s verdict on Excalidraw

7/10

Excalidraw does one thing very well: drawing a diagram fast, alone or with others, with no account and no bill. Against Whimsical's free plan, capped at 50 objects a month with a watermark, there is no contest for sketching a process or preparing a workshop. What I like: the Mermaid import. I describe a process to Claude, it gives me the diagram, I paste it and touch it up. And with the Obsidian plugin, my diagrams stay filed next to my notes. Why 7 and not more: it is not a full replacement for Whimsical. No docs, no real mind maps, and the hand drawn style sits badly in a polished client deliverable, even set to its cleanest. The free version keeps only one drawing at a time in the browser, so you have to remember to save. And to file your drawings online and share them properly with a team, you need Excalidraw+, which is paid.

Who it is for: You make diagrams, flows or quick wireframes, alone or in workshops, and you pay for Whimsical mostly to get past the object limit. If your team relies on Whimsical's docs and mind maps, keep it.

See the full page →See the tool ↗

Excalidraw versus Whimsical: the match

Price
Excalidraw
€0, no account
Whimsical
€11/month per editor
What you can create
Excalidraw
Unlimited
Whimsical
50 objects a month for free
Exports
Excalidraw
PNG and SVG with no watermark
Whimsical
Watermark on the free plan

Whimsical ↗

VS	Excalidraw	Whimsical ↗
Price	€0, no account	€11/month per editor
What you can create	Unlimited	50 objects a month for free
Exports	PNG and SVG with no watermark	Watermark on the free plan
Live collaboration	Free, end to end encrypted	Yes
Keeping your drawings	One in the browser, as many as you want as files	Everything in their cloud
From Claude	Mermaid import: Claude writes, you touch up	In house AI
Docs and mind maps	No docs, mind maps by hand	Built in docs and mind maps

The prompt that installs Excalidraw

Paste this prompt into Claude: it checks the repository, asks you its questions and installs the tool step by step.

Je veux remplacer Whimsical par Excalidraw, le tableau blanc open source (dépôt GitHub excalidraw/excalidraw, site excalidraw.com). Montre-moi d'abord la version en ligne, gratuite et sans compte : dessiner un schéma, accrocher des flèches aux formes, utiliser les bibliothèques de formes, travailler à plusieurs en direct et exporter en PNG ou en SVG. Explique-moi comment garder mes dessins, puisque la version gratuite n'en sauvegarde qu'un à la fois dans le navigateur : enregistrement en fichier .excalidraw, ou plugin Excalidraw pour Obsidian. Si je veux l'héberger moi-même, installe-le sur mon serveur avec le Dockerfile du dépôt excalidraw/excalidraw, et dis-moi ce qu'il faut ajouter (le serveur excalidraw/excalidraw-room) pour que la collaboration en direct reste chez moi. Enfin, demande-moi un processus de mon entreprise, écris-le en Mermaid et montre-moi comment l'importer dans Excalidraw pour le retoucher à la main.

Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.

Frequently asked questions

Is Excalidraw really free?: Yes. Excalidraw is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. Whimsical, on the other hand, costs €11 a month.
Do I need to code to install Excalidraw?: No. The level is beginner and the install takes about 2 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.
How is it different from Whimsical?: Excalidraw does most of what Whimsical does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.
Do I own my data?: Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.

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