Comparison
Excalidraw, Excalidraw+, or Excaliwow?
Choose the open-source editor for a local or self-hosted canvas. Choose Excalidraw+ for Excalidraw’s first-party cloud workspace. Choose Excaliwow for a persistent human-agent workspace whose REST API, CLI, and MCP surface are included in the core workspace kept free for the first 10,000 verified accounts while Excaliwow operates.
Looking for an Excalidraw alternative?
The three options share an Excalidraw drawing vocabulary but solve different ownership and workflow jobs. This canonical keeps the open-source editor and paid Excalidraw+ separate so a free local canvas is never compared as though it were a hosted team plan.
A fair note: Excalidraw is the open-source editor; Excalidraw+ is its first-party paid workspace; Excaliwow is an independent hosted product built on that editor and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Excalidraw. Excalidraw+ API and MCP are in public beta and require an Excalidraw Plus API key. The official open-source Excalidraw MCP App is a separate, strong interactive-in-chat option. Excaliwow’s distinction is a persistent account canvas shared by people, REST, CLI, and MCP—not exclusive access to API or MCP technology.
Side by side
| Feature | Excalidraw (open source) | Excalidraw+ | Excaliwow |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | The MIT-licensed Excalidraw editor and excalidraw.com local canvas. | Excalidraw’s first-party hosted workspace. | An independent hosted workspace built on the open-source Excalidraw editor. |
| Account and persistence | No account required; one local infinite scene plus file export. | Cloud-synced account with unlimited scenes and folders. | Account workspace with 3 diagrams to start, folders, starring, and trash. |
| Collaboration | Link-based real-time collaboration on the canvas. | Workspace teams, access management, comments, presentations, and voice/screen sharing. | Workspace roles, live presence, comments, invites, and shared persistent diagrams. |
| REST API | No hosted workspace REST API in the local editor. | Public-beta API for scenes, collections, users, invites, logs, and workspace resources. | Versioned /api/v1 for diagrams, rendering, folders, and guarded mutations. |
| MCP | Official MCP App for streamed, interactive diagrams in supported chat clients. | Public-beta workspace MCP over Streamable HTTP with a Plus API key. | 18-tool stdio MCP for persistent account diagrams, scoped reads, and safe in-place edits. |
| Command line | No first-party account CLI. | The REST API can be scripted; no Plus CLI is documented on the compared pages. | @excaliwow/cli for auth, diagrams, folders, icons, rendering, and JSON output. |
| Public sharing | Shareable scene and collaboration links. | Read-only links, embeds, presentations, and guest sharing. | Read-only links with optional passwords, reporting, and takedown controls. |
| Self-hosting | Yes; MIT licensed and embeddable. | Hosted service. | Hosted service; the CLI and MCP clients are Apache-2.0. |
| Price | Free and open source. | $6/user/month with a 14-day trial on the checked pricing page. | First 10,000 verified accounts keep the core workspace free; 3 diagrams to start, with ways to earn more capacity. |
Founding Free value
Hosted workspace essentials without a Plus subscription
Excalidraw+ puts cloud scenes and folders, access management, read-only sharing, teams, and comments in its $6/user/month hosted plan. Excaliwow includes overlapping workspace essentials—accounts, persistent diagrams, folders, roles, collaboration, comments, and sharing—plus REST, CLI, and MCP access in Founding Free for the first 10,000 verified accounts while Excaliwow operates.
This is not feature-for-feature parity: Excalidraw+ includes unlimited scenes, presentations, and voice/screen sharing. Excaliwow starts with 3 diagrams and ways to earn more capacity; normal service limits apply and optional future add-ons may be paid.
Choose Excalidraw if…
- You want a free, open-source editor to self-host or embed in your own app.
- You sketch on a single canvas and don’t need cloud storage, folders, or accounts.
- You prefer keeping diagrams local — saved in your browser, or to exported files — rather than in a hosted account.
- You want the official interactive MCP App in a supported chat client.
Choose Excalidraw+ if…
- You want Excalidraw’s first-party cloud workspace and account model.
- Unlimited scenes, presentations, voice/screen sharing, and the current Plus team feature set matter more than the per-seat price.
- You want its public-beta REST API or Streamable HTTP MCP against an existing Plus workspace and accept a changing beta contract.
Choose Excaliwow if…
- You want hosted accounts, folders, and a shared team workspace whose core stays free for the first 10,000 verified accounts while Excaliwow operates, with 3 diagrams to start and ways to earn more capacity.
- You want to create, render, and edit diagrams from the CLI or a REST API.
- You want an AI agent to build and update diagrams for you over MCP.
- You want your data to stay portable — self-serve export and account deletion whenever you want.
The part that’s genuinely different: the developer platform
The standout reason to reach for Excaliwow is that your diagrams aren’t locked inside the canvas. The same diagram you draw in the browser can be listed, created, rendered to PNG or SVG, and additively edited over a hosted REST API. The @excaliwow/cli wraps that for your terminal and scripts, and the @excaliwow/mcp server lets Claude and other AI agents draw and update real diagrams in your account. They all speak the same diagram DSL.
Common questions
- Is Excaliwow a replacement for Excalidraw?
- Not exactly — Excaliwow is built on the open-source Excalidraw editor. It's a hosted home for your Excalidraw diagrams that adds accounts, real-time team collaboration, and a developer platform — a REST API, CLI, and MCP server — on top of the same canvas.
- Is Excaliwow open source?
- Partly. Excaliwow is a hosted product and the platform itself is not open source. But its client tools — @excaliwow/cli and @excaliwow/mcp — are open source under Apache-2.0 on npm, and the drawing editor it is built on, Excalidraw, is open source under the MIT license.
- Can I control Excalidraw diagrams with an API or an AI agent?
- Yes. Excaliwow exposes the diagrams in your workspace through REST, @excaliwow/cli, and @excaliwow/mcp. Excalidraw+ now offers its own API and MCP surfaces in public beta, authenticated with an Excalidraw Plus API key; the open-source project also has a separate MCP server.
- When is Excalidraw+ the better choice?
- Choose Excalidraw+ when you want Excalidraw’s first-party cloud workspace, unlimited scenes and folders, its current presentations and voice/screen-sharing features, or its public-beta API/MCP against an existing Plus workspace. The checked pricing page lists $6/user/month with a 14-day trial; re-check it before deciding.
Try the hosted workspace
Start free—no credit card. The first 10,000 verified accounts keep the core workspace free while Excaliwow operates. Start with 3 diagrams, earn more capacity, and drive the same diagrams from the browser, CLI, API, or your agent. Optional future add-ons may be paid.