Excalidraw
A virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn-style diagrams, alone or together.
- Stars
- 135k
- Forks
- 16.1k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- TypeScript
- Updated
At a glance
- Hand-drawn look that keeps diagrams feeling like drafts
- Works offline and stores drawings locally by default
- End-to-end encrypted live collaboration
- Ships as a React component you can embed in your own app
Get started
npm install @excalidraw/excalidrawdocker run --rm -dit --name excalidraw -p 5000:80 excalidraw/excalidraw:latestWhat it is
Excalidraw is an infinite canvas with a deliberately small toolset: shapes, arrows, text and freehand lines, all rendered in a sketchy, hand-drawn style. Open the site and you are drawing; there is no account to create.
Why it stands out
The rough aesthetic is the feature. Diagrams look unfinished on purpose, which invites discussion rather than nitpicking. Drawings are saved in the browser, exported as PNG, SVG or an open .excalidraw JSON format, and shared sessions are end-to-end encrypted so the server never sees the content.
The editor is also published as an npm package, and it is embedded in a long list of other products as their whiteboard.
Who it is for
Engineers sketching architecture, designers wireframing, and anyone who thinks better with boxes and arrows.
