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Excalidraw vs Whimsical: catalog facts
Excalidraw	Whimsical
Freemium The editor is free and open source. Excalidraw Plus is a paid subscription.	Freemium Free to start, with paid plans for more features.
Web, Self-hosted	Web
The sketchy style keeps diagrams feeling provisional rather than final End-to-end encrypted collaboration rooms, and self-hostable	Diagrams and wireframes in one tool Real-time editing with comments
Not built for precise technical diagrams Some team features belong to the paid Excalidraw Plus	Boards are stored in Whimsical's cloud Some features are in paid plans
Web application, Self-hosted	Downloadable app, Web application
Open source	Closed source
License: MIT	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.