Compare
Excalidraw vs Figma
Figma offers full UI design and prototyping features, whereas Excalidraw focuses on simple hand-drawn sketches.
ExcalidrawOpen-source virtual whiteboard for hand-drawn style diagrams
FigmaCollaborative interface design toolWhich to pick
Pick Excalidraw if you want…
- Hand-drawn style collaborative whiteboarding
- A free, open-source tool
Pick Figma if you want…
- Collaborative UI/UX design and prototyping
- Comprehensive UI design collaboration
Side by side
- What it is
- Excalidraw:Excalidraw is an open-source virtual whiteboard for creating hand-drawn style diagrams.
- Figma:Figma is a collaborative interface design platform that lets teams design, prototype, and hand off UI in one workspace.
- Best for
- Excalidraw:Hand-drawn style collaborative whiteboarding
- Figma:Collaborative UI/UX design and prototyping
- Who it’s for
- Excalidraw:Designers, developers, and teams needing quick sketching and collaborative diagrams.
- Figma:Designers, product teams, and developers who need shared design and handoff tools.
- Pricing
- Excalidraw:Free
- Figma:Freemium
- Plans
- Excalidraw:—
- Figma:Starter Free · Professional – Full seat $16/mo per month · Professional – Dev seat $12/mo per month · Professional – Collab seat $3/mo per month · Organization – Full seat $55/mo per month (billed annually)
- Open source
- Excalidraw:Yes, 133,502 GitHub stars
- Figma:—
- Works with
- Excalidraw:—
- Figma:VS Code, Supabase
Excalidraw features
- Hand-drawn style canvas. Create diagrams that look hand-sketched with a simple drawing interface.
- Live collaboration. Invite others to edit the same canvas in real time after signing up.
- Export options. Save your work to a file to avoid loss from browser storage clearing.
- Keyboard shortcuts. Quickly open files (Ctrl+O) and access help via the UI.
- Canvas navigation. Move the canvas using scroll wheel, space-drag, or the hand tool.
Figma features
- Real-time multiplayer editing. Multiple editors can work in the same file simultaneously with live cursor chat.
- AI design assistance. AI tools for layer renaming, image editing, background removal, and generative design.
- Dev Mode handoff. Inspect design specs, CSS, JSON or React code directly from the canvas.
- Design systems & variables. Create reusable components, styles, and theming with variables and shared libraries.
- Prototyping & animation. Build interactive prototypes with transitions, smart animate, and motion timelines.
- Extensive plugins & integrations. Use community plugins, VS Code extension, and connect external tools via Make connectors.
Excalidraw vs Figma FAQ
Is Excalidraw or Figma free?+
Excalidraw is free. Figma has a free plan (Starter); paid plans start at $3/month (Professional – Collab seat).
Which is cheaper, Excalidraw or Figma?+
Excalidraw is free, so it costs less. Figma starts at $3/month (Professional – Collab seat).
Is Excalidraw or Figma open source?+
Excalidraw is open source (excalidraw/excalidraw on GitHub, MIT license). DevHunt has no public source repository on record for Figma.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.