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Excalidraw vs Inkscape
Excalidraw offers hand-drawn style diagrams in a web whiteboard, not full-featured vector editing.
ExcalidrawOpen-source virtual whiteboard for hand-drawn style diagrams
InkscapeFree vector graphics editorWhich to pick
Pick Excalidraw if you want…
- Hand-drawn style collaborative whiteboarding
- Simple sketch-style diagrams
Pick Inkscape if you want…
- Free open-source vector design
Side by side
- What it is
- Excalidraw:Excalidraw is an open-source virtual whiteboard for creating hand-drawn style diagrams.
- Inkscape:Inkscape is a free, cross-platform vector graphics editor for creating and editing scalable artwork.
- Best for
- Excalidraw:Hand-drawn style collaborative whiteboarding
- Inkscape:Free open-source vector design
- Who it’s for
- Excalidraw:Designers, developers, and teams needing quick sketching and collaborative diagrams.
- Inkscape:Illustrators, designers, web designers, and anyone needing vector images
- Pricing
- Excalidraw:Free
- Inkscape:Free
- Open source
- Excalidraw:Yes, 133,502 GitHub stars
- Inkscape:Yes, 3,996 GitHub stars
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.
Inkscape features
- Flexible drawing tools. Provides a variety of tools for creating shapes, paths, and freehand drawings.
- Broad file format compatibility. Supports import and export of many vector and bitmap formats.
- Powerful text tool. Allows advanced text handling and styling within vector graphics.
- Bezier and spiro curves. Enables precise curve creation with Bezier and spiro curve editors.
- Community gallery. Showcases user-created artwork for inspiration and learning.
- Learning resources. Offers tutorials, videos, and how-tos to help users master the editor.
Excalidraw vs Inkscape FAQ
Is Excalidraw or Inkscape free?+
Yes, both are free.
Is Excalidraw or Inkscape open source?+
Yes, both are open source: Excalidraw (excalidraw/excalidraw on GitHub, MIT license) and Inkscape (inkscape/inkscape on GitHub).
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.