Excalidraw vs tldraw
Both are hand-drawn-style infinite canvases with code on GitHub, and both have a free hosted version. That is where the similarity ends: one is an MIT-licensed app you can self-host tonight, the other is a commercially licensed SDK for building your own canvas product.
Excalidraw vs tldraw: which should I use?
Use Excalidraw if you want a whiteboard. It is a finished, MIT-licensed app: open excalidraw.com, or self-host it on a $3/mo pod, and draw. Use tldraw if you are building a product that needs a canvas inside it. tldraw is an SDK for React, and under its default licence it may only be used in development; production needs a trial, commercial or hobby licence key, and the SDK will not work in production without one. If the question is "which whiteboard do I put in front of my team", the answer is Excalidraw. If the question is "which canvas do I build my app on", the answer is tldraw, with a licence.
The one-paragraph verdict
The deciding difference is the licence, so start there. Excalidraw is MIT: you can self-host it, fork it, embed it in a commercial product and never talk to anyone. tldraw is source-available under the tldraw licence, which in its own words is "not Open Source by any definition". Its default terms permit use only in development; a production deployment needs a licence key, which means a free 100-day trial, a commercial licence priced by sales, or a discretionary hobby licence for non-commercial projects that must show the "made with tldraw" watermark. The second difference is what each thing is. Excalidraw is an application. tldraw is an SDK with a demo app at tldraw.com, and "self-hosting tldraw" means writing a React app around the SDK and standing up your own tldraw sync backend, which its docs recommend deploying to Cloudflare Durable Objects. On InstaPods, Excalidraw is a 1-Click app on the $3/mo Launch plan. There is no tldraw 1-Click app, and there is not going to be one, because there is no tldraw app to package.
Last updated: 2026-09-12Quick Comparison
| Feature | tldraw | Excalidraw |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | tldraw licence: source-available, development use only by default; production needs a licence key | MIT |
| Open source? | No. "Not Open Source by any definition" per tldraw.dev | Yes, OSI-approved MIT licence |
| What it is | An infinite canvas SDK for React, plus a demo app at tldraw.com | A finished whiteboard app you can run as-is |
| GitHub stars | 50,298 | 131,630 |
| Free hosted version | tldraw.com, free, no account needed | excalidraw.com, free, no account needed |
| Paid hosted tier | None for the app. SDK licence priced by sales ("value-based pricing"), 100-day free trial | Excalidraw+ at $6 per user per month paid yearly, $7 paid monthly |
| Embedding in your own product | The whole point of the SDK. Commercial licence required in production | Possible via the @excalidraw/excalidraw npm package, MIT, no licence key |
| Self-hosting the app | Build your own app around the SDK, then host a tldraw sync backend (Cloudflare Durable Objects recommended, or your own Node.js WebSocket server) | Static build behind nginx. One pod, done |
| Real-time collaboration | tldraw sync: a real self-hosted sync engine with rooms, persistence and asset storage | Live sessions via the public Excalidraw collab server, end-to-end encrypted. Not persistent, not on your pod |
| Persistent boards | Yes, if you host tldraw sync: room state persists in the Durable Object storage | No board database. Scenes live in your browser and in .excalidraw files |
| Licence-key enforcement | Built in. Validated on the client, watermark enforced, usage data may be sent on trial | None |
| On InstaPods | No 1-Click app. Nothing to package, it is a library | 1-Click app, $3/mo Launch plan |
Where tldraw Is the Wrong Tool
Trade-offs to weigh before committing.
It Is Not a Whiteboard You Can Deploy
The tldraw repository is an SDK. There is no image, no Docker Compose file, no "run this and get tldraw.com". To get a self-hosted tldraw you scaffold a React app with npm create tldraw, wire in the Tldraw component, and then host a sync backend if you want anyone else to see the board. That is a weekend project before the licensing question even comes up.
Production Needs a Licence Key
The tldraw licence permits use in development environments and forbids use in production environments by default. The SDK checks a licence key on the client and will not work in production without a valid, active one. The routes in are a free 100-day trial (one per commercial unit), a commercial licence with pricing set by the sales team, or a hobby licence for non-commercial projects that must show the "made with tldraw" watermark on the canvas.
No Public Price
tldraw.dev/pricing lists no dollar figure. The SDK licence is "value-based pricing" through a sales conversation, with discounted startup pricing on application. For an internal team whiteboard that is a strange conversation to have, and Excalidraw does not require it.
The Sync Backend Is Your Problem
tldraw sync is genuinely good, but the hosted demo is for prototyping only and production means hosting it yourself. The recommended path is the Cloudflare template using Durable Objects and R2, and the docs list what it leaves out: authentication, authorization, rate limiting, snapshot history and room listing. A whiteboard for your team should not need any of that.
Why Excalidraw for the Whiteboard Job
What you get when you pick this stack.
MIT Means Nobody to Ask
Self-host it, embed it, fork it, ship it inside a paid product. The licence is MIT and the code is on GitHub with 131,630 stars. There is no licence key, no watermark, no trial clock and no sales call.
One Pod, Three Dollars
The InstaPods image builds Excalidraw from source and serves the static output with nginx. The $3/mo Launch plan (1 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 10 GB storage) serves it to your whole team on your own domain with HTTPS. Nothing is metered, nobody counts seats.
Diagrams as Files
An .excalidraw file is JSON. Commit it beside the service it documents, diff it in a pull request, export a PNG or SVG for the README. tldraw stores documents in its sync backend or as .tldr files, which works, but the Excalidraw format has years of tooling around it in Obsidian, VS Code and Notion.
The Same Hand-Drawn Look
People compare these two because they look alike: rough, sketchy strokes that read as a draft rather than a spec. Excalidraw made the style famous, and its libraries ecosystem is deeper for architecture and wireframe shapes.
Real Cost Comparison
A five-person engineering team that wants a private whiteboard on its own domain for architecture sketches.
- tldraw SDK: no public price, commercial licence via sales, 100-day free trial first
- A React app you write around the SDK: your time
- tldraw sync backend on Cloudflare Durable Objects + R2: your time plus Cloudflare Workers billing
- Or a hobby licence: non-commercial only, "made with tldraw" watermark required
- InstaPods Launch plan: $3/mo (1 vCPU, 512 MB, 10 GB)
- Excalidraw: free, MIT
- HTTPS, subdomain and backups: included
- No seats, no board limit, no licence key
When tldraw is the right call
If you are building a product and the canvas is a feature of that product, tldraw is the better foundation and it is not close. It is designed as an SDK from the ground up: custom shapes, tools and bindings, a reactive store, a real sync engine with rooms and persistence, and a team whose business depends on the SDK staying good. ClickUp, Autodesk and Padlet ship on it. Excalidraw can be embedded through its npm package, but it is an app first and a library second, and its collaboration story is the public collab server rather than something you own.
The trade is that you pay for it, in licence terms and in setup. For a company product that is a reasonable trade. For a team that just wants a whiteboard on its own domain, it is the wrong axis entirely, which is why this page recommends Excalidraw for that job and not for yours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Excalidraw vs tldraw: which should I use?
Excalidraw if you want a whiteboard to use or self-host: it is a finished MIT-licensed app, and on InstaPods it deploys in one click for $3/mo. tldraw if you are building a product with a canvas in it: it is a React SDK, and its licence permits production use only with a trial, commercial or hobby licence key.
Is tldraw open source?
No. The tldraw SDK is source-available under the tldraw licence, and tldraw.dev says plainly that code under it "would not be Open Source by any definition". The default terms permit use only in development. Production requires a licence key: a free 100-day trial, a commercial licence priced by sales, or a hobby licence for non-commercial projects that must display the "made with tldraw" watermark. Many of the examples and demos in the repo are MIT, but the SDK packages are not. Excalidraw is MIT throughout. Terms checked on tldraw.dev on 12 September 2026.
Can I self-host tldraw the way I self-host Excalidraw?
Not in the same sense. Excalidraw ships as an app: build it, serve the static files, done. tldraw ships as an SDK, so self-hosting means writing a React app around the Tldraw component and hosting your own tldraw sync backend for collaboration. The docs recommend the Cloudflare template with Durable Objects and R2, or integrating sync-core into your own Node.js WebSocket server. Then you need a licence key for production. That is why there is no tldraw 1-Click app on InstaPods.
How much does tldraw cost?
tldraw.com, the demo whiteboard, is free. The SDK licence has no public price: tldraw.dev/pricing describes it as value-based pricing through a sales conversation, with a 100-day free trial and discounted startup pricing on application. Hobby licences for non-commercial projects are free at tldraw's discretion, with the watermark required. Checked on tldraw.dev on 12 September 2026.
How much does Excalidraw cost?
excalidraw.com is free with one scene and unlimited collaborators. Excalidraw+ is $6 per user per month paid yearly or $7 paid monthly, and adds unlimited scenes saved to the cloud, sharing with edit and view rights, comments, presentations and voice hangouts. Self-hosted on InstaPods it is $3/mo flat for the whole team. Prices checked on plus.excalidraw.com on 12 September 2026.
Does self-hosted Excalidraw have real-time collaboration like tldraw sync?
Partly. Self-hosted Excalidraw does support live sessions, but the build points at the public Excalidraw collaboration server, so the session is end-to-end encrypted with a key that stays in the URL fragment and runs on Excalidraw infrastructure rather than your pod. There is no board database, so sessions do not persist as named boards. tldraw sync is a real persistent sync engine, but you host it and license it yourself. If you need multi-user editing entirely on hardware you control, self-host AFFiNE, whose canvas is backed by PostgreSQL on your pod.
Can I embed Excalidraw in my own product instead of tldraw?
Yes. The @excalidraw/excalidraw npm package is MIT, so you can embed the editor in a commercial product with no licence key and no watermark. What you do not get is a sync engine, custom-tool architecture or a shape-binding system on the level of tldraw. For a diagram field inside a form it is fine. For a canvas-first product, tldraw with a commercial licence is the stronger base.
Deploy Excalidraw for $3/mo
MIT-licensed whiteboard on your own domain with HTTPS and backups. No licence key, no watermark, no seats.
Deploy Excalidraw