livediagram vs Miro
The open-source Miro alternative
Miro is a powerful, sprawling online workspace. livediagram is a lighter, open-source take on the same idea: real-time multiplayer diagrams, whiteboards and workshop boards you can start in one click, with no sign-up, and run on your own account if you want to.
At a glance
| Feature | livediagram | Miro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, every feature | Free tier, then paid plans |
| Open source | Yes, MIT-licensed | No, proprietary SaaS |
| Start without an account | Yes, create and edit as a guest | An account to create boards; guest editing on paid plans |
| Real-time multiplayer | Yes | Yes |
| Import + export | Excalidraw, draw.io, Microsoft Whiteboard, Mermaid + Markdown in; PNG, SVG, PDF, JSON, Mermaid + Excalidraw out | Broad import + export options |
| Programmatic access | REST API and an MCP server for AI tools, both free | Developer platform + marketplace |
| Focus | One canvas, three modes: diagrams, whiteboards and Workshop sessions | All-in-one visual workspace |
Which to pick
Why pick livediagram
- It's free for everyone and MIT-licensed, with no per-seat pricing.
- Open a link and draw, with no sign-up wall in front of the canvas, even to create a canvas.
- Real-time multiplayer, live cursors and comments come standard, not gated behind a plan.
- Three ways to work one tab: Diagram for structure, Draw for freehand whiteboarding, and Workshop for running a session with your team.
- Participant links let a workshop add stickies, write and vote without being able to reshape the board.
- Assign action items to teammates on the canvas itself, tracked beside comments in the Collaborate panel.
- Workshop tools built in: Workshop mode, a facilitator role, a shared timer, dot-voting, live polls, planning-poker estimate cards, temperature checks, quizzes, an anonymous idea box and a Q&A board.
- Run the meeting itself on the board: an agenda that starts the timer for each segment, a roll call, a random picker, reveal zones that cover work until the room is ready, and decision records that keep what was agreed.
- 82 templates, 24 one-click whole-canvas themes and ready-made looks turn a blank canvas into a polished diagram fast, drawn clean, crisp and Professional, or by hand in Sketch or Marker.
- Meet on the board: everyone walks an avatar round a virtual office or team space, with speech bubbles and a status.
- Present a canvas as a slide deck built from its own elements, with a laser pointer and spotlight, no export needed.
- Bring boards across from Excalidraw, draw.io and Microsoft Whiteboard; export PNG, SVG, PDF, Mermaid or Excalidraw.
Where Miro is the better pick
- Facilitating very large workshops: breakout-scale sessions and a marketplace of meeting apps around the board.
- A deep template and integration marketplace (Jira, Slack, and more).
- AI across the canvas: assistants, flows and generators, well beyond a single panel.
- Enterprise admin, SSO, and compliance at large scale.
One workspace, three ways to work
Miro grew into a broad workspace: boards, workshops, docs, tables, video walkthroughs and a marketplace of apps. livediagram covers the same ground in one canvas with tabs, and each tab works in one of three modes. Diagram for structure, with arrows that stay attached and re-route as you move things. Draw for freehand whiteboarding with pressure-sensitive markers. Workshop for running the session itself: timers, dot votes, polls and reveals.
Every tab also has a finish, the way it is drawn: Flexible by default, Professional for crisp, print-ready work, Sketch for pencil on paper and Marker for felt-tip on a whiteboard. A look sets the theme, finish, font and canvas pattern in one click, and switching it never changes the content underneath.
Workshops are built in rather than bolted on. A facilitator can run the room with a shared timer, dot-voting, live polls, planning-poker estimate cards, quizzes, a Q&A board and responses kept hidden until the reveal, and templates cover retrospectives, Lean Coffee, town hall Q&A and event storming, including turning a photo of a sticky-note wall into notes. When the session ends, the actions it produced are assigned on the board and the plan picks up on the next tab.
Free means free, not a free tier
Miro's free tier is real, but it's the top of a pricing funnel: board limits and gated features exist to move teams onto paid seats. livediagram has no paid tier and no plan to introduce one. The hosted version at livediagram.app is free, every user gets every feature, and there is nothing to upgrade to.
The whole codebase is MIT-licensed and public, so anyone can read exactly how it works.
Collaboration without the onboarding
In Miro, creating a board starts with an account, and anonymous guest editing depends on the plan you are on. In livediagram, collaborating is a URL. Anyone can create a canvas without signing up; a guest’s new canvas is kept in their browser until they press Share, which syncs it in one step. Whoever opens the link is on the canvas with you, live cursors and all. A link is an Editor, Participant or view-only link (a Participant adds stickies, writes and votes but cannot reshape the board), and it can carry a password or an expiry date when you need it locked down.
The collaboration tools go beyond cursors: leave comments on elements and assign action items to teammates directly on the canvas, tracked together in the Collaborate panel, with optional email notifications. A selection lock shows when someone is editing an element, so two people rarely end up changing the same thing at once.
Connected to the rest of your workflow
Diagrams rarely live alone. livediagram imports Mermaid (flowcharts, state and ER diagrams, the diagram-as-code format that lives in READMEs and AI output), Markdown outlines, Excalidraw scenes, draw.io files and Microsoft Whiteboard boards, and exports PNG, SVG, PDF, Mermaid, Markdown, Excalidraw or a portable JSON file. Any share link embeds as a live-updating iframe in a wiki or doc: an editor link embeds an editable canvas, and a participant or view-only link a read-only one.
For programmatic use there is a free REST API with personal tokens and an MCP server at mcp.livediagram.app that lets AI assistants read and edit your canvases directly; their edits arrive live, outlined, and undoable as one unit. None of it sits behind a plan.
Miro alternative FAQ
Is livediagram really free?
Do my teammates need an account to edit with me?
Can I import my existing Miro boards?
Can livediagram run workshops the way Miro does?
See how it feels
No sign-up, nothing to install, free forever. Open a canvas and judge for yourself.
Comparisons reflect each product’s general positioning and may change. Check Miro’s own site for current details. Last reviewed .