Excalidraw vs OpenDesign
Excalidraw and OpenDesign are both design and whiteboard software. Excalidraw is open source under MIT, with 135k GitHub stars. OpenDesign is open source under Apache-2.0, with 106k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Excalidraw when
- Teams want quick informal diagrams in meetings, docs or your own app without heavyweight diagram tools.
- Pick OpenDesign when
- A product team wants an open alternative to Claude Design or Figma Make for AI-generated prototypes.
Side by side
A browser whiteboard for hand-drawn style diagrams and wireframes with end-to-end encrypted live collaboration, also published as an embeddable React component.
A local-first workspace where a team and AI agents create prototypes, websites, dashboards, slides, images and videos, with design systems and bring-your-own-key models or paid credits.
The free app is light on team features; persistent workspaces and libraries are in paid Excalidraw+.
Six months old despite a huge star count, and the company is pushing paid credit plans.
Production-ready
Experimental
Cloud service, self-hosted server and library
Desktop app and cloud service
TypeScript, React and Vite
TypeScript
Open source, MIT (permissive)
Open source, Apache-2.0 (permissive)
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice. (both)
135k GitHub stars
106k GitHub stars
Established: started 6 years ago, latest release v0.18.1.
Young: started 6 months ago, latest release open-design-v0.26.1.
Other comparisons
More design and whiteboard tools
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.