12 Best Whiteboard Apps & Software (Online and Desktop)

Whiteboard apps offer you a better and smarter alternative to a physical board.

They’re built for teams, teachers, and entrepreneurs like you who’re looking for efficient ways to collaborate with others and share their ideas.

In this article, I have put together a list of the 12 such whiteboard software products for you. But before we explore them, let me briefly summarize the functions of a digital board.

What Exactly is a Digital Whiteboard?

Digital whiteboards are productivity apps that deliver drawing tools and interactive elements to help you sketch, write, and present your thoughts in an engaging way.

They come in desktop and cloud versions and work perfectly on different devices.

Some of the features they provide include a blank canvas, multiple pen shapes, graphics, and team collaboration.

But many also share advanced functionalities like screen recording to let you perform complex tasks or create explainer videos.

Why Should You Use a Whiteboard App?

Because whiteboard apps are incredibly convenient.

Most now provide online accounts to offer easy accessibility and allow users to invite guests for collaboration.

With a shared canvas, you can send and receive feedback in real time, link and assign tasks to others, and save your ideas for later review.

These platforms not only make your job easy, but also improve your productivity.

Let’s check out the popular whiteboard software products I’ve compiled below. The list covers both cloud-based and desktop apps along with some animation tools to show the best use of the blank canvas.

1. Canva

Canva is a design platform that provides you with a diverse range of free tools for creative projects. You can use it for various projects, from social media posts to corporate presentations.

Among its core products, Canva also offers an online whiteboard that gives you access to an infinite canvas, graphics, and collaboration features.

You can get started on its pre-defined templates or use its styling tools to visualize your idea as you see fit. It provides sticky notes, versatile fonts, image import, and a shape maker to let you design custom sketches and diagrams.

You can also invite other users to your board and allow them to make editions from their devices.

Core Features

• Infinite canvas.
• Ready templates.
• Graphics.
• Sticky notes, styles, images, and charts.
• Collaboration.
• Separate space for note-taking.
• Timer.
• Document sharing.
• Integrations.
• Mobile friendly.

Price

Canva is free to use. You only have to pay for premium templates.

2. Doodly

Doodly is a beginner-friendly animation software that allows you to create professional whiteboard videos for your YouTube channel.

Here, you can choose white, black, and glass backgrounds, pick graphics from its vast template library, draw colored shapes and record your voice. You can also apply smart tech to extract basic shapes from any image and generate custom illustrations.

It has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and simple functions to easily create animation clips.

If you have great visualization but lack advanced drawing skills, go for Doodly.

Core Features

• Whiteboard animation.
• Pre-defined templates and a blank canvas.
• Multiple background colors.
• Graphics library.
• User-friendly platform.
• Smart draw tech.
• Download app.

Price

Doodly standard monthly charges are $39. To get a scalable solution, buy its enterprise plan for $69 a month.

3. LucidSpark

LucidSpark is created for brainstorming ideas.

It’s a collaboration tool that allows you to share an infinite canvas with your teams, jot down your thoughts on sticky notes and let them vote on the best idea.

You can organize notes into small groups, tag them based on priority, and connect them to the main board to highlight important points without losing the previous ideas.

You can also set timers to speed up brainstorming sessions and gather all your users with a single click to get their attention.

LucidSpark additionally provides built-in chat and emojis to improve team communication.

Core Features

• Unlimited boards.
• Freehand drawing.
• Shapes and Sticky notes.
• Collaboration.
• Cataloging and tagging.
• Chat.
• Voting and timer.
• Integrations.
• Offline mode.

Price

LucidSpark offers free access to its basic features. To make the most of it, buy premium plans. They start at $8 a month.

4. ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management software that offers a suite of productivity tools, including an online Whiteboard. The digital board comes with powerful built-in features to help you visualize your strategy and draw better execution plans with your team.

Here, you can add shapes to represent projects, attach notes to share your thoughts, and draw lines to connect the dots. It has a pen for freehand drawing and a branching element to create paths.

One of the best things about ClickUp is its task linking. You can generate tasks directly on the whiteboard and assign them to your team.

Core Features

• Blank canvas.
• Freehand drawing.
• Shape elements.
• Sticky notes.
• Link tasks, documents, and files.
• Collaboration.
• Integration with its other products.

Price

ClickUp’s basic account is free for personal use. To unlock more features, buy its premium plans. They cost $5 to $19 a month.

5. Whiteboard.fi

If you run a coaching business or offer online tutoring, Whiteboard.fi is ideal for you.

It provides a digital substitute for a traditional board, delivering essential tools to engage your students.

Every learner gets an individual screen connected to your main whiteboard through which you can assign tasks, receive submissions, offer your opinion, and share documents.

You can add shapes and insert graphs, present lectures on the board, and even write formulas. You can also join individual whiteboards of your learners to check their progress.

Another good feature of Whiteboard.fi is co-hosting. It allows you to invite guests to your sessions and co-host lectures.

Core Features

• Main and individual whiteboards.
• Access user screens.
• Insert shapes, graphs, text, and formulas.
• Send and receive feedback.
• Content library.
• Multiple invitation channels.
• Co-hosting.

Price

Whiteboard.fi charges $5 to $13 per month. You can explore it for free as well.

6. Miro

Miro is one of the most robust cloud-based whiteboards you’ll find in the market.

It’s free to explore, offers infinite canvas, delivers powerful features, and allows team collaboration.

With its drawing tools and sticky notes, you can design mind maps, meetings agendas to visual charts. It also provides ready templates for quick projects, a smart tech to create clean shapes, and a resizing option to shape your whiteboard for a specific device.

Other interesting features of Miro include multiple-screen sharing and a built-in chat feature for smooth communication.

Overall, you can use Miro for both corporate and educational purposes.

Core Features

• Infinite canvas.
• Multiple device sizes.
• Versatile templates.
• Interactive elements.
• Smart drawing.
• Collaboration.
• In-built chat.
• Timer.
• Screen sharing.
• Integrations.

Price

Miro monthly subscriptions cost $8 to $16. You can also ask for custom prices to get an enterprise solution.

7. Jamboard

Jamboard is a Google product that provides you with a simple canvas to invite multiple members and brainstorm ideas in real-time.

It’s easy to use and offers tons of interactive elements to help you conceptualize your ideas.

You can open it on the web browser and mobile device, draw and write text on a touchscreen, attach Google sheets, and display your whiteboard on video conference.

It also delivers smart tech that allows you to search and import images from the board.

Core Features

• Canvas.
• Multiple pens.
• Laser tool.
• Sticky notes.
• Image recognition tech.
• Google search.
• Team invitation.
• Screensharing.
• Mobile friendly.
• Offline editing.

Price

Jamboard’s basic account is free. Google additionally also offers an interactive board for on-premises use. It charges around $5000 and one-time fees for initial setup.

8. Mural

Mural is another good software for team meetings and weekly group brainstorming sessions.

It delivers a resizable canvas, sticky notes and text boxes, and diagram templates to let you create construct weekly agendas to construct visual strategies.

It also offers one of the best privacy functions. You’ll not only control who can actively take part in your projects, but you can also hide the IDs of your users.

The latter comes in handy when you want to include departmental managers to oversee your planning sessions but prefer to keep the environment casual.

Core Features

• Infinite canvas.
• Sticky notes, texts, and drawing pen.
• Outline builder.
• Permission and locks.
• Timer.
• Team collaboration.
• Comments and quick chats.
• Integrations.
• Desktop version.

Price

Mural is a freemium product that charges $10 to $17 for its premium features.

9. OneNote

OneNote is ideal for those who haven’t tried a digital whiteboard before and would prefer a simple platform to get started.

It’s a user-friendly note-taking software that shares a blank canvas, multiple page options, and versatile drawing tools.

You can use it for weekly brainstorming sessions, ad hoc meetings, casual scribbling, and pretty much as a digital blank notebook. It offers freehand drawing pens, a special box for custom formulas, pre-defined templates, and a file attachment option. You can also record your screen and create whiteboard video tutorials.

The best thing about OneNote is its interface. It has a familiar WordDoc UI, which makes it easier to operate.

Core Features

• Infinite canvas.
• Multiple pages.
• A diverse range of drawing and editing tools.
• Tables and checklist templates.
• Custom math equations.
• Note taking.
• Video and audio recording option.
• Collaboration.
• Desktop app.

Price

OneNote is free to use. If you’re using the latest Windows, OneNote would already be included with the office suite. Nevertheless, here is the download link.

10. DrawBoard (Formally Bullclip)

Drawboard lets you draw your thoughts on PDF documents.

It’s a collaboration app that’s designed for the initial product development process, allowing you to import prototype PDF images and invite users to share their feedback.

You can use custom pens to write, circle, and highlight areas for improvement, zoom in and out large drawings for a better view, and initiate chat to discuss progress. You can also pin tasks for designated members and set a due date to expedite processes.

It additionally provides several productivity elements, such as a back-and-forth option to review changes and image overlays to compare revisions.

Core Features

• PDF import.
• Desktop and mobile app.
• Annotations and drawing.
• Pressure-sensitive ink.
• Team collaboration.
• Image overlay.
• Time-stamped editions.
• Task assigning.
• Integrations.
• Desktop version.

Price

Drawback share two separate products. For its project app, it charges $24 to $44 a month.

11. Moqups

Moqups is slightly more advanced than others. It’s a SaaS platform that allows you to work together with your team on complex projects.

Here, aside from essential brainstorming elements like sticky notes and a freehand drawing pen, Moqups delivers wireframe and graph-making tools.

With its advanced branching features and versatile icons, you can produce storyboards, customer journeys, flowcharts, and even product prototypes.

You’ll also love its collaboration functions. It lets you invite teams, post comments, export files, and share your video screen.

Core Features

• Infinite canvas.
• Templates.
• Freehand pen.
• Sticky notes, shapes, image import, and annotations.
• Diagrams.
• Team invitation.
• Comments and reactions.
• File export.
• Supports multiple devices.
• Web extension.

Price

Moqups charges $13 to $67 monthly subscriptions. You can also create a free account.

12. Animaker

Animaker is also a decent animation software to produce simple yet powerful explainer whiteboard videos.

It is easy to use, flexible enough to create custom doodle art, and supports HD-quality videos.

You can change the background visuals, access its built-in characters, change your character’s expressions, and auto-syn lips with your audio. It shares versatile templates and special effects to help your construct engaging videos.

Furthermore, you can invite your design team and let them edit your content.

Besides visuals, Animaker also provides a commercial license to resell your content. It’s an ideal feature for freelancers who offer video editing services.

Core Features

• Whiteboard animation.
• Up to 30-minute video length.
• HD quality.
• Built-in illustrations.
• Custom backgrounds.
• White labeling.
• Support multiple formats and screen sizes.
• Team collaboration.

Price

Animaker costs $10 to $49 per month.

Conclusion

Whiteboard apps make it incredibly easy to organize ideas.

They have a significantly large market because they allow you to do almost anything from random scribbling to brainstorming and delivering lectures.

Whether you’re an online coach, a team lead, or a Youtuber, you’ll find them helpful and can use these apps for versatile purposes.

I recommend trying out the above tools to explore their core functionalities better. Good luck!