Correction, 2026-10-02: the previous version described 8frame's free offer in wordings outside our one standard sentence ("unlimited free canvases", "free boards with no expiry", "registration is free", "the free tier is the canvas itself", "free users can build boards indefinitely"). Only that sentence remains, and the claim that boards never expire is gone because we cannot source it. It said Excalidraw has no AI: Excalidraw includes a text-to-diagram assistant (the TTDDialog component, labelled "AI Assistant" in its source). It listed "cursor chat" among FigJam's features, which FigJam's page does not name today, and gave only the $3 Professional Collab seat; the $5 Organization seat and the 500 AI credits a month per Collab seat are now stated. It gave Miro's free AI allowance as 10 or 25 credits without saying that Miro's plan comparison shows only "Limited trial"; all three of Miro's statements are now given as the contradiction they are. It said Microsoft retires the standalone Whiteboard apps for personal accounts: per Microsoft, the Windows, iOS and Android apps retire on 2026-10-16 for work and school accounts too, which keep Whiteboard on the web and in Teams. It ranked tools by quality ("most polished", "closest free Miro feel", "the honest default", "a better free deal than Miro's", "frontier" models), blamed "most complaints" about Miro on its pricing page without a source, and described Canva Whiteboards, whose pages return HTTP 403 to our fetcher, so Canva is no longer listed. It did not say that 8frame credits are per user, that Starter cannot invite collaborators, that each collaborator needs an 8frame account, or that a board has no public share link; all four are now stated. It said Bending Spoons changed Evernote's free plan "roughly a year after buying it", which our source does not state. A second check the same day found three more things. The page said Bending Spoons limited Evernote's free plan "from December 2023"; Evernote's own announcement gives it as Evernote's change, from December 4, 2023, which is how our page on the acquisition puts it, and this page now says the same. It did not say that Excalidraw's AI assistant is limited on the free plan; it now quotes Excalidraw's own message. And it called FigJam's Starter "the closest match" to Miro on this list, which was our judgement, not something we measured. Every outside fact was re-checked on 2026-10-02.
Correction, 2026-10-01: the first version of this page said real-time collaboration is included in 8frame's free canvas and that free users can share boards. The canvas is free and unlimited, but inviting collaborators needs the Creator plan ($49/month, up to 3 members) or Agency ($499/month, up to 30). It also described Microsoft Whiteboard as free with any Microsoft account: Microsoft is retiring the standalone Whiteboard apps for personal accounts on 2026-10-16. Miro's free AI allowance is now given as Miro states it in two places (10 credits a month on the pricing page, 25 in the help center), and FigJam's free file limit is stated.
The best free Miro alternative in 2026 depends on which limit you are escaping. If it is the 3-editable-board cap, Excalidraw is free and open source under the MIT licence, with no board count to run into. If it is Miro's free AI allowance, which Miro's own pages state three different ways (10 credits a month in the pricing FAQ, "Limited trial" in the plan comparison, 25 a month in the help center, pooled for the whole team), 8frame runs image and video models on its canvas. Disclosure: 8frame is our product, and this list says plainly where it is the wrong pick. The canvas is free and unlimited; generation is paid from $19/month. FigJam and Microsoft Whiteboard round out the list, each free (or already paid for) in a different shape. The numbering is not a quality ranking: we have not run the same work through every tool, so each one is described by what its own pages say, checked on 2026-10-02. Miro's own free plan, for calibration: 3 editable boards, unlimited team members, low-resolution exports only, no private boards, and that AI allowance, per Miro's pricing page on 2026-10-02.
TL;DR
- Free whiteboarding with no board cap: Excalidraw, open source under the MIT licence, self-hostable, with a text-to-diagram AI assistant (limited on the free plan)
- Visual and creative work without an editable-board cap: 8frame (our product). The canvas is free and unlimited; generation is paid from $19/month. Inviting collaborators needs Creator ($49/month, up to 3 members) or Agency ($499/month, up to 30), and credits are per user, not pooled
- Miro's sticky-note loop on a free plan: FigJam, on Figma's free Starter plan (3 FigJam files, unlimited drafts, people invited to a draft get view access only)
- Already in your Microsoft 365: Microsoft Whiteboard, for work and school accounts, on the web and in Teams (the standalone Windows, iOS and Android apps retire on 2026-10-16)
A note on the acquisition
Bending Spoons announced on 2026-09-10 that it has agreed to acquire Miro at an enterprise value of $1.355 billion, with closing expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals; until then the two companies operate independently. Neither company has announced a change to Miro's free plan. People ask anyway because Evernote, whose parent company is Bending Spoons, limited its free plan to 50 notes and one notebook from December 4, 2023. That is a precedent, not a plan, and the businesses differ: Bending Spoons says nearly 90% of Miro's revenue comes from business and enterprise customers. Full detail in Miro acquired by Bending Spoons.
If you are choosing a free tier today, the useful question is unchanged: which of these caps boards, and which does not.
What Miro's free plan actually limits
Four lines on Miro's pricing page define the free plan. You can create and share unlimited boards, but only the 3 most recent stay editable. Board exports are low-resolution only. Private boards start on Starter ($8 per member a month, billed yearly). And Miro AI is a trial allowance that Miro states three ways: 10 credits a month in the pricing page FAQ, "Limited trial" in the plan comparison table, and 25 credits a month in the help center, pooled for the whole team. The free plan admits unlimited team members. If none of those four limits gets in your way, Miro's free plan may be all you need.
1. Excalidraw
The catch: deliberately low-fi. A hand-drawn look, no media pipeline, and its AI is a text-to-diagram assistant, not image or video generation.
Excalidraw is free and open source under the MIT licence: an infinite canvas in the browser that autosaves locally, with drawings saved as open .excalidraw files, so there is no board count to run into. The repository includes the source of the excalidraw.com app and a Dockerfile, so you can host your own copy. It suits diagrams, quick spatial thinking and interview whiteboarding; it can hold images, but nothing in it generates images or video. The text-to-diagram assistant is limited on the free plan: Excalidraw's own message reads "You've hit your AI limit on the free plan. Try out Excalidraw+ for more or come back tomorrow."
Best for: free diagramming without a board cap; privacy-conscious teams that host their own tools.
2. 8frame
The catch: no sticky notes, votes, timers or diagram shapes; generation is paid; and a board has no public share link (only invited collaborators with an 8frame account see it). If you want a free workshop whiteboard, pick Excalidraw or FigJam instead.
8frame is our product: an infinite canvas where you upload your own images and video, arrange references and annotate them with comments. The canvas is free and unlimited; generation is paid from $19/month. There is no editable-board cap, so for one person's visual work (moodboards, reference walls, campaign boards) the 3-board limit you are escaping does not apply. For a team it is a paid product: real-time collaboration (live cursors, collaborator roles) starts when the board owner invites collaborators, and that needs Creator ($49/month, up to 3 members) or Agency ($499/month, up to 30). Starter cannot invite anyone, and each collaborator needs their own 8frame account. Miro's free plan, by contrast, admits unlimited team members to its 3 editable boards.
The paid part is generation. The same canvas runs image and video models (Nano Banana Pro, Seedream 5, Veo 3.1, Kling v3, Seedance 2.5), and running them needs a plan, from $19/month for 1,000 credits. Credits are per user, not a team pool: each generation is charged to the person who runs it, on their own plan. The full comparison against Miro is at 8frame as a Miro alternative.
Best for: boards made of images and video rather than sticky notes, by one person or by a team on Creator or Agency.
3. FigJam
The catch: the free Starter plan allows 3 FigJam files, in the single folder a Starter team gets. Drafts are unlimited, but on Starter anyone you invite to a draft gets view access only.
FigJam covers Miro's core loop: sticky notes, stamps and emotes, audio and live chat. On a paid Figma plan, a Collab seat costs $3 a month on Professional and $5 on Organization (billed annually), each with 500 AI credits a month, which is less per seat than Miro's Starter at $8. If what you want is Miro's sticky-note loop on a free plan, FigJam's Starter offers it within its 3-file limit.
Best for: Figma-based teams that want Miro's sticky-note loop without paying for it.
4. Microsoft Whiteboard
The catch: after 2026-10-16 it is a work-and-school tool. Microsoft retires the standalone Whiteboard apps for Windows, iOS and Android on that date for every account type, personal and work or school, and lists continued access only for work and school accounts.
For work and school accounts, Microsoft lists Whiteboard on the web, in Teams meetings, in a Teams chat tab and as the Whiteboard app in Teams, with whiteboards stored in OneDrive. If your organization already runs Microsoft 365 with Teams, that is a meeting whiteboard you can open without adding another tool. It is not a creative production surface, and nothing in Microsoft's retirement notice changes that.
Best for: Microsoft 365 organizations that need a meeting whiteboard without adding a tool.
Canva Whiteboards is a common suggestion too. Canva's pages return HTTP 403 to our fetcher, so we cannot confirm its free terms and do not compare it here; check its current limits on Canva's own site.
Picking by the limit you are escaping
| You are escaping | Pick |
|---|---|
| The 3-editable-board cap | Excalidraw (no board count) or 8frame (no editable-board cap; generation paid) |
| Per-member pricing on a big team | Excalidraw (free and open source, no seats) |
| Board AI that makes images but not video | 8frame (image and video models on the canvas; generation paid from $19/month, credits per user) |
| Nothing, you just want Miro cheaper | FigJam (Collab seat $3 a month on Professional, against $8 per member on Miro Starter) |
FAQ
Is there a free Miro alternative with unlimited boards? Yes. Excalidraw is free and open source with no board cap. For 8frame, our product, the terms fit in one line. The canvas is free and unlimited; generation is paid from $19/month. Not every free plan escapes a cap: FigJam's free Starter plan allows 3 FigJam files.
What does 8frame charge for? Generation and teamwork. The canvas is free and unlimited; generation is paid from $19/month. Starter ($19/month) includes 1,000 credits. Inviting collaborators needs Creator ($49/month, 3,000 credits, up to 3 members) or Agency ($499/month, 44,000 credits, up to 30). Starter cannot invite anyone, each collaborator needs their own 8frame account, and a board has no public share link. Credits are per user: each generation is charged to the person who runs it, on their own plan.
Which free Miro alternative suits workshops? FigJam's free plan for up to three FigJam files, or Excalidraw for unlimited boards without facilitation features. 8frame is the wrong tool for workshops: it has no sticky notes, votes or timers.
Sources
- Miro Free plan ("3 editable boards", "Three most recent ones will remain editable", unlimited team members, board exports "Low-res only", private boards from Starter, "10 credits per month" in the FAQ, "Limited trial" in the plan comparison), Starter $8 per member a month billed yearly: Miro pricing, checked 2026-10-02
- Miro AI credits "pooled and shared across your team", Free plan at 25 credits a month: Miro help center, Miro AI credits, checked 2026-10-02; Miro AI creates and edits images, with no video generation listed: Miro AI reference, checked 2026-10-02
- Bending Spoons and Miro (announced 2026-09-10, $1.355 billion enterprise value, closing expected in the fourth quarter of 2026 subject to regulatory approvals, the companies operating independently until then, nearly 90% of Miro's revenue from business and enterprise customers): Bending Spoons newsroom, checked 2026-10-02; Evernote Free accounts limited to fifty notes and one notebook from December 4, 2023, announced by Evernote: Evernote blog, 2023-11-29, checked 2026-10-02; Bending Spoons named as Evernote's parent company: Engadget, checked 2026-10-02
- FigJam: Starter "Unlimited drafts"; Collab seat $3/mo on Professional and $5/mo on Organization, each with 500 AI credits a month: Figma pricing, checked 2026-10-02; Starter limited to 3 FigJam files in "a single folder", people invited to a draft get view access only: Figma help, Starter plan overview, checked 2026-10-02; sticky notes, stamps, emotes, audio and live chat: FigJam, checked 2026-10-02
- Microsoft Whiteboard (standalone apps for Windows, iOS and Android retire on 2026-10-16 for work or school accounts and personal accounts; work and school accounts keep Whiteboard on the web, in Teams and in OneDrive): Microsoft Support, checked 2026-10-02
- Excalidraw: "Free & open-source", MIT licence, infinite canvas, local-first autosave, open
.excalidrawformat, app source and Dockerfile in the repository: Excalidraw on GitHub, checked 2026-10-02; text-to-diagram assistant, labelled "AI Assistant": Excalidraw source, TTDDialog, checked 2026-10-02; the free-plan AI limit message ("You've hit your AI limit on the free plan..."): Excalidraw source, English interface strings, checked 2026-10-02 - Canva's whiteboard and pricing pages returned HTTP 403 to our fetcher on 2026-09-29, 2026-10-01 and 2026-10-02, so Canva's terms are not quoted here
- 8frame plans (Starter $19 for 1,000 credits; Creator $49 for 3,000 with "Collaboration up to 3 members"; Agency $499 for 44,000 with "Collaboration up to 30 members"): 8frame pricing, checked 2026-10-02; Starter cannot invite collaborators, each collaborator needs an 8frame account, credits charged to the user who runs each generation, no public share link, comments on the canvas, no sticky notes, votes or timers: 8frame content fact sheet, checked 2026-10-02
If your boards are visual work, start at 8frame, and see Miro alternatives for creative teams for the deeper comparison.
Try it without signing up: the 8frame canvas opens on a real board. The canvas is free and unlimited; generation is paid from $19/month.