Miro

I’ve used Miro since 2018, when it was still Realtime Board. I was leading a distributed team, and we were planning an onboarding event for a network of distributed teams. I lamented not being able to “just walk to the whiteboard” and begin ideating and co-creating with my teammate. I started looking for tools, found Realtime Board and was hooked.

Features

Mire has all the essential features and many more:

• Image, icon, emoji support
• Tables
• Kanban boards
• Mindmaps
• Frames
• Charts
• Cards
• Templates
• Sticky capture
• Website capture
• Tagging

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Because Miro had the most extensive feature set of all the whiteboards reviewed, it also has the most comprehensive review. I wanted to take a little deeper dive into some of the unique features of Miro that differentiate it from the others.

Cards 

At first glance, a card looks a little like sticky notes, but they can contain so much more information, which is revealed when you click on the card. You use cards to represent elements like a task you to complete or a lesson you need to teach.

Cards combined with the kanban board enable you to set up simple, agile workflows. This way, you can manage a small project inside Miro, keeping both your creative ideation and your execution in the same space.

Templates

Welcome to the Miroverse.  The Miro community has created an enormous quantity of templates. You don’t need to create anything from scratch; instead, you can search through the templates and even submit templates you created. 

Sticky capture

I still enjoy facilitating in person, but what do you do at the end? Do you take photos on your phone to maybe look at again? Sticky capture lets you take that photo, and Miro converts it into a digital board. The huge win is seamlessly moving between distributed and in-person collaboration. 

It doesn’t have to be a live photo either. If someone else took a picture or you have a photo of a whiteboard from last year, you can convert that too.

Website capture

Website capture is another very unique feature. You can grab the entire vertical spread of a website. This feature can be helpful during critique sessions or gathering design inspiration. The one issue I’ve had at times is it does not import a section because it is overlaid with a cookie message.

Tagging

Tagging is surprisingly unique among many of the whiteboards reviewed here. I don’t use it on every board, but it comes in handy for workflow, affinity diagraming or project management.

MultiMedia

You can paste content from just about anywhere, including links, photos, text. You can add icons or emojis and search google images from within Miro. Miro makes it easy to cut and paste from one board to another. Exporting is enabled at a lower resolution for free and higher resolution via a paid account.

Organization

Frames help to organize and navigate an otherwise infinite board. Features like ‘follow the facilitator’ also help team members not get lost when learning the tool. 

Paid only features

Miro limits the free accounts to only three boards and also keeps a few of the features behind the paywall. Some of these paid-only features are excellent facilitation features that are available for free on other whiteboard platforms. Not making timers and voting free is one of my only critiques of Miro.

Here is a quick overview of some of the paid-only features:

• Video: You can host a zoom-like video call from within Miro
• Timers: Set a timer for individual or group activities.
• Breakout frames: Facilitating multiple smaller groups at the same time? Assign them to breakout frames to have a shared space to work.
• Voting: Helps teams give feedback and make decisions.
• Saved templates: You can create your own reusable templates
• Hidden items: Keep parts of the board invisible to others until just the right time.

You still get a lot for free with Miro, but paying brings Miro’s facilitation A-game.

This video gives a good feel for how many of these features come together in Miro.

Integrations. 

Miro has a lot of integrations available. Many are two-way, meaning they bring external information into Miro and bring Miro content into another tool. A nice feature differentiating Miro from others is its integrations don’t require a third party like Zappier.

Google Drive integration allows you to embed docs and even edit them within the board. It is changing my blogging workflow.

Quick Freebee

You can find a scaled-down version of Miro at webwhiteboard.com. It doesn’t require anyone to log in, making it a good option when you just need a space to collaborate online briefly.

Pricing 

• Free:  3 boards
• Small Team: $8/member/month (minimum 2 members)
• Freelancer: $12/member/month (minimum 1 member)

See all of Miro's pricing options.

Rating

If you’re working on your own or with a small team, you can do everything you need for free. It’s intuitive and easy. The library speeds up the setup and inspires new ideas for using the board.

I give Miro the best overall digital whiteboard and 5 stars.

FigJam

FigJam is unique because it pairs with the popular prototyping tool Figma. They come packaged together, which can be a big win if you’re working in UX/UI (User Experience/User Interface). 

Features

FigJam has all the basics plus stickers, templates, widgets and plugins.  At first, it’s hard to tell if I want to use a template, widget or plugin for something. Here’s how they’re different:

• Templates are prebuilt canvases using basic FigJam objects.
• Widgets are custom interactive objects.
• Plugins add an ability like being import photos from Unsplash or converting text to sticky notes.

Code block is a unique feature that allows you to embed code with syntax highlighting, but it also shows a more developer-oriented approach from Figma.

FigJam has  fewer features out of the box, but you can add some of that functionality via plugins and widgets.

You can see their features in action in this video.

Pricing

• Free: 3 Figma and 3 FigJam files
• Small Team: $3 per editor/month
• Freelancer: $3 per editor/month

You can see all of FigJam's pricing options.

Rating

If you’re designing or building apps, you’re probably already using Figma, and FigJam means you don’t need another tool for whiteboarding. If you’re just looking for a digital whiteboard for collaboration, FigJam is affordable with basic features.

I give FigJam the Best UX Whiteboard because of its integration with Figma and 4 stars.

LucidSpark

Features

LucidSpark has all the basics. Along with extras like tags and reactions. But most of the facilitation features require a team subscription. It's not a good option for a freelance consultant because of a minimum of 3 members. They've created their own comparison with Miro is you're interested.

Organize Features

• Magic sort groups sticky notes with similar themes, which could be a powerful time-saver. 
• Sort organizes sticky notes by category.
• Gather groups and arranges selected sticky notes. 

These require a paid account, but they are good features to tame the chaos that eventually comes to whiteboard sessions.

Cards

Cards are a pretty developed feature in LucidSpark. The primary function of cards appears to be outlining backlog items to then exporting them to another application like Jira, Smartsheet or Azure DevOps.

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Here's what Lucid space looks like in action:

Integrations

It has good integration with google drive to bring charts into docs. Integrations seem to import LucidSpark content into other apps rather than other apps' content into LucidSpark.

Pricing

• Free:  3 editable boards
• Small Team:  $27 / month ($9/user/month - min 3 users)
• Freelancer:  $27 / month ($9/user/month - min 3 users)

You can see all of LucidSpark's pricing options.

Rating

LucidSpark works well as a digital whiteboard, but the biggest drawback is keeping most of its features at the second pay level. Because of this I only give it 3 stars.

Google Jamboard

Google Jamboard is as accessible as Gmail because it's part of the Google workspace.

Features

Google Jamboard includes all the basic features like drawing, notes, text, shapes and images, and it integrates naturally with other Google Workspace apps. 

If you want to go big, Jamboard integrates with a touchscreen IRL Jamboard that you can pick up for a cool $5k. While this probably isn't reasonable for your average WFH professional, it does make an intriguing offer for hybrid teams. If half the team is onsite and the other half distributed, a whiteboard that is both digital and in-real-life bridges that gap uniquely.

You can see in the video that the big selling points are the interactive board and Google Workspace integration.

Pricing

• Free:  free
• Small Team: free
• Freelancer: free
• Giant touch screen: $5,000

Rating

It’s a basic digital whiteboard that’s free and already available to most people, making it a good option for simple ad hoc collaboration. 

I originally gave it the best free whiteboard, but Whiteboards.io has now taken that title. But since it’s still the only one to offer a physical whiteboard option, I’m still giving it “Best IRL Upgrade.”

I had trouble figuring out how to rate Jamboard because it's a really different experience with or without the giant touch screen. On one hand, it’s a basic digital whiteboard that’s free and already available to most people, making it a good option for simple ad hoc collaboration. On the other hand, it's a possible game-changer for all the new hybrid teams out there. So I'm giving it two ratings.

Without Screen

I give Jamboard 3.5 stars because of its limited feature set.

With Screen

I give it the Best Hybrid Team Whiteboard, but 4.5 stars for providing a collaboration option where I can still draw with my hands.

Creately

Creately describes itself as “the all-in-one visual work management platform,” and the title indeed fits.

Features

The database integration is what makes Creately stand out from the crowd. With a bit of work, you could use it to build a custom project management system or CRM. All the DB features require a team subscription, but it is very affordable at less than $5 a user/month. 

You kind of have to see it to get a feel for how all the features work together.

The feature set feels geared much more for a corporate rather than consultant/freelance context.

Pricing

• Free:  3 canvases but not DB features
• Small Team: $4.80/user/month 
• Freelancer: n/a

You can see all of Creately's pricing options.

Rating

Creately feels more business than play. When you start looking at how much detail you can add, they deliver on having the big picture and details all in one place. It’s an intriguing solution for using one tool to build out your entire workflow. 

I give Creately the award of “More Than a Whiteboard” and 4 Stars

Whiteboards.io

When I first wrote this review I wasn’t familiar with Whiteboards.io but after I checked it out I was pleasantly surprised.

Whiteboards.io takes a fresh approach by offering all its features with unlimited team members and unlimited board… for FREE. 

That’s right free and unlimited. Ok, now I sound like a cell phone commercial. But seriously, after looking at the pricing of so many other online whiteboards, this is really refreshing.

Features

They have all the basic features like text, shapes, sticky notes and comments. 

The template library has options for all the common facilitation exercises, so you don’t have to build boards from scratch.

Some advanced features that surprised me to be offered for free include voting, timers, presentation mode and built-in video or audio calls.

You can create both public and private boards. So whether you're collaborating on that big software project or planning your weekly groceries, they’ve got you covered.

Whiteboards.io has very tight integrations with Jira and Confluence. Updates sync two way, which is critical for really making it work with your team. If Jira is where your team is already working, whiteboards.io might be the best option for you. 

You can learn more about their feature set in this video.

Pricing

Free with unlimited team members and boards. 

If you want to use it at an enterprise level, you can reach out to them for a custom quote. 

Rating

I really was surprised to discover how much functionality Whiteboards.io offers for free. This is why it should be no surprise that they took over as best free whiteboard.

I give Whiteboards.io 4.0 stars because of its template library and free advanced features. 

PencilSpaces

PencilSpaces is primarily focused on helping online students and teachers interact as they learn. I can see it being used either for online classes or tutoring. I could also see it being used in class as an alternative to kids coming up to write on the board.

Features

They use the word “space” to refer to their online whiteboard. The space has a clean and simple UI, which feels nice.

They include some of the basics like drawing shapes and adding images and text. 

It is missing the ability to place comments on the board but students can also just write on board. And it does include a group chat feature.

There are a few nice teaching-specific features like highlighting, adding equations, a built-in calculator, and a periodic table.

PencilSpaces has one button to lock and unlock the whole board, but you can’t lock individual items.

They offer an in-app video calling ability so no need for a second zoom call. This is really helpful for keeping kids focused.

You can learn more about PencilSpaces in this tutorial.

Pricing

PencilSpaces is free. So if you’re an online teacher or tutor, check it out.

Rating

Overall I like what they’re doing with the product. Online learning has been a struggle for many so it’s a good space to push into.

I give PencilSpaces the award of Best for instructors and 3.5 stars because its feature set is still pretty basic but what they have works well.

We covered a lot. I hope it helped you identify a good option for your team. If you have any questions or want to connect, reach out on LinkedIn.

Here’s a quick list of the six boards I reviewed:

Miro
miro.com
Best overall

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Mural
www.mural.co‍
Best Value

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FigJam
www.figma.com/figjam‍
Best for UX

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LucidSpark
lucidspark.com‍

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Google Jamboard
jamboard.google.com‍
(without screen)

Best for Hybrid Teams (with screen)

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Creately
More Than a Whiteboard
creately.com

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Whiteboards.io
Best Budget Board
whiteboards.io

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PencilSpaces
Best for Instructors
pencilapp.com

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Ready to start collaborating?

Give one of these whiteboards a try. Let me know which one you liked best.