Kaavit vs Excalidraw: an Excalidraw alternative for teams
Excalidraw is a much-loved open-source sketching tool: open it, draw something with a hand-drawn look, share a live session, close it. Kaavit is an online whiteboard for teams that keep working on the same boards: organisations, permissions, comments, and AI that draws diagrams and sorts notes on the board.
They are good at different things. If you are weighing Kaavit as an Excalidraw alternative, here is how the two compare, with a link to where each fact about Excalidraw comes from.
At a glance
| Topic | Kaavit | Excalidraw |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A team whiteboard: boards belong to an organisation and are shared by permission. | An open-source whiteboard, under the MIT licence, for sketches with a hand-drawn feel. Source |
| Account | Needed to create boards. People you share a link with need none. | Not needed to draw; an account is optional. Source |
| Where boards are stored | On Kaavit's servers in the EU (the Netherlands), on every plan, so a board is there on every device and for everyone it is shared with. | In the free app, in your browser's storage — which “can be cleared unexpectedly”. Cloud storage comes with Excalidraw+. Source |
| Encryption | Not end-to-end encrypted: the server reads a board to store it, share it and let the AI work on it. | Live collaboration sessions are end-to-end encrypted. Source |
| Price | Free, or Team at €8 per member a month, billed monthly, plus VAT. | Free, or Excalidraw+ at $7 per user a month billed monthly, or $6 billed yearly (USD). Source |
| Comments | On every plan: pinned to an element or a spot, in threads. | On Excalidraw+. Source |
| Sharing and permissions | Members of your organisation, teams (Team plan), guests invited by email (3 per board on Free) and share links people can view or edit through without an account. On Free a link that lets people edit lasts up to 7 days. Commenting needs an account. | Free: live collaboration sessions, and read-only links that are a snapshot. Excalidraw+: sharing with edit or view rights, and team workspaces. Source |
| AI | Draws diagrams and boards from a prompt, groups and sorts notes into frames, and changes what you select. Kaavit lays out what it draws, and any generation can be reverted in one step. | Text to diagram (flowchart, sequence, class, state and entity relationship diagrams) and wireframe to code: limited in the free app, 100 requests a day on Excalidraw+. Source |
| Export | PNG, and the text as Markdown, of a selection or the whole board. | PNG, SVG and file; PDF and PPTX on Excalidraw+. Source |
Facts about Excalidraw were read from Excalidraw's own pages on , viewed from Finland. Prices and plans change, and some depend on where you are: follow the links for today's. Spotted something out of date? Tell us at privacy@kaavit.com.
Where Kaavit is different
Boards that stay. A Kaavit board belongs to your organisation and lives on the server, so it is on every device, for everyone it is shared with, for as long as you keep it — with version history and a trash.
Permissions for teams. Members, teams, guests and share links each get view, comment or edit, and removing somebody's access reaches boards they already have open. Comments and threads are on the Free plan.
AI that works on what is there. Beyond generating a diagram from text, Kaavit's AI reads the board: select a pile of notes and ask it to group them into themes, or select part of a diagram and ask it to add something in the same style. Every generation can be reverted in one step.
When Excalidraw is the better choice
For a quick sketch with nobody signed in, nothing beats opening Excalidraw and drawing. Its hand-drawn look is its own, and Kaavit does not have it.
If your drawings must be end-to-end encrypted, or you want open-source software you can read and run yourself, Excalidraw is both and Kaavit is neither. Excalidraw also exports SVG, which Kaavit does not yet.
Moving from Excalidraw
Kaavit cannot open Excalidraw files. Keep your sketches where they are, and start the boards your team will come back to in Kaavit.
Questions
Is Kaavit open source?
No. Excalidraw is, under the MIT licence.
Can I use Kaavit without an account?
You need an account to create boards. People you send a share link to can view or edit without one; on the Free plan a link that lets them edit lasts up to 7 days. Commenting needs an account.
Does Kaavit have a hand-drawn style?
No. Kaavit's shapes and text are clean, with colours and formatting you choose.
Sources
Try Kaavit next to Excalidraw
It is free, needs no card, and takes a minute to set up. Keep whatever works.
Start free