Excalidraw
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Buy the free, open-source version for quick diagrams and sketches . it costs nothing and reviewers love it.
New check
Comparison
Excalidraw vs AFFiNE
Excalidraw lands on Worth it, and AFFiNE lands on Depends.
AFFiNE
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a solo user or tiny team wanting a free, privacy-first Notion+Miro hybrid and can tolerate rough edges.
| Compare | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Worth it | Depends |
| Best for | Quick sketches and wireframes | Privacy-focused solo note-takers |
| Who it's not for | Enterprises wanting Miro-style workshop templates and facilitation | Teams handling sensitive data . RCE CVE, ignored XSS reports |
| Privacy | Open-source with past medium-severity XSS CVEs; Excalidraw+ adds SOC 2 certification and E2E encryption.10 | Active 2026 CVEs include remote code execution; researchers report ignored XSS findings; no dedicated security page found. |
| Support quality | No support evidence in sources | Security reports allegedly ignored for months |
| Public sentiment | Users love Excalidraw for quick, effortless sketching and rate it around 4/5, with minor gripes about scaling and drawing-tool limits.⁴ | Sentiment is split: privacy-minded fans praise the lightweight local-first design, while others complain it feels raw and unstable. |
| Biggest gotcha | Excalidraw+ ($7/mo) needed for team persistence and workspaces; free version stores locally⁶ | Open-source license is not MIT despite marketing framing; verify terms before commercial use |
Pick Excalidraw when
- Quick sketches and wireframes
- Dev teams diagramming architecture
- Students and teachers
- Obsidian note-takers via plugin
When Excalidraw is not a fit
- Enterprises wanting Miro-style workshop templates and facilitation
- Polished, precise engineering diagrams . draw.io fits better
- Teams needing SOC 2 on the free tier . that's paid-only
- Buyers wanting vendor SLAs from a tiny bootstrapped team
Pick AFFiNE when
- Privacy-focused solo note-takers
- Docs + whiteboard hybrid workflows
- Self-hosters wanting open source
- Budget-conscious 1-3 person teams
When AFFiNE is not a fit
- Teams handling sensitive data . RCE CVE, ignored XSS reports
- Groups larger than 3 people on the free plan
- Buyers who need true MIT licensing
- Anyone needing a polished, stable daily-driver tool
Sources
review
- Excalidraw honest thoughts (4/5) | Mediumaibenchmarked.medium.comreview
- Why is Excalidraw so good? | Off by oneoffbyone.usreview
- Excalidraw Pricing 2026 | Costbenchcostbench.comofficial
- Excalidraw+ Pricingplus.excalidraw.comofficial
- Excalidraw+ Is Now SOC 2 Certifiedplus.excalidraw.comofficial
- End-to-End Encryption in the Browserplus.excalidraw.comofficial
- CVE-2024-32472 XSS | Snyksecurity.snyk.iosecurity
- Excalidraw Revenue, Funding | Prospeoprospeo.ionews
- Excalidraw - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.orgnews
- DrDroid case studyplus.excalidraw.comreview
- r/ObsidianMD: Should I use Excalidraw?reddit.comreview
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