Which open-source option replaces FigJam whiteboards?
If your renewal or seat-cost review is pushing FigJam whiteboards out of scope, or your security team wants boards to stay inside your own infrastructure, the practical answer is Excalidraw (MIT licensed) for lightweight self-hosted boards and Nextcloud Whiteboard (AGPL-3.0) for teams that already run Nextcloud. Excalidraw is a collaborative whiteboard with end-to-end encrypted collaboration, and it saves drawings in an open .excalidraw JSON format. Nextcloud Whiteboard is built on Excalidraw and stores boards inside Nextcloud, so access follows the file sharing and accounts you already manage. Both are self-hosted options, so the hosting, backups and upgrades become your responsibility or your implementation partner's.
FigJam is a whiteboard module, while Penpot covers interface design with its own file model, components and libraries. Most teams therefore keep two tools: a whiteboard for workshops, flows and sticky notes, and Penpot for the screens themselves. Before choosing, list which FigJam boards depend on Figma-specific features such as embedded design files, plugins or widgets, because those links will not carry over to Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard. Confirm with each team which templates and widgets they use today.
Decide the hosting model first, since it determines the cost structure. Excalidraw can run as a self-hosted app with its collaboration server, excalidraw-room, which is MIT licensed. Nextcloud Whiteboard depends on a Nextcloud instance, and Nextcloud publishes a major release every four months with one year of support per version, so you must plan regular upgrades. Ask your implementation partner to quote the Nextcloud and database components separately, and confirm whether your Nextcloud installation already meets the current system requirements.
How FigJam capabilities map to open-source options
This table maps the FigJam capabilities most teams rely on against Excalidraw, excalidraw-room, Nextcloud Whiteboard and Penpot. Read each row as a question to confirm in your own environment, since open-source projects change between releases. The main takeaway is that open-source whiteboards cover core drawing and collaboration well, while template catalogs, voice features and Figma-native linking need a deliberate plan.
| Capability | Excalidraw with excalidraw-room | Nextcloud Whiteboard | Penpot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real-time multiplayer editing | Yes, through excalidraw-room, the MIT-licensed collaboration server you host | Yes, built on Excalidraw and stored in Nextcloud | Multiplayer editing for design files, not a sticky-note board; confirm fit for workshops |
| Sticky notes and shapes | Shapes and freehand drawing; sticky-note styling needs manual setup | Shapes and freehand drawing inherited from Excalidraw; confirm sticky-note styling | Vector shapes and text; not designed as a sticky-note workshop surface |
| Templates | Gap: no template catalog comparable to FigJam; build and share your own scenes | Gap: confirm which starter boards ship with your Nextcloud version | Gap: design-focused starter files rather than workshop templates |
| Comments | Confirm: depends on your deployment and any add-ons you run | Confirm against your Nextcloud Hub release notes | Native comments on design files; confirm how they map to board work |
| Shape libraries | Supported through shape libraries and the open .excalidraw JSON format | Inherits Excalidraw library support; confirm sharing across users | Components and libraries for design work, which fit design teams better than whiteboards |
| Export | PNG, SVG and clipboard; open .excalidraw JSON for storage | Export follows the Excalidraw format; confirm file types in your build | SVG, CSS and HTML based design files in an open model |
| Permissions and access | Depends on how the room and storage are hosted; set access at the server layer | Uses Nextcloud sharing and group permissions for boards | Team and project roles; confirm granular rights for your structure |
| SSO and directory login | Gap: confirm an SSO path for your own server; excalidraw-room does not ship it by default | Logs in through Nextcloud, with LDAP, OpenID Connect or SAML backends documented by Nextcloud | Self-hosted OpenID Connect or LDAP login is documented for Penpot; verify your version |
| Voice and video calls | Gap: no built-in voice hangouts in the open-source build; pair with a separate call tool | Pair with Nextcloud Talk for calls; confirm the Talk setup you deploy | Gap: plan a separate call tool for live workshops |
| Figma-native linking | Gap: boards do not link into Figma files | Gap: boards do not link into Figma files | Penpot handles design files, but a link to FigJam boards is not a native feature |
Excalidraw, Nextcloud Whiteboard and when each fits
Excalidraw and Nextcloud Whiteboard cover the core FigJam job of real-time whiteboarding, but they differ in where boards live and who runs the server. The cards below separate the licensing, storage, export and hosting decisions that should drive the choice before any pilot starts.
Excalidraw as a standalone whiteboard
Excalidraw is MIT licensed, so the client code can be used, modified and redistributed without a copyleft obligation. Its drawings are saved in an open .excalidraw JSON format, and it exports to PNG and SVG, with shape libraries for reusable diagram parts. Real-time collaboration relies on excalidraw-room, a separate MIT-licensed collaboration server that the organization must deploy and place on its own network. Check who operates that server, how TLS and access are configured, and whether boards are stored anywhere beyond the browser session.
Nextcloud Whiteboard inside Nextcloud
Nextcloud Whiteboard is the official whiteboard app for Nextcloud, built on Excalidraw and licensed under AGPL-3.0. Boards are stored in Nextcloud, so they inherit the file permissions, sharing rules, and backup routine that the organization already applies to its files. The copyleft license matters if the organization modifies and offers the app to outside users over a network. Confirm that your Nextcloud version supports the whiteboard app and that your identity provider setup applies to board access.
Where boards are stored
Excalidraw boards can live as local files or in whatever storage the team chooses, which keeps data placement simple but leaves backup and retention to the users. Nextcloud Whiteboard keeps boards inside the Nextcloud data store, which places them under the server's backup and retention policies. Ask whether comments, deleted boards and shared links must be retained for audits, and document who owns each storage location.
Excalidraw+ as a hosted option
Excalidraw+ is the commercial hosted service from the same project. Its pricing page lists a Free plan and a Plus plan at $6 per user per month with a 14-day trial, adding cloud-saved scenes, team management, read-only links and a REST API in public beta. The site states SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and encryption at rest and in transit. This option keeps boards in a vendor's cloud, so verify the SOC 2 report scope, data location and sub-processors against your own residency and assurance requirements before choosing it.
Choosing between the two self-hosted paths
Pick Excalidraw with excalidraw-room when the team needs a lightweight, standalone whiteboard and is comfortable running a small collaboration service. Pick Nextcloud Whiteboard when boards must sit beside documents under the same permissions, backups and identity controls. Nextcloud also requires careful upgrades, since it does not allow skipping major releases, so plan that maintenance work alongside the whiteboard rollout.
Where FigJam boards are stored compared with self-hosted boards
FigJam boards live in Figma's cloud, alongside the design files they sit next to. Figma's localized file hosting is available only on the Enterprise plan, and Figma's help center states that comments, file names, plugins, fonts and preview thumbnails are not hosted in the chosen region. If data residency matters to your organization, ask Figma in writing whether FigJam boards follow the same rules, which data stays in the region and which metadata leaves it. Ask for the answer per data type. The exclusions are where compliance reviews usually stop, so a general statement about residency will not settle the question. Figma's localized hosting article lists the exclusions and is the starting point for that request.
With self-hosting, boards sit on infrastructure you control. Nextcloud Whiteboard, built on Excalidraw and licensed under AGPL-3.0, stores boards in Nextcloud, so they fall under the same storage, database and access controls that already govern your files. Excalidraw keeps drawings in the open .excalidraw JSON format, which your team can archive and read without the original vendor. Confirm one point before you commit: excalidraw.com's end-to-end encryption is a feature of the hosted app. Ask your architect how collaboration traffic and the room server are encrypted in your deployment, and who holds the keys to any encrypted content.
Self-hosting also moves operational duties to your team. You must back up the database, the file storage and the server configuration, test restores on a schedule, and secure the hosts with TLS, patching and regular access reviews. Nextcloud All-in-One includes BorgBackup-based backups, which covers the mechanism but not the restore testing or retention rules your policy requires. Back up before every upgrade, because Nextcloud does not allow skipping major releases and administrators must move through them one at a time. The Nextcloud upgrade manual sets out those steps, and disabling third-party apps until they are confirmed compatible should be part of the plan.
Export formats and what survives a move out of FigJam
Excalidraw exports boards as PNG and SVG images, copies them to the clipboard, and saves drawings in an open .excalidraw JSON format. The JSON file is the portable copy that keeps the board editable in another Excalidraw instance. Shape libraries are also supported, so reusable team elements can move with the work. Before you assume a FigJam board will convert cleanly, confirm how FigJam-specific elements such as stickies, stamps and embedded content map to Excalidraw elements, because the two tools do not share a native format.
- PNG: a static image suited to documents, wikis and slides, with no further editing.
- SVG: vector output that keeps shapes sharp at any size, but check how text and fonts render in the tool that opens it.
- Clipboard: fast for pasting into chat or documents, but nothing is kept as a file.
- .excalidraw JSON: the open scene format that lets a board be reopened and edited later.
- Shape libraries: reusable elements that can be shared as files; confirm how they import into your instance.
Check that text, arrows, grouping and layout survive in the format your readers actually use.
Nextcloud Whiteboard stores boards inside Nextcloud, so each board sits in the same file store, sharing model and backup scope as your other files. It is built on Excalidraw, which means the drawing model is familiar, but the storage and export behavior are controlled by the Nextcloud app. Confirm the on-disk format of a board, whether it can be exported as an image or .excalidraw file from the app, and whether Nextcloud file versioning applies to boards.
- Storage location: boards live in the Nextcloud data directory on your own servers, so they follow your data residency arrangements.
- Sharing: board permissions follow Nextcloud sharing, so links and exports are governed by the same rules as other files.
- Backups: the data directory and database both need backing up. Nextcloud All-in-One includes BorgBackup-based backups, but verify restores rather than assuming them.
- Format readability: confirm whether a board can be read outside Nextcloud if you later change platforms.
- Upgrades: Nextcloud requires one major version at a time, so test that boards still open after each step.
Restore one board into a test instance before you move a whole workspace into Nextcloud.
Figma's local copies are saved as .fig, .jam or .deck files. Figma's help documentation says these copies carry no version history or comments, and it describes the formats as proprietary and subject to change. FigJam boards are Figma-hosted files, so the same limits apply when you save a board locally. Confirm in the FigJam menu which image and file formats each board offers, and plan around what the local copy leaves out rather than assuming it is a complete archive.
- Local copy formats:
.fig,.jamand.deckfiles, which are proprietary and can only be opened in Figma's own tools. - Lost history: local copies have no version history, so earlier states of a board are gone.
- Lost comments: discussion threads are not part of a local copy and must be captured separately.
- Format change risk: because Figma says the formats may change, do not treat them as a long-term archive.
- Owner restrictions: copying can be limited by the file owner, so confirm permissions before any bulk export.
Export a board you care about and check what the file contains before you rely on it for an archive. For the official steps, see Save a local copy of files.
A feature comparison cannot show what a specific board will look like after a move. Test round trips on real boards from your own workspace before you commit to a target. Choose boards that use the features your teams depend on, export them, import them into the target, and compare the result with the original. Record each loss so stakeholders can decide which losses they accept and which block the move.
- Pick representative boards: include stickies, connectors, frames, images, embedded content and comments.
- Export each way: run every export format the target offers and re-import the output.
- Compare side by side: check text, connector routing, frame grouping, colors and image quality.
- Record losses: list every element that changed or disappeared, with the board it came from.
- Repeat after upgrades: rerun the test before each Nextcloud major upgrade, because app compatibility can change.
Sign off only when the team agrees the recorded losses are acceptable, and keep the test boards as a reference for later checks.
Moving FigJam boards to self-hosted whiteboards
This sequence moves FigJam boards out of a Collab-seat workspace and into a self-hosted whiteboard without losing the boards that matter. Each step has a named output, so the team knows what is archived, what is rebuilt and when Collab seats can be retired.
Inventory boards, owners and sharing
Export a list of every FigJam board the team uses, with its owner, last edited date, guest collaborators and whether it links to live Figma files. Confirm the list with team leads, since many boards are abandoned workshop artifacts that never need to move. The output is a sorted inventory marking each board as keep, archive or retire. Check the export against the admin view of your Figma organization so no board owned by a departed employee is missed.
Decide archive format for each board
For each board marked keep or archive, choose the target format before any data moves. Static images such as PNG or SVG preserve the look for reference, while the editable state is only portable where the target whiteboard supports it. Excalidraw saves scenes in an open .excalidraw JSON format, and Nextcloud Whiteboard stores boards inside Nextcloud. Confirm with the tool owners which format each board needs. The output is a decision record per board, reviewed by the board owners.
Stand up the chosen whiteboard in a test environment
Deploy the selected platform in a test environment inside your own infrastructure: Excalidraw with its excalidraw-room collaboration server, or Nextcloud Whiteboard on a Nextcloud instance. For Nextcloud, confirm the supported database, PHP and web server versions in the system requirements before installation. Verify that real-time editing works between two browsers and that boards persist after a restart. The output is a tested environment with a documented build and a restore check.
Migrate accounts and permissions
Connect the test environment to your identity source before loading any boards. Nextcloud can authenticate LDAP and Active Directory users, and documents OpenID Connect and SAML backends, so decide which one matches your directory. Map board access to groups rather than individuals so ownership survives staff changes. Confirm that a test user in each group sees only the boards they should. The output is a permissions matrix signed off by the security or IT owner.
Import and rebuild a pilot set of boards
Load the archived or editable boards for a single workshop team into the test environment. Expect that simple sticky-note and shape layouts transfer well, while boards that use FigJam-specific widgets, embedded prototypes, stickers or plugin content may not convert. Rebuild those manually and record the effort each one takes, because this is the number that drives the cutover plan. The output is a pilot board set compared side by side with the originals and a list of items needing rebuild.
Run a pilot with a workshop team
Ask one workshop team to run a real session on the self-hosted board, including guests from outside the organization if FigJam was used that way. Collect feedback on real-time cursor behavior, export needs, mobile use and search. Record every gap in a shared log with an owner and a decision on whether it is accepted, fixed or worked around. The output is a pilot report that the sponsor signs off before wider rollout.
Cut over and plan Collab seat retirement
Move the team's active work to the self-hosted whiteboard, announce a freeze date for new FigJam boards, and keep the original archives available for read access during a defined period set by the business. Confirm Collab seat counts and renewal terms with your Figma account team or procurement before removing seats, since seat billing and notice periods come from your contract. The output is a cutover record and a seat reduction plan tied to the renewal date.
Keep Penpot for design and sign off the retirement
Confirm which work stays in Penpot for interface design and which moves to the whiteboard, since FigJam boards often hold design discussion that links to live Figma files. Document the handoff links that change and update the team's runbook. Close the project once archives are verified, backups of the new instance are tested and no active team depends on FigJam. The output is a closed migration record with the retained archive location, backup proof and final seat count.
What do buyers ask before replacing FigJam whiteboards?
What drives the cost of self-hosting Nextcloud Whiteboard?
The main costs are the servers or virtual machines that run Nextcloud, the database, storage for boards and attachments, backups, and the staff time to operate and upgrade the platform. Nextcloud Whiteboard itself carries no license fee because it is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Costs rise with the number of users, the size of stored boards and attachments, the redundancy you require, and how often you patch. Ask any implementation partner for a quote that lists hardware or hosting, database and storage, backup, one-time setup, and recurring maintenance as separate lines.
Is Nextcloud Enterprise pricing required to run Nextcloud Whiteboard?
No. Nextcloud Whiteboard is an app under AGPL-3.0, and the community edition of Nextcloud Server is open source. Nextcloud GmbH sells Nextcloud Enterprise as a paid offering aimed at enterprise, public sector and education users, which adds maintenance and support. If you want vendor maintenance and support, Nextcloud's pricing page lists Enterprise in Standard, Premium and Ultimate tiers with a 100-user minimum. List prices start at 71.29 euros, 104.99 euros and 204.75 euros per user per year respectively for 100 or more users, with lower rates from 200 users. Confirm current prices on the pricing page before budgeting.
Can our own IT team run the whiteboard platform without outside help?
Often yes, if you already run Linux servers, a web server, PHP-based applications and a database. Nextcloud All-in-One is the official installation method and bundles caching, PostgreSQL, backups and optional Talk, which reduces setup work. Teams without that experience usually need help with the initial design, identity integration, backup testing and the first major upgrade. DeployOpen plans, implements, integrates, hardens, backs up, upgrades and documents self-hosted platforms in your own infrastructure under a written scope, and offers ongoing support as a retainer. Decide with your team which tasks you will own before asking for a quote.
How long does a pilot take before a rollout?
The length depends on the number of boards to be moved, how many users must sign in through your directory, whether you need integration with other tools, and how much testing your security and compliance teams require. A pilot usually covers a small group, a sample of real boards exported from FigJam, and a check of login, sharing, export and backup. Most engagements are fixed-scope, so the timeline is agreed in writing before work starts. Ask for the timeline to be tied to named deliverables and acceptance tests rather than a generic duration.
How must Nextcloud major upgrades be sequenced?
Nextcloud does not allow skipping major releases during upgrades, so administrators must move one major version at a time. Back up before every upgrade, and disable third-party apps until they are confirmed compatible with the new version. Nextcloud publishes a new major version every four months and supports each for one year through monthly maintenance releases. Nextcloud 35 (Hub 26 Summer) was released on 16 September 2026 with end of life in September 2027, and Nextcloud 36 (Hub 27 Winter) is scheduled for 17 February 2027. Plan a recurring upgrade window in your operating budget, and check the Nextcloud upgrade manual before each step.
What can and cannot be exported from FigJam?
FigJam boards can typically be exported as images or files, but the export does not preserve every interactive element, sticky note, sticker, comment thread or edit history in a form that another whiteboard can read directly. Excalidraw saves drawings in an open .excalidraw JSON format, and exports to PNG, SVG and the clipboard, so static content moves most reliably. Ask your team to confirm, on a sample board, which objects, comments, embedded files and links survive the trip, and to record the gaps before you decommission the source. The Figma help center describes Figma's local copy formats, which are proprietary and do not include comments or version history.
Where are boards stored and who can access them?
In a Nextcloud Whiteboard deployment, boards are stored in your Nextcloud instance, so access follows the sharing and permission model of your own server. Excalidraw's excalidraw.com app offers end-to-end encrypted collaboration and is a hosted service, while the MIT-licensed excalidraw-room server lets you run the collaboration backend yourself. Confirm how each option handles accounts, retention, backups and logs before choosing, and check that your directory integration (LDAP, OpenID Connect or SAML) covers the users who need access.
What the cost of self-hosted whiteboards actually includes
The license cost of Excalidraw and Nextcloud Whiteboard is zero, since both are open source (MIT for Excalidraw, AGPL-3.0 for Nextcloud Whiteboard). What you pay for is everything around the board: the servers or cloud accounts that run Nextcloud or an Excalidraw collaboration server, the database (PostgreSQL, MariaDB or MySQL, depending on the Nextcloud 35 system requirements), storage for boards and attachments, backups, and the staff time to keep it all running. Ask for each of these as its own line in any quote from a partner or internal estimate, because they scale differently. Storage and backup costs grow with the number of boards and the size of embedded images, while the database and compute costs depend on concurrent users and how often the instance is upgraded.
Identity integration is the cost most often underestimated. Nextcloud can connect to LDAP and Active Directory through its LDAP app, and it documents OpenID Connect and SAML backends, so board access can follow the accounts your organization already manages. Confirm which of these you will use before you plan the work, because each one adds configuration, testing and an owner who maintains it. Excalidraw on its own has no account system in a self-hosted setup, so access control, sharing rules and offboarding must be handled at the layer in front of it. Upgrades add recurring effort: Nextcloud does not allow skipping major releases, so you must move one major version at a time, back up before each upgrade and disable third-party apps until they are confirmed compatible. Budget staff time for this every cycle, not only at launch.
Paid support is optional and separate from the software. Nextcloud GmbH sells Nextcloud Enterprise in Standard, Premium and Ultimate tiers with a 100-user minimum, and its pricing page lists per-user annual starting prices and support scope, including 1-year maintenance on Standard, a 5-year or longer maintenance lifecycle on Premium and support up to 24/7 on Ultimate. Ask any vendor or partner to state in writing whether the quote covers installation, migration of existing boards, identity setup, upgrade runs, backup testing and out-of-hours response, and whether it is one-time or annual. Compare those lines with the per-seat FigJam fees you would stop paying, and remember that your own staff time is a cost even when no invoice arrives.
How DeployOpen scopes and delivers whiteboard replacement
DeployOpen plans, implements, customizes, integrates and documents self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For a FigJam replacement, that means agreeing in writing which boards, access rules and export needs move, then delivering Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard on infrastructure you control.
How we scope
- Inventory which FigJam boards, templates and collaborators are in active use and which can be archived
- Confirm whether Excalidraw standalone or Nextcloud Whiteboard fits your identity, storage and hosting constraints
- Agree in writing the deliverables, timelines and any Penpot work for design files, before implementation starts
How we build
- Deploy the chosen whiteboard in your environment with the collaboration server and storage it requires
- Connect directory login through LDAP, OpenID Connect or SAML where your identity setup supports it
- Test real-time collaboration, export to PNG, SVG and the open .excalidraw format, and access controls before sign-off
How we hand over
- Document the architecture, backup procedure, upgrade steps and the data locations your team must maintain
- Provide a board export runbook so content can be moved again without vendor involvement
- Walk administrators through user onboarding, permissions and the routine tasks they own after go-live
How we support
- Offer ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing as a retainer after handover
- Plan Nextcloud major version upgrades one step at a time, with backups taken before each change
- Ask your team to confirm current licensing terms, release schedules and any paid support tiers directly with the vendor
