Open-source alternative to Lucidspark

Open-source alternative to Lucidspark for workshops that must stay on your servers

Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard can replace Lucidspark's whiteboards, while draw.io takes over the diagrams that currently live in Lucidchart. If your Lucid Enterprise suite bundles Lucidspark with Lucidchart and you need boards to stay on infrastructure you control, this split is the practical route. It is a replacement for the whiteboard function only, not a like-for-like feature match. Lucidspark's sticky notes, facilitation templates, voting and integrations do not have one-to-one equivalents in either option, so workshop facilitators should list the features their sessions actually depend on before committing.

Excalidraw is MIT licensed, and its collaboration server, excalidraw-room, is also MIT licensed, so a team can run real-time sessions on its own hardware. Its drawings are saved in an open .excalidraw JSON format and export to PNG, SVG and the clipboard. Nextcloud Whiteboard is built on Excalidraw, is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and stores boards inside Nextcloud, which suits organizations that already keep files, accounts and calendars there. The choice depends on where your identity and file storage already sit. Confirm with your security team whether the collaboration traffic and board storage meet your encryption and access requirements, because the features differ between a standalone Excalidraw deployment and a Nextcloud instance, and Nextcloud documents LDAP, OpenID Connect and SAML sign-in options that you will need to map to your directory.

Costs split into one-time and recurring parts. Excalidraw and draw.io carry no license fee, so spending goes to hosting, the administrator who runs the service, and workshop preparation time. Nextcloud Community is also free, while Nextcloud GmbH sells Enterprise with a 100-user minimum and list prices starting at 71.29 euros per user per year for the Standard tier, according to Nextcloud's pricing page. Ask any partner for a written scope that covers hosting, identity integration, backup, upgrades and user training, since those drive the ongoing cost more than the software does. Plan a pilot with one workshop series before retiring Lucidspark licenses, and export existing boards first, because Lucid's bulk .LAF backup only restores into Lucid.

Which Lucidspark capabilities Excalidraw and Nextcloud Whiteboard cover

This table maps the main Lucidspark capabilities to Excalidraw, Nextcloud Whiteboard and draw.io. Read each cell as what the open-source option documents today, and treat every item marked to confirm as a test to run before you commit. The main takeaway is that Excalidraw and Nextcloud Whiteboard cover live whiteboarding, while draw.io covers the diagram work that stays in Lucidchart.

Lucidspark capability	Excalidraw	Nextcloud Whiteboard	draw.io
Real-time multi-user boards	Real-time collaboration on a self-hosted server, which needs the excalidraw-room collaboration server	Multi-user boards inside your Nextcloud instance; confirm concurrency limits in your tests	Diagram editor, not a live whiteboard; confirm co-editing options for your setup
Sticky notes and shapes	Hand-drawn shapes and drawing tools; confirm sticky note support	Inherits Excalidraw shapes and drawing tools; confirm sticky note support	Large shape libraries and stencils for structured diagrams
Templates	Shape libraries are documented; workshop templates must be built or confirmed	Confirm which board templates ship in your Nextcloud version	Diagram templates; confirm workshop templates for facilitation
Comments and presentation mode	Not documented for the open-source app; confirm in a pilot	Confirm comments and presentation features in your version	Confirm comments and presentation options for your team
SSO and admin controls	No documented SSO for a self-hosted app; confirm with your deployment	LDAP and Active Directory, OpenID Connect and SAML user backends are documented	Access control comes from your hosting and storage layer
Data location	Boards stay on the server you run; excalidraw.com encrypts collaboration end to end	Boards are stored in your own Nextcloud instance	Diagrams save where the user chooses, never on draw.io servers
File formats	Exports to PNG, SVG and clipboard; saves an open .excalidraw JSON format	Boards stored in Nextcloud; confirm export formats for your version	Imports Visio, Gliffy and Lucidchart diagrams
License	MIT	AGPL-3.0	Apache License 2.0

Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard: which fits which workshop

Both options replace Lucidspark's whiteboards with open-source software, and both build on Excalidraw's drawing model. They differ in what runs beside them: a standalone collaboration server for Excalidraw, or an existing Nextcloud instance for Nextcloud Whiteboard. The right choice depends on where your teams already keep files and who needs to join a session.

Excalidraw for ad hoc sessions

Excalidraw is MIT licensed and supports end-to-end encrypted real-time collaboration, which suits short workshops with people outside your directory, such as vendors or partner teams. Boards are saved as open .excalidraw JSON files, and exports go to PNG, SVG and the clipboard. Confirm with your security team whether a standalone collaboration room matches your data handling rules before you invite external participants.

Nextcloud Whiteboard for internal teams

Nextcloud Whiteboard is built on Excalidraw and is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Boards are stored inside Nextcloud alongside the files, folders and permissions your staff already use, so access follows existing sharing rules. It fits recurring internal workshops where the output belongs in a shared project folder. Check that the whiteboard app is installed and maintained on the Nextcloud version you run.

Running a standalone collaboration server

Excalidraw collaboration depends on excalidraw-room, an MIT-licensed collaboration server that your team would host, patch and monitor. This adds a service with its own TLS certificates, uptime checks and backups, and someone must own it. Ask whether your platform team can operate an additional Node-based service and who responds when a session fails during a live workshop.

Reusing an existing Nextcloud

If Nextcloud already serves your file sharing, adding the whiteboard avoids a second collaboration service and reuses existing single sign-on and LDAP or Active Directory integration. The trade-off is coupling: whiteboard availability and upgrade timing follow the Nextcloud instance. Plan Nextcloud major upgrades, which must be taken one major version at a time, with whiteboard compatibility checked at each step.

Excalidraw+ as a hosted reference

Excalidraw+ is the hosted commercial product from the Excalidraw team. Its pricing page lists a Free plan and a Plus plan at $6 per user per month, and it states SOC 2 Type 2 compliance with data encrypted at rest and in transit. It is not self-hosted, so it does not meet a requirement to keep boards on your own servers, but it helps you compare hosted and self-hosted controls. Ask for the current SOC 2 report directly from the vendor.

Matching the choice to the workshop

Use Excalidraw for fast sessions with mixed participants and Nextcloud Whiteboard for internal work that must sit with project files. Test both with a representative board of about the size your workshops use, and confirm that exports, board permissions and guest access work as your teams expect. Lucidspark's templates and facilitation tools will not carry over one for one, so note which templates your facilitators rely on.

What changes for facilitators and brainstorming teams

The biggest change for facilitators is that the workshop toolkit shrinks before the canvas does. Lucidspark's built-in templates, timers, voting and presentation modes are features many facilitators reach for without thinking. Excalidraw and Nextcloud Whiteboard give you a freeform canvas, shape libraries and a clean drawing surface, but they do not ship with the same catalogue of workshop templates or slide-style presentation features. Before you retire anything, list the templates your facilitators actually open each month and decide, for each one, whether to rebuild it as a saved board, drop it, or run the exercise with sticky notes and a timer kept outside the tool. Confirm in each product's current documentation which of these features exist before you promise them to a team.

Freehand sketching also changes how groups think. Excalidraw renders shapes with a hand-drawn style by default, which lowers the bar for contributions and suits early-stage brainstorming, but some stakeholders will read it as informal in client or executive sessions. Decide with the facilitators which sessions use the sketchy style and which need precise layouts, and document that choice so nobody has to ask mid-workshop. Session continuity is the other shift: Lucidspark keeps boards in the Lucid account, while Nextcloud Whiteboard stores boards in Nextcloud and excalidraw-room handles live collaboration. Agree on where each workshop's board lives, who owns it after the session, and how participants get a copy afterwards, including whether exports should include notes and votes that the target tool may not carry over.

Run a pilot workshop with real facilitators before you switch off Lucidspark. Pick one recurring session, ideally with a mix of remote and in-room participants, and run it on the replacement stack with the people who normally lead it. Track the things that go wrong in practice: participants who cannot join from a restricted network, boards that do not reopen after a browser restart, and exports that lose content. Keep a written list of features the team relies on that must be rebuilt or dropped, with an owner and a decision for each. Ask your deployment partner or internal platform team to confirm how the chosen collaboration server and storage are configured, and treat the pilot results as the input to your go-live decision.

Running the new whiteboards alongside Lucidchart and the rest of the suite

Most teams do not switch every Lucid product on the same day. Whiteboards, diagrams, storage and sign-in each have their own path, and the order matters for data residency and admin controls. The cards below cover what to keep, what to move and what to connect first.

Keep Lucidchart until the contract ends

Lucid's global data residency, with US, EU (Germany) and Australian regions, is held for the Enterprise plan, and admin controls such as SSO and SCIM usually sit in the same contract. Until that contract ends, Lucidchart data and its residency settings stay in place. Confirm with Lucid which admin controls and exports remain available if you downgrade or stop renewing, and set a date for moving diagrams that does not depend on the whiteboard cutover.

Move diagrams to draw.io separately

Whiteboards and diagrams have different migration paths. draw.io imports Visio .vsdx files and Lucidchart diagrams, so existing diagrams can move on their own timetable while Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard takes over live workshops. For illustrative purposes, a team might run both tools for a quarter, with new architecture diagrams created in draw.io and sprint boards kept in the whiteboard. Check each diagram after import, since shape data and links may not survive intact.

Link whiteboards to shared storage

Nextcloud Whiteboard stores boards inside Nextcloud, so access follows the file permissions and sharing rules already set for the folder. Decide which team folders hold workshop boards, how long they are kept, and who can share links outside the organization. Excalidraw boards are saved as .excalidraw files, which you can keep in any storage you control. Confirm where each board ends up and who holds backups of it.

Connect sign-in to your directory

Nextcloud can let LDAP and Active Directory users appear in Nextcloud and log in with their directory credentials. Nextcloud also documents OpenID Connect and SAML authentication backends, which fit an existing identity provider. Plan joiner and leaver handling, since a disabled account in the directory should stop access to boards. Confirm group mapping before users start sharing workshop content, because removing access later is harder to audit.

Plan for Nextcloud upgrades

Nextcloud does not allow skipping major releases, so each upgrade moves one major version at a time, and the documentation advises a backup before every upgrade. Third-party apps should be disabled until they are confirmed compatible, which can affect Whiteboard if its dependencies lag. Assign an owner for upgrade windows and confirm which major version your support covers before scheduling the cutover.

How to move Lucidspark boards and users to self-hosted whiteboards

This sequence moves active Lucidspark boards and their collaborators onto a self-hosted whiteboard, with an inventory and a pilot so the team knows what was kept before Lucidspark is switched off.

Inventory boards, owners and active collaborators
Ask your Lucid admin for a list of Lucidspark boards across the organization, with the owner, last edit date and the people who still open each one. Separate boards that are live workshop material from those that are finished and only need archiving. Confirm with the admin which boards are shared outside the company, since those need a separate decision. The step is done when each board has an owner, a status (keep, archive or delete) and a named contact for the pilot.
Export what Lucidspark allows
Run the export options available in your own Lucid account for each board you plan to keep. Confirm in the account which formats are offered for Lucidspark boards, because the export options and their contents can differ from those for Lucidchart documents. Store the exports in a location the security team controls, and record which boards produced a usable file. Do not expect boards to restore into Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard from a Lucid bulk export, since that backup is designed to restore only inside Lucid. The step is done when each keep-listed board has a retained export or a written note that none was produced.
Choose Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard
Pick Excalidraw when the need is a lightweight, self-hosted canvas for workshops that do not need to live inside a file platform. Pick Nextcloud Whiteboard when boards should sit next to files, calendars and chat in Nextcloud, since it is built on Excalidraw and stores boards in Nextcloud. Check the requirements for each option against your identity model, storage policy and support needs before deciding. The decision is recorded in writing with the reasons, so the choice can be reviewed later.
Deploy the chosen whiteboard and run a pilot
Install the chosen option in your own infrastructure and test it with one or two real workshop groups. For Excalidraw, confirm how the collaboration server is hosted and how it is reached from inside your network. For Nextcloud Whiteboard, confirm the Nextcloud version, supported database and PHP version against the current system requirements. Measure in the pilot whether participants can join, edit together, export and find earlier boards. The step is done when the pilot group signs off on the workflows that matter for their meetings.
Migrate and recreate active boards
For each board marked keep, rebuild the content in the new tool using the export as reference, or export images and sticky-note text where they are useful. Assign the new board to the same owner and copy the agreed facilitator notes. Confirm which elements, such as comments, reactions and embedded links, did not carry across, and tell participants before the switch. The step is done when every keep-listed board exists in the new tool and the owner has confirmed it.
Move users and set access
Decide how people sign in before inviting the wider group. For Nextcloud Whiteboard, confirm whether the Nextcloud instance uses LDAP or Active Directory, OpenID Connect or SAML, so users log in with existing credentials. For Excalidraw, confirm the sharing model and who can create or open boards. Send one short guide to each group, including where boards are stored and who to contact. The step is done when the pilot groups can sign in and open their boards without help from the project team.
Retire Lucidspark and document the change
Once the active boards are moved and the pilot is closed, remove Lucidspark seats that are no longer needed, and confirm with your Lucid administrator how archived boards are handled under your contract. Record the final inventory, export locations, decision record and access model in your change log. Keep the archived exports under the retention rules your compliance team has set. The step is done when the license change is confirmed in writing and the change log matches what is running.

What does it cost and take to replace Lucidspark?

What are the main cost drivers when replacing Lucidspark with self-hosted whiteboards?

The main drivers are hosting, storage, staff time, support and retraining, and the Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard licenses themselves cost nothing. Excalidraw is MIT licensed and Nextcloud Whiteboard is AGPL-3.0, so the recurring spend is on servers or cloud accounts, backups, the people who run and patch the stack, and any paid support you choose. Hosting cost rises with the number of users, the size of stored boards and the availability you require. Ask your team and any implementation partner to price each component separately in a written scope, so you can see which items are one-time and which recur every year.

Does Nextcloud Enterprise cost money if we choose Nextcloud Whiteboard?

Nextcloud Whiteboard can run on the free community edition of Nextcloud Server, so a license fee is optional. If you want vendor maintenance and support, Nextcloud GmbH sells Nextcloud Enterprise in Standard, Premium and Ultimate tiers with a 100-user minimum. According to Nextcloud's pricing page, 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. Standard includes one year of maintenance, Premium adds a maintenance lifecycle of five or more years and clustered instance support, and Ultimate adds support up to 24/7 with response times down to one hour. Confirm current rates on the pricing page before budgeting.

Can our in-house team run a self-hosted whiteboard without outside help?

Yes, if your team already runs web applications on Linux, databases and reverse proxies, because the work is ordinary server administration. Nextcloud documents specific database, PHP and web server versions in its system requirements, and it requires that upgrades move one major version at a time with a backup before each step. Teams without that routine should plan for training and on-call coverage. Many organizations use an implementation partner for the first deployment, the identity integration and hardening, then keep the upgrade routine in-house. Decide early which of these tasks your staff can cover in their current roles.

How long does it take to replace Lucidspark with Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard?

The timeline depends mainly on scope: a single team trialing Excalidraw on an internal server is a very different project from a company-wide Nextcloud deployment with directory login, backups and an upgrade plan. Factors that extend the work include integrating LDAP, Active Directory, OpenID Connect or SAML sign-in, migrating existing content, validating backups and writing runbooks. We do not quote durations in this section. A fixed-scope written agreement sets the deliverables and timeline before work starts, so ask for the schedule to be tied to named milestones.

What do we need to provide before a self-hosted whiteboard project starts?

You will need to provide the following before work starts:

A target environment with capacity, backups and network access in your own cloud account, data center or air-gapped network
Decisions on user sign-in, including which directory or identity provider holds the accounts
Named owners for approvals, change windows and acceptance testing
An inventory of Lubricated Lucidspark boards, folders and participants who need access, plus a retention rule for old boards
Written data handling requirements, such as where boards may be stored and who may view them

Ask your implementation partner to confirm each item in the written scope, since missing inputs are the most common reason fixed-scope timelines move.

Does Excalidraw+ remove the need to self-host a whiteboard?

Excalidraw+ removes the server work, but it moves the boards to a hosted service. Its pricing page lists a Free plan and a Plus plan at $6 per user per month with a 14-day trial, and Plus adds unlimited scenes and folders saved on cloud, team and access management, and read-only links. Excalidraw+ states SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and encryption at rest and in transit. If your requirement is that boards stay on your own servers, Excalidraw+ does not meet it. Check the vendor's current compliance statements and data location terms against your own rules before choosing it.

What retraining do workshop facilitators need after switching from Lucidspark?

Facilitators will need to relearn the canvas controls, sticky-note conventions, templates, and how sessions are shared with participants. Excalidraw has a simpler, sketch-style interface with shape libraries and exports to PNG, SVG and the clipboard, so many basic workshop tasks transfer quickly. Features that some teams rely on in Lucidspark, such as particular templates or presentation modes, may need replacement or a different routine. Compare your most common workshop formats against the target tool in a pilot before you retire Lucidspark, and budget time for facilitator guides and short training sessions.

Sources for the Lucidspark replacement

These five official sources cover the whiteboard options, the collaboration server, the Nextcloud pricing model and draw.io's data handling. Read them before you commit to a design, because the licensing, hosting and cost facts differ between the two whiteboard routes.

Excalidraw repository

The Excalidraw repository holds the MIT-licensed whiteboard code, which is the base for both the standalone app and Nextcloud Whiteboard. Check the release notes and open issues before you pin a version, since the project publishes releases on its own schedule. Confirm that the features your workshops need, such as shape libraries and PNG or SVG export, match the version you plan to deploy. Also note that the repository describes end-to-end encryption as a feature of the excalidraw.com app, so verify how your self-hosted build handles it.

excalidraw-room collaboration server

The excalidraw-room project is the MIT-licensed server that relays live edits between participants. If you run a standalone Excalidraw instance for live workshops, this is the component you operate, so it belongs in your hosting plan and your network review. Ask who on your team will patch it, how it is monitored and where it sits relative to your identity provider. Without it, teams can still share static files, but real-time sessions depend on it.

Nextcloud Whiteboard

Nextcloud Whiteboard is the official whiteboard app for Nextcloud, built on Excalidraw and licensed under AGPL-3.0. Boards are stored inside Nextcloud, so access follows Nextcloud sharing and, where configured, directory accounts, which simplifies governance for teams that already run it. Confirm the app version against your Nextcloud release and check how it handles real-time sessions in your deployment. AGPL-3.0 carries source obligations if you modify the app and offer it to users, so have legal review the terms.

Nextcloud pricing

Nextcloud's pricing page separates the free community server from paid Enterprise subscriptions with maintenance, support and lifecycle terms. Enterprise is sold per user with a 100-user minimum, so the cost of support depends on your headcount and the tier you choose. Compare the Standard, Premium and Ultimate tiers against the response times and maintenance periods you actually need. Ask Nextcloud for the current quote, since list prices change and lower rates apply at higher user counts.

draw.io trust and privacy

The draw.io trust page explains where diagrams are saved, which matters when Lucidspark workshops move to a new tool. According to the page, diagrams are stored where the user chooses, on a device or a connected storage service, and not on draw.io's servers. This keeps diagram storage under your control, but it does not cover the whiteboard. Check the whiteboard choice separately, because Excalidraw and Nextcloud Whiteboard have their own storage and collaboration paths.

How DeployOpen scopes a whiteboard replacement

The sequence turns a Lucidspark replacement into a written scope, a tested pilot and a documented deployment that your own team can run after handover.

Agree a written scope
DeployOpen and your team list the boards in use, the number and type of users, the identity source (for example, whether accounts come from LDAP or Active Directory, OpenID Connect or SAML), and the storage and hosting location your organization requires. Scope, deliverables and timelines are written down before any work starts, and the quote follows from that document. The step is complete when both parties sign off the scope and it names which boards move to Excalidraw, which to Nextcloud Whiteboard, and which diagrams go to draw.io.
Assess boards and workshop patterns
DeployOpen reviews how teams use Lucidspark today: live workshops with many participants, persistent team boards, embedded diagrams and any boards that link to Lucidchart documents. This shows which workflows Excalidraw covers directly and where Nextcloud Whiteboard, which is built on Excalidraw and stores boards inside Nextcloud, fits better. The output is a short gap list naming each feature that does not map cleanly, such as comment threads, templates or presentation modes, so your team can decide whether to accept the change or confirm a workaround.
Build and test a pilot
DeployOpen installs the chosen whiteboard option in a pilot environment inside your infrastructure, connects it to your identity source and storage, and runs a set of representative workshops with a small group of your users. Collaboration sessions and any collaboration server in use are tested for reliability on your network. The pilot is complete when the users confirm the boards behave as the gap list predicted and any open issues are logged with an owner.
Deploy to production
DeployOpen deploys the approved configuration to production in your cloud account, data center or air-gapped network, applying the hardening and backup settings agreed in the scope. Nextcloud deployments follow the installation method and system requirements for the release in use, including its supported database and PHP versions. The step closes when the service is reachable only through the intended access paths, backups have completed a test restore, and the configuration is recorded in version control.
Migrate existing boards
DeployOpen supports the migration of boards and any related diagrams that need to move. Lucidspark boards are not expected to export in a form that restores directly into another tool, so the team agrees which boards are rebuilt, which are exported as images for reference, and which are retired. Diagrams from Lucidchart move to draw.io through the documented import route, which is covered in the migration page. The check is a reconciliation list showing each board's status and the user who confirmed it.
Document and hand over
DeployOpen writes operating documentation for administrators and users, covering sign-in, board ownership, backup and restore steps, and the upgrade procedure. For Nextcloud, this includes the rule that major versions cannot be skipped and that backups must be taken before each upgrade. Your team runs a handover session and the documentation is delivered in the agreed format. Handover is complete when administrators can perform a backup restore and a user-facing walkthrough is accepted.
Set up ongoing support
Upgrades, security patches and continuous support run under a retainer if your organization chooses one, or your internal team keeps them in-house. DeployOpen does not issue audit reports or certifications. Where compliance evidence is needed, DeployOpen prepares the systems, controls and records, and independent auditors or certification bodies perform the assessment. The step is complete when the support model, responsibilities and the contact path for incidents are written into the handover record.

How DeployOpen delivers self-hosted whiteboard and diagram replacement

DeployOpen plans, implements, integrates, hardens, backs up and documents self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For Lucidspark replacement, that means choosing between Excalidraw and Nextcloud Whiteboard for workshops while draw.io takes over diagramming, all running where your organization controls the data.

How we scope

Inventory the boards, diagrams and sharing rules you need to keep, starting with workshop frequency and attendee locations.
Decide whether Excalidraw or Nextcloud Whiteboard fits your identity, storage and collaboration requirements.
Agree the scope, deliverables and timelines in writing before any work starts, as engagements are fixed-scope.

How we build

Deploy the chosen whiteboard and draw.io in your environment, connected to your directory and storage services.
Configure collaboration, access control and shape libraries, then test real-time sessions with your facilitators.
Run security testing on the deployment and document the configuration, data flows and residency decisions.

How we hand over

Hand over runbooks covering installation, upgrades, backups and restore steps for each component you run.
Train facilitators and administrators on boards, templates, exports and the migration of existing diagrams.
Provide documentation and evidence that support your internal review or an independent auditor's assessment.

How we support

Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as retainers after handover.
Plan upgrades with your team, including Nextcloud's one-major-version-at-a-time upgrade path and pre-upgrade backups.
Confirm with your team which support tier fits your operating hours and internal responsibilities before go-live.