The best fit depends on what your boards are for. Workshops and brainstorms need live co-editing and facilitation tools, product teams need diagrams and wireframes, and creative or classroom work suits freer visual boards. Seven online whiteboards follow, in no particular order, grouped by that job so you can shortlist quickly.
Public bodies, schools and businesses with strict data rules have long been a core audience here. Conceptboard's homepage leans into exactly that, describing real-time, remote and secure visual collaboration that's GDPR-compliant and easy to use. If that's why you chose it, the security and hosting questions matter just as much as the features when you look at a replacement.
Live co-editing, templates and exports
The thing to test in any replacement is how a team works on the same board at the same moment, and what templates and exports come with it. A whiteboard can look great with one person moving sticky notes and fall apart with twelve people editing at once. Lag, lost edits and confusing cursors are what make a workshop drag.
Exports matter just as much. After a session, someone has to turn the board into actions, a report or a slide. Check whether you can export to PDF or image, whether the export keeps its layout, and whether board content can move into the tools your team already uses. Templates save a facilitator real time too, so see whether the ones you use most, such as retrospectives, journey maps or planning grids, are included.
On hosting and privacy, ask each vendor where data is stored and what controls you get. Requirements vary by sector and country, so check with your data protection regulator rather than relying on a homepage claim. Tools in this category split by who they're built for and how much you set up yourself, so run the same real task through each before you decide.
The whiteboards, A to Z
In no particular order of preference. Each line sums up how the vendor describes its own product.
Boardmix
Best for: Teams brainstorming, mind mapping and drawing flowcharts together live; the vendor adds AI features and names a free plan.
Klaxoon
Best for: Facilitators who want a whiteboard plus interactive tools aimed at team engagement and creativity, as the vendor positions it.
Lucidspark
Best for: Organisations mapping processes visually; the vendor pitches its Lucid tools for documenting how the business works and keeping people and AI agents aligned.
Milanote
Best for: Creative people organising ideas and projects on visual boards with notes, images, links and files they can share, per the vendor.
Padlet
Best for: Teachers, learners and creative groups; the vendor pitches boards and canvases for visual thinkers, with a free way to get started.
Stormboard
Best for: Teams that want the output of their sessions turned into structured, actionable data, which is how the vendor describes its workspace.
Whimsical
Best for: Product builders documenting implementation with diagrams and shaping interfaces with wireframes, with team and AI collaboration, per the vendor.
Which board for which kind of session
Workshops and team engagement. Klaxoon and Boardmix are built around live sessions. One adds interactive tools aimed at engagement; the other focuses on brainstorms, mind maps and flowcharts. Stormboard sits close by, with an emphasis on turning what a session produces into structured data rather than a pile of notes.
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Product and process mapping. Whimsical and Lucidspark lean towards diagrams. The first is pitched at product builders shaping flows and wireframes; the second sits inside a wider suite for documenting how a business works today.
Creative and classroom boards. Milanote and Padlet are freer and more visual. They suit moodboards, project planning, lessons and student work, where layout and images matter more than strict workshop structure.
Seven whiteboards compared
| Tool | Kind of board | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Boardmix | AI online whiteboard | Brainstorms, mind maps and flowcharts in real time |
| Klaxoon | Interactive whiteboard | Engaging teams in workshops and meetings |
| Lucidspark | Visual collaboration in Lucid | Documenting how the business works today |
| Milanote | Visual boards for projects | Creative projects, moodboards and planning |
| Padlet | Boards and canvases | Classrooms, learning and creative work |
| Stormboard | Data-first whiteboard | Turning workshop output into structured data |
| Whimsical | Diagrams and wireframes | Product builders mapping flows and interfaces |
My advice for remote teams picking a board
Start with the session you run most, not the one you run once a year. That's usually where the hours add up, and it's where small annoyances, such as a slow board or a fiddly sticky note, turn into people quietly going back to email and slides. A weekly stand-up board, a monthly retrospective and a quarterly planning day each put different demands on a tool, and the weekly one is what your team will judge it on. If you run lots of facilitated workshops, put live performance and facilitation features first.
Remember who's invited, too. Guests from outside the company, students or clients may need to join without creating an account, and that's handled very differently from tool to tool. If your team works across languages, my roundup of translation services for small businesses may help, and my list of essential tools for an online business covers the rest of the stack.
Run a test workshop before you commit
- Pick a real session, such as next week's retrospective or a planning meeting, rather than a demo board.
- Invite at least six people, including someone outside the company, and ask them all to edit at once.
- Use one template you rely on and see how close each tool's version gets.
- Export the finished board and share it with someone who wasn't there.
- Ask the group which tool they'd open again without being reminded.
Do you make online whiteboard or visual collaboration software? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
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Frequently asked questions
What is an online whiteboard used for?
Teams use online whiteboards for brainstorms, workshops, retrospectives, diagrams and planning, with everyone editing the same board from wherever they are.
Can guests join a whiteboard without an account?
It depends on the tool and its settings. Check how guest access works before inviting clients, students or partners.
Are online whiteboards GDPR-compliant?
Some vendors say they are, but compliance depends on how you use the tool too. Check where data is stored and ask your data protection regulator if you're unsure, as requirements vary.
What should I check when exporting a board?
Check the formats on offer, whether the layout survives and whether comments or links come with it. A quick test export saves surprises after a big session.
Is a whiteboard tool good for diagrams?
Many handle simple diagrams well. If you draw detailed flows or wireframes often, choose a tool built around diagramming.
How many people can work on one board at once?
Limits vary by tool and plan. Test with a realistic group size, because performance with a dozen editors is very different from one or two.
