Miro vs Whiteboard
Choose Nextcloud Whiteboard when the priority is a self-hosted, focused infinite canvas with basic drawing and real-time collaboration, especially for organizations already operating Nextcloud. Choose Miro when teams need the broader documented workspace: structured planning formats, research synthesis, prototypes, AI workflows, presentations, or extensive application connectors. The central tradeoff is deployment/in
Decision guide
The practical reasons to choose either option, based on documented capabilities.
Choose Whiteboard if
- Organizations already running Nextcloud that want whiteboards within their existing environment
- Teams needing a focused infinite canvas for shared drawing, text, shapes, and connected elements
- Administrators requiring a self-hosted, inspectable AGPL-3.0 project with browser-local storage and server synchronization
Stay with Miro if
- Workflows depend on documents, tables, timelines, Kanban views, or structured task planning; equivalent Whiteboard coverage is not documented
- Teams require interactive prototypes, wireframes, or clickable flows; these capabilities are not documented for Whiteboard
- Canvas workflows rely on AI generation, clustering, summaries, agents, or editable multi-step flows; Whiteboard documentation does not show these features or local-model support mechanisms intended for them exclusively,
Deployment and operations
Nextcloud Whiteboard is a JavaScript project supplied under AGPL-3.0 and is deployed as an app for a Nextcloud instance. Basic browser whiteboarding does not require the WebSocket server, but live collaboration does. The collaboration backend can run with Node.js, Docker, or Docker Compose; browsers need HTTP(S) access, and the backend must share a JWT secret with Nextcloud. A reverse proxy must support WebSocket upgrades. The default single-node session store is in-memory; Redis and sticky load
Feature fit
What Whiteboard covers
- Infinite canvas
- Real-time collaborative editing
- Shapes, text, and connected elements
- Persistent browser-local changes with server sync
What’s different or missing
- No documented comments, reactions, mentions, polls, or voting
- No documented research-synthesis workflow
- No documented documents, tables, timelines, or Kanban views
- No documented interactive prototyping
- No documented AI-assisted canvas workflows
- No documented presentation workflow
- No documented broad application-connector catalog
Project snapshot
- GitHub stars
- 207
- Contributors
- 36
- Language
- JavaScript
- Last commit
- Aug 15, 2026
- Latest release
- May 29, 2026
Categories: Diagramming, Project Management, Digital Whiteboards, Prototyping
Sources and editorial review12 linked sources
Public documentation supports this comparison. Automation assists collection and classification; editorial standards and corrections remain the responsibility of Kris.
Create & collaborate on an infinite canvas!
repository description · github.comThe official whiteboard app for Nextcloud. Create and share whiteboards with real-time collaboration.
readme · github.comDrawing shapes, writing text, connecting elements
readme · github.comReal-time collaboration with semi-offline support
readme · github.comAll whiteboard functionality works directly in the browser
readme · github.comDocker run ... ghcr.io/nextcloud-releases/whiteboard:stable
readme · github.comThe official whiteboard app for Nextcloud. Create and share whiteboards with real-time collaboration.
verdict · github.comCreate & collaborate on an infinite canvas!
shared feature · github.com- 🎨 Drawing shapes, writing text, connecting elements
shared feature · github.comThe websocket server is only needed for live collaboration - basic whiteboard functionality works without it.
deployment · github.com- User browsers need HTTP(S) access to the websocket server - Nextcloud and websocket server share a JWT secret for authentication
deployment · github.com**Redis** - For multi-server setups or session persistence - Enables horizontal scaling with Redis Streams
deployment · github.com
