livediagram vs FigJam
The free, open-source FigJam alternative
FigJam is a polished, playful whiteboard that lives inside Figma. livediagram covers the same ground, brainstorms, workshops and diagrams with your team in real time, as free, open-source software that anyone can open from a link, no account or Figma seat needed.
At a glance
| Feature | livediagram | FigJam |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, every feature | Free Starter plan with limits, then paid Figma seats |
| Open source | Yes, MIT-licensed | No, proprietary |
| Self-hostable | Yes, on your own Cloudflare account | No |
| Start without an account | Yes, create and edit as a guest | An account to create files |
| Real-time multiplayer | Yes | Yes |
| Focus | Whiteboards and workshops, plus diagrams, designed pages, Plan boards and Sheets | Whiteboarding for teams that design in Figma |
| Import + export | Excalidraw, draw.io, Microsoft Whiteboard, Mermaid + Markdown in; PNG, SVG, PDF, JSON, Mermaid + Excalidraw out | Its own files; image and PDF export |
| Programmatic access | REST API and an MCP server for AI tools, both free | A plugin and widget platform, and the Figma API |
Which to pick
Why pick livediagram
- Free with no file limits and no seats: every feature, for everyone.
- Open a link and start, no account needed, even to create a document.
- Structured diagrams that stay tidy: shapes and arrows that stay attached, alignment guides, 24 one-click themes and 125 templates.
- Five ways to work one tab: Diagram for structure, Draw for freehand whiteboarding, Facilitate for running a session with your team, Illustrate for designed pages, and Plan for boards of cards.
- Workshop tools built in: Facilitate mode, a facilitator role, a shared timer, dot-voting, live polls, planning-poker estimate cards, temperature checks, quizzes, an anonymous idea box and a Q&A board.
- Participant links: the room adds stickies, writes and votes, and nobody can reshape the board by accident.
- Run the meeting on the board: an agenda that starts the timer for each segment, a roll call, a random picker and decision records, plus around 190 emoji stickers and 32 word badges.
- Diagrams as code: Mermaid flowcharts import as editable diagrams and export back out.
- A free REST API and an MCP server, so scripts and AI assistants can read and edit your documents.
- MIT-licensed and self-hostable, so your boards never depend on one vendor.
Where FigJam is the better pick
- Your team designs in Figma, and you want boards that sit beside your design files and copy across into them.
- A playful, polished feel: stamps, stickers, emotes, cursor chat and widgets.
- A large community of plugins, widgets and templates.
- FigJam AI, for generating boards, sorting and summarising sticky notes.
A whiteboard without the seat
FigJam is part of Figma, and that is its great strength for design teams: boards and design files share one home. For everyone else, it means accounts, a free plan with limits on shared files, and paid seats as the team grows. livediagram has none of that. Anyone can open the editor and create a document without signing up, share a link, and work together in real time; a guest’s document stays in their browser until they press Share, which syncs it in one step. There is no paid tier and no plan to introduce one.
A whiteboard that keeps going
FigJam is excellent for loose, freeform boards. livediagram’s Draw mode is a plain whiteboard too, with pressure-sensitive markers, sticky notes, text and shapes, but the same document carries on after the brainstorm. Switch a tab to Diagram when a sketch needs structure, with arrows that stay attached and themes that restyle the whole canvas in one click; to Plan when the ideas become cards on a board, with a Sheet beside it; or to Illustrate for the write-up and the slides.
Start from one of 125 templates, from retrospectives and story maps to flowcharts and system architecture, and split larger work across tabs, folders and layers.
Workshops built in
Running a session needs more than sticky notes. livediagram gives sessions a mode of their own, Facilitate, and one person the facilitator role, and with it a shared timer, dot-voting, live polls, a Q&A board and responses kept hidden until the reveal. Estimate cards run planning poker, a temperature check shows how the room feels, a quiz asks what it knows, and an idea box collects anonymous ideas until the reveal. There are templates for retrospectives in five formats, Lean Coffee, town hall Q&A and event storming, and comments and assigned actions keep the follow-ups with the board.
Open at the edges
livediagram imports Mermaid, Markdown, Excalidraw, draw.io and Microsoft Whiteboard boards, and exports PNG, SVG, PDF, Mermaid, Markdown, Excalidraw or portable JSON. Any share link embeds as a live-updating iframe in a wiki or doc: an editor link embeds an editable canvas, and a participant or view-only link a read-only one.
For automation there is a free REST API with personal tokens and an MCP server that lets AI assistants read and edit your documents directly, with their changes shown live and undoable as one unit.
FigJam alternative FAQ
Is livediagram really free compared with FigJam?
Can I import my FigJam boards?
Does livediagram work with Figma?
Can my team join without accounts?
See how it feels
No sign-up, nothing to install, free forever. Open a canvas and judge for yourself.
Comparisons reflect each product’s general positioning and may change. Check FigJam’s own site for current details. Last reviewed 11 October 2026.