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Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs Whimsical

Earthly logo

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Whimsical logo

Whimsical

Technology

Where great ideas take shape

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Earthly pricing model not published; requires sales contact; Whimsical the free plan is capped at 3 team boards, 3 teams and 10 guest seats
  • They diverge on capability: Earthly covers Policy as code, Whimsical covers Flowcharts.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and Whimsical actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and Whimsical differ
AttributeEarthlyWhimsical
Pricing modelNo pricing published on websitesubscription
PlatformsWeb, CLIWeb
CategoryDeveloper ToolsTechnology
Founded20202017

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Earthly

  • Policy as code
  • Multi-stage enforcement
  • AI agent governance
  • Repository-wide policies
  • Incident response automation
  • Compliance management
  • Earthfiles build tool
  • Satellites

Only in Whimsical

  • Flowcharts
  • Wireframes
  • Mind maps
  • Sticky notes
  • Docs
  • Real-time collaboration
  • Templates
  • Keyboard shortcuts

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Earthly

  • Enforcing engineering standards across AI and human developersnot Whimsical
  • Automating incident response procedures across all repositoriesnot Whimsical
  • Embedding compliance requirements into development workflowsnot Whimsical
  • Standardizing build processes with Earthfilesnot Whimsical

Whimsical

  • Product planningnot Earthly
  • UI/UX designnot Earthly
  • Brainstormingnot Earthly
  • Process documentationnot Earthly
  • Project visualizationnot Earthly

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Earthly

  • Pricing model not published; requires sales contact
  • Earthly Lunar is a recent launch (2025) with limited track record
  • Primarily GitHub-focused; limited integration with other platforms
  • No public documentation on pricing or feature tiers

Whimsical

  • The free plan is capped at 3 team boards, 3 teams and 10 guest seats
  • File uploads are limited to 5MB per file and 1GB in total on the free plan
  • Version history on the free plan goes back 7 days
  • Voting, the timer, private teams, the GitHub integration, password-protected files and watermark removal all need Pro at $10 per editor per month
  • SSO and SAML are Business tier only at $20 per editor per month

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

Whimsical

Free
  • StarterFree
    • Up to 4 boards
    • Unlimited viewers
    • 7-day version history
  • Pro$10/month
    • Unlimited boards
    • Unlimited version history
    • Advanced permissions
  • Org$20/month
    • Everything in Pro
    • SSO
    • User management

Which should you pick?

Choose Earthly if

  • You need policy as code.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, CLI.
  • You also want multi-stage enforcement.
Earthly review

Choose Whimsical if

  • You need flowcharts.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want wireframes.
Whimsical review

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or Whimsical better?
Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and Whimsical at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or Whimsical?
Earthly starts at Free and Whimsical at Free.
Does Earthly or Whimsical run on more platforms?
Earthly runs on Web, CLI. Whimsical runs on Web.
Can I use Earthly for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Earthly best used for?
Earthly is most often used for enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers, automating incident response procedures across all repositories, embedding compliance requirements into development workflows, standardizing build processes with earthfiles. Of those, enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers and automating incident response procedures across all repositories are not what Whimsical is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that Whimsical cannot?
Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. Whimsical covers Flowcharts, Wireframes, Mind maps, Sticky notes.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Earthly: What is the difference between Earthfiles and Earthly Lunar?

Earthfiles is an open-source build tool that reached 12,000 GitHub stars and is used by companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and Databricks. Earthly Lunar is a separate governance platform launched in 2025 for enforcing standards across development workflows.

Source
Whimsical: What are Whimsical's pricing tiers?

Whimsical offers three plans: Free at 0 dollars per month per editor, Pro at 10 dollars per month per editor, and Business at 20 dollars per month per editor.

Source
Earthly: How does Earthly Lunar enforce standards?

Lunar converts engineering standards, compliance requirements, and processes documented in AGENTS.md files, wikis, and incident postmortems into enforceable guardrails that apply consistently across repositories and development stages.

Source
Whimsical: What is included in the Free plan?

The Free plan allows creation of up to 50 board objects and 50 doc blocks per month, includes watermarked exports, and provides 7-day version history. Storage is limited to 1GB.

Source
Earthly: What is the pricing for Earthly Lunar?

Pricing is not published on the website. Interested customers should contact Earthly's sales team for current pricing and feature tiers.

Source
Whimsical: What features unlock in the Pro plan?

The Pro plan removes the object creation limits, provides unlimited board objects and doc blocks, removes watermarks from exports, extends version history to 90 days, and offers 100GB of storage.

Source
Whimsical: What security and team features come with Business?

The Business plan adds private teams, SAML single sign-on, SCIM and advanced security controls, unlimited version history, priority support, and a dedicated success manager. Storage starts at 2TB.

Source
Whimsical: Do discounts apply for annual billing?

Yes, annual billing offers a 17 percent discount compared to monthly rates. Additionally, nonprofits receive a 20 percent discount and students and teachers get full access.

Source
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