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Excalidraw vs Microsoft OneNote

Excalidraw logo

Excalidraw

Technology

Virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Microsoft OneNote logo

Microsoft OneNote

Productivity

Microsoft's free-form notebook, free with a Microsoft account and synced through OneDrive

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Excalidraw advanced features (unlimited private scenes/folders, cloud storage, access management, presentations, extended AI, team management) are gated behind Excalidraw+; Microsoft OneNote notes live in a proprietary notebook format on OneDrive or SharePoint and the only exports are a OneNote file, a PDF or a Word document, produced section by section, so a large notebook is effectively unmovable to any other tool.
  • They diverge on capability: Excalidraw covers Hand-drawn style diagrams, Microsoft OneNote covers Free-form page canvas.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Excalidraw and Microsoft OneNote actually diverge.

Attributes where Excalidraw and Microsoft OneNote differ
AttributeExcalidrawMicrosoft OneNote
Pricing modelUnknownfreemium
PlatformsWebWeb, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows
CategoryTechnologyProductivity
Founded20201975

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 Excalidraw

  • Hand-drawn style diagrams
  • Real-time collaboration
  • Infinite canvas
  • Shape libraries
  • Text support
  • Image import
  • Export options
  • Keyboard shortcuts

Only in Microsoft OneNote

  • Free-form page canvas
  • Notebook hierarchy
  • Indexed handwriting
  • Audio recording
  • Web clipper and Outlook capture
  • Shared notebooks
  • Cross-platform clients
  • Tags and cross-notebook search

What people use each for

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

Excalidraw

  • Wireframing and diagrammingnot Microsoft OneNote
  • Real-time collaborative whiteboardingnot Microsoft OneNote
  • Hand-drawn-style illustrations for docs and decksnot Microsoft OneNote
  • Embedding a whiteboard into third-party apps via the npm packagenot Microsoft OneNote
  • Visual planning and note-takingnot Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote

  • Handwritten notes on a pen tablet that you still need to find months later by searching for a word you wrote.not Excalidraw
  • Lecture or meeting notes where a recording needs to line up with what you were typing at the time.not Excalidraw
  • A team already inside Microsoft 365 that needs a shared notebook without buying anything or seeking approval.not Excalidraw
  • Collecting mixed material such as screenshots, clippings and sketches on one page, where a document editor would force a linear structure.not Excalidraw

Where each one falls short

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

Excalidraw

  • Advanced features (unlimited private scenes/folders, cloud storage, access management, presentations, extended AI, team management) are gated behind Excalidraw+
  • Free hosted version persists via scene links/local storage rather than a managed multi-scene workspace
  • Self-hosting the full collaborative stack requires standing up a websocket server and storage beyond the npm editor package
  • No official native desktop or app-store mobile apps - web/PWA only

Microsoft OneNote

  • Notes live in a proprietary notebook format on OneDrive or SharePoint and the only exports are a OneNote file, a PDF or a Word document, produced section by section, so a large notebook is effectively unmovable to any other tool.
  • Personal notebooks consume OneDrive quota, which is 5 GB on a free Microsoft account, so a notebook full of scans, images and recordings quietly exhausts the whole account including the space Outlook needs for mail.
  • Sync happens at section level and conflicts are resolved by placing both versions on the page, so simultaneous edits to a large or media-heavy section produce duplicated content that somebody has to merge by hand.
  • Search behaves differently across clients, so what the Windows desktop app finds inside handwriting, images and attachments is not necessarily what the browser or mobile version finds, and the same query gives different answers on different devices.
  • There is no relational structure, no database and no properties, so anything that needs a table of records with fields has to be maintained by hand or moved elsewhere, and OneNote's own tables cannot be queried or filtered.

Pricing, plan by plan

Excalidraw

Free
  • Excalidraw+$6/month
    • Unlimited private scenes and folders
    • Cloud storage
    • Access management

Microsoft OneNote

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Microsoft OneNote review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Excalidraw if

  • You need hand-drawn style diagrams.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want real-time collaboration.
Excalidraw review

Choose Microsoft OneNote if

  • You need free-form page canvas.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows.
  • You also want notebook hierarchy.
Microsoft OneNote review

Questions people ask

Is Excalidraw or Microsoft OneNote better?
Neither clearly leads. Excalidraw starts at Free and Microsoft OneNote at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Excalidraw or Microsoft OneNote?
Excalidraw starts at Free and Microsoft OneNote at Free.
Does Excalidraw or Microsoft OneNote run on more platforms?
Excalidraw runs on Web. Microsoft OneNote runs on Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows.
Can I use Excalidraw for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Excalidraw best used for?
Excalidraw is most often used for wireframing and diagramming, real-time collaborative whiteboarding, hand-drawn-style illustrations for docs and decks, embedding a whiteboard into third-party apps via the npm package. Of those, wireframing and diagramming and real-time collaborative whiteboarding are not what Microsoft OneNote is typically brought in for.
What can Excalidraw do that Microsoft OneNote cannot?
Excalidraw covers Hand-drawn style diagrams, Real-time collaboration, Infinite canvas, Shape libraries. Microsoft OneNote covers Free-form page canvas, Notebook hierarchy, Indexed handwriting, Audio recording.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Excalidraw: Is Excalidraw free?

Excalidraw appears to be a free drawing application available at no cost to users. The website does not display information about pricing tiers or premium features, suggesting it is offered as a free service.

Source
Microsoft OneNote: Is OneNote really free?

Yes. The application is free with a Microsoft account, with no time limit and no feature gate. What you may end up paying for is the OneDrive storage the notebooks consume.

Excalidraw: Does Excalidraw offer paid plans?

No pricing tiers or paid upgrade options are mentioned on the Excalidraw website, which indicates the service is available entirely free without commercial pricing models.

Source
Microsoft OneNote: Can I keep notebooks off Microsoft's cloud?

The Windows desktop app can keep local notebooks, but they will not sync to other devices and any shared access requires OneDrive or SharePoint.

Microsoft OneNote: How do I get my notes out?

Section by section as a OneNote file, a PDF or a Word document. A OneNote package preserves a whole notebook but only for another copy of OneNote. Third-party converters exist and the page layout usually does not survive them.

Microsoft OneNote: Which version should I install?

Microsoft consolidated onto a single OneNote application on Windows after retiring the Store version, so install the one distributed with Microsoft 365 rather than looking for an alternative.

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