Excalidraw

Excalidraw is an elegant, open-source virtual whiteboard that transforms technical diagramming into a creative, hand-drawn experience. Unlike rigid, formal diagramming tools, Excalidraw embraces the organic, sketchy aesthetic of whiteboard brainstorming while providing digital convenience and collaboration features. With over 78,000 GitHub stars and used by millions worldwide, Excalidraw has become the go-to tool for developers, designers, and teams who want to communicate complex ideas with simple, beautiful diagrams. The hand-drawn style reduces the barrier to creating diagrams—there's no pressure for pixel-perfect precision, making it faster to capture ideas and iterate on designs. Built with privacy and simplicity at its core, Excalidraw runs entirely in your browser with local-first architecture, ensuring your diagrams remain private and accessible even offline.

Common Use Cases

Software Developers & Architects: Sketch system architecture diagrams, database schemas, API flows, and microservice interactions during design discussions. Create quick wireframes for UI layouts, document code structures with flowcharts, and visualize deployment architectures. Use during technical interviews to explain algorithms and data structures on a shared whiteboard. Product Managers & Designers: Brainstorm user flows, create low-fidelity wireframes, map customer journeys, and sketch feature concepts. Collaborate with designers on early-stage product ideas before moving to high-fidelity tools. Document product requirements with visual diagrams that are easier to understand than dense text specifications. Educators & Students: Explain concepts with visual diagrams during online lectures, create study materials with annotated diagrams, and collaborate on group projects with real-time whiteboarding. Sketch mathematical proofs, illustrate scientific processes, and diagram historical events. Teams & Remote Collaboration: Host remote brainstorming sessions with real-time collaboration, conduct architecture review meetings with shared whiteboards, run design sprints with visual note-taking, and facilitate agile ceremonies with collaborative diagrams for sprint planning and retrospectives.

Key Features

• Hand-drawn style rendering that makes diagrams feel organic and approachable
• Infinite canvas for unlimited creative space and large-scale diagrams
• Real-time collaboration with end-to-end encryption for secure team sessions
• Progressive Web App (PWA) functionality for offline access and mobile use
• Local-first architecture with browser-based storage for instant saves
• Export to PNG, SVG, clipboard, and shareable links with embedded diagrams
• Dark mode support for comfortable late-night diagramming
• Library system for reusable components and templates
• Arrow connectors with labels for flowcharts and process diagrams
• Text formatting with multiple fonts, sizes, and alignment options
• Shape tools including rectangles, circles, diamonds, and freehand drawing
• Color palette with customizable colors and opacity controls
• Layers and grouping for organizing complex diagrams
• Keyboard shortcuts for power users and fast workflow
• Shareable read-only links for presenting diagrams to stakeholders

Why deploy Excalidraw on Hostinger VPS

Deploying Excalidraw on Hostinger VPS provides your team with a private, always-available whiteboarding tool without dependence on external services or concerns about data privacy. Self-hosting ensures your diagrams, brainstorming sessions, and system architecture sketches remain entirely within your infrastructure—critical for teams working on confidential projects, proprietary systems, or under strict compliance requirements. With VPS hosting, you eliminate latency issues that can affect real-time collaboration on public instances, providing a faster, more responsive experience for distributed teams. The lightweight nginx-based container requires minimal resources, making it cost-effective to run alongside other development tools. Customization becomes possible—you can modify the interface, integrate with internal authentication systems, or add custom libraries specific to your organization's needs. For companies building products, having a self-hosted Excalidraw instance allows unlimited users, diagrams, and collaboration sessions without subscription costs or per-user pricing. The progressive web app architecture means team members can access the whiteboard from any device with a browser, while offline functionality ensures diagramming continues even without network connectivity. For engineering teams, design organizations, and remote-first companies requiring reliable, private, and fast whiteboarding capabilities, Excalidraw on Hostinger VPS delivers the simplicity of browser-based diagramming with the control and performance of self-hosted infrastructure.