Visual collaboration tools keep teams aligned — from ideation to hand-off. Here’s a concise run-down of five widely used whiteboard/diagramming options: what they’re best for, the AI features they offer today, and current pricing considerations.

1. Miro — the ubiquitous, collaborative canvas

What is Miro? Miro is a versatile, infinite-canvas workspace used for brainstorming, product discovery, workshops, customer-journey mapping, retros, and lightweight diagramming. Great when multiple teams need templates, integrations (Jira, Slack, Figma, etc.), and a polished facilitator experience.

AI features: Miro has integrated “Miro AI” capabilities for idea generation, template generation, summarization of board content, and other synthesis workflows aimed at speeding workshops and turning messy brainstorming into actionable artifacts. Pricing: Free tier (limited boards); paid tiers commonly listed as Starter ($8/user/month billed annually), Business ($16/user/month billed annually), and Enterprise (custom). Exact numbers can vary by billing cycle, region, and promotions so check Miro’s pricing page for your org. ( Miro)

2. Confluence — documentation + built-in whiteboards

What is Confluence? Confluence is an enterprise wiki and documentation platform; its built-in whiteboards let you embed collaborative diagrams and brainstorming directly in the documentation flow. Ideal for teams that want to keep design/decision artifacts and project docs together (product specs next to the sketch that inspired them). Suits PMs, product teams, and orgs already on Atlassian cloud.

AI features: Atlassian offers AI-assisted entry points, such as “Smart Create” for quick board generation and content suggestions, as well as automation integrations that help turn sketches and stickies into action items. Sticky notes in Whiteboards can also be automatically converted into Jira tickets. Additionally, Rovo Chat provides AI-powered assistance for brainstorming, summarizing content, and generating next steps directly within Atlassian tools. Availability may vary depending on your Confluence or Jira plan. Pricing: Confluence pricing is tiered (Free / Standard / Premium / Enterprise). Whiteboards are included with Confluence; capabilities (and automation limits) expand by tier — consult Atlassian’s pricing page for exact rule-run and feature limits per plan.

3. Figma (FigJam) — lightweight whiteboarding inside the design ecosystem

What is FigJam? FigJam is Figma’s collaborative whiteboard product: quick sketches, user-journeys, workshops, design critiques and early UX mapping — especially handy for design teams already in Figma because FigJam ↔ Figma handoff is seamless. Use it for wireframing, team brainstorms, and co-creation sessions. AI features: Designers can quickly turn ideas into editable layouts, with First Draft, and explore multiple design directions without starting from scratch, with Find Assets, making it ideal for concepting landing pages, product mockups, or UI flows. Users can search for and reuse assets across their team, organization, or the Figma Community, swap placeholder or repeated text with unique, realistic copy, translate and adjust text for tone or space, and add interactions automatically to turn static designs into interactive prototypes. AI also helps rename layers intelligently, generate and edit images from text prompts, remove backgrounds, boost image resolution, and provide context-aware text suggestions, all to streamline workflows, create more polished prototypes, and maintain consistency across projects.

Pricing: FigJam has a free tier and paid tiers as part of Figma’s seat-based plans. FigJam-specific access is available via Figma’s plans (some “content”/collaboration seats are priced in the range Figma lists — check Figma’s pricing page for the latest per-seat costs and which plan includes FigJam features you need).

4. Excalidraw — fast, hand-drawn-style whiteboard for simple, delightful diagrams

What is Excalidraw? Excalidraw offers a fast, intentionally “hand-drawn” aesthetic and a very lightweight UX — perfect for sketching concepts, quick UX flows, or low-fi diagrams where the rough look is actually a feature. Popular with engineers, product folks, and anyone who wants speed and clarity without heavy tooling. AI features: The Excalidraw+ (paid) tier has started rolling out generative features (e.g., text→diagram, other assistive generation) and adds cloud-sync, presentation mode, and collaboration enhancements. The core free experience remains simple and ultra-fast. Pricing: Excalidraw offers a free tier and an Excalidraw+ subscription (commonly around $6/month, per user as published on their pricing pages and community write-ups) for cloud features and the extended AI/plus capabilities. Verify current price on Excalidraw’s pricing page for up-to-date details.

5. draw.io — robust diagramming in Jira and Confluence

What is draw.io? draw.io is a powerful, lightweight diagramming tool used for flowcharts, UML, ERDs, network diagrams and embedded diagrams inside Confluence and Jira. It’s prized for its extensive shape libraries (AWS/Azure/UML/BPMN), offline editors, and privacy-first stance (store files where your org prefers). There’s also an Atlassian Marketplace app so diagrams can live directly inside Confluence and Jira pages. AI features: draw.io focuses on strong diagramming functionality and integrations; any AI/auto-generation features are more conservative compared to Miro or FigJam but the product emphasizes secure embedding and importing/exporting. draw.io also offers macros for simpler whiteboard-like experiences inside Confluence. Pricing (summary): The draw.io editor is free for many typical use cases (web/desktop). There are paid options and licensing for Atlassian Cloud apps. If you already use Confluence or Jira and need a diagramming option inside these tools, draw.io is a great option for you — check draw.io’s pricing and Atlassian Marketplace listing for exact licensing steps and costs.

Quick Decision Guide

• Pick Miro if you need an enterprise-ready facilitation workspace with lots of integrations and strong AI brainstorming helpers. Miro

• Choose Confluence Whiteboards if you want docs + whiteboards tightly coupled inside an Atlassian-hosted knowledge base. Atlassian

• Use FigJam when you’re design-centric and want the smoothest handoff between whiteboard ideas and Figma designs. figma.com

• Try Excalidraw if you value speed, simplicity, and the “sketch” aesthetic — plus fairly affordable plus-tier AI/sync. Excalidraw

• Use draw.io for formal diagramming needs (UML, ERD, architecture) and for tight Confluence/Jira integration with privacy-first storage. draw.io

As an Atlassian and a Miro partner (and the creators of draw.io), Seibert can help you tailor these whiteboarding and diagramming tools to your workflows and help your teams work more efficiently.