Brainstorm, map ideas, and plan campaigns together on a shared online canvas.
Online whiteboards differ less in whether they offer sticky notes and more in what happens around the canvas. Workshop teams may need voting, timers, private ideation, and facilitator controls; product teams may care more about diagrams and design workflows; project teams may want brainstormed ideas converted directly into tasks. The tools below emphasize those different working styles, with no single option treated as the default choice for every team.
By SEM Solutions Editorial Team. Researched from vendor documentation, not hands-on testing. Ordered by Overall Score. Checked October 7, 2026. How we research
Turning ideas into tasks
#1 of 6 in Whiteboards
ClickUp Whiteboards are closely connected to the rest of a ClickUp workspace. Teams can brainstorm with visual objects, add existing tasks and Docs to a board, edit them from the canvas, or convert a shape, sticky note, or text box into a task; whiteboards can also live in workspace locations and be shared with people outside the workspace.
For facilitated workshops
#2 of 6 in Whiteboards
Miro combines an open visual canvas with facilitation features intended for live workshops and distributed collaboration. Teams can cluster sticky notes, run voting sessions, use a board timer, lock content, and invite outside participants to editable boards; the canvas also supports mind maps, drawings, diagrams, files, and AI-assisted idea generation, allowing one workshop to move through several visual formats.
Design-connected ideation
#3 of 6 in Whiteboards
Figma's FigJam covers collaborative exploration alongside the wider Figma design workflow. Teams can brainstorm with stickies, map systems with shapes and snap-to-grid connectors, use timers and voting, and bring Jira tasks or other widgets onto the canvas. AI can also create visual templates or organize groups of sticky notes into themes and action items.
For controlled group sessions
#4 of 6 in Whiteboards
Mural places unusual emphasis on the facilitator's role during collaborative sessions. Its controls include summoning participants to a location, timers, anonymous voting, private mode, hiding and revealing content, facilitator locks, and an outline for navigating activities. Teams can combine those controls with diagrams, mind maps, tables, templates, and flexible canvas sizes for structured workshops.
Breakout brainstorming
#6 of 6 in Whiteboards
Lucidspark supports large-group ideation with tools for splitting participants into separate Breakout Boards and bringing decisions back to the main canvas. Voting sessions help narrow ideas, while timers, sorting, containers, sticky notes, and planning shapes organize the work. Its connection to the wider Lucid environment also gives teams a path from freeform brainstorming toward more formal diagrams.
Ranked by Overall Score: our Editor Rating and Market Signal, 50/50. Market Signal uses Ahrefs and Semrush data through September 2026, pulled October 6 to 17, 2026. How we score
Work management app combining tasks, Docs, Chat and whiteboards, with separately sold AI.
Best for: Marketing and cross-functional teams that want tasks, documents, chat and reporting in one workspace with many ways to view the same work.
Visual collaboration canvas for workshops, diagrams and planning, with AI Sidekicks and Flows.
Best for: Product, design and marketing teams that run collaborative workshops and planning sessions and want AI to turn board content into diagrams, docs or prototypes.
Browser-based interface design tool with prototyping, FigJam whiteboards, Slides and Dev Mode handoff.
Best for: Product design and engineering teams that share one design system and hand finished screens to developers inside the same file.
Visual collaboration workspace with facilitation controls, mapping, templates, and workflow integrations.
Best for: Facilitators and distributed teams running workshops, design sessions, retrospectives and collaborative planning.
Microsoft 365 visual canvas for collaborative brainstorming, inking, templates, and Teams meetings.
Best for: Microsoft 365 organizations that want a lightweight visual collaboration canvas integrated with Teams.
Virtual whiteboard with dynamic mind maps, breakout boards, voting, and Lucid Cards.
Best for: Product and project teams that want brainstorming tied closely to agile planning and Lucid's diagramming ecosystem.
Workshop-oriented products provide controls beyond drawing and sticky notes. Useful capabilities include timed activities, anonymous or private ideation, voting, locking finished sections, directing participants to the same area, and splitting a large group into smaller sessions. The right mix depends on whether meetings are informal brainstorms or structured sessions run by a dedicated facilitator.
They can handle visual planning, but many teams still need a project system for ownership, deadlines, dependencies, and ongoing status tracking. Some whiteboards bridge that gap more directly than others. ClickUp, for example, can turn board items into tasks, while other products rely more on integrations or use the canvas primarily for ideation and planning.
Real-time cursors and editing are the baseline. Remote teams may also benefit from voting, timers, reactions, chat, guest access, presentation or participant-following controls, and templates that give an asynchronous board clear structure. If workshops include external clients or partners, guest permissions are particularly important because account requirements can otherwise add friction before a session begins.
Yes, ClickUp, Miro, Figma, Mural, Microsoft Whiteboard and Lucidspark all offer a free plan. Free tiers usually come with usage limits, so check whether they cover your volume before relying on them long-term.
Among the tools listed here whose main product is in this category and whose pricing we've verified, ClickUp has the lowest listed starting price: $7 per user/mo (annual billing). Starting price isn't the whole picture, so check what's included at that tier before deciding.