Guide: Best Alternatives to Microsoft Whiteboard
Work from home is quickly becoming the norm in all industries. Certain organizations let their employees work home permanent. And while you work from home, brainstorming with your team can be tricky. Whiteboard is one of the tools that teams would find useful when collaborating remotely. While Microsoft Whiteboard is a solid choice, there are those who may want to try different options. Hence, in this post, I will be sharing some of the best Microsoft Whiteboard alternatives. Microsoft Whiteboard integrates with Teams, also by Microsoft, but not everyone uses Teams. What about other users who are on Zoom, Duo, Meet or other platforms? These whiteboard apps will help you out and most of them are available for Windows and other platforms. Let’s take a look at them.
1. DrawPile
DrawPile is an open-source and free whiteboard app available on Windows, macOS and Linux platforms. It has none mobile version available. On its own heart, DrawPile is a collaborative sketching tool featuresInviting is a different story. For that, you need to share your external IP address and password. DrawPile offers a handy guide On how to organize a collaboration session.
It has a unique ability to record your screen while collaborating with others on the whiteboard. That can help understand the process and be useful for reference later. You can save it as a video or a series of images. The app is completely free to use. Download DrawPile
2. Draw.Chat
One of the main features from Draw.Chat is the reporting feature where you can send text messages to other participants. You can also send audio and video messages, which are even cooler than the extended text explanations. Recently, the developers of the app added a video conference feature
Draw.Chat comes with plenty of drawing tools that may be too much for Microsoft Whiteboard alternative searchers, but many will find these options useful. The best part is that no registration is required and you get 10MB of cloud storage that you can keep whiteboards for up up to 1 month before you download them. There are plenty of shortcut keys to make your life easy. Two interesting ones features include the ability to draw / mark on maps and annotate PDF files. The app is completely free and you can create multiple whiteboards at the same time. Download Draw.Chat
3. Miro (previously RealtimeBoard)
Miro is a cross-platform professional whiteboard app that works on desktops and smartphones. You can start with a blank whiteboard or choose a template based on your needs. Miro’s user interface is very polished and there are many elements you can add to a whiteboard.
You can drag and drop any element wherever you want. You can also zoom and pan across the board. Team members can chat with each other via text, audio and video or simply share the screen in Miro. You can also connect many third-party apps such as Slack, Drive, Teams, Trello and more. There is a Miro Marketplace for all kinds of plugins for extra functionality. Enterprise users will be pleased to know that there are administrative controls for users with permissions to manage the workflow. Miro has a free plan for that up up to 3 whiteboards and some basic supplies to try out. Meanwhile, the paid version for $ 8 / month unlocks several of them features such as support for larger teams, collaboration, private whiteboards, and so on. Download Miro
4. Explain everything
Explain Everything works a bit like the whiteboard option in Zoom or Meet, where you create a whiteboard and send an invitation code to others. There are no desktop apps, but it works in any browser and is dedicated mobile apps. It was created to help educators and others who give presentations explain how things work. It also supports audio and video recording.
You create a whiteboard and draw, add shapes and other elements, while explaining how things work. You can share the finished video with anyone. That doesn’t mean you can’t invite and collaborate with people in real time on one whiteboard. You can do that too, but those who couldn’t attend the whiteboard sharing session can watch the video instead. The video can be created with a mix of media file types such as PDF files, audio or video messages and of course any elements that you will be using on the whiteboard itself. Apart from the video format, you can also save the whiteboard in pdf or some popular image formats. Like Miro, this Microsoft Whiteboard alternative integrates with many cloud storage apps. It’s free for that up up to 3 projects, and prices start at $ 7 per month. Download Explain everything
5. OneNote
Some Reddit users suggest using OneNote as an alternative to Microsoft Whiteboard. OneNote is a popular note-taking app, also from the home of Microsoft. You can take notes in a variety of formats such as text, audio and video, share and collaborate on a single note, and there is a handy toolbar with drawing tools.
While not a traditional whiteboard app, using OneNote has some advantages. You can create, draw, record, share, collaborate, and later search that sea of notes in detail notes and lists to easily find what you are looking for using keywords or tags. We’ve covered before OneNote is a big detail on GT. Check out our opinion. Download OneNote
Whiteboard on board
Did you know that video conferencing apps like Zoom come with a whiteboard? feature built in? Unlike OneNote, which is primarily built for note-taking, Zoom was first built for video conferencing and collaboration. That’s another way to use a whiteboard aside from what we’ve shared above. There are plenty of other Microsoft Whiteboard alternatives, and the one you use will depend on your specific requirements and usage scenario. I suggest you try a few, preferably the free version, and choose one that works best for you. The next up: Did I catch your attention with Zoom’s whiteboard? featureClick on the link below to see how the whiteboard works feature in Zoom works.
Best Alternatives to Microsoft Whiteboard: benefits
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