Microsoft Whiteboard

What can be put on the board and how fast: an infinite canvas, sticky notes, text, shapes and connectors, freehand drawing and pen input, frames and sections, images, files, documents and video embedded on the board, tables, mind maps, diagrams and flowcharts, a template library for workshops, retrospectives and planning, own templates for the organisation, search across boards, performance on large boards, and AI that clusters, summarises or generates content.

0 — Not a whiteboard; there is no shared canvas to put content on.

3 — A shared board with sticky notes, text, shapes and drawing; templates, embeds, diagrams and large boards are basic or not described.

5 — An infinite canvas with sticky notes, shapes and connectors, frames, images and files on the board, a template library for workshops, retrospectives and planning, own templates saved for the team, and the board usable on desktop, browser and tablet with pen input.

8 — Diagrams, mind maps, tables and kanban on the same board, embeds of live documents and video, templates managed centrally for the organisation, search across all boards, documented limits for large boards (objects, participants), and AI that clusters or summarises notes with its data use stated.

10 — A canvas a whole organisation builds on: structured data on the board (cards linked to records, custom fields), smart diagramming with shape libraries for named notations, offline work with conflict-free sync described, board performance at stated scale, and every content type exportable with its structure.

What it takes to run a session on the board: guests who join without an account, a timer, voting and dot voting, a private or anonymous mode for notes, bringing everyone to the facilitator's view (summon, follow), a presentation or frame mode, locking objects, reactions, breakout areas, an agenda or session plan, built-in audio or video or the call apps the board runs inside, participant limits, and accessibility for participants (keyboard, screen reader, contrast).

0 — No real-time collaboration; only one person can work on a board at a time.

3 — Several people edit the same board in real time and see each other's cursors; facilitation tools and guest access are basic or not described.

5 — Guests join by link without an account, a timer, voting, bringing participants to the facilitator's view, a presentation mode through frames, locking objects, and comments with mentions.

8 — A private or anonymous mode for brainstorming, voting with results and export, breakout areas or assigned frames, a session agenda or facilitator panel, the board running inside Teams, Zoom or Webex meetings, participant limits per session stated, and an accessibility statement for the board.

10 — Facilitation that a large event runs on: hundreds of participants per board with stated limits, facilitator controls over who may edit what and when, session recordings or summaries with their data use stated, a published accessibility conformance report (WCAG), and facilitation features documented step by step.

How the board connects to the work around it and whether the content can leave: apps for Teams, Zoom, Webex, Slack and Google or Microsoft files, a two-way sync with Jira, Azure DevOps or other work tools, embedding boards in Confluence, SharePoint or intranets, a documented REST API and webhooks, import from Miro, Mural or other boards and from CSV or images, and export as PDF, image, CSV of the notes or an editable file another tool can open.

0 — No integration and no export of any kind; content can only be viewed on the vendor's board.

3 — Export as image or PDF and a few named integrations; an API, imports and structured export are basic or not described.

5 — Apps for at least Teams or Zoom and Slack, an integration with Jira or another work tool, embedding a board in other tools, export as PDF, image and CSV of the notes, and a documented API.

8 — A two-way sync with Jira or Azure DevOps that keeps cards and issues aligned, a REST API with webhooks covering boards and items, import from other whiteboards documented, an export in an editable or open format, and a marketplace or app framework for extensions.

10 — Integration and exit both complete: an API that can read and write everything the board holds, a full account export in an open format that another tool imports with structure kept, SDKs or an embeddable board for own applications, and the export and deletion on termination documented.

Who can see and change a board and how the organisation controls it: sharing by link with expiry and password, guest and external-user rules, roles per board, project and team, default sharing settings set by the admin, single sign-on (SAML, OpenID Connect), user provisioning (SCIM), domain capture and control of shadow accounts, audit logs, content retention and legal hold, transfer of boards when a person leaves, and admin reports.

0 — No accounts or permissions; anyone with a board's address can see and edit it, with no way to restrict it.

3 — Boards are shared with named people or by link with view or edit rights; admin controls, SSO and audit are basic or not described.

5 — Roles per board and per team, link sharing that can be restricted or switched off, guest access controlled by the admin, single sign-on with SAML, a user and board admin console, and boards transferred when a person leaves.

8 — SCIM provisioning, domain capture of existing accounts, sharing policies set centrally (no public links, guests only from allowed domains), audit logs exportable to a SIEM, retention rules and legal hold, data classification labels on boards, and admin roles split by scope.

10 — Administration that a regulated organisation can sign off: every sharing and access setting the admin controls listed with its effect, complete audit trails with a stated retention, eDiscovery and export for investigations, delegated administration across subsidiaries, and every control documented in the help centre.

How the content of the boards is protected and where the product can run: encryption in transit and at rest, customer-managed encryption keys, a dedicated or private-cloud tenant and an on-premises edition, AI features that the admin can switch off and that do not train on customer boards, which AI providers process board content, data loss prevention, deletion of boards and accounts with stated periods, and whether individual activity (logins, contributions, time on board) is tracked and shown to managers, with a statement for works councils. Who processes the data and where, and the certifications, are scored under sovereignty.

0 — Content is not protected in transit, or boards are used for the vendor's own purposes by default with no way to opt out.

3 — Encryption is mentioned and the product is described as secure or GDPR-compliant; AI use, deletion and deployment options are basic or not described.

5 — Encryption in transit and at rest stated, AI features that the admin can switch off, a statement that customer content is not used to train AI models, deletion of boards and accounts with a stated period, and a security page describing the measures.

8 — Customer-managed keys or a dedicated tenant, a private-cloud or on-premises edition documented, the AI providers that process board content named with their location, data loss prevention or classification controls, individual activity tracking described with what managers can see, and a statement or template for works council agreements.

10 — Protection that can be verified: client-side or end-to-end encryption for boards with the method published, an on-premises or sovereign-cloud edition with feature parity stated, no AI processing outside the customer's chosen region, a published penetration test summary, and every security and AI control listed with its effect.

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where boards, files and user data are stored and processed, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, CDN, real-time collaboration servers, AI providers, email, support and payment tools). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; boards hold personal data of participants and often of customers, so the whole chain counts, not only the database. An on-premises or self-hosted edition the customer runs on its own European servers counts as the customer's chain, whatever the vendor's seat.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (AI features, CDN, real-time servers, email, support, payment) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard, or EU residency is an option of the top tier only.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, BSI C5, SOC 2) stated — or an on-premises edition documented that keeps every board on the customer's own servers.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor including AI, or an on-premises or open-source edition with no call home, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per user and tier, how guests, viewers and external participants are counted, limits of the free plan (number of boards, objects, members), which features (SSO, SCIM, audit logs, EU data residency, AI credits, on-premises) cost extra, the enterprise tier's price or minimum, annual versus monthly billing, minimum seats and term.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call.

3 — A starting price or a free plan exists, but how cost scales with users, guests or features is unclear.

5 — Tiers are public with their price per user and main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (SSO, EU data residency, guests, AI credits, the enterprise tier) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly with its scaling rule (members, guests, boards), free-plan limits stated, add-ons and AI credits priced, the on-premises or dedicated edition's cost or licence stated, minimum seats, term and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given team size, guest count and feature set, with every add-on, setup, support and AI fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.