# Whimsical — Online Whiteboard

Whimsical by Whimsical, Inc. holds a panel rating of 2.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 3/5), as of 2026-11-01. Provenance: Rest of world; sovereignty: 1 of 6 dimensions proven.

- Vendor: Whimsical, Inc. (https://whimsical.com)
- Category: [Online Whiteboard](https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): Rest of world
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/whimsical
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/whimsical/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/whimsical/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-11-06 · evaluated 2026-11-01 · oldest source captured 2026-11-01

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Whimsical, Inc.
- Headquarters: Incorporated in United States [S7]
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
- Free plan: Yes, per the vendor’s own page [S1]

## The panel's verdict

Whimsical is an online whiteboard. Its scores are strongest on pricing transparency (6 to 7) and access and administration, where they cluster at 6; the weakest are sovereignty at 3 and security and deployment at 4. All three public tiers are priced per editor — Free at $0, Pro at $10 / Month / Editor, Business at $20 / Month / Editor — with guests and viewers free and unlimited on every plan, though we found no public information on AI pricing or minimum seats. The captured pages state the services are hosted in and provided from the United States on Amazon Web Services, with Whimsical, Inc. of Denver, Colorado as the contracting entity under Delaware law, and we found no public information on an EU hosting option. Facilitation and integrations and export both span 4 to 6: on facilitation, the workshop-facilitator judge finds the gear thin — voting is limited to workspace editors, and no presentation mode or object locking is documented — while the product-team lead finds the documented timer, voting and guest access sufficient for retrospectives.

**Speaks for it:**
- All three public tiers priced per editor — Free at $0, Pro at $10 / Month / Editor, Business at $20 / Month / Editor — with annual billing saving 17% and guests and viewers free and unlimited on every plan
- SAML single sign-on and SCIM provisioning included with the Business tier, with setup guides for Okta, Entra ID and other identity providers, plus domain auto-join and the option for admins to block new workspaces
- Import guides for Miro, Mural, FigJam, Lucidchart, Lucidspark, Visio, Microsoft Whiteboard and more, with the Miro path documented object by object, down to what arrives as an empty rectangle
- A free template library spanning nine categories, with custom templates included on every plan
- A data processing addendum published as a PDF and incorporated by reference with no separate signature, alongside stated SOC 2 Type 2, encryption in transit (TLS 1.2 or better) and at rest (AES-256)

**Held against it:**
- Voting is only available for workspace editors and cannot be reset for multiple rounds, leaving invited guests outside the vote
- Export covers image and Markdown with PDF via the browser's print dialog, and we found no public information on a documented API, webhooks or a CSV export of the notes
- We found no public information on an admin switch to turn the AI features off, on whether customer content trains the models, or on a stated deletion period
- The captured pages state the services are hosted in and provided from the United States on Amazon Web Services, and we found no public information on an EU hosting option
- We found no public information on audit logs, retention rules, legal hold, or what happens to a person's boards when they leave

**Best for:**
- You are moving boards off Miro, Mural, FigJam, Lucidchart or Visio and want the transfer documented object by object before you commit
- You run sessions with external participants and want guests and viewers free and unlimited on every plan, with per-guest view, comment or edit rights
- You want SAML single sign-on and SCIM provisioning at a published tier price — Business at $20 / Month / Editor — rather than through a sales conversation
- You run product-team retrospectives where a shared timer and sticky-note voting are the core facilitation gear

**Avoid if:**
- Your data protection officer rules out boards hosted in the United States under Delaware law — the captured pages state US hosting on Amazon Web Services, and we found no public information on an EU hosting option
- Your workshops need invited guests to vote, a presentation mode or locked objects — ask the vendor: the public pages we read do not show it
- You must compute the full annual cost before signing — we found no public information on AI pricing or minimum seats, and the pricing page stops at Business, pointing larger buyers to Contact sales
- Your works council asks what managers can see of individual activity — the privacy policy states Whimsical may disclose information about a user and their workspaces to that user's organisation, and we found no public information on what a manager can view

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion.

| Criterion | The Workshop Facilitator | The Product Team Lead | The Microsoft 365 Admin | The Works Council Member | The Public-Sector Project Lead | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Canvas, templates & content | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Workshop facilitation & participation | 2/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Integrations, import & export | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 |
| Sharing, permissions & administration | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Security, AI controls & deployment | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| European sovereignty | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **2.5/5** | **3/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** |

### The judges

- **The Workshop Facilitator** (v1.0): Freelance facilitator and agile coach who runs three to four remote workshops a week for clients from car suppliers to city utilities, most of them with participants who have never used the tool and will not create an account. Builds the board the evening before from their own templates. Needs guests in by link, a timer, anonymous brainstorming, dot voting and a way to pull twenty people to the same frame, and a client who asks where the board is stored before the session starts.
- **The Product Team Lead** (v1.0): Leads three product teams at a logistics software company in Hamburg, with developers in Poland and Portugal. The board is where story maps, quarterly planning, architecture sketches and retrospectives happen, and the outcome has to land in Jira without anyone retyping it. Wants diagrams and sticky notes on one board, a two-way sync with the tickets, an API for the team's own automation, and an export that still makes sense when the company switches tools.
- **The Microsoft 365 Admin** (v1.0): Runs Microsoft 365 and Teams for a machine builder with 2,400 staff and found 600 free whiteboard accounts on company addresses, boards shared publicly by link among them. Has to decide between the whiteboard that comes with Teams and a licensed one. Wants single sign-on, SCIM, domain capture of the existing accounts, sharing rules set once for everyone, audit logs in the SIEM, retention rules, and an AI that can be switched off until legal has read the terms.
- **The Works Council Member** (v1.0): Sits on the works council of an insurance company and leads its IT committee, which has to agree before any tool that could show who did what goes live (§87(1) no. 6 BetrVG). Reads the admin documentation before the feature page: whether contributions and time on board are tracked per person, what a manager can see, how long logs are kept, what the AI does with retrospective notes, and where the boards are stored and by whom.
- **The Public-Sector Project Lead** (v1.0): Leads the digitalisation programme of a state ministry and runs workshops with municipalities, agencies and external consultants. The data protection officer has ruled out US-hosted boards, and procurement asks for BSI C5 or an on-premises installation in the state data centre. Needs guests from other authorities without accounts, a board that works in the browser on locked-down machines, an accessibility statement, and a contract the procurement office can sign.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has seen a free plan with "unlimited members" that locks every board after the third, "EU data residency" that covers the database but not the AI, and an export that turns two years of workshops into a stack of PNGs. Reads that a product is "enterprise-grade" and asks who can open a board shared by link, whether the boards train anyone's model, what the export keeps — and what leaving would cost.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: 1 of 6 dimensions proven.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Incorporated in US | 0/2 | [S7] |
| Hosting location | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting options | Not determined | — | — |
| Open source | Not determined | — | — |
| Data processing agreement | Not determined | — | — |
| Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- Bug bounty: no [S4]
- Certifications: yes · yes · yes [S3]
- Children age limit: 16 [S6]
- Documents: Compliance, Privacy, Security and Terms pages referenced [S1]
- DPA incorporated by reference: yes [S8]
- DPA last updated: October 2024 [S8]
- DPA no separate signature needed: no [S8]
- DPA pdf available: pdf · yes [S8]
- Encryption: AES-256 · at least TLS 1.2 [S4]
- Least privilege access: yes · yes [S4]
- Page last reviewed: June 26th, 2023 [S4]
- Penetration testing: at least once a year · yes [S4]
- Privacy contact email: privacy@whimsical.com [S8]
- SAML idp integrations: Okta · OneLogin · GSuite · any other service supporting SAML 2.0 authentication [S4]
- SOC 2 type ii: yes · Trust Center at https://trust.whimsical.com/ [S4]
- Subprocessor list: yes [S6]
- US state rights: California · Nevada · European Union · United Kingdom · Switzerland [S6]

**Data**
- Account deletion: yes [S6]
- Backup location encryption: yes · yes [S4]
- Employer disclosure: yes [S6]
- Integrity backups: yes · yes [S4]
- Retention policy: deleted when no longer needed for collection purposes and not legally required [S6]

**Hosting**
- Aws: Amazon Web Services (AWS) [S4]
- Region: United States [S6]

**Integrations**
- Chatgpt: ChatGPT integration for mapping product flows and generating visual diagrams [S2]
- Claude chat: Claude Chat integration bringing flowcharts, sequence diagrams and wireframes into conversations [S2]
- Claude code: Claude Code integration for codebase visualization, wireframes and prototypes [S2]
- Codex: Codex integration for architecture mapping, codebase visualization, wireframes and prototypes [S2]
- Cursor: Cursor integration for wireframe generation and architecture mapping [S2]
- Embed apps: Asana · Canva · Clickup · Coda · Confluence · Guru · Medium · Monday · Nuclino · Trello · Zendesk · yes [S2]
- Github: GitHub integration with backlinks [S2]
- Google docs: Google Docs integration for creating Whimsical files and smart-link previews [S2]
- Grok: Grok integration for product flows and diagrams [S2]
- Import canva: Canva [S13]
- Import drawio: draw.io [S13]
- Import excalidraw: Excalidraw [S13]
- Import figjam: FigJam [S13]
- Import lucidchart: Lucidchart [S13]
- Import lucidspark: Lucidspark [S13]
- Import microsoft whiteboard: Microsoft Whiteboard [S13]
- Import miro: Miro [S13]
- Import mural: Mural [S13]
- Import sources: Import from tools like Miro, Lucidchart and Visio, and export your content. [S13]
- Import tldraw: tldraw [S13]
- Import visio: Visio [S13]
- Jira: Jira integration with board previews and smart links [S2]
- Linear: Linear integration with backlinks [S2]
- Mermaid: yes [S13]
- Miro colors matched not exact: no [S14]
- Miro custom fonts not carried: no · Dinsical [S14]
- Miro formatting preserved: Arrow direction, dashed lines and label position on connectors; elbow connectors; bold, italic, strikethrough, highlight, links, inline code; headings, lists, checklists; text alignment and relative size; colors matched to palette [S14]
- Miro images not supported: no · empty_rectangle [S14]
- Miro import method: copy_paste · no · no [S14]
- Miro large table limit: 2000 [S14]
- Miro migration contract credits: Matching of remaining contract time with credits offered for paid contracts or big workspaces [S14]
- Miro mind maps editable: yes · yes [S14]
- Miro not transferred: tags · comments · votes · reactions · timers [S14]
- Miro objects supported: shapes · sticky_notes · text · callouts_speech_bubbles_brackets · frames_and_groups · diagram_containers · connectors · grids_and_tables · documents · slide_decks [S14]
- Miro underline and rounded corners dropped: yes · yes [S14]
- Miro unmapped objects as rectangles: Embeds, videos, cards, app widgets and wireframe elements become plain rectangles [S14]
- Miro whole board copy: yes [S14]
- Notion: Notion integration to link and embed Whimsical boards [S2]
- Obsidian: Obsidian integration to embed live Whimsical boards [S2]
- SAML providers: Guides for SAML SSO with Okta, Auth0, OneLogin, Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), Google Workspace, ADFS and other identity providers, plus SAML session expiry [S17]
- SCIM providers: Guides for SCIM with Okta, JumpCloud and Entra ID (Azure AD), including group provisioning [S17]
- Slack: Slack integration with rich previews and comments [S2]
- Surface: Integrations page listed in tools navigation [S1]
- Whimsical mcp: MCP server to create diagrams, wireframes and docs from any MCP client [S2]

**Legal**
- Age restriction: 16 [S7]
- Contracting entity: Whimsical, Inc. [S7]
- Entity: Whimsical, Inc. [S1]
- Entity: Whimsical, Inc. [S4]
- Entity: Whimsical, Inc. [S9]
- Entity name: Whimsical, Inc. · 1630 Welton Street, 7th Floor, Denver, Colorado 80202, USA [S6]
- Entity name: Whimsical, Inc. [S8]
- Governing law: Denver County, Colorado · Delaware, USA [S7]
- Operating address: 1630 Welton Street, 7th Floor, Denver, Colorado 80202, USA [S7]
- Policy version: August 2025 [S6]
- Terms last updated: 2025-07-30 [S7]

**Pricing**
- Annual discount: 17 [S3]
- Auto renewal: yes [S7]
- Billing model: yes · yes · monthly · annually [S7]
- Business price: 20 [S3]
- File uploads: 1 · 100GB · 5 · 1GB · 10 · starting at 2TB [S3]
- Free plan admin permissions: yes [S16]
- Free price: 0 [S3]
- Free tier: yes [S1]
- Free tier: yes · yes [S7]
- Free tier: yes [S9]
- Guests: Guests are free and unlimited on every plan, including Free [S15]
- Guests free of charge: yes [S16]
- Guests free unlimited: yes · yes · view · comment · edit [S16]
- Payment methods: credit card only · credit card only · credit card or invoicing [S3]
- Payment processor: Stripe [S7]
- Pro price: 10 [S3]
- Taxes exclusive: yes · yes [S7]
- Viewers free: yes [S3]

**Product**
- Account signup methods: Whimsical · third-party (e.g. Google) [S7]
- AI: AI to generate diagrams, brainstorm ideas, organize information [S1]
- AI features: yes · AI Supplementary Terms [S7]
- AI terms: yes [S6]
- Anonymous permissions: Anonymous comments and edits can be enabled for link access [S15]
- Board position link: yes · yes [S15]
- Business features: yes · yes · yes · yes [S3]
- Canvas: yes [S1]
- Collaboration limits: yes · yes · yes [S3]
- Comments: yes [S1]
- Custom templates: yes [S3]
- Customer content ownership: yes [S7]
- Desktop app: yes [S3]
- Diagrams: diagram creation capability [S1]
- Diagrams template types: Venn, UML, ER, sequence, swimlane, fishbone, network and org charts [S9]
- Domain management: admins can block creation of new workspaces · all plans [S3]
- Domain whitelisting: yes [S17]
- Editor role: yes · yes · yes [S16]
- Embed files: yes [S13]
- Embeds: image upload and video embeds from Loom, YouTube and more [S1]
- Export content: yes [S13]
- Export formats: image · markdown · boards · docs [S15]
- Flowcharts: yes [S1]
- Free limits: 50 · 7 · yes · 50 [S3]
- Free tier available: yes [S2]
- Free tier cta: Free sign-up offered [S10]
- Guest access scope: invited files or folders only [S16]
- Guest permission types: Viewer · Commenter · Editor [S16]
- Guest promotion: Manage guests · yes · workspace editor · workspace viewer [S16]
- Guest removal: yes [S16]
- Immutable infrastructure: yes · yes [S4]
- Import: yes [S13]
- Integrations: yes · yes [S3]
- Link sharing: Anyone with a link can view, comment, or edit [S15]
- Member access: entire workspace · yes · yes [S16]
- Member guest types: Members · Guests [S16]
- Mind maps: yes [S1]
- Monitoring 24 7: 24/7 by engineering team [S4]
- Multiplayer editing: yes [S1]
- Org plan domain restriction: Org plan admins can prevent new workspace creation on their domain to secure and consolidate company data [S18]
- Organization content claiming: yes [S7]
- Password protected files: yes · no · yes [S3]
- Password protection: yes [S15]
- Paste text to object: yes [S13]
- Positioning: whiteboard for product builders with diagrams, wireframes, collaboration [S1]
- Prevent workspace creation: yes [S17]
- Private files: Private files are private by default [S15]
- Private share visibility: Shared private files accessible only by direct link [S15]
- Pro limits: yes · yes · 90 · yes [S3]
- Release version: Enhanced data security for org plans · 2023.29 [S18]
- SAML email change management: yes [S17]
- SAML SSO: no · no · yes [S3]
- SAML SSO available: yes [S17]
- SCIM: no · no · yes [S3]
- SCIM provisioning available: yes [S17]
- Share keyboard shortcuts: Command+P / Control+P · Command+Shift+S / Control+Shift+S · Command+Shift+E / Control+Shift+E · Command+K / Control+K [S15]
- Share menu tabs: share · export · embed (boards only) · print [S15]
- Teams access: Teams are workspace sections; only invited workspace members can access team content by default [S15]
- Template 5whys: 5 Whys template [S9]
- Template activity diagram: Activity Diagram template [S9]
- Template architecture diagram: Architecture Diagram template [S9]
- Template aws icons: AWS Cloud Diagram Icons template [S10]
- Template aws icons: AWS Cloud Diagram Icons template [S9]
- Template azure icons: Microsoft Azure Icons template [S9]
- Template block diagram: Block Diagram template [S9]
- Template categories: Wireframes · Diagrams · Mind maps · Flowcharts · Strategy & canvases · Retrospectives & meetings · Prioritization & matrices · Brainstorming & workshops · Roadmaps & planning [S10]
- Template class diagram: Class Diagram template [S9]
- Template dfd: Data flow diagram (DFD) template [S9]
- Template erd: Entity Relationship Diagram template [S9]

**Subprocessors**
- Stripe payments: credit card payment processing · no [S4]

**Support**
- Docs: support via contact support, Learn docs, status page [S1]
- Download: yes [S1]

39 more facts on the canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/whimsical

## Questions

### Is Whimsical European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Whimsical as Rest of world. Its vendor, Whimsical, Inc., is incorporated in United States, per [the vendor’s page captured 1 Nov 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/13866).

### Where does Whimsical store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

### Does Whimsical have a free plan?

Yes. Whimsical has a free plan, per [the vendor’s page captured 1 Nov 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/13837).

### What are the best alternatives to Whimsical?

As of 1 Nov 2026, the panel rates [Miro (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/miro-whiteboard), [Collaboard (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/collaboard-whiteboard) and [Klaxoon (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/klaxoon) highest among the other 12 Online Whiteboard products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [Collaboard](https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/collaboard-whiteboard) (UK / wider Europe). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Whimsical alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/whimsical/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 5 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 3 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 2 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 data fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 sovereignty dimension could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and is shown as unknown.
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor homepage: https://whimsical.com/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S2] Integrations page: https://whimsical.com/integrations (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S3] Pricing page: https://whimsical.com/pricing (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S4] Security / trust page: https://whimsical.com/company/security (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S5] Security / trust page (trust centre): https://trust.whimsical.com/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S6] Privacy policy: https://whimsical.com/terms/privacy (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S7] Terms of service: https://whimsical.com/terms (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S8] Data processing agreement (dpa): https://whimsical.com/terms/dpa (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S9] Canvas, templates & content — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/templates/diagrams (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S10] Canvas, templates & content — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/templates (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S11] Workshop facilitation & participation — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/learn/boards/timer (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S12] Workshop facilitation & participation — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/learn/boards/voting (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S13] Integrations, import & export — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/learn/imports-exports (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S14] Integrations, import & export — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/learn/imports-exports/miro-to-whimsical (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S15] Sharing, permissions & administration — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/learn/faqs/sharing (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S16] Sharing, permissions & administration — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/learn/workspaces/roles (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S17] Security, AI controls & deployment — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/learn/security (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S18] Security, AI controls & deployment — found from sitemap: https://whimsical.com/releases/enhanced-data-security-for-org-plans (checked 2026-11-01)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Whimsical — Online Whiteboard", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-11-06. https://whats-best.ai/software/online-whiteboard/whimsical

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/1249?target=page