Online Whiteboards for Small Teams Compared
An online whiteboard gives your team a shared wall for sticky notes, diagrams and plans, even when half of you are working from home. The tricky part is picking one that your team will actually open. This guide compares Miro, Mural, FigJam and Microsoft Whiteboard, shows which kind of team each one suits and walks you through running your first useful session.
Key takeaways
- Miro and Mural are full-featured whiteboards with large template libraries, suited to workshops and planning.
- FigJam fits teams that already design in Figma or want a lighter, friendlier board.
- Microsoft Whiteboard is a practical pick for teams already living in Microsoft 365 and Teams.
- Choose based on where your team already works, then test with one real session before you roll it out.
- A board is only useful if someone turns it into clear decisions and next steps afterward.
A physical whiteboard is wonderful when everyone is in the same room. But small teams today are rarely all in one place. You might have a part-time marketer working remotely, a freelance designer in another country and a co-founder who travels for sales. An online whiteboard lets everyone add ideas to the same space, at the same time or at their own pace.
The spring equinox is a nice reminder that the first quarter is wrapping up. Many teams use late March to review the quarter, set goals for the next one and plan spring and summer projects. That kind of planning is exactly where a shared board shines, so now is a good time to pick one and learn it before the next planning session.
What small teams actually use whiteboards for
Before you compare tools, be clear about the jobs you need done. Most small businesses use an online whiteboard for a handful of things:
- Brainstorming: collecting ideas on sticky notes, grouping them and voting.
- Planning: quarterly goals, OKRs, project timelines and campaign calendars.
- Mapping processes: drawing how an order moves from inquiry to delivery, or how a support request gets handled.
- Retrospectives: looking back on a project with "what went well" and "what to change" columns.
- Customer journeys and wireframes: sketching website pages or app screens before anyone builds them.
- Workshops with clients: running a discovery or strategy session with people outside your company.
If you only need quick sketches during video calls, a simple tool is enough. If you plan to run structured workshops or invite clients, template libraries, facilitation features and guest access start to matter.
Pro tip
List your three most common board uses before you start a trial. Then run each one in the tool you are testing. It takes an hour and tells you far more than any feature list.
The four whiteboards compared
Each of these tools offers free and paid options, but plan limits, features and pricing change regularly. Check each provider's current features, pricing and privacy policy before choosing, especially if you will put client information on your boards.
Miro
Miro is one of the best-known online whiteboards. It offers an infinite canvas, a large library of templates for brainstorming, planning and diagramming, and integrations with many work tools. It is popular with product, marketing and operations teams.
Strengths
- Wide range of templates and shapes
- Good for both live sessions and work at your own pace
- Many integrations with project and messaging tools
Limitations
- So many features can overwhelm occasional users
- Large boards can feel slow on older laptops
- Free plan limits may push active teams to a paid plan
Mural
Mural is built with facilitation in mind. It offers templates and tools for running structured workshops, such as timers, voting and ways to guide participants through a session. Consultants, trainers and teams that run frequent workshops often like it.
Strengths
- Strong facilitation features for guided sessions
- Useful templates for strategy, planning and team exercises
- Works well for client-facing workshops
Limitations
- Can feel more structured than a casual team needs
- Some features are aimed at larger organizations
- Guests may need a short introduction before the session
FigJam
FigJam is the whiteboard from the makers of Figma, the design tool. It has a lighter, playful feel with stickers, stamps and simple shapes, and it connects naturally with Figma design files. It is popular with design-led teams but works well for anyone who wants an approachable board.
Strengths
- Friendly, easy to learn interface
- Ideal if your team already uses Figma
- Good for quick brainstorms and simple diagrams
Limitations
- Fewer heavy facilitation features than tools built for workshops
- Value is highest when paired with Figma
- Check how guest access works on your plan
Microsoft Whiteboard
Microsoft Whiteboard is part of the Microsoft 365 world. It works inside Microsoft Teams meetings and alongside other Microsoft apps, which makes it a natural option if your team already uses Outlook and Teams every day. It covers the essentials: sticky notes, drawing, templates and shared boards.
Strengths
- Fits naturally into Microsoft Teams meetings
- Familiar sign-in and admin for Microsoft 365 users
- Good with pen input on touchscreen devices
Limitations
- Fewer templates and integrations than dedicated whiteboard tools
- Less appealing if your team is not on Microsoft 365
- Sharing with outside guests needs checking before client sessions
Common mistake
Adding a whiteboard tool that nobody remembers to open. If your team lives in Microsoft Teams all day, a separate tool in another tab may quietly die after two sessions. The most capable board is useless if it sits outside your team's daily routine, so start from where people already work.
How to choose: a simple scoring template
Run a short trial with two tools and score them together as a team. The scores below are made-up examples for a hypothetical five-person agency, not a ranking of these products. Use your own needs and weightings.
| Criteria | Weight (example) | Tool A score (example, 1 to 5) | Tool B score (example, 1 to 5) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fits where we already work | 3 | 5 | 3 | Tool A opens inside our meeting app |
| Easy for guests and clients | 2 | 3 | 4 | Tool B guests joined without help |
| Templates we will actually use | 1 | 3 | 5 | We mainly need retros and planning boards |
Multiply each score by its weight and add the totals. Add rows for price once you have checked current plans, and for privacy and data storage once you have read each policy.
Questions to ask during the trial
- Could the least technical person on the team add a sticky note without help?
- Does the board stay usable on a laptop with an average internet connection?
- Can you invite a client or freelancer easily, and control what they see?
- Can you export a board as an image or PDF to share the results?
- Who in your business will own the account, templates and cleanup?
Running your first useful whiteboard session
A blank infinite canvas can freeze a team. Structure turns a board into a productive session. Here is a simple format that works for most planning or brainstorming meetings.
- Prepare the board in advance. Add a title, the goal of the session and clearly labeled areas, such as "Ideas", "Questions" and "Decisions".
- Start with a warm-up. Ask everyone to add one sticky note, such as a win from last quarter. It gets people comfortable with the tool.
- Collect ideas quietly. Give everyone five to ten minutes to add their own notes before discussing. This stops the loudest voice from shaping everything.
- Group and name themes. Drag similar notes together and give each group a short label.
- Vote. Give each person a few votes to place on the ideas they think matter most.
- Agree on next steps. For the top ideas, write the owner, the first action and a date in the "Decisions" area.
- Close the loop. Copy the decisions into your project tool or meeting notes, then archive the board or mark it as done.
Hypothetical example
Hannah runs a small online shop with two staff and a freelance photographer. At the end of March, she set up a board with three columns for the next quarter: "Keep doing", "Start" and "Stop". Everyone added notes during a one-hour video call, grouped them and voted. The team agreed on three objectives for the quarter, each with an owner. Hannah exported the board as a PDF, pasted the decisions into her project tool and archived the board, so the next session started fresh.
Keeping boards tidy, safe and useful
Online whiteboards can turn into digital junk drawers. A few habits keep them under control.
- Use a naming format. Something like "2027 Q2 planning" or "Client name, discovery workshop" makes boards easy to find.
- Keep a template board. Save your favorite formats, such as a retro or quarterly plan, so nobody starts from scratch.
- Archive regularly. Once a quarter, archive or delete boards that are finished.
- Mind sensitive information. Avoid putting customer personal data, passwords or confidential financials on boards shared with guests. Data protection rules such as GDPR and UK GDPR still apply to what you write on a board.
- Review guest access. Remove freelancers and clients from boards once a project ends.
- Turn on two-factor authentication for admin accounts, and give people the least access they need.
Your online whiteboard checklist
- List your three most common board uses
- Shortlist two tools based on where your team already works
- Run one real session in each during a trial
- Score both tools with the team using a simple weighted table
- Check current pricing, guest access and privacy policies
- Name one owner for the account and templates
- Create a template board for your most common session
- Agree on a naming format and a quarterly cleanup
- Copy decisions out of every board into your project tool
Frequently asked questions
Is a free whiteboard plan enough for a small team?
Often, yes, at the start. Free plans usually cover basic boards and sticky notes, but limits on the number of boards, guests or features can appear quickly. Start free, see how often you actually use it, and upgrade only when a limit is slowing you down.
Do we need a whiteboard tool if we already use a project management app?
They do different jobs. A project tool tracks tasks and deadlines, while a whiteboard is for thinking, mapping and deciding. Many teams use the board for the messy early stage, then move the agreed actions into their project tool.
Can we use an online whiteboard in a room with people in person?
Yes. Put the board on a big screen and let people add notes from their laptops or phones. This works especially well for hybrid meetings, because remote colleagues contribute on the same board as everyone in the room.
Related reading
The bottom line
Miro and Mural suit teams that run lots of workshops and want rich templates, FigJam suits design-led teams and anyone who wants a friendly board, and Microsoft Whiteboard suits teams already working in Microsoft 365 and Teams. The best choice is the one that fits where your team already works and that people will actually open.
Pick two tools, run your end-of-quarter planning session in one of them and score the experience with your team. Then turn the board into clear decisions with owners and dates, and you will have a planning habit that lasts well beyond spring.
