How to Self-Host Excalidraw 2026

TL;DR

Excalidraw (MIT, ~85K GitHub stars, TypeScript) is a virtual whiteboard with a distinctive hand-drawn sketch aesthetic. Diagrams, wireframes, flowcharts, architecture sketches — all with real-time collaboration and end-to-end encryption. Miro charges $8/member/month; FigJam charges $3/editor/month. Self-hosted Excalidraw gives unlimited boards and collaborators for free.

Key Takeaways

Excalidraw: MIT, ~85K stars, TypeScript — most popular open source whiteboard
Hand-drawn style: Distinctive sketch aesthetic that makes diagrams feel informal and approachable
Real-time collaboration: Share a link → anyone can draw simultaneously with live cursors
End-to-end encryption: Room data encrypted in the browser — server can't read your drawings
Libraries: Thousands of pre-built shapes — AWS architecture, flowcharts, UI wireframes, icons
Export: PNG, SVG, clipboard — embed diagrams in docs, PRs, and presentations

Excalidraw vs Miro vs FigJam vs draw.io

Feature	Excalidraw	Miro	FigJam	draw.io
Price	Free (self-host)	$8/member/mo	$3/editor/mo	Free
Style	Hand-drawn	Clean	Hand-drawn	Technical
Real-time collab	Yes (E2E encrypted)	Yes	Yes	Limited
Self-hostable	Yes	No	No	Yes
Shape libraries	Community	Extensive	Figma	Built-in
Offline	Yes (.excalidraw files)	No	No	Yes
Export formats	PNG, SVG, JSON	PNG, PDF	PNG, PDF	PNG, SVG, XML

Part 1: Docker Setup (Excalidraw + Collaboration Server)

For the full self-hosted experience with real-time collaboration, you need two components:

Excalidraw — the web app (frontend)
Excalidraw Room — the collaboration server (WebSocket backend)

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  excalidraw:
    image: excalidraw/excalidraw:latest
    container_name: excalidraw
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:80"
    environment:
      VITE_APP_WS_SERVER_URL: "https://collab.yourdomain.com"

  excalidraw-room:
    image: excalidraw/excalidraw-room:latest
    container_name: excalidraw-room
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3002:80"

docker compose up -d

Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

# Excalidraw web app:
draw.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

# Collaboration server (WebSocket):
collab.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3002
}

Part 3: Using Excalidraw

Drawing basics

Rectangle/Ellipse/Diamond: Click a shape tool → drag to draw
Arrow/Line: Connect shapes for flowcharts and diagrams
Text: Click anywhere → type (supports multiline)
Free draw: Pencil tool for freehand sketching
Selection: Click to select, drag to multi-select

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`R`	Rectangle
`D`	Diamond
`O`	Ellipse
`A`	Arrow
`L`	Line
`P`	Pencil (free draw)
`T`	Text
`E`	Eraser
`Ctrl+D`	Duplicate selection
`Ctrl+G`	Group selection
`Ctrl+Shift+G`	Ungroup
`Alt+drag`	Clone while dragging
`Ctrl+A`	Select all
`Ctrl+Z`	Undo
`Ctrl+Shift+Z`	Redo

Style controls

Stroke color: Any color for outlines
Fill: Hachure (diagonal lines), cross-hatch, solid, or none
Stroke width: Thin, bold, extra bold
Stroke style: Solid, dashed, dotted
Edge: Sharp or round corners
Opacity: 0-100% transparency
Font: Hand-drawn, normal, code

Part 4: Real-Time Collaboration

Start a live session

Click Live collaboration button (people icon)
Start session → generates a unique room URL
Share the URL → anyone with the link can draw simultaneously
Live cursors show other users' positions

Collaboration features

Live cursors: See where collaborators are pointing and drawing
Laser pointer: Present ideas by pointing (press K)
User names: Set your name for identification
End-to-end encryption: The room key is in the URL hash — the server never sees your drawing data

Security model

URL: https://draw.yourdomain.com/#room=abc123,key=xyz789
                                       ↑ room ID   ↑ encryption key

The encryption key stays in the browser (URL hash is never sent to the server). Even the collaboration server only sees encrypted data.

Part 5: Libraries

Install community libraries

Click the Library icon (book) in the toolbar
Browse libraries → opens the community library catalog
Categories: AWS, GCP, Azure architecture, networking, flowcharts, UI mockups, etc.
Click Add to Excalidraw → shapes appear in your library panel

Popular libraries

Library	Contains
AWS Architecture Icons	EC2, S3, Lambda, VPC, etc.
Kubernetes Icons	Pods, services, deployments, ingress
System Design	Load balancers, databases, queues, caches
UI Wireframe	Buttons, forms, navigation, cards
Software Architecture	Microservices, APIs, databases, clients
Network Diagrams	Routers, switches, firewalls, servers

Create custom libraries

Select shapes you've drawn
Library → Add to library
Name your library → reuse across sessions
Export as .excalidrawlib file to share

Part 6: Export Options

Image export

Menu → Export:
  - PNG: with or without background, scale 1x-4x
  - SVG: vector format, scalable
  - Clipboard: paste directly into Slack, Notion, etc.

File export

Menu → Save to disk:
  - .excalidraw: full editable file (JSON format)
  - .excalidraw.png: PNG with embedded scene data (re-editable!)
  - .excalidraw.svg: SVG with embedded scene data

The .excalidraw.png format is powerful — it looks like a regular PNG but contains the full drawing data. Drag it back into Excalidraw to continue editing.

Embed in documentation

<!-- In Markdown docs or GitHub READMEs: -->
![Architecture Diagram](./architecture.excalidraw.png)

Embed in websites

<!-- As an SVG: -->
<img src="/diagrams/architecture.svg" alt="Architecture" />

<!-- As an interactive embed (using Excalidraw React component): -->
<iframe src="https://draw.yourdomain.com/#json=..." width="800" height="600"></iframe>

Part 7: Excalidraw for Development

Architecture diagrams

Perfect for:

System design documents
Microservice architecture maps
Database schema sketches
API flow diagrams
Infrastructure diagrams

PR documentation

Include .excalidraw.png files in pull requests to visually explain changes:

docs/
  architecture.excalidraw.png    # Editable diagram
  data-flow.excalidraw.svg       # Vector diagram

VS Code integration

Install the Excalidraw VS Code extension:

Edit .excalidraw files directly in VS Code
Preview rendered diagrams
Auto-save

Part 8: Excalidraw+ Alternative (Storage Backend)

For persistent storage of drawings (without the paid Excalidraw+ service), use a file sync solution:

Option 1: Git-backed diagrams

# Save .excalidraw files in your repo:
diagrams/
  system-architecture.excalidraw
  deployment-flow.excalidraw
  database-schema.excalidraw

# Team members open them at: draw.yourdomain.com → File → Open

Option 2: Nextcloud integration

Store .excalidraw files in Nextcloud → open them in the browser via Excalidraw.

Option 3: S3/MinIO storage

Mount an S3 bucket for persistent drawing storage.

Maintenance

# Update:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# No backup needed for the app itself (stateless)
# Back up your .excalidraw files wherever you store them

# Logs:
docker compose logs -f excalidraw
docker compose logs -f excalidraw-room

Why Self-Host Excalidraw?

The case for self-hosting Excalidraw comes down to three practical factors: data ownership, cost at scale, and operational control.

Data ownership is the fundamental argument. When you use a SaaS version of any tool, your data lives on someone else's infrastructure subject to their terms of service, their security practices, and their business continuity. If the vendor raises prices, gets acquired, changes API limits, or shuts down, you're left scrambling. Self-hosting Excalidraw means your data and configuration stay on infrastructure you control — whether that's a VPS, a bare metal server, or a home lab.

Cost at scale matters once you move beyond individual use. Most SaaS equivalents charge per user or per data volume. A self-hosted instance on a $10-20/month VPS typically costs less than per-user SaaS pricing for teams of five or more — and the cost doesn't scale linearly with usage. One well-configured server handles dozens of users for a flat monthly fee.

Operational control is the third factor. The Docker Compose configuration above exposes every setting that commercial equivalents often hide behind enterprise plans: custom networking, environment variables, storage backends, and authentication integrations. You decide when to update, how to configure backups, and what access controls to apply.

The honest tradeoff: you're responsible for updates, backups, and availability. For teams running any production workloads, this is familiar territory. For individuals, the learning curve is real but the tooling (Docker, Caddy, automated backups) is well-documented and widely supported.

Server Requirements and Sizing

Before deploying Excalidraw, assess your server capacity against expected workload.

Minimum viable setup: A 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM VPS with 20GB SSD is sufficient for personal use or small teams. Most consumer VPS providers — Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr — offer machines in this range for $5-10/month. Hetzner offers excellent price-to-performance for European and US regions.

Recommended production setup: 2 vCPUs with 4GB RAM and 40GB SSD handles most medium deployments without resource contention. This gives Excalidraw headroom for background tasks, caching, and concurrent users while leaving capacity for other services on the same host.

Storage planning: The Docker volumes in this docker-compose.yml store all persistent Excalidraw data. Estimate your storage growth rate early — for data-intensive tools, budget for 3-5x your initial estimate. Hetzner Cloud and Vultr both support online volume resizing without stopping your instance.

Operating system: Any modern 64-bit Linux distribution works. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Debian 12 are the most commonly tested configurations. Ensure Docker Engine 24.0+ and Docker Compose v2 are installed — verify with docker --version and docker compose version. Avoid Docker Desktop on production Linux servers; it adds virtualization overhead and behaves differently from Docker Engine in ways that cause subtle networking issues.

Network: Only ports 80 and 443 need to be publicly accessible when running behind a reverse proxy. Internal service ports should be bound to localhost only. A minimal UFW firewall that blocks all inbound traffic except SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS is the single most effective security measure for a self-hosted server.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Running Excalidraw without a tested backup strategy is an unacceptable availability risk. Docker volumes are not automatically backed up — if you delete a volume or the host fails, data is gone with no recovery path.

What to back up: The named Docker volumes containing Excalidraw's data (database files, user uploads, application state), your docker-compose.yml and any customized configuration files, and .env files containing secrets.

Backup approach: For simple setups, stop the container, archive the volume contents, then restart. For production environments where stopping causes disruption, use filesystem snapshots or database dump commands (PostgreSQL pg_dump, SQLite .backup, MySQL mysqldump) that produce consistent backups without downtime.

For a complete automated backup workflow that ships snapshots to S3-compatible object storage, see the Restic + Rclone backup guide. Restic handles deduplication and encryption; Rclone handles multi-destination uploads. The same setup works for any Docker volume.

Backup cadence: Daily backups to remote storage are a reasonable baseline for actively used tools. Use a 30-day retention window minimum — long enough to recover from mistakes discovered weeks later. For critical data, extend to 90 days and use a secondary destination.

Restore testing: A backup that has never been restored is a backup you cannot trust. Once a month, restore your Excalidraw backup to a separate Docker Compose stack on different ports and verify the data is intact. This catches silent backup failures, script errors, and volume permission issues before they matter in a real recovery.

Security Hardening

Self-hosting means you are responsible for Excalidraw's security posture. The Docker Compose setup provides a functional base; production deployments need additional hardening.

Always use a reverse proxy: Never expose Excalidraw's internal port directly to the internet. The docker-compose.yml binds to localhost; Caddy or Nginx provides HTTPS termination. Direct HTTP access transmits credentials in plaintext. A reverse proxy also centralizes TLS management, rate limiting, and access logging.

Strong credentials: Change default passwords immediately after first login. For secrets in docker-compose environment variables, generate random values with openssl rand -base64 32 rather than reusing existing passwords.

Firewall configuration:

ufw default deny incoming
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable

Internal service ports (databases, admin panels, internal APIs) should only be reachable from localhost or the Docker network, never directly from the internet.

Network isolation: Docker Compose named networks keep Excalidraw's services isolated from other containers on the same host. Database containers should not share networks with containers that don't need direct database access.

VPN access for sensitive services: For internal-only tools, restricting access to a VPN adds a strong second layer. Headscale is an open source Tailscale control server that puts your self-hosted stack behind a WireGuard mesh, eliminating public internet exposure for internal tools.

Update discipline: Subscribe to Excalidraw's GitHub releases page to receive security advisory notifications. Schedule a monthly maintenance window to pull updated images. Running outdated container images is the most common cause of self-hosted service compromises.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Container exits immediately or won't start

Check logs first — they almost always explain the failure:

docker compose logs -f excalidraw

Common causes: a missing required environment variable, a port already in use, or a volume permission error. Port conflicts appear as bind: address already in use. Find the conflicting process with ss -tlpn | grep PORT and either stop it or change Excalidraw's port mapping in docker-compose.yml.

Cannot reach the web interface

Work through this checklist:

Confirm the container is running: docker compose ps
Test locally on the server: curl -I http://localhost:PORT
If local access works but external doesn't, check your firewall: ufw status
If using a reverse proxy, verify it's running and the config is valid: caddy validate --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Permission errors on volume mounts

Some containers run as a non-root user. If the Docker volume is owned by root, the container process cannot write to it. Find the volume's host path with docker volume inspect VOLUME_NAME, check the tool's documentation for its expected UID, and apply correct ownership:

chown -R 1000:1000 /var/lib/docker/volumes/your_volume/_data

High resource usage over time

Memory or CPU growing continuously usually indicates unconfigured log rotation, an unbound cache, or accumulated data needing pruning. Check current usage with docker stats excalidraw. Add resource limits in docker-compose.yml to prevent one container from starving others. For ongoing visibility into resource trends, deploy Prometheus + Grafana or Netdata.

Data disappears after container restart

Data stored in the container's writable layer — rather than a named volume — is lost when the container is removed or recreated. This happens when the volume mount path in docker-compose.yml doesn't match where the application writes data. Verify mount paths against the tool's documentation and correct the mapping. Named volumes persist across container removal; only docker compose down -v deletes them.

Keeping Excalidraw Updated

Excalidraw follows a regular release cadence. Staying current matters for security patches and compatibility. The update process with Docker Compose is straightforward:

docker compose pull          # Download updated images
docker compose up -d         # Restart with new images
docker image prune -f        # Remove old image layers (optional)

Read the changelog before major version updates. Some releases include database migrations or breaking configuration changes. For major version bumps, test in a staging environment first — run a copy of the service on different ports with the same volume data to validate the migration before touching production.

Version pinning: For stability, pin to a specific image tag in docker-compose.yml instead of latest. Update deliberately after reviewing the changelog. This trades automatic patch delivery for predictable behavior — the right call for business-critical services.

Post-update verification: After updating, confirm Excalidraw is functioning correctly. Most services expose a /health endpoint that returns HTTP 200 — curl it from the server or monitor it with your uptime tool.

See all open source design tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/design.

See open source alternatives to Excalidraw on OSSAlt.

The SaaS-to-Self-Hosted Migration Guide (Free PDF)