Archgram vs Excalidraw

Excalidraw is an open-source whiteboard with a hand-drawn look, loved for quick sketches and workshops. Archgram embeds Excalidraw as one of its editors, and adds what a sketch lacks: Mermaid and D2 sources you can diff, AI that drafts or restyles a scene, conversion between formats, Git sync and decision records.

	Archgram	Excalidraw
Main idea	Architecture diagrams as text, plus a sketch editor	A freeform hand-drawn whiteboard
Starting a diagram	Describe it, import a picture, or pick a template	Draw it
Reviewing changes	Text sources and Git sync; scenes are JSON files	Depends on how you store the scene file
Real-time collaboration	Live co-editing in workspaces on Pro	Built in; check its current options

Choose Excalidraw if

You want a pure whiteboard for sketching and workshops.
You want to self-host it or use its libraries and plugins.
You rarely need your diagrams to be reviewed as text.

Choose Archgram if

You want Excalidraw scenes next to text diagrams in the same workspace.
You want to generate a sketch from a description or convert a Mermaid diagram into one.
You want Git sync, share links and decision records around the sketch.

Products change. This page describes approaches as we understand them; check each vendor’s current documentation before deciding.