Google introduced final yr that assist for Jamboard units and apps will finish as of October 1, 2024, with entry to the app and all Jamboard information ending on the finish of 2024. Google Jamboard delivers easy-to-use collaborative drawing capabilities to individuals who use Google Workspace by means of a mixture of Jamboard apps and a Jamboard machine. The Jamboard apps can be utilized with out shopping for a Jamboard machine and work on the internet, iOS, iPadOS and Android units and in Google Meet.
Individuals who use Jamboard units or apps might want to search alternate options. For {hardware} choices, Google’s announcement really useful both the Collection One Board 65 (priced round $9,000) or the Collection One Desk 27 (priced round $2,000), each by Avocor. Google introduced that three software program options — FigJam by Figma, Lucidspark by Lucid Software program and Miro — can be built-in to work with Collection One units, with import choices for Jamboard content material obtainable by March 2024.
Prime Jamboard opponents and alternate options: Comparability desk
Individuals who use the Jamboard apps, impartial of the Jamboard machine, might take into account a variety of software program alternate options. The next six choices all assist visible collaboration and may function appropriate replacements for Jamboard.
FigJam by Figma: Greatest for pleasant design
Figma, a collaborative interface design software firm, launched FigJam (Determine A) in 2021. FigJam helps drawing instruments, shapes, stickers, notes, textual content, connectors and stamps, together with part and desk administration options. You might also import photos or insert hyperlinks to net sources, together with shared Google Drive information. Cursor chat permits an ephemeral dialog with collaborators that disappears once you exit the mode, whereas the remark system permits typical feedback on content material wherever on the board. FigJam affords a number of extra options than Jamboard, delivered with a cleanly designed consumer interface, as you may anticipate.
Figma’s possession deserves point out since Adobe, a artistic content material big, introduced an settlement to amass Figma in September 2022; nevertheless, the deal was terminated in December 2023. Whereas possession doesn’t instantly have an effect on product options, the truth that Figma as soon as sought to merge with a bigger firm might sign a long run potential for acquisition.
Professionals | Cons |
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FigJam app is offered on the internet (and Google Workspace Market) and iPad. |
No devoted FigJam iPhone or Android app. |
Clear design. | No offline mode. |
Extra options than Google Jamboard. | |
Free version is offered to college students and educators. |
Pricing
Figma affords 4 FigJam pricing plans: Starter, Skilled, Group and Enterprise.
- Starter, which is free and allows you to create as much as three Figma and three FigJam information, with limitless private information and limitless collaborators, amongst different options.
- Skilled, $3 per editor/month billed yearly ($36/yr per consumer), contains all Starter options and provides limitless FigJam information, open classes, sharing permissions, crew libraries, voting and extra. College students and educators might entry this version without cost.
- Group, $60 per editor per yr, contains all Profesional options plus organization-wide libraries, centralized content material administration, unified admin and billing choices, and extra.
- Enterprise, $60 per editor per yr, contains all Group options, plus devoted workspaces, superior design techniques and visitor entry controls, together with many different consumer administration and safety features.
Miro: Greatest for enterprise integrations
Miro (Determine B), previously often known as RealtimeBoard, gives a strong set of options all centered round visible collaboration. Commonplace drawing instruments can be found to attract, add shapes (together with flowchart and Unified Modeling Language symbols), sticky notes and textual content, together with many templates. Miro additionally helps you to add an enormous number of content material varieties, together with photos, spreadsheets, tables, kanban, code blocks, charts, diagrams and extra. Timer, voting, chat, video chat and notes allow you to collaborate with others in numerous methods in your board content material.
Miro helps you to current your board to different individuals a number of methods. The Talktrack function helps you to report a video along with your webcam (inset in a circle on the display screen) as you navigate and focus on the board. The ensuing video is saved and could also be shared. Alternatively, you might current both the complete board, which hides many menus to emphasise your content material or current frames, which lets you outline and navigate chosen sections of content material so as. Enterprise and Enterprise editions supply entry to facilitation instruments to assist actions reminiscent of voting and including sticky notes or reactions.
Professionals | Cons |
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Miro app is offered on the internet (and Google Workspace Market), macOS, Home windows, iPhone, iPad and Android. |
No offline mode. |
Very full-featured. | |
Numerous sorts of content material may be added. | |
Helpful number of presentation choices. |
Pricing
Miro affords 4 pricing plans for skilled use: Free, Starter, Enterprise and Enterprise.
- Free, which incorporates one workspace with three editable boards, 5 Talktracks, entry to templates and assist for integrations.
- Starter, $96 per member per yr paid yearly. This plan provides limitless boards, high-resolution exports, collaboration with limitless guests on public boards, limitless Talktracks, limitless undertaking folders, Personal Mode sticky notes, model historical past, assembly options (e.g., timers, voting and video chat) and personal boards.
- Enterprise, $192 per member per yr paid yearly. This plan contains all Starter options, plus limitless boards for each crew and consumer, safe collaboration with limitless friends on personal and crew boards, superior form entry, enhanced assembly options (e.g., breakouts and voting) and extra.
- Enterprise, which requires contacting gross sales for pricing. This plan contains all Enterprise options plus added safety, compliance, administration and reporting capabilities, together with premium assist.
College students, educators and academic establishments might entry completely different Miro pricing plans.
- Pupil accounts are free and assist as much as 10 crew members, availability for 2 years, limitless boards, one workspace with limitless initiatives, limitless exterior guests, amongst different options.
- Educator accounts are free perpetually and assist all pupil options, plus assist for as much as 100 crew members, together with entry to coaching and discussion board sources.
- Establishment accounts can be found at a 50% low cost from normal pricing and embody all pupil and educator options, plus extra administrative and consumer administration options, together with assist.
SEE: The best way to use Miro as your whiteboard in a digital assembly
Lucidspark by Lucid Software program: Greatest for experimental AI
Lucidspark (Determine C) gives a board on which you’ll draw and add photos, shapes, sticky notes, textual content and features. The feedback and process system lets board collaborators not solely touch upon particular board content material but additionally assign work to a colleague. To help clarification, you might outline body areas and designate paths, in order to point out sections of the board in sequence. Visible actions templates assist numerous sorts of sorting, ranking and board engagement, together with extra timer and voting instruments.
Lucidspark additionally affords menu customization and an experimental AI function. Customise the left-side on-screen menu with a Device pinning function to point out solely the choices you choose. For instance, should you hardly ever want Jira integration, you might unpin that choice and it’ll not show on-screen, though you should still entry it from the Extra menu. And a Collaborative AI choice generates concepts from an entered immediate. For instance, a immediate of “Greatest options of Lucidspark” created a 3×3 set of sticky notes, every crammed with two or three phrases describing options reminiscent of “Built-in Video Chat,” “Seamless Integrations” and “Presentation mode.”
Professionals | Cons |
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Lucidspark app is offered on the internet (and Google Workspace Market) and Android. | Staff or Enterprise version accounts are required to make use of cell app on iOS or iPadOS. |
Customizable menu for quick entry to most-used choices. | No offline mode. |
Collaborative AI to generate concepts. | |
Important variety of supported app integrations. |
Pricing
There are 4 Lucidspark plans: Free, Particular person, Staff and Enterprise.
- Free, which incorporates three editable boards, limitless shapes, drawing, emoji reactions, commenting, presentation mode, fundamental visible actions to collect suggestions and combination outcomes, amongst different options.
- Particular person, $7.95 per consumer per thirty days billed yearly ($95.40/yearly per consumer). This plan provides limitless editable boards, 1 GB of storage, premium visible actions to collect suggestions and combination outcomes, and extra.
- Staff, three crew consumer licenses for $27 per thirty days billed yearly ($324/yearly for the three licenses, which is $108/consumer per yr). This plan provides superior controls for visible actions, chat, revision historical past and versioning, voting, a timer and facilitator instruments, amongst different options.
- Enterprise licenses require contacting gross sales. This plan affords entry to Lucidchart for diagramming and provides Staff Areas, many app integrations and entry to numerous consumer administration and safety features.
Educators might entry a variant of the Staff plan without cost; this gives academics and college students entry to the cell app and lots of Staff options at no cost. An non-compulsory improve to a paid crew plan for training provides centralized account administration, audit logs and entry to precedence assist.
Microsoft Whiteboard: Greatest without cost use
Microsoft Whiteboard (Determine D) is free, however it does require a Microsoft account to view, create or collaborate on boards; subsequently, this selection might take advantage of sense for people or organizations who already use different Microsoft providers, reminiscent of Microsoft 365.
Microsoft Whiteboard affords an ordinary set of instruments that features a pen, highlighter, ruler, notes, emoji-style reactions, textual content and shapes. You might also add photos to a board. Plus, Microsoft Whiteboard affords a lot of templates for all kinds of brainstorming, planning, assembly and studying actions. Chances are you’ll customise the board background coloration and choose from a set of 9 background grid designs. And there’s an included timer. Share the hyperlink to present collaborators entry to all of those instruments, too.
Professionals | Cons |
---|---|
Microsoft Whiteboard is offered on the internet, iPhone, iPad and Android, in addition to for Microsoft Floor Hub and Microsoft Groups Rooms units. |
Not obtainable within the Google Workspace Market. |
Free. | Should register with a Microsoft account. |
Important number of templates for enterprise makes use of, reminiscent of brainstorming, undertaking planning and assembly actions. |
No offline mode. |
Centered set of instruments. |
Pricing
Microsoft Whiteboard is free, though you have to register with a Microsoft account to make use of it. A Microsoft account could also be obtained without cost.
Zoom Whiteboard: Greatest for Zoom conferences
The Zoom conferencing platform affords Zoom Whiteboard (Determine E), which can be used both with an online assembly or individually. For anybody with an current Zoom account, Zoom Whiteboard deserves consideration.
Zoom Whiteboard affords a lot of templates for brainstorming, diagramming, assembly, training or leisure; or, you might merely create a brand new clean board. The system contains instruments reminiscent of pens, shapes, strains, textual content, sticky notes and feedback. Chances are you’ll add photos and PDFs to your board or add a thoughts map, desk, kanban board or playing cards. Particularly, playing cards allow you to assign duties and observe each dates and process standing. Zoom boards additionally allow you to create a number of pages. As a presentation help, you might add frames round your board content material, then manage and current the frames in sequence. The timer and laser pointer could also be helpful throughout displays or collaborations as properly.
Professionals | Cons |
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Out there as a part of Zoom on the internet (and Google Workspace Market), macOS, Home windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android. | Zoom Whiteboard affords secondary performance to net conferences. |
Giant variety of templates for enterprise makes use of, reminiscent of brainstorming and diagramming. | No offline mode |
Assist for a number of pages inside a board. | |
Frames to order presentation sequence. |
Pricing
Three Zoom Whiteboard editions can be found: Whiteboard Fundamental, Whiteboard and Whiteboard Plus.
- Whiteboard Fundamental, which is included with Zoom One Fundamental and Zoom One Professional, contains three concurrent editable boards owned and 25 MB of storage, together with all core drawing, annotation, picture and collaboration options.
- Whiteboard, $24.90 per consumer per yr, and could also be added to both the Zoom One Fundamental or Zoom One Professional plan. This plan provides limitless concurrent editable boards owned and 1 GB of storage, together with model historical past and momentary lock options plus shared folders and private labels.
- Whiteboard Plus, $70 per consumer per yr and could also be added to both Zoom One Fundamental or Zoom One Professional plans, provides limitless storage and assist for private and organizational templates. Additionally, Zoom Whiteboard Plus is included as a part of Zoom Rooms plans.
SEE: The best way to use the brand new Zoom Whiteboard for hybrid conferences
Apple Freeform: Greatest for Apple machine customers
Freeform (Determine F), a visible collaboration instrument by Apple, is included with present units that run iOS, iPadOS and macOS. The app is free, though solely individuals who use Apple units might use it. For instance, Freeform can be a wonderful choice for a classroom the place a trainer and college students all use iPadOS or macOS units, however wouldn’t be appropriate for a scenario the place collaborators may use Home windows, ChromeOS or Android units.
Freeform affords quite a few writing and drawing kinds, together with a pen, pencil, highlighter, crayon, ink and watercolor choices. On units that assist an Apple pencil, you might leverage the system’s built-in handwriting recognition system, Scribble, to transform pencil strokes into textual content. Freeform helps you to add notes, hyperlinks, shapes and typed textual content. Chances are you’ll use a digital camera to seize a photograph or add a picture, video, audio file or PDF to a board. Freeform works offline, so you should use it to seize concepts nearly wherever. Freeform permits as much as 100 individuals to collaborate on a board, and it could be used with Messages or FaceTime.
Professionals | Cons |
---|---|
Out there on present iPhone, iPad and macOS units. | Out there solely on Apple units. |
Can create and work offline. | |
Works properly with Apple Pencil, Messages and FaceTime. | |
Wider vary of drawing instrument kinds (e.g., watercolor, ink and crayon) in comparison with lots of the different alternate options on this article. |
Pricing
Freeform is offered as one of many default apps on all fashionable Apple units, together with iPhone, iPad and macOS techniques.
Extra Jamboard alternate options to think about
Past the six providers coated above, many different collaborative drawing choices exist. Google suggests Google Drawings or Google Slides may meet some wants. Different providers that will advantage consideration embody Canva Whiteboard, Conceptboard, Excalidraw, Clarify The whole lot, Inko, Pear Deck, Pencil Areas, Sketchboard or Whiteboard.chat.
Methodology
The primary three providers — FigJam by Figma, Miro and Lucidspark by Lucid Software program — are included as a result of Google particularly recommends these as alternate options to Google Jamboard. All three will supply some kind of import instrument to permit you to protect current Jamboard content material.
The remaining three choices had been chosen due to the widespread use of Microsoft, Zoom and Apple instruments within the training group — a big consumer of Jamboard apps. In the event you and your collaborators use Apple {hardware}, Freeform is sensible as an alternative choice to Jamboard. In the event you and your collaborators have current Microsoft or Zoom accounts, then both of these respective providers may serve you properly.
The creator signed and actively examined every of the providers for testing functions, and has actively used and coated Google Jamboard since its inception. Every of the screenshots was taken throughout this experimentation. We depend on vendor web sites for pricing.