Design and diagrams
Whimsical alternatives
2 open-source projects that already do this job. Free to use - not free to run, which is what the numbers on the right are for.
The projects
chartdb/chartdb★22,690 GitHub starsAGPL-3.0 licenceWeb-based database diagram editor with a visual canvas for designing and exporting schema diagrams.Open on GitHub ↗microsoft/Ontology-Playground★2,352 GitHub starsMIT licenceStatic web app for visually exploring, designing, and exporting ontologies with interactive diagramming.Open on GitHub ↗
What you give up either way
- Real-time multiplayer editing and presence
- Built-in AI features (AI Flowcharts, AI Wireframes, AI Mind Maps)
- Enterprise features: SSO/SCIM, advanced security controls, SOC 2 compliance
- Large built-in icon library, templates, and integrations (Slack, GitHub, embeds)
- Admin/guest management and invoicing/workflow features
An open-source project doing the core job proves a replacement is possible. It does not prove it matches Whimsical, and it does not prove anyone has run it for a month. How we decide.