Whiteboards & Infinite Canvas

This category exploded with the rise of AI-flavored canvas products and collaborative tools. The clear winner for "drop in a whiteboard" use cases is tldraw.

Whiteboard / canvas products as components

• ★ tldraw — drop-in React whiteboard component. Pen / shapes / text / arrows / images / multiplayer / extension API. The default for "I need a whiteboard in my app." MIT for personal / non-commercial; commercial use requires a (very affordable) license — verify your case.
• ★ Excalidraw — open source, hand-drawn-style whiteboard; embed via @excalidraw/excalidraw. MIT, fully free for any use.
• Konva + react-konva — 2D canvas framework; build your own canvas product on top.
• Fabric.js — older 2D canvas library; plenty of demos for Photoshop-like editors.
• Paper.js — vector drawing; great for sketching apps.

Drawing primitives

• perfect-freehand — the freehand-stroke math (<pencil> strokes that feel natural). Underpins tldraw and many similar.
• rough.js — hand-drawn / sketchy style rendering; underpins Excalidraw.
• D3 Selection + canvas — for custom data-driven canvas.

Math / interactive

• Mafs — React components for visualizing math (number lines, vectors, plots) on a canvas.
• JSXGraph — interactive geometry / function plotting.

Multiplayer canvas

• tldraw sync + Liveblocks / PartyKit — the typical tldraw multiplayer setup.
• Yjs — CRDT layer underneath most collaborative canvases.
• See Realtime for the providers.

High-perf rendering for huge canvases

• PixiJS — WebGL/WebGPU 2D renderer; if your canvas has 10,000+ shapes.
• Konva — lower perf ceiling but easier API.
• Custom WebGL — when you really need it (Figma-tier).

Pick this if…

• Default whiteboard, accept the license: tldraw.
• Need fully free, MIT, hand-drawn style: Excalidraw.
• Building your own bespoke canvas product: Konva (mid-perf) or PixiJS (high-perf).
• Math / graph plotting: Mafs or JSXGraph.
• Need multiplayer: tldraw + Liveblocks / PartyKit (or Yjs DIY).