7 Best Free Online Whiteboard Software for Teaching

Online whiteboard software has improved collaboration and communication in education by offering virtual spaces where teachers and students can brainstorm, illustrate ideas, and work together in real-time, regardless of geographical limitations.

These tools have become indispensable in remote work environments and educational institutions as they provide a dynamic platform for visualizing concepts, sharing knowledge, and fostering innovation.

In this introduction, we will explore some of the best online whiteboard software that can help enhance your teaching experience and make classes more interactive.

7 Best Free Online Whiteboard Software for Teaching

Let’s look at the best online whiteboard software that you can use for interactive teaching experiences. We have listed the best whiteboard software along with features, platforms supported, and pricing to help you choose the right one for yourself.

• Miro
• Google Jamboard
• Conceptboard
• Ziteboard
• Bitpaper
• Microsoft Whiteboard
• Explain Everything

1. Miro: Best for real-time data visualization

Miro is an online whiteboard tool that can facilitate group activities in the classroom and workplace. It comes with some interesting features for project presentations, live discussions, study sessions, and so on.

With it, you can also upload videos, text, and images to your Miro whiteboards for interactive discussions. It also offers movable sticky notes that you can use to maintain a track of tasks.

Why Choose Miro?

• Offers unlimited editable whiteboards
• Exports boards in high resolution
• Creates interactive boards for engaging presentations
• Provides voting option to create polls
• Supports video chat collaboration

Platform Supported: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Miro Pricing: Free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 664.34/month

2. Google Jamboard: Best for online and onsite teaching

Google Jamboard is a collaborative digital whiteboard tool developed by Google. It allows users to create and collaborate on interactive presentations, sketches, diagrams, and other visual materials in real-time.

Jamboard integrates with other Google Workspace applications, such as Google Drive, allowing users to easily save and share their creations. It’s often used for brainstorming sessions, team meetings, and educational purposes, enabling remote collaboration and creative ideation.

Why Choose Google Jamboard?

• Supports writing and drawing via a mouse and trackpad
• Drags and resizes images on whiteboard
• Presents the whiteboard in Google Meet video call
• Shows upcoming Google Calendar on Jamboard
• Supports 50 users per Jamboard session

Platform Supported: Web-based and supports all major platforms

Google Jamboard Pricing: It is a free whiteboard online but its physical board costs around INR 4,15,021.23

3. Conceptboard: Best for working on projects via remote location

Conceptboard is a collaborative online whiteboarding tool that allows teams to work together in real-time on visual projects, such as brainstorming sessions, design mockups, project planning, and more.

It provides features like virtual sticky notes, drawing tools, commenting, and integration with various platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox. It attaches the user’s name with the cursor to see which user is writing on the board.

Why Choose Conceptboard?

• Provides previous boards history
• Offers a ready to use templates library
• Organizes boards and manages tasks
• Provides visualizing tools like sketches, sticky notes, shapes, arrows, etc.

Platform Supported: Web based and supported all major platforms

Pricing of Conceptboard: Free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 415.21/user/month

4. Ziteboard: Best for real-time collaboration to work on boards

Ziteboard is an online white marker board that facilitates collaboration among participants from various parts across the globe. With it, you can add sticky notes, to-do lists, and notes on the whiteboard in real-time.

The created digital board via Ziteboard can be exported in the PDF format. Additionally, it can also be used to design layouts, prototypes, and workflows with other team members in real time.

Why Choose Ziteboard?

• Creates anonymous whiteboard link to join meeting
• Provides audio and video chat option in whiteboards
• Shares and prints whiteboards in PDF format
• Collaborates in real-time on whiteboard

Platform Supported: Web-based and supports all major platforms

Ziteboard Pricing: Free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 415.21/month

5. Bitpaper: Best for working on boards with screen sharing

Bitpaper is a collaborative online whiteboarding platform designed primarily for tutoring, teaching, and remote collaboration. It provides a digital canvas where users can write, draw, and share content in real time.

This platform offers features like infinite canvas, LaTeX support, document uploading, and video conferencing integration. It’s commonly used by educators, tutors, and students for interactive online lessons, problem-solving sessions, and collaborative note-taking.

Why Choose Bitpaper?

• Generates whiteboard with unlimited workspace
• Creates boards of multiple pages
• Supports screen sharing to share whiteboard
• Adds images, text, or PDFs in boards to make them interactive
• Automatically creates a URL for each whiteboard for easy sharing

Platform Supported: Windows / MacOS / iOS

Bitpaper Pricing: Free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 664.29/month

6. Microsoft Whiteboard: Best for real-time co-editing on boards

Microsoft Whiteboard is a digital canvas app that allows users to collaborate in real-time across multiple devices. It provides a space where users can draw, write, and brainstorm ideas together, irrespective of their physical location.

Microsoft Whiteboard offers features like sticky notes, freehand drawing, text input, and integration with Microsoft Teams, allowing for seamless collaboration within the Microsoft ecosystem. It’s commonly used for team meetings, brainstorming sessions, project planning, and collaborative notetaking.

Why Choose Microsoft Whiteboard?

• Collaborates and works on board in Teams meeting
• Provides 60+ templates to get started with the session
• Offers visualization options to display your data
• Creates interactive boards with highlighters, toolbox, etc.

Platform Supported: Web-based and supports all major platforms

Pricing of Microsoft Whiteboard: It is available for free with Microsoft 365 plans

7. Explain Everything: Best for conducting live presentations for students

Explain Everything is an interactive whiteboard platform that allows users to create dynamic presentations, tutorials, and animations. It enables users to annotate, draw, import multimedia, and record their screens to explain concepts effectively.

It is popular among educators, trainers, and professionals for creating engaging content, collaborating remotely, and delivering interactive lessons or presentations.

Why Choose Explain Everything?

• Annotates diagrams, scribbles, drawings, etc.
• Offers a template library to customize your board
• Provides ready to use graphics for your board
• Stores and shares projects from its cloud storage

Platform Supported: iOS, iPadOS, Mac, Chrome OS, Android, etc.

Explain Everything Pricing: Free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 2,905.31/year

How to Choose the Best Online Whiteboard?

While selecting the best online whiteboard, make sure it provides unlimited canvas to work upon. It should be accessible from any device and let you attach files to your whiteboards for easy reference. These are the things to consider before purchasing a digital board for classroom:

• Unlimited Canvas: Physical whiteboards have size limitations, but it should not be the case with digital boards. Select an online whiteboard that offers an unlimited canvas so whatever you visualize, it can accommodate easily.
• Collaboration Function: Choose free whiteboard online that lets you collaborate with your students in real time. Some apps also support private collaboration through a private link.
• Support to Attach Files: Make sure the software you are planning to buy lets you attach files, sticky notes, images, links, etc., over the whiteboard for quick reference.
• Accessibility: Accessibility of digital whiteboards over a single platform might restrict participants from accessing it. Therefore, select an electronic whiteboard that is accessible on every platform like mobile and web browser.

How We Evaluated and Tested Free Online Whiteboard Software?

Online whiteboard reviews are provided by our team members who have spent ample time in their profession using these software options. We also spent significant time researching and testing these software tools on parameters like features, pricing, supported OS, etc.

To offer an honest evaluation of the online whiteboards for teaching, we have considered specific features such as whiteboard annotation, board visualization, print and share whiteboards, etc. Moreover, we also considered the price of these tools to help you choose the right online whiteboard.

Compare Cost of Whiteboard in India for Teaching

Summary: Which is the Best Free Whiteboard Software for Online Teaching

The choice for the best whiteboard software comes down to the features you are looking for in that software. In case, you use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, then you can use built-in whiteboard available with these apps.

Whereas, if you need a dedicated online whiteboard that provides advanced features, integrations, and customization options, then you can choose from the top software listed above such as Miro, Google Jamboard, Conceptboard, and Ziteboard. All of them offer advanced features for an interactive whiteboard experience.

Free Whiteboard Software for Online Teaching: Frequently Asked Questions