As a leader evaluating online whiteboard solutions to facilitate better brainstorming and collaboration for your distributed team, you likely have questions. Should you go with a specialized design platform like FigJam or an established jack-of-all trades like Miro? Does your team size, budget and use case dictate one option over the other? This 2800+ word guide will cover all considerations to decide whether FigJam or Miro best fits your needs.
Introduction to Online Whiteboarding
First, let’s ground ourselves in why virtual whiteboarding has become so integral for today’s remote teams. According to Miro’s 2021 remote collaboration survey:
- 72% of distributed teams rely on digital whiteboards to brainstorm ideas together
- 65% say whiteboarding is very effective for diagramming workflows and processes
- 51% prefer co-creating concepts visually over written docs
It’s clear that alongside chat and video conferencing apps, cloud-based whiteboards are a must-have for visual collaboration, no matter your team’s location.
Capabilities like real-time co-editing, diagrams, sticky notes, templates and integrations into existing workflows have made tools like FigJam, Miro and Mural essential products.
But how do you choose? This guide will provide an in-depth, side-by-side analysis of two leading options – FigJam and Miro across 10 key categories. Let‘s begin with introductions to both platforms.
FigJam Overview
FigJam launched out of stealth in April 2021 as collaboration spinoff from UI/UX design leader Figma. Like its parent company, FigJam focused squarely on empowering design and creative teams through the cooperative process – from conceptual wireframes to interactive prototypes.
In an interview with Forbes magazine, Figma CEO Dylan Field shared that "the goal of FigJam is to make brainstorming as fun, as easy, and as empowering as possible, whether you’re in a room together or spread across 20 different places.”
True to this vision, key capabilities offered by FigJam include:
Flexible Canvas – An infinite cloud-powered surface where teams can map ideas together via sticky notes, shapes, connectors and design assets.
Real-Time Co-Editing – Simultaneous editing by distributed team members with changes reflected instantaneously.
Intuitive Design Tools – Vector networks, flow charts, wireframes and prototypes crafted using a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Seamless Figma Integration – One click export of concepts and assets into production-ready UIs built on Figma.
Creative Kickstarters – A set of templates tailored specifically for agile design processes, from concept to testing.
Already over 100,000 teams including Spotify, Airbnb, Amazon use FigJam regularly for aligned brainstorming workshops. The tool has seen such rapid adoption given its intuitive user experience catered towards smaller creative teams.
Miro Overview
In contrast to FigJam’s design-centric DNA, Miro is positioned as the Swiss army knife of virtual collaboration. Founded in 2011 as RealtimeBoard, Miro enables brainstorming, planning and work execution for both creative and business teams.
Some unique advantages offered by Miro include:
Versatile Toolset – A vast library of templates combined with infinite canvas tailored from mind maps to customer journey planning, and everything in between.
130+ Integrations – Connect the tools your team already uses including Jira, Asana, GitHub, Google Drive and more.
Advanced Security – Enterprise-grade security compliance (SOC-2, GDPR) as well as account management and permissions for large orgs.
Workshops & Events – Interactive conference capabilities like presenter view, audience engagement widgets, surveys and Q&As.
A glance at Miro’s customer list reveals recognized leaders across technology, manufacturing, retail and other major industries including Deloitte, Vodafone, General Electric and many more.
With over 50 million worldwide users and a maturity far exceeding FigJam, is Miro definitively the superior option as an online whiteboard solution? Below we compare how they stack up across 8 key assessment criteria.
Comparing User Experience (UX) Design
For both new users getting acquainted as well as teams collaborating day-after-day, UX design plays a pivotal role. Let‘s see how FigJam and Miro compare when it comes to core experience factors like interface design, simplicity and learning curves.
FigJam sports a neat, orderly interface mirroring Figma‘s minimalist influence. Teams populate infinitely-scrolling whiteboard canvases using a broad toolkit including sticky notes, shapes, connectors arrows and freehand pen mode. Keyboard shortcuts make navigating the flexible workspace fast and snappy.
Miro enables a more visually playful, freeform authoring environment supporting both structured frameworks like flow charts along with sticky-wall brainstorming. The broader template libraries and creation tools promote capturing ideas how teams naturally ideate without restrictive templates.
Winner: Draw – FigJam wins on simplicity while Miro provides more expressiveness – choose based on intended use case.
Onboarding Experience
As a design-forward tool, FigJam delivers smooth onboarding leveraging clear NUX patterns around creating objects, connecting steps, exporting assets etc. The minimalistic toolkit promotes getting started fast by reducing initial complexity for new users.
Miro‘s diverse functionalities cater to more complex use cases spanning workshops, product roadmaps and group offsites. Thus, becoming fully fluent across its wider spectrum of capabilities requires more upfront learning. But structuredCOURSE GUIDES plus an active community forum lower the activation barrier.
Winner: FigJam – Perfectly aimed at lean design teams, FigJam gets new users productive faster thanks to smart UX decisions and a simpler feature set.
Ongoing Ease-of-Use
FigJam‘s core value lies in rapid wireframing and collaborative diagramming. The minimalist toolbar and keyboard shortcuts keep focus on translating ideas visually. Team members can grab attention via integrated Slack-style messaging without losing context.
Miro balances simplicity for those jumping in to co-create content quickly along with deeper features catering to complex workflows. The Views system tackles information density for large canvases. Advanced Pointers provide workshop-style facilitation for distributed meetings and working sessions.
Winner: FigJam for linear design sprints. Miro better equips large teams with customizable processes but expects some learning investment.
Verdict
FigJam tackles screen design collaboration through a lens of simplicity, visibility and structure. Miro offers more breadth, allowing both freeform and systematic idea mapping.
For lean teams optimizing clear deliverables like wireframes, mockups and prototypes, FigJam grabs the trophy 🏆. Larger organizations will appreciate Miro‘s versatility, templates and customizability benefiting more complex projects.
Now let‘s explore how these two platforms empower the vital capability of real-time teamwork.
Comparing Real-Time Collaboration Capabilities
In an era where remote work prevails, seamless real-time collaboration is mandatory for teams to interact smoothly regardless of geography or time zones. How do FigJam and Miro stack up on features that foster fluid teamwork and visibility?
Core Capabilities
Table-stakes features like simultaneous editing, threaded comments and version history tracking provide confidence for distributed teams to co-create content.
Both FigJam and Miro check the boxes here – they replicate Google Docs-style workflows allowing changes by any member to be instantly reflected. Granular version histories make reviewing or rolling back modifications a cinch.
Communication & Notifications
Messaging updates from within a active whiteboard session ensures context isn‘t lost.
- FigJam offers slick in-canvas chat so team conversations stay anchored to relevant content pieces without flipping between apps.
- Miro supports @ mentions and activity feed notifications. Native video conferencing bridges broader discussions.
Advanced Functions
Unique innovations further enhance real-time alignment – particularly for larger teams.
- FigJam introduced Live Cursors showing POINTERS from other collaborators as they interact with specific canvas areas. Visibility prevents teams from losing sync across a complex layout.
- Miro powers Workshops and meeting faciliation leveraging tools like Views, Presenter Mode and Audience Engagement widgets purpose-built for REMOTE LARGE GROUPS.
Verdict
Both FigJam and Miro deliver excellent real-time co-creation toolsets facilitating visual collaboration across distances. For most small creative teams, FigJam hits the collaboration sweet spot with its slick chat and live cursors. Miro equips large enterprises to interact at scale during virtual summits leveraging robust event-centric features.
Now let‘s explore how customization capabilities like templates, themes and integrations empower users to tailor these platforms to their unique workflows.
Reviewing Customization & Template Options
While remote teams craves versatility from their toolstack to cater to diverse needs, too much configurability often hampers user adoption and productivity. How do FigJam and Miro compare regarding customization – do they offer the flexibility you need without overcomplicating?
Onboarding Customization
Ease teams into the workflow fast via pre-built templates suited to their domain.
- FigJam serves up ~25 excellent templates optimized for wireframing stages from early concepting to interactive prototyping. Less support for other domains like engineering design or product roadmapping.
- Miro provides thousands of templates spanning a diverse set of industries and used cases – great for both creative and analytical workflows like journey mapping.
Environment Personalization
Apply your brand identity by theming critical elements like logos, colors and styles.
- FigJam offers more basic personalization capabilities at this stage – editing wallpaper backdrops, tweaking accent colors and arranging toolbars.
- Miro enables deeper theming control with granular styling of shapes, connectors, canvases plus sophisticated template customization.
Asset & Data Import
Pull in external files like images, spreadsheets and documents for richer workshops.
- FigJam allows importing of common asset types – photos, videos, PDFs etc. Out of the box support for the Figma ecosystem.
- Miro integrates directly bi-directionally with Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive allowing teams pull in data they already rely on.
Verdict
When it comes to modifying the environment to your specifications, Miro emerges as the winner for its wider array of initial templates and granular customization of elements.
But for many lean teams, FigJam delivers on providing versatile wireframing-focused templates you can populate with assets without fuss. Unless advanced personalization is required, FigJam likely covers your bases.
Now let‘s explore how integrating other apps and tools drives efficiency.
Evaluating Third-Party Integrations
Thanks to abundant automation and connectivity capabilities, today‘s leading platforms rarely operate as walled gardens. Instead, they act as hubs integrating into broader ecosystems. For collaborative whiteboards, what outside apps can users leverage to boost productivity?
FigJam‘s Key Integrations
As a sister platform to Figma leveraging the same account system, FigJam offers transparency into design handoff. Changes flow smoothly from whiteboard mockups into production-ready UI code.
Other notable integrations include:
- Slack & Email – Ping collaborators to provide visibility into workshop progress without switching apps.
- Dropbox & Google Drive – Import files directly from popular cloud storage providers.
- Jira – Connect prototypes with engineering tickets for developer handoff.
Miro‘s Massive App Catalog
Miro stands as one of the most well-integrated platforms leveraging an ecosystem of over 130+ apps and services.
Some of the most popular tools connecting bi-directionally with Miro include:
Team Messaging – Slack, Microsoft Teams
Project Management – Asana, Jira, Trello
Cloud Storage – Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox
Whiteboard Alternatives – Mural, Lucidspark
This plugin ecosystem streamlines launching external apps to pull data into workshops and pushes content back for seamless documentation.
Verdict
While FigJam offers excellent connectivity to facilitate design workflows, Miro‘s massive integration catalog cements its position as a hub for centralized team coordination far beyond whiteboarding itself.
Comparing Pricing Plans
Budget plays a key role in platform evaluation. How do FigJam and Miro‘s pricing plans compare based on team size and use case?
FigJam‘s Pricing Tiers
FigJam grants unlimited users BUT only 3 editable files under its free forever tier – best for individuals or very small groups.
Paid plans scale up to handle larger teams:
- Basic – $3/editor/month billed annually – 25 team members & 25 files
- Pro – $4/editor/month billed annually – Unlimited members and files
The Pro plan adds advanced controls like file permissions and viewer links. Note pricing drops to ~30% higher for monthly billing.
Volume discounts available for large organizations with 500+ editors.
Miro Pricing Plans
Miro allows up to 3 editable whiteboards but with unlimited viewers under its robust free tier – fantastic for public workshops or open communities.
Its paid plans focus on scaling up editable seats and additional features like cloud storage, API access and priority support.
- Team – $8/member/month billed annually – core collaboration tools
- Business – $16/member/month billed annually – adds SSO, SCIM provisioning and other business-ready capabilities.
Enterprise tiers allows bulk purchase of seats at lower costs along with personalized onboarding, environment configuration and training packages.
The Verdict
For lean design teams up to 10 or so collaborators, FigJam delivers tremendous value with file-based pricing tiers at $3 per editor.
Larger creative agencies or companies with 25+ seat counts gain better ROI on Miro‘s per member pricing at $8 per month. Marketing teams, product managers will lean towards its broader app ecosystem support too.
Choose FigJam if your use case is predominantly low-fidelity wireframing workshops. Miro better justifies larger budgets, supporting 40+ templates categories spanning ideation, planning and execution.
Now let‘s summarize some ideal use cases where FigJam and Miro each shine over the other.
Comparing Ideal Use Cases
Given differences in target users, supported features and pricing models, what categories of teams tend to gravitate towards FigJam vs Miro?
FigJam‘s Sweet Spot
As a design-first spinoff of Figma, FigJam caters excellently to lean creative teams driving concepts like:
✅ App and website wireframes
✅ Clickable prototypes and mockup testing
✅ Brainstorming UI flows and screen journeys
Its strength centers on facilitating structured, clear deliverables common in agency/product design environments leveraging existing familiarity with Figma. Intuitive controls, affordable pricing and excellent editing tools optimize cost-per-head for diagramming-heavy workflows.
Where Miro Hits its Stride
With broader applicability across domains like marketing, engineering and product, Miro shines when used for initiatives like:
✅ Cross-functional workshops pulling in mixed data sets
✅ Strategic planning – ex: customer journey mapping
✅ Retrospectives, design sprints and offsite sessions
✅ Ongoing department hub for real-time visual tracking
Miro unlocks value as a versatile "operating system" for both mission-critical company gatherings as well as keeping teams aligned via always-on Spyder web hooks into tools like Jira, Trello and ticket systems.
The Final Verdict
For most small creative shops oriented around converting ideas into polished design systems and prototypes, FigJam strikes an outstanding balance between simplicity and effectiveness. The slick UI, Realtime editing and seamless Figma integration create a streamlined lane through concepting to asset production workflows.
As team sizes and use case diversity increases, Miro becomes harder to pass up as a customizable hub for nearly any workflow involving visual collaboration – from agile rituals to campaign and product planning. Robust third-party integrations allow Miro to centralize disparate systems rather than just operating as an isolated whiteboard point solution.
Of course hybrid approaches are possible matching Miro‘s templates and tools with FigJam‘s simplicity for focused design tasks. But evaluating the platforms side-by-side, Miro emerges as the Editor‘s Choice whiteboarding solution flexible enough for both freeform innovation AND mission-critical alignment.
