For a short meeting or lesson, choose a shared whiteboard around three questions: can participants join, what can they edit, and will the work still be available afterward? This guide compares five options for small sessions. A shared Boardmix whiteboard is one option when you want to keep notes, diagrams and follow-up work together.
When a Shared Online Whiteboard Helps
Communication and collaboration are two key factors for better team productivity in almost all aspects of life, business, and education. Using an online collaborative whiteboard with the team can increase the productivity of projects, meetings, and remote learning courses. Wondering why you need shared whiteboards online? Well, here are some reasons;
Make Ideas Visible During Discussion
A shared canvas lets participants add notes and mark the part of an idea they are discussing. Unlike a screen share controlled by one presenter, it can give several people a way to contribute at the same time. Set clear editing permissions and explain where each participant should work.
Boost Team Engagement
Real collaboration is facilitated when all online meeting participants are placed on a single board where they can post content and communicate with one another in real-time.
When participants participate actively in an online meeting and others can see what they are doing, the meeting becomes more engaging.
Foster Innovation
The virtual whiteboard is an excellent tool for conducting organized seminars on innovation. Working remotely enables you to have innovative practices to encourage creativity. More frequently than any other digital toolbox, sticky notes, cards, and pens are used. When a team wants to develop a creative solution, having an online whiteboard available is a terrific approach to keep individuals thinking creatively even when working from home.
Keep Information in One Place
Using a user-friendly design, a collaborative online whiteboard enables you to easily communicate key information, updates, and objectives with your team. It enables more effective cooperation and saves time while updating a project because all information is kept in one convenient place. Everything you require, from your most crucial information to original concepts only your team can access, is there to keep your team on track.
Support a Remote Workshop
A shared board can hold the workshop question, individual ideas and the group’s conclusions. For example, give four participants separate areas to suggest improvements to a meeting, then move related notes together. Save or export the result before ending a temporary session.
Choose Access and Saving Options Before Inviting People
Decide whether this is a one-off session or a workspace you will revisit. For a quick sketch, easy guest entry may matter most. For a client meeting, controlled access and a saved record may be more important. Use the following features as options to evaluate, not a requirement that every tool must include them.
- Access control - The leader must have full control of who enters the space.
- Should be easy to set up.
- Should work on the devices your participants will use.
- Commenting tool is necessary.
- Messaging features should be efficient.
- Sticky notes are useful for collecting separate ideas.
- Audio and video calls, either built in or provided by your meeting app.
- Image recognition and smart shape tools.
- Able to save multiple file formats.
- Version history enabled.
- Straightforward file and image uploads.
- A complete library of pre-made templates.
5 Shared Whiteboards for Different Session Needs
Boardmix
Boardmix provides a shared canvas for diagrams, notes and project discussions. Use it when the group needs to keep developing the same work after the session, rather than starting a temporary board for each meeting.
Boardmix incorporates a wide range of technologies to let teams get together and exchange ideas intuitively. It integrates the flowchart, mind map, venn diagram, SWOT analysis, timeline, weekly plan, reverse brainstorming, and many other tools that teams need to present and collaborate on ideas in real time. It gives all the fundamental tools, such as pen, note, eraser, shape, frame, and similar others, to make it easier for users to organize ideas graphically, boost creativity and establish rapport through shared knowledge with clients or team members anywhere in the world.
Pricing
- Free: $0, with 3 editable boards and 100 objects per board.
- Paid plans have different board, storage, visitor and AI allowances; see the Boardmix plan comparison.
- Enterprise / Private: contact Boardmix for a quote.
NoteBookCast
NoteBookCast is a browser-based whiteboard that can be started without an account. Participants can draw and add notes together, and its official site lists built-in audio and video calls. A free account lets you save boards to your dashboard for later use. See NotebookCast’s access and saving options.
It runs on an Internet browser, allowing numerous users to engage in real-time. Write and draw on the whiteboard with a pen-compatible device (certain types of PC, tablet, or mouse) (types of PC, tablet, or mouse). You can make templates for repeated usage, and from such templates, you can create as many whiteboards as needed.
Pricing: Free
Mural
Mural is a revolutionary collaborative application that includes an infinite & resizable canvas possibility which enables you to choose the ideal canvas for your cooperation aims – flexibility without boundaries. You can Express your ideas visually or lead an interesting team-building activity with Noun Project, GIPHY, & Unsplash integrations. Users can submit ideas, action items, & more as a sticky note or text box — then change colors and cluster to uncover trends or solutions.
Mural is particularly strong as a collaboration tool, letting you create many "rooms" for your whiteboards, each with varying rights to limit access. You might have one space for your design team, one for your marketing team, and so on. You might also design rooms that correspond to certain projects.
Pricing: Mural Free allows 3 editable murals at a time. Team+ is US$9.99 per member/month with annual billing or US$12 with monthly billing. Visitor editing and workspace controls differ by plan; see Mural pricing.
WebWhiteboard
Web Whiteboard lets participants sketch and add notes without signing up. Anyone with the shared link can edit. Boards remain available for 24 hours; save them to a Miro account or export the result if you need a lasting record. See the sharing and saving instructions.
You will gain quick access to all of the basic tools like sticky notes and pen tools, and the boards you create will survive for 24 hours.
Pricing: Free
Whiteboard.fi
With live feedback and a quick overview of your students, Whiteboard.fi is an online shared board for your classroom. Engage the entire class, ask everyone to participate, and allow everyone to respond, even the reserved or reluctant students!
There are no downloads or installations required, and it works on all devices. Review the service’s privacy terms before using student information. Each person will have their own personal digital whiteboard, which they may use to draw, write, annotate, and more.
Tools like Insert photos, backdrops, arrows, shapes, and words are available on Whiteboard.fi. Additionally, it contains a Math Editor that has a visual interface and a mathematical keyboard that allows you to insert mathematical symbols, expressions, and equations.
- Free - $0
- Paid classroom features: see the official Whiteboard.fi site for the available options.
- Whiteboard.fi is designed around individual student responses reviewed by a teacher. Choose a shared-canvas tool instead when everyone must edit the same diagram.
