Excalidraw

Deploy Excalidraw on a VPS in One Click

Documentation, wikis & notes

Self-hosted virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn style diagrams, wireframes and flowcharts.

  • Ready in ~2 min
  • Free installation
  • We handle the setup
At a glance
Version
Latest (0.18)
Operating system
Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS
Minimum RAM
1 GB
License
MIT
Addressing
IPv4, IPv6
GitHub
134,000
Deployment~2 min
Open source & self-hosted
VPS plans

Choose a VPS plan for Excalidraw

Blazing-fast NVMe drives and powerful processors. Take a ready-made plan or build the configuration yourself.
Minex
Perfect for personal projects and small websites.
€3.20/mo
Save €0.80 per month

  • 1 vCPU core
  • 1 GB DDR5 RAM
  • 20 GB NVMe SSD
  • Full root access
  • 1 dedicated IPv4
  • 1 TB traffic
Basex
A great balance of power and affordable price.
€4.80/mo
Save €1.20 per month

  • 2 vCPU cores
  • 2 GB DDR5 RAM
  • 40 GB NVMe SSD
  • Full root access
  • 1 dedicated IPv4
  • 2 TB traffic
Most popular
Corex
For growing applications and businesses.
€7.20/mo
Save €1.80 per month

  • 4 vCPU cores
  • 4 GB DDR5 RAM
  • 50 GB NVMe SSD
  • Full root access
  • 1 dedicated IPv4
  • Unlimited traffic
Midex
Resources for high-load projects.
€9.60/mo
Save €2.40 per month

  • 4 vCPU cores
  • 6 GB DDR5 RAM
  • 60 GB NVMe SSD
  • Full root access
  • 1 dedicated IPv4
  • Unlimited traffic
Proex
Maximum power and scalability.
€12.00/mo
Save €3.00 per month

  • 6 vCPU cores
  • 8 GB DDR5 RAM
  • 70 GB NVMe SSD
  • Full root access
  • 1 dedicated IPv4
  • Unlimited traffic
Scalex
Resources for scaling.
€16.00/mo
Save €4.00 per month

  • 6 vCPU cores
  • 10 GB DDR5 RAM
  • 150 GB NVMe SSD
  • Full root access
  • 1 dedicated IPv4
  • Unlimited traffic
Maxex
A large reserve of power.
€44.00/mo
Save €11.00 per month

  • 8 vCPU cores
  • 16 GB DDR5 RAM
  • 200 GB NVMe SSD
  • Full root access
  • 1 dedicated IPv4
  • Unlimited traffic
Apex
The top configuration.
€79.99/mo
Save €20.00 per month

  • 16 vCPU cores
  • 32 GB DDR5 RAM
  • 400 GB NVMe SSD
  • Full root access
  • 1 dedicated IPv4
  • Unlimited traffic

What you can do with Excalidraw

Excalidraw is an open-source infinite-canvas whiteboard built for sketching diagrams, wireframes and flowcharts in a distinctive hand-drawn visual style. It's aimed at developers, product teams and technical writers who need to quickly externalize a system architecture, a UI flow or a brainstorm — not polished presentation graphics. Boards are stored as plain JSON (.excalidraw files), which makes them easy to version in Git alongside code and docs.

An Excalidraw installation on your own VPS gives you a private canvas under your own domain instead of relying on the public excalidraw.com instance, where anyone with a share link could technically reach your server. Running it self hosted also removes the browser storage limits of the free public app and lets you control exactly how long boards persist.

The applications screen of the control panel with one-click install

Excalidraw features

A server surrounded by app icons — applications running on a VPS

Beyond the core canvas, Excalidraw ships with a set of tools built specifically for technical sketching rather than generic drawing.

01

Hand-drawn shape style

Rectangles, arrows and freehand lines are rendered with a sketchy, whiteboard-like texture instead of clean vector edges.

02

Infinite canvas with zoom/pan

Layouts aren't constrained to a fixed page size, useful for sprawling architecture diagrams.

03

Local-first JSON format

Every board saves as a portable .excalidraw file that opens in any Excalidraw instance without a database.

04

Image and library embedding

PNG/SVG assets and reusable shape libraries (e.g. AWS, Azure icon sets) can be dropped directly onto the canvas.

05

Text and container binding

Labels stay attached to shapes and arrows when you move or resize them.

06

SVG/PNG export

Boards export as static images for embedding in docs, tickets or slide decks.

07

VS Code and Obsidian integration

.excalidraw files can be opened and edited directly inside these editors via community extensions.

08

Docker-based hosting for Excalidraw

The official client image runs as a lightweight static container, ideal for a VPS with minimal footprint.

Requirements

Which server to run it on

Minimum requirements for Excalidraw and the configuration worth starting with.
Minimum
  • CPU1 vCPU
  • Minimum RAM1 GB
  • Disk10 GB
Recommended
VPS Minex
  • CPU1 vCPU
  • Minimum RAM1 GB
  • Disk20 GB

Installation is free — you only pay for the server

Getting started

How to deploy Excalidraw

Three steps and the app is running on your server.
Step 1
Choose a server

Excalidraw's client is a static frontend, so even an entry-level VPS handles it comfortably; take a slightly larger plan only if you plan to add a collaboration/storage backend.

Step 2
Pick the app

Mark Excalidraw in the one-click list to install it on VPS via the pre-built Docker image, no manual build required.

Step 3
Get your credentials

Once deployment finishes, open the app URL — Excalidraw has no built-in login screen, so access control is handled at the reverse-proxy/network level, not inside the app itself.

Why us

Why Host Excalidraw on Leneex

Speed, protection and support you can rely on — on every plan, with no hidden limits.
Deployment speed
Excalidraw's client is a single lightweight container with no database dependency, so it goes from click to a working canvas in under a minute — there's no migration or seed data to wait on.
Free installation
Since a bare Excalidraw instance needs almost no server-side configuration, you get a fully working private whiteboard without paying anything for the setup itself — only the VPS resources you'd need anyway.
DDoS protection
If your team shares board links externally with clients or contractors, an exposed frontend URL is a predictable target; built-in DDoS protection keeps the canvas reachable during a flood without you having to front it with a separate CDN.
Control and support
Adding a real-time collaboration backend to Excalidraw means patching build-time environment variables and wiring a websocket room server — root access and API-level control let you do that yourself, and engineers are available if the container config gets stuck.
99.9% uptime with SLA compensation
A whiteboard that's down mid-workshop or mid-design-review breaks the meeting it was meant to support; a 99.9% uptime SLA with compensation keeps that risk off your team's plate.
Flexible payment
Teams testing self-hosted Excalidraw as a lightweight alternative to a paid diagramming SaaS can start on a card or crypto and switch to invoice billing once procurement gets involved — no plan lock-in either way.
What to choose

Excalidraw: Self-Hosted vs Cloud — Which to Choose

We compare cost, control over your data and limits, so the choice is an informed one.
Excalidraw+
Self-hosted on LeneexRecommended
Resources and limitsFree tier caps at 1 active scene; paid tier adds cloud storage quotas per subscriptionDedicated VPS resources, no per-workspace scene limits
Control and accessNo server access; managed entirely by Excalidraw, IncFull root access, custom domain, no vendor telemetry
Feature limitsIncludes cloud-saved boards, sharing permissions, voice hangouts and screensharing out of the boxFull editor, but no built-in cloud sync, voice chat or screensharing without extra setup
ScalingBound to per-seat pricing tier; scaling means adding paid seatsResize the VPS instantly as usage grows
Cost~$6–7 per user/month, cost grows with headcountFixed monthly VPS price regardless of team size
Who it fitsTeams that want managed cloud sync, voice collaboration and AI features without any server workTeams wanting a private, ad-free canvas under their own domain with full data control

Excalidraw+ exists as an official paid product with real cloud sync and collaboration tooling built in, so self-hosting isn't strictly "cheaper Excalidraw+" — it's a different trade-off. If your priority is data ownership, a custom domain and predictable fixed cost regardless of team size, self-hosted on a VPS wins; if you need turnkey live collaboration with voice/screensharing today, Excalidraw+ gets you there faster.

Frequently Asked Questions about Excalidraw on VPS

What people ask most about Excalidraw and our servers.

  • No — the base Excalidraw client doesn't require a database; boards are handled client-side and exported manually as .excalidraw JSON files unless you add a separate storage backend.

  • Yes — export any board from excalidraw.com as a .excalidraw file and open it in your self-hosted instance via File → Open, no import tooling or database migration needed.

  • Not on the base self-hosted image — the official client alone doesn't include a collaboration server, so real-time multiplayer editing needs an additional websocket component; check with the Leneex team whether the one-click template includes this.

  • Since Excalidraw itself is stateless and stores nothing server-side by default, resizing the plan doesn't risk board data — just export any boards you're actively working on beforehand as a precaution.

  • SSL provisioning for the app domain depends on the specific one-click template configuration; confirm with the Leneex team whether HTTPS is issued automatically or requires manual setup.

What's configured out of the box

The one-click deployment runs the official excalidraw/excalidraw Docker image — a static frontend container serving the whiteboard client, with no database or backend service attached by default. The container starts automatically and restarts on reboot.

Because the client is stateless server-side, boards are not saved to any server storage automatically — they live in the browser's local storage until you explicitly export them, which is worth flagging to your team before anyone starts relying on it for anything important.

First access

Open the app URL provided after deployment — Excalidraw has no login screen, admin panel, or default credentials, so there's nothing to authenticate into at the application layer. The exact domain/URL and any reverse-proxy access restrictions set up by Leneex should appear in your deployment details panel. If your instance needs to stay private, access control has to be enforced at the network or proxy level (IP allowlist, HTTP basic auth), since the app itself won't gate anyone out.

Collaboration and data persistence — read this before relying on it

The base image explicitly does not include real-time collaboration or cloud sharing — those features in the public excalidraw.com app run on Firebase infrastructure that isn't part of the self-hosted client. If your Leneex template bundles an additional collaboration/room server or persistent storage backend, that's an enhancement on top of the vanilla image.

Deploy Excalidraw in about 2 minutes

Choose a server — we do the rest: install, configure and send you the credentials.