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Comparison · Collab

Excalidraw vs Nextcloud

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Excalidraw and Nextcloud — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Excalidraw vs Nextcloud: at a glance

FeatureExcalidrawNextcloud
SectorCollabCollab
Velocity score0.06.3
Sparks · 30d00
Top themeswhiteboard, embeddable-library, esm-migration, canvas-apiself-hosted, file-sharing, security-patches, webhooks
Last editorial update3mo ago13d ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Excalidraw?

Excalidraw's package went ESM-only in 0.18 — a big release, then 16 months of silence on this feed.

This feed tracks the embeddable @excalidraw/excalidraw package rather than the hosted app, so every entry is a library release aimed at developers integrating the canvas. Version 0.18.0 in March 2025 was the large one: command palette, multiplayer undo and redo, flowcharts, elbow arrows, scene search, image cropping, element linking, CJK fonts, and a move from UMD to ES modules that broke existing consumers. Earlier releases are smaller, mostly programmatic API surface and rendering fixes. Nothing has been captured since.

Read the full Excalidraw trajectory →

What is Nextcloud?

Nextcloud ships three patch lines in a day as 35.0.2 adds webhook metadata and a report API.

Nextcloud released 35.0.2, 34.0.5 and 33.0.10 on the same day, a month after the 35.0.0 major that swapped OnlyOffice for Euro-Office and added FrankenPHP support. The backports share a security-flavored core: a CSRF token on the share-accept endpoint, upload checks against session and share tokens, and logs that no longer leak sensitive data. 35.0.2 also adds richer node-webhook metadata, webhook-compatible comment events and an API for system-report sections.

Read the full Nextcloud trajectory →

Excalidraw vs Nextcloud: editorial side-by-side

Excalidraw logo0.0

Excalidraw's package went ESM-only in 0.18 — a big release, then 16 months of silence on this feed.

◆ Current state

This feed tracks the embeddable @excalidraw/excalidraw package rather than the hosted app, so every entry is a library release aimed at developers integrating the canvas. Version 0.18.0 in March 2025 was the large one: command palette, multiplayer undo and redo, flowcharts, elbow arrows, scene search, image cropping, element linking, CJK fonts, and a move from UMD to ES modules that broke existing consumers. Earlier releases are smaller, mostly programmatic API surface and rendering fixes. Nothing has been captured since.

◆ Where it's heading

The package's direction has been to expose more of the editor to host applications — API subscribers, programmatic element creation, viewport control, sidebar tabs — so Excalidraw can be embedded as a component rather than only used as a site. The ESM transition fits that: tree-shakable output matters to the teams shipping it inside their own products. With no releases captured in over a year, this source no longer says anything about current activity, which more likely reflects the crawl target than the project.

◆ Prediction

Insufficient data for a forward call from this feed: the last captured release predates the window by more than a year, so any prediction would be about the package's dormancy rather than Excalidraw's actual roadmap.

N
Nextcloud
COLLAB
6.3

Nextcloud ships three patch lines in a day as 35.0.2 adds webhook metadata and a report API.

◆ Current state

Nextcloud released 35.0.2, 34.0.5 and 33.0.10 on the same day, a month after the 35.0.0 major that swapped OnlyOffice for Euro-Office and added FrankenPHP support. The backports share a security-flavored core: a CSRF token on the share-accept endpoint, upload checks against session and share tokens, and logs that no longer leak sensitive data. 35.0.2 also adds richer node-webhook metadata, webhook-compatible comment events and an API for system-report sections.

◆ Where it's heading

The patch stream is still dominated by sharing permissions, resharer caps and encryption cache fixes, now applied across three supported branches at once. The small additions in 35.0.2, webhooks and the 'Unified Sharing Legacy Sync' groundwork, point to sharing being rebuilt under the hood and to more automation hooks for integrators. The 35 line is absorbing regressions from the major at a steady monthly pace.

◆ Prediction

Expect a 35.0.3 within a month continuing sharing and encryption fixes, with more of the unified-sharing work surfacing; the entries do not say when that rework becomes user-visible.

Alternatives to Excalidraw and Nextcloud

Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Excalidraw or Nextcloud.

See all Excalidraw alternatives → · See all Nextcloud alternatives →

Recent activity from Excalidraw and Nextcloud

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 14d agoNextcloudNextcloud 35.0.2: webhook metadata, sharing fixes, report API
  2. 14d agoNextcloudNextcloud 33.0.10: share CSRF fix and sharing backports
  3. 14d agoNextcloudNextcloud 34.0.5: share CSRF fix, log redaction, sharing backports
  4. 1mo agoNextcloudNextcloud 35.0.1: sharing fixes, encryption key-cache cap, sidebar API back
  5. 1mo agoNextcloudNextcloud 35: Euro-Office replaces OnlyOffice, FrankenPHP support ⚡
  6. 1mo agoNextcloudNextcloud 32.0.15: share expiration time correction
  7. 1y agoExcalidrawExcalidraw 0.18 drops UMD for ESM and adds flowcharts ⚡
  8. 1y agoExcalidrawDuplicate capture of the 0.18.0 release
  9. 2y agoExcalidrawPatch release fixes UMD build and arrow label bounds
  10. 2y agoExcalidrawDuplicate capture of the 0.17.3 patch
  11. 2y agoExcalidrawRelease 0.17 expands the programmatic canvas API
  12. 2y agoExcalidrawDuplicate capture of the 0.17 release

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Excalidraw and Nextcloud?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Nextcloud is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Excalidraw better than Nextcloud?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Nextcloud is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Excalidraw?

Top Excalidraw alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Excalidraw alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/excalidraw for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Nextcloud?

Top Nextcloud alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Nextcloud alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nextcloud for the full list with editorial commentary on each.