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Comparison · Collab
Excalidraw vs SiYuan
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Excalidraw and SiYuan — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Excalidraw vs SiYuan: at a glance
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.
What is SiYuan?
SiYuan 3.8.9 reaches RC, adding AI-agent extraction of images embedded in PDFs.
SiYuan moved 3.8.9 from beta.6 to rc.1 on Oct 28. The RC's only new item is AI-agent extraction of images embedded in PDFs; the rest of its long list matches beta.5's cumulative notes: pinned agent sessions, backlink filtering by database fields, block-reference collection through database automation, resizable table rows, mind-map themes and node copy/paste, TIFF previews and macOS proxy detection.
Excalidraw vs SiYuan: editorial side-by-side
Excalidraw
0.0COLLAB
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.
SiYuan
5.0COLLAB
SiYuan 3.8.9 reaches RC, adding AI-agent extraction of images embedded in PDFs.
◆ Current state
SiYuan moved 3.8.9 from beta.6 to rc.1 on Oct 28. The RC's only new item is AI-agent extraction of images embedded in PDFs; the rest of its long list matches beta.5's cumulative notes: pinned agent sessions, backlink filtering by database fields, block-reference collection through database automation, resizable table rows, mind-map themes and node copy/paste, TIFF previews and macOS proxy detection.
◆ Where it's heading
The 3.8.x line keeps turning databases and mind maps into structured tools that act on the block graph, and the built-in agent is gaining reach into document content such as PDFs. The release cadence is fast and noisy, with most builds repeating the same cumulative notes.
◆ Prediction
A stable 3.8.9 is likely within days, with little added beyond fixes now that it has reached RC.
Alternatives to Excalidraw and SiYuan
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 SiYuan.
KACE
KACE extends its PHP2SHELL fix to the SDA deployment appliance, six days after disclosure.
Mattermost
Mattermost v12 puts user-scoped permissions, private models and audit trails on every agent action.
AFFiNE
AFFiNE's canaries stay on upkeep: a Swift Collections bump follows CVE and migration fixes.
Teable
Teable's Structured Query v2 now reports across multi-hop relations, with a strict mode against SQL.
Readwise
Readwise splits its bundle into Reader-only and Highlights-only plans and renames its first app.
See all Excalidraw alternatives → · See all SiYuan alternatives →
Recent activity from Excalidraw and SiYuan
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 RC1: AI agent extracts images from PDFs
- 1d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 6 (same notes as beta 5)
- 1d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 5: full notes incl. pinned agent sessions
- 2d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 4 improves LaTeX paste and import
- 2d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 3 (same notes as beta 1)
- 2d agoSiYuanSiYuan 3.8.9 beta 2 (same notes as beta 1)
- 1y agoExcalidrawExcalidraw 0.18 drops UMD for ESM and adds flowcharts ⚡
- 1y agoExcalidrawDuplicate capture of the 0.18.0 release
- 2y agoExcalidrawPatch release fixes UMD build and arrow label bounds
- 2y agoExcalidrawDuplicate capture of the 0.17.3 patch
- 2y agoExcalidrawRelease 0.17 expands the programmatic canvas API
- 2y agoExcalidrawDuplicate capture of the 0.17 release
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Excalidraw and SiYuan?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 SiYuan?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. SiYuan is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 SiYuan?
Top SiYuan alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "SiYuan alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/siyuan for the full list with editorial commentary on each.