Looking for a Miro Alternative?
Miro is the enterprise online whiteboard — infinite canvas, deep templates, real-time multiplayer, and a cottage industry of integrations. Start Page HQ is the canvas widget that lives on every new tab — quick personal sketches alongside your notes, todos, and weather.
What People Love About Miro
Before we get into where Start Page HQ goes further, credit where it's due.
- An infinite collaborative canvas built for whole-team workshops, sprint planning, and design reviews.
- A deep template gallery — retros, journey maps, mind maps, flowcharts — with thousands of community templates.
- Real-time multiplayer with cursors, voting, timers, and video chat for facilitated sessions.
- A free tier with up to 3 editable boards plus paid plans starting around $8/user/month for unlimited boards.
- A serious integration ecosystem covering Jira, Notion, Slack, Zoom, and dozens more.
Where Start Page HQ Goes Further
Specific differences, not vague claims.
Personal, Not Team-First
Miro is built around shared boards, seats, and workspaces — overkill for a personal sketchpad. The Canvas widget is single-user and lives on your dashboard, perfect for thinking alone.
Lives on Every New Tab
Miro is a separate site you have to open and pick a board in. Start Page HQ ships a Canvas widget that's already there every time you open a new tab — sketch the idea, get back to work.
No Per-Seat Pricing
Miro charges per user per month, which adds up fast for hobbyists and freelancers. Start Page HQ is one flat price ($25/year or $49 lifetime) with everything included for one person.
Sits Alongside 50+ Other Widgets
Miro is its own product, opened in its own tab. Start Page HQ pairs the Canvas widget with notes, todos, calendar, news, weather, AI, and 45+ more — all on the same dashboard.
Multi-Page Dashboards
Build a "Thinking" page with Canvas, Notes, and QuickNote. Build a separate "Work" page with Tasks, Calendar, and links. Switch between them with a click.
Cross-Device Sync Built In
Sketches and dashboard layout sync across every browser and device automatically with any paid plan.
Side-by-Side Comparison
An honest line-by-line look at how the two stack up.
| Feature | Miro | Start Page HQ |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free, or ~$8/user/mo+ | $25/yr or $49 lifetime |
| Free tier | Yes (3 editable boards) | Free demo only |
| Per-user pricing | Yes | No |
| Infinite canvas | Yes | No |
| Real-time multiplayer | Yes | No |
| Template gallery (retros, mind maps, etc.) | Yes | No |
| Sticky notes / voting / facilitation tools | Yes | No |
| Free-form drawing | Yes | Yes |
| Image export (PNG / SVG) | Yes | Yes |
| Lives on every new tab | No | Yes |
| Chrome / Firefox / Safari / Edge | Web + apps | Yes |
| Native browser extensions | No | Yes |
| Cross-device sync | Included | Included |
| Multi-page dashboards | No | Yes |
| Notes, todos, RSS, weather alongside | No | Yes |
| AI tools (answers, translation, image) | No | Yes |
Widgets That Replace Miro
Drop these onto your dashboard and you've covered Miro's core features — plus a lot more.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Miro is built for whole-team facilitation with infinite boards, voting, templates, and integrations. The Canvas widget is for personal sketches — a single-user space for diagrams, mind maps, and visual notes that sit next to your todos and weather. Use Miro for collaborative workshops; use the Canvas widget for the sketches you'd otherwise do on paper.
No. The Canvas widget is single-user and lives on your personal dashboard. If you need to whiteboard with a team in real time, Miro is the right tool.
No. The Canvas widget is a free-form drawing surface, not a template gallery. For structured collaborative templates, keep Miro.
There is a free public demo at startpagehq.com/demo where you can try the Canvas widget and every other widget without signing up. Full access requires a paid plan: $25/year or $49 one-time. Both plans include all 50+ widgets, cross-device sync, and AI credits.
Yes. Start Page HQ has native extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, plus a hosted web app at startpagehq.com that works in any modern browser — same as Miro on the web.
Yes — many users do. Miro lives in its own tab for team boards, and the Canvas widget handles personal sketches that need to be one click away on the new tab.