Microsoft Whiteboard vs Freeform
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Microsoft Whiteboard
This app offers a freeform digital canvas for individuals and teams to brainstorm, create, and collaborate visually. It supports touch, type, and pen input, allowing for seamless real-time teamwork from anywhere. Your work is automatically saved to the cloud for easy access across devices.
- Infinite freeform canvas
- Real-time team collaboration
- Touch, type, and pen support
- Pre-built templates
- Shapes and lines library
- Sticky notes and notes grids
- Automatic cloud saving
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Update : The App performance has been significantly improved & there are also a ton of other features which have been added. Check out the “What’s new” section for more details!! Microsoft Whiteboard provides a freeform intelligent canvas where individuals & teams alike can ideate, create, and collaborate visually via the cloud. Designed for touch, type & pen, it lets you write or draw as smoothly as you would with ink, you can even type in text, add sticky notes or notes grid to express your ideas & use reactions to visually communicate your thoughts. It enhances teamwork by allowing all team members to edit the canvas in real time, no matter where they are. Get started quickly by inserting a pre-built template or draw your own flowchart using our expansive shapes library. No matter what your use case, we have the right set of tools for you and all your work stays safe in the cloud, ready to be picked back up from another location or device. -- Create freely, work naturally – Microsoft Whiteboard provides an infinite canvas where imagination has room to grow: draw, type, add a sticky note or a notes grid, move them around – it’s all possible. The touch-first, pen-first interface frees your ideas from the keyboard, and the intelligent inking technology transforms your doodles into great-looking shapes and lines that can be copied, pasted and combined with other objects. Moreover, you can also, ink on your sticky notes & text boxes and magically see the ink get converted to text using Apple Scribble functionality (on iPads with Apple Pencil). --Collaborate in real time, wherever you are— Microsoft Whiteboard brings every member of a team together working from their own devices across the globe. On the Whiteboard canvas, you can also see what your teammates are doing in real time and start collaborating on the same area. It’s about getting everyone on the same page – or board. --Save automatically, resume seamlessly – Forget having to take photos of your whiteboards, or marking them with “Do Not Erase.” With Microsoft Whiteboard, your brainstorming sessions are saved automatically to the Microsoft cloud, so you can pick up where you left off, whenever – and wherever – inspiration strikes next. What’s new: • Improved App Performance & Reduction in crashes which has been a strong customer ask. • Modern look and feel: 1. Streamlined user experience - an unobtrusive app UI maximizes your canvas space. 2. Creation gallery - a highly discoverable, simple way of finding and using objects and features in the application. • Interactive content features: 3. 40+ customizable templates – get started quickly and collaborate, brainstorm, and ideate with brand new templates. 4. Shapes & Lines - Choose from an expansive library of shapes & lines to visually collaborate & ideate with your team members 5. Reactions - provide lightweight, contextual feedback with a set of fun reactions. • Inking features: 6. Apple Scribble – Ink on text boxes & sticky notes and see your ink strokes magically convert to text (on iPads with Apple pencil) 7. Ink arrows – smoothly draw single and double-sided arrows using ink to better facilitate diagramming. Dichiarazione di accessibilità: https://www.microsoft.com/it-it/accessibility/declarations
Freeform
This app provides a flexible canvas for bringing ideas to life. It supports various file types, drawing tools, and shape libraries for creative projects. Real-time collaboration with multiple users is also a key feature.
- Flexible canvas for ideas
- Supports photos, video, audio, documents, PDFs, web links
- Drawing with finger or Apple Pencil
- Library of over 700 shapes
- Built-in document scanner
- Real-time collaboration with up to 100 users
- Integrated Messages and FaceTime
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Freeform is now part of Apple Creator Studio, an amazing collection of Apple’s most powerful creative apps designed to help you bring your ideas to life. The suite includes Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage — plus premium content and intelligence features* in Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and Freeform, all in one simple plan. Creating, viewing, and editing boards in Freeform, as well as collaborating in real time, does not require a subscription. Freeform is a great place to bring your ideas to life. Sketch out a project, design a mood board or start a brainstorming session on a flexible canvas that supports almost any kind of file. And with iCloud, all your boards stay in sync, whether you’re on your Apple Vision Pro, your Mac, your iPad or your iPhone. New Features For Apple Creator Studio Subscribers: • Explore high-quality photos, graphics, and illustrations for your document in the all-new Content Hub • Find inspiration faster with collections of new Apple-curated content in the Content Hub • Create stunning images and graphics right in your document, apply quick edits, or adjust the style using AI • Increase the clarity and detail of existing images and graphics using Super Resolution • Use Auto Crop to generate suggestions for how to frame your image Other New Features: • Organize Your Board with Tables. Arrange text, images, and content into flexible rows and columns • Present your ideas with Scenes, letting you save and jump to specific regions of your board Overview Unleash your creativity • Add photos, video, audio, documents, PDFs, web links, stickies and more anywhere on a Freeform board, perfect for creating a digital pinboard, collecting research for a school project or gathering inspiration for your home renovation. • Use your finger to draw anywhere on the canvas. Choose from a variety of brush styles and colors. • Create beautiful diagrams with a library of over 700 shapes and alignment guides to help make your document look just the way you’d like. • Scan paper documents with your iPhone or iPad’s built-in document scanner to archive documents and even annotate them if you’d like, directly on the board. Collaborate with others • Invite your friends or colleagues into your board for real-time collaboration. Freeform brings people together into a shared space for creativity, whether you’re at your desk or on the go. Easily invite others via email, link or Messages. • Brainstorm together with up to 100 collaborators in the same board. • Communicate with Messages or FaceTime. When you’re working on a board with others, you can jump into the associated Messages conversation or start a FaceTime call with your collaborators with a single tap. * Some features of Apple Creator Studio require an Apple Intelligence–capable device. For full system requirements and usage limits for Apple Creator Studio intelligence features, see Apple Support article 125029.
Screenshots
Verdict
Microsoft Whiteboard and Freeform both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 73% of Freeform's written reviews are positive against 36% of Microsoft Whiteboard's. Freeform also leads on ratings volume (440K vs 12K). Microsoft Whiteboard's advantage is update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Microsoft Whiteboard against 4.6 for Freeform. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Freeform has 440K ratings behind it against 12K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 36% of Microsoft Whiteboard's written reviews are positive against 73% of Freeform's.
Microsoft Whiteboard ships an update every 6 weeks, Freeform every 3 months. Both last shipped on September 29, 2026.
| Parameter | Microsoft Whiteboard | Freeform |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (12K ratings) | 4.6 (440K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 36.1% of reviews | 72.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 12K | 440K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Microsoft Corporation | Apple |
Customer experience
Microsoft Whiteboard
Freeform
User reviews
Microsoft Whiteboard
From 12K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Convenient collaboration
- 💡 Versatile canvas
- 🎨 Good customization options
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy and unstable
- 🤯 Poor UI/UX design
- 🔍 Lack of basic features
- 🔌 Connectivity issues
- 💤 Laggy performance
Freeform
From 440K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great for note-taking and organizing
- 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
- 🎨 Excellent for creative projects
- 💡 Useful for brainstorming and mind mapping
- 🤝 Helpful for collaboration and sharing
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and glitches
- 🔋 Drains battery quickly
- 🤔 Laggy performance, especially with complex boards
- 🤷♀️ Lack of organizational features like folders
- 📦 Issues with syncing and sharing boards
Bugs and requests
Microsoft Whiteboard
Reported bugs
4 issues- Frequent crashes and freezes
- Unsaved work loss
- Unreliable sync and loading
- Inconsistent behavior across devices
Requested features
6 requests- Add offline support
- Improve palm rejection
- Implement handwriting recognition
- Allow font and color customization
- Add locking/anchoring options
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- Enhance sharing and export capabilities
Freeform
Reported bugs
4 issues- Boards randomly disappearing or not syncing properly
- Writing and drawing becoming unresponsive or laggy
- Overlapping and misaligned elements after editing
- Inability to rotate or resize objects accurately
Requested features
5 requests- Add dark mode option
- Improve Apple Pencil integration with pressure sensitivity
- Implement undo/redo shortcuts
- Allow for grouping and aligning of objects
- Add more shape and text formatting options
In-app purchases
Microsoft Whiteboard
No in-app purchases
Freeform
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Microsoft Whiteboard free?
Is Freeform free?
Which has better reviews, Microsoft Whiteboard or Freeform?
Do Microsoft Whiteboard or Freeform have ads?
Which is updated more often, Microsoft Whiteboard or Freeform?
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