Alexis Kestler
Hey there! As a technology geek and digital workspace expert, I‘m thrilled to share my in-depth comparison of FigJam and Miro. These popular virtual whiteboarding tools can transform team collaboration – but which one is right for your needs?
Stick with me through this 3000+ word showdown as I contrast FigJam and Miro across 7 key factors:
- User experience
- Ease of use
- Collaboration capabilities
- Customization options
- Template availability
- Integrations
- Pricing
By the end, you‘ll have all the nitty-gritty details to decide if FigJam or Miro better fits your use case. Let‘s dive in!
A Quick Intro to FigJam and Miro
Before we start comparing features, let me give you a quick overview of what exactly FigJam and Miro are.
What is FigJam?
FigJam is an online whiteboard space created by Figma – a leading interface design tool. It brings Figma‘s powerful design environment together with real-time team collaboration capabilities.
The goal of FigJam is to facilitate brainstorming, planning, and ideation for design teams. It makes it simple to sketch interfaces, diagrams, wireframes, and more together in real-time.
FigJam delivers a lightweight, flexible platform centered around creativity.
What is Miro?
Miro is a broader digital workspace aimed at visual collaboration across teams. With an emphasis on virtual whiteboard creation, Miro provides a diverse toolkit for ideation, planning, documentation, and mapping.
Unlike FigJam‘s focus on design teams, Miro targets a broader audience. It wants to be the online hub where cross-functional teams collaborate and innovate together.
Miro offers more expansive features than FigJam, but with a more complex interface. It‘s built to scale from simple brainstorms up through complex project coordination.
Now that you‘ve got the gist of each tool, let‘s move onto the detailed comparisons!
FigJam vs Miro: User Experience and Interface
The user experience and interface of a virtual whiteboard platform can impact adoption and effectiveness. Let‘s see how FigJam and Miro stack up.
FigJam‘s User Experience
As a design-oriented platform, FigJam delivers a lightweight, flexible interface. The minimalist editor makes it easy for anyone to start sketching ideas out.
FigJam uses icons, connectors, shapes, and other illustrations to simplify diagramming. The drag-and-drop functionality also streamlines mapping things like user flows and wireframes.
For designers, FigJam feels like a natural extension of tools like Figma or Sketch into a collaborative space. The experience stays focused on creative work rather than overwhelming with features.
Miro‘s User Experience
In contrast, Miro adopts a "digital workspace" approach. Instead of just focusing on whiteboarding for design, it wants to be the online hub for all team collaboration.
As a result, Miro offers a diverse toolkit spanning documentation, visualization, modeling, and more. There are tons of features and customization options.
This versatility comes at the cost of complexity. Miro has a steeper learning curve than FigJam before you can utilize its full capabilities.
But the wide feature set also means Miro can handle more diverse use cases once mastered. It provides breadth lacking in FigJam‘s more purpose-built interface.
The Verdict
For user experience, FigJam wins for simplicity while Miro provides more power. Choose FigJam if you want an easy-to-grasp design workspace. Choose Miro for advanced customization across broader applications.
Both tools offer pros and cons. Select the user experience aligning best with your team‘s needs.
FigJam vs Miro: Ease of Use
In addition to user experience, these tools should make collaborating easy. Let‘s compare FigJam and Miro‘s learning curves.
Ease of Learning FigJam
FigJam offers a simple, intuitive editor that‘s easily accessible to teams. Between the minimalist UI and drag-and-drop editor, it‘s straightforward to start collaborating.
FigJam uses playful animations and graphics to create an engaging, game-like environment. This helps teams get comfortable and productive faster.
The streamlined functionality means there are fewer features to learn. Less experienced users can contribute right away without a steep ramp-up.
According to Figma‘s 2021 report, 87% of respondents agreed FigJam was easy to use. The data backs up its simplicity.
Ease of Learning Miro
With more extensive features, Miro sacrifices some simplicity. Most users need training and practice before leveraging its full capabilities.
Complex use cases like journey mapping require learning niche tools and customization options. The broader toolkit means a steeper learning curve.
But, the wide functionality also empowers tackling more diverse team goals once mastered. There‘s less need for supplemental software compared to FigJam.
The Verdict
FigJam wins for simplicity and faster onboarding. Less experienced users can ramp up quicker. Miro offers greater breadth long-term but at the cost of early complexity.
Pick Miro if you need versatility. Pick FigJam if dead-simple collaboration is crucial.
FigJam vs Miro: Real-Time Collaboration
Virtual whiteboarding thrives on real-time co-creation. Let‘s see how FigJam and Miro enable teamwork.
FigJam for Live Collaboration
FigJam allows multiple people to edit and contribute to a canvas simultaneously in real-time. Changes sync across the team for seamless co-creation.
Built-in comments and voice chat make it easy to discuss ideas inline vs chasing content across tools. You can brainstorm fluidly without leaving the workspace.
FigJam also connects directly to Figma for execution. This creates a smooth handoff from whiteboarding concepts to designing them.
Miro for Live Collaboration
Miro also facilitates live teamwork across multiple boards and projects simultaneously. This flexibility helps divide initiatives into workstreams.
Miro offers multi-point touch support for interactive sessions using smart devices and touchscreens. The advanced capabilities expand possibilities during live workshops.
The broader feature set provides more options to engage teammates during collaboration, from documents to videos and more.
The Verdict
It‘s a tie for real-time collaboration. Both FigJam and Miro deliver excellent support for live teamwork and co-creation. Select based on complementary features vs weaknesses here.
FigJam vs Miro: Customization
Customizing digital whiteboards to specific needs is crucial. Let‘s contrast FigJam and Miro‘s options.
Customizing With FigJam
FigJam provides intuitive building blocks for customizing whiteboards:
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Shapes and frames: Easily add and tune shapes to compartmentalize information
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Sticky notes: Jot down ideas on digital stickies that can be moved around
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Images and drawings: Upload graphics or doodle ideas for more visual collaboration
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Text formatting: Make key headings pop through formatting options like color and size
While more constrained than Miro, these basic parts allow tailoring whiteboards simply. FigJam‘s templates provide helpful starting points too.
Customizing With Miro
Miro offers extremely robust customization capabilities:
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Massive shape and component library: Every element is tunable and customizable
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Import external files: Pull in materials from Google Drive, Dropbox, etc to enrich boards
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Diverse templates: Choose from hundreds of templates spanning different use cases
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Codes and widgets: Embed functional web apps and tools through codes and widgets
Miro‘s breadth of building blocks blows FigJam‘s out of the water. You can create intricately customized boards through its toolbox.
The Verdict
Miro wins hands down for customization. Its wider range of elements and tools empower creation for diverse use cases. FigJam offers simpler yet more constrained options.
FigJam vs Miro: Templates
Let‘s shift gears to discuss the template options provided in each platform.
FigJam‘s Templates
FigJam includes some basic templates for things like:
- Wireframes
- Flowcharts
- Mind maps
- Design sprints
- Agile boards
These templates provide helpful starting points, especially for design workflow. But expect a narrower range focused on ideation and planning.
FigJam keeps templates limited to reinforce simplicity. Complex pre-built boards don‘t align with its minimalist ethos.
Miro‘s Templates
Miro offers a vast, diverse template library spanning:
- Brainstorming
- Strategy
- Mapping
- Planning
- Documentation
- Data visualization
- Prototyping
Whether you‘re gathering ideas, planning a project, or creating a report, Miro likely has tailored templates to kickstart progress.
The templates speed starting complex projects vs building from a blank board. Their breadth underscores Miro‘s versatility.
The Verdict
Miro wins for more templates and breadth of use cases. FigJam‘s templates stay simpler and focused on design workflow.
FigJam vs Miro: Integrations
Let‘s move onto how FigJam and Miro integrate with other apps. Integrations expand functionality by connecting tools you already use.
FigJam‘s Integrations
FigJam offers some core integrations with tools like:
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Slack: Collaborate and share FigJam boards within Slack channels.
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Jira: Preview Jira tickets and link out from FigJam boards.
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Github: Integrate with Github workflows like viewing, creating, and closing issues.
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Dropbox: Easily access Dropbox files from within FigJam for referencing and sharing.
These handy integrations streamline cross-tool workflow for design teams. But expect a lighter offering targeted to core collaborative apps vs Miro‘s broader third-party support.
Miro‘s Integrations
With over 130+ integrations, Miro connects to a diverse array of apps:
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Communication: Slack, Zoom, Teams, Google Hangouts
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Productivity: Confluence, Notion, Office 365, Google Workspace
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Project management: Jira, Trello, Asana
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Code tools: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket
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Business apps: Salesforce, Smartsheet, Adobe Creative Cloud
This flexibility helps Miro slot into a huge variety of tech stacks seamlessly. The breadth matches its goal as a centralized collaboration hub.
The Verdict
Miro wins for number of integrations. With 130+ apps supported, it handily beats FigJam‘s lighter offering optimized for design.
FigJam vs Miro: Pricing
Let‘s wrap up our comparisons with a look at pricing. Cost can be a key decision factor when choosing collaboration software.
FigJam‘s Pricing
FigJam delivers both free and paid plans:
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Free tier: Get core features, unlimited users, and 3 file storage
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Pro plan: $3/user/month. Adds team libraries, version history, premium fonts, etc.
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Organization plan: Bulk discounts at volume. Great for larger teams.
FigJam keeps pricing affordable by focusing on core whiteboarding capabilities over advanced features. The budget-friendly plans appeal to cost-conscious users.
Educational, nonprofit, and student access are also available for free. This makes FigJam accessible to teams without big budgets.
Miro‘s Pricing
Miro also provides free and paid offerings:
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Free tier: Unlimited users, 3 editable boards, and core features
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Team plan: $8/user/month. Unlimited boards, events, integrations, and more premium features.
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Enterprise plan: $16/user/month annually. Adds single sign-on, data control, onboarding support.
While cheaper than some rivals, Miro sits at a higher price point than FigJam for comparable team functionality. The broader feature set comes at an increased cost.
The Verdict
FigJam wins on pricing by keeping plans affordable through simplicity. For budget-minded teams, FigJam provides excellent value.
Miro offers far more capabilities but at 3-4x the cost of FigJam for access to premium functionality.
Key Takeaways: Choosing Between FigJam and Miro
We‘ve covered a ton of comparisons! Let‘s recap the key differences between FigJam and Miro:
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FigJam wins for simplicity, design focus, and budget-friendly pricing.
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Miro wins for customization breadth, complex project support, and integrations.
Pick FigJam if you need an intuitive, affordable design workspace for ideation and creation.
Pick Miro if you require versatility for diverse team goals or already use a sophisticated tech stack.
Of course, every team‘s needs are unique. So take the areas that matter most and let them guide your decision.
I hope mapping out these in-depth comparisons gives you clarity picking between FigJam vs Miro. Feel free to reach out if any questions pop up along your decision journey! I‘m always happy to chat more.
Excited to hear which collaboration platform you end up choosing for your team!
