livehuddle vs FigJam

The free, open-source FigJam alternative for meetings and workshops

FigJam is a polished, playful whiteboard that lives inside Figma, and a favourite for retros, brainstorms and team rituals. livehuddle covers that same ground, the sessions a team runs together, as free, open-source software that anyone can open from a link, no account or Figma seat needed.

At a glance

livehuddle vs FigJam: feature-by-feature comparison
Feature	livehuddle	FigJam
Price	Free, every feature	Free Starter plan with limits, then paid Figma seats
Open source	Yes, MIT-licensed	No, proprietary
Start without an account	Yes, create and run a session as a guest	An account to create files
Real-time multiplayer	Yes	Yes
Session tools	Timer, dot votes, polls, quizzes, estimates, Q&A and a facilitator baton	Timer, voting, music and widgets
Meeting in a place	Avatars walking round offices, team pods and halls	Cursors, cursor chat and emotes on the board
Programmatic access	REST API, a command line and an MCP server for AI tools, all free	A plugin and widget platform, and the Figma API

Which to pick

Why pick livehuddle

Free with no file limits and no seats: every feature, for everyone.
Open a link and start, no account needed, even to create a Space.
Meet on the board: everyone walks an avatar round a virtual office or team pod, with speech bubbles, a status and a cheer when it goes well.
Workshop tools built in: a facilitator role, a shared timer, dot-voting, live polls, planning-poker estimate cards, temperature checks, quizzes, an anonymous idea box and a Q&A board.
Participant links: the room adds stickies, writes and votes, and nobody can reshape the board by accident.
Run the meeting on the board: an agenda that starts the timer for each segment, a roll call, a random picker and decision records, plus around 190 emoji stickers and 32 word badges.
39 templates, from retrospectives in five formats to quizzes, party games and offices to walk round.
A free REST API, a command line and an MCP server, so scripts and AI assistants can read and change your Spaces.
MIT-licensed, with portable exports, so your sessions never depend on one vendor.

Where FigJam is the better pick

Your team designs in Figma, and you want boards that sit beside your design files and copy across into them.
A playful, polished feel: stamps, stickers, emotes, cursor chat and widgets.
A large community of plugins, widgets and templates.
FigJam AI, for generating boards, sorting and summarising sticky notes.

A board without the seat

FigJam is part of Figma, and that is its great strength for design teams: boards and design files share one home. For everyone else, it means accounts, a free plan with limits on shared files, and paid seats as the team grows. livehuddle has none of that. Anyone can open a Space without signing up, share a link, and work together in real time; a guest’s Space stays in their browser until they press Share, which syncs it in one step. There is no paid tier and no plan to introduce one.

Workshops built in

Running a session needs more than sticky notes. Every livehuddle board carries a Session strip with a shared timer, dot-voting and live polls, and one person can hold the facilitator baton so the room has a single host. Estimate cards run planning poker, a temperature check shows how the room feels, a quiz asks what it knows, and an idea box collects anonymous ideas until the reveal. There are templates for retrospectives in five formats, Lean Coffee and town hall Q&A, and comments and assigned actions keep the follow-ups with the board.

A Space to meet in

FigJam shows the room as cursors. livehuddle shows it as people: open a Space and you walk in as a character in your own colour, find the team round the meeting table, and talk it through in speech bubbles, with a wave, a cheer or a burst of confetti when it lands. Offices, team pods and an all-hands hall are ready to walk into, and you can build your own rooms from desks, sofas and a coffee machine.

Open at the edges

Any board exports as PNG, SVG, PDF or a portable JSON file, and any share link embeds as a live-updating iframe in a wiki or doc. For automation there is a free REST API with personal tokens, a command line, and an MCP server that lets AI assistants read and change your Spaces directly.

FigJam alternative FAQ

Is livehuddle really free compared with FigJam?

Yes. Every feature is free for everyone, with no file limits, no seats and no paid tier. The code is MIT-licensed.

Can I import my FigJam boards?

Not directly: there is no FigJam importer. You can bring a board across as a picture by exporting it from FigJam as a PNG and adding it to a tab as an image. For new sessions, start from one of the 39 templates.

Does livehuddle work with Figma?

Partly. A Figma file, prototype or board link sits on the board as a live embed, but nothing syncs or imports between the two. If your boards need to live beside your Figma design files, FigJam is the better pick.

Can my team join without accounts?

Yes. Share an editor link and anyone who opens it is in the Space with you, live cursors and all, without signing up. A Participant link lets people add stickies, write and vote without reshaping the board, and a view-only link just watches and walks. You can add a password or an expiry date to a link, and revoke it at any time.

See how it feels

No sign-up, nothing to install, free forever. Open a Space and judge for yourself.

Open a Space

Comparisons reflect each product’s general positioning and may change. Check FigJam’s own site for current details. Last reviewed 3 November 2026.

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