WBO
An open-source online collaborative whiteboard for real-time drawing, teaching, and design.
What is WBO?
WBO is an open-source online collaborative whiteboard that allows multiple users to draw together in real time on a shared virtual board. It solves the need for a simple, free, and easily deployable tool for collaborative drawing, teaching, and design work. The board state is persisted and updated instantly for all connected users.
Educators, designers, remote teams, and developers looking for a self-hostable whiteboard solution for real-time collaboration, teaching, or brainstorming sessions.
Developers choose WBO for its simplicity, ease of self-hosting, and real-time collaboration features without the complexity or cost of proprietary alternatives. It's lightweight, supports authentication, and can be deployed via Docker or Node.js with minimal configuration.
Overview
Online collaborative Whiteboard that is simple, free, easy to use and to deploy
Use Cases
Best For
- Remote teaching and interactive online classrooms
- Team brainstorming and collaborative diagramming sessions
- Creating shared art projects with multiple contributors
- Self-hosting a private whiteboard for internal team use
- Integrating a whiteboard into custom applications via self-hosting
- Educational tools for math or science instruction with real-time drawing
Not Ideal For
- Large-scale public events requiring thousands of concurrent users, as WBO's performance may not scale without significant configuration.
- Advanced design projects needing layers, custom brushes, or vector editing tools, since WBO offers only basic drawing functionality.
- Integrated collaboration suites that require built-in video conferencing or chat, as WBO is focused solely on the whiteboard.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Multiple users can draw simultaneously with updates instantly visible, as the README highlights real-time board updates for all connected users.
Deployment is straightforward with Docker or Node.js; the README provides clear commands for both containerized and direct setups, making it accessible.
Boards are automatically saved and restored, ensuring work is never lost, which is a core feature mentioned in the project description.
Supports JWT-based authentication with role-based access control, allowing secure, moderated boards as detailed in the Authentication section.
Cons
Lacks advanced features like layers, shape libraries, or custom brushes, making it less suitable for professional or complex design work.
SVG preview exports are not 100% faithful, as admitted in the README, which can be a drawback for precise archival or sharing needs.
Performance is capped by message rate limits (WBO_MAX_EMIT_COUNT), and increasing it risks denial of service, as noted in the configuration section.
Frequently Asked Questions
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