# tldraw

10 Hacker News commenters recommended tldraw and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a quick, easy whiteboard for diagrams and sketches, also on mobile; the most common caveat is its closed contributions and test suite over AI slop concerns.

## Why people recommend it

- Enjoyable, long-running whiteboard use (4 comments): "I love tldraw and am excited to see the many ways the project goes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47092069)) "I've been a happy user of tldraw as a whiteboard for ages." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48941150)) "it's been delightful so far" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46868781))
- Quick, easy diagrams and sketches (2 comments): "tldraw.com is fantastic for quick+easy diagrams and works great on mobile" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48536772)) "Tldraw seems to be a better medium for this that mermaid." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48840381))

## What people warn about

- Closed contributions and test suite (3 comments): "Nothing says "closed for contributions" quite like not even having access to a test suite or CI to work with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47217741)) "The performative closing of public contributions citing the slop scare felt disingenuous from the start." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47164174)) "you're a freeloader. You not only accept contributions, but you keep them as proprietary code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46961560))
- Distrust of AI-slop reasoning (3 comments): "The performative closing of public contributions citing the slop scare felt disingenuous from the start." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47164174)) "it's frustrating when they can't own these decisions and try to hide behind it being a "joke"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47180104)) "it sounds like my suspicion was accurate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46923986))
- License changed, contributions kept proprietary (2 comments): "you're a freeloader. You not only accept contributions, but you keep them as proprietary code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46961560)) "they changed the license in 2023" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46917769))
- Missing features out of the box (2 comments): "still couldn't find what i was looking for out of the box" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49860737)) "Primarily the styling and a lack of symbols" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48567946))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Miro](https://hackerapproved.com/p/miro.md): 18 recommend
- [Apple Freeform](https://hackerapproved.com/p/freeform.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "tldraw", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tldraw/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).