The Best Free Whimsical Alternative

What Is Whimsical app?

Whimsical was founded by Kaspars Dancis and Steve Schoeffel. It is a piece of software that allows users to collaborate visually online by using a drag and drop style interface. The digital collaboration tool encourages visual collaboration and ideation mainly via the use of mind maps, wireframes, documents, and flowcharts. 

Founded in 2017 and bootstrapped for 4 years, Whimsical recently raised $30 million in a Series A funding round in 2021 to further accelerate its growth after becoming profitable.

Dancis and Schoeffel created Whimsical to help individuals and teams improve their ideation phases digitally by using online mind maps and flowcharts. On Whimsical, teams can collaborate on brainstorming sessions in real-time and also organize projects by using a Kanban board.

Features of Whimsical

Whimsical has a few features which are mostly targeted at helping users collaborate and generate new ideas via brainstorming.

Whimsical’s mind map feature is designed to help you organize your thoughts and ideas. It is customizable and allows you to drag and drop elements to move your ideas around. You can collaborate in real-time on a shared mind map and also create internal links to other projects from your mind map.

Additionally, mind maps can also be shared as a view-only file for you to share your ideas with external guests.

Similar to the mind map feature, Whimsical also has a Flowchart feature which allows you to create flowcharts individually or with your team to help create better workflows and processes. You can also drag and drop individual elements on your flowchart to easily rearrange your processes.

Whimsical also has a Wireframe feature that allows you to create Wireframes individually or with your team. This feature includes design templates to help you get started on your design and also includes a library of icons that you can easily search for and use. This feature is best used if you’re drafting simple design blueprints as it’s easy to use and quite intuitive.

Besides its mind maps, wireframes, and flowcharts, Whimsical can also be used for project management. It uses a Kanban board to help you organize your projects and you will be limited to only this project view. Additionally, there is also a Docs feature to help you write notes and documentation for your projects.

Although this should suffice for organizing simple tasks and smaller projects, Taskade would be a better alternative if you’re looking for a project management tool because Taskade was built to help you organize projects regardless of size. Get started instantly with one of our customizable templates today.

What Is Whimsical Good For?

Whimsical is good as an online brainstorming tool. Their mind map, wireframe, and flowchart features are useful to help you visualize your ideas individually or as a team. However, as with other SAAS applications, there are limitations that come with Whimsical.

What Are Some Limitations of Whimsical?

Whimsical only has a Kanban board view for you to visualize and plan projects. This is a limitation when compared to Taskade which has multiple project views to help you plan and execute your projects. If you’re looking for a tool to help you plan your projects with ease, Taskade is the best free alternative to Whimsical.

Furthermore, we wouldn’t recommend Whimsical if you’re looking to collaborate and get things done because it doesn't have a built-in video call function. Taskade on the other hand offers free and unlimited chat and video conferencing built-in to every project so that you can communicate with your team without having to toggle between apps.

When it comes to communication, Taskade would be the better free alternative to Whimsical app because Whimsical’s chat function is clunky, and chats can get lost as your mind map grows in size.

Being a browser-based tool, one of the biggest challenges users face when using Whimsical is that it lags with bigger projects. There also have been instances of browsers crashing when using Whimsical to plan larger projects.

Though Whimsical is a good tool for you to brainstorm with, it’s just about what it does. Why limit yourself to just that when Taskade lets you brainstorm, collaborate, communicate, and more?

How Much Does Whimsical App Cost?

Whimsical offers its software in three different plans including the free Starter Plan, Pro Plan, and Organization Plan.

Whimsical Free Starter Plan

Whimsical’s Free Plan limits you to only 2 workspaces with up to 1000 items per workspace. An item would be any element that you create on your workspaces such as a folder, a block, a file, and more.

You also can have up to 10 guests on your files and folders.

Whimsical Pro Plan

Whimsical’s Pro Plan gives you unlimited free viewers for your projects and unlimited items on all of your workspaces. You also get access to priority support.

Whimsical’s Pro Plan starts at $10 monthly for each active user, which is steep compared to other similar applications.

Whimsical Organization Plan

Whimsical’s Organization Plan gives you security features that are ideal for larger businesses. These features include SCIM, and SAML SSO for easier and more secure access.

You are also guaranteed a 99.9% uptime.

The Organization Plan starts at $20 monthly per active user.

https://whimsical.com/pricing

What Is Taskade?

Taskade is an online productivity and collaboration tool that was founded by John Xie, Dionis Loire, and Stan Chang in 2017. The Y Combinator-backed startup aims to help remote teams and individuals get work done faster and smarter.

Taskade is where remote teams get work done. With Taskade, you can organize projects and tasks, change between multiple project views, automate repetitive workflows, collaborate via built-in video chat with your team, and more, via an all-in-one unified workspace. 

Get a headstart on your projects and find a suitable structure for your notes via Taskade’s versatile collection of templates. Simply choose from a wide variety of templates and add them to your projects to get started instantly!

Taskade is a supercharged productivity app that both individuals and teams can use to collaborate on projects in real-time.

Taskade is the best free Whimsical alternative. Get started instantly for free today.

Key Features of Taskade

• Project Views. Visualize your projects in several different ways. Cycle between the List, Mind Map, Org Chart, and Board views to work the way you want. 

  • List View. This is the default view on Taskade. Create new lists here.
  • Board View. This view lets you work horizontally like a Kanban board. Visualize your workflow and tasks in this full-width view.
  • Mind Map View. This view lets you work in a horizontal tree-structured manner and map out what you have in mind.
  • Action View. Work in table view and stay organized with your task due dates, and more.
  • Org Chart View. Break down larger tasks into smaller ones to help you get things done.

• Zoom In, Zoom Out. Get a bird’s-eye view of the workflow by zooming out on all project views, or zoom in to focus on a specific area.
• Fold/Unfold. Fold (collapse) a parent task/bullet element to hide its subtasks. Indent outline elements with ⌨️ Tab and unfold lists with ⌨️ Shift+Tab.
• Real-time Communication. Chat and video conference with your team while collaborating in real-time on the same page. 
• 500+ Templates. Choose from 500+ templates across 26 categories to improve your productivity and workflows. Customize existing templates or create new ones across your workspaces.
• Multi-Select. Select and format multiple blocks or bulk assign them as tasks to other team members. You can also copy, paste, or indent selected blocks.

• Customize Sub-Tasks. Customize the format of your sub-tasks at individual levels. Choose from headings, numbered lists, shapes, and more.
• Recurring Tasks. Add due dates with start and end times to tasks within your project and set them to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly.
• Move Tasks. Move and copy selected tasks to other projects across any workspace. You’ll receive a pop-up notification on completion.
• User Roles & Permissions. Manage collaborators and assign user roles/editing privileges (Owner, Admin, Editor, Checker, Viewer).

• Sort Tasks. Sort sub-tasks/children elements by completed/uncompleted stats or the due date. Task sorting can be accessed from a convenient pop-up menu.
• Search. Search within projects or globally across workspaces and subspaces. Instantly browse and jump between projects anywhere in the Taskade.
• Keyboard Shortcuts. Navigate projects, create content blocks, reorder elements, and complete tasks using a set of handy keyboard shortcuts.

• Team Calendar. Aggregate all tasks and projects in a shared calendar. The Taskade calendar integrates with Google (two-way), Apple, and Outlook. 
• Reorder Tasks. Lists in Taskade aren’t set in stone. Reorder tasks and find them a new home with intuitive drag-and-drop mechanics.
• Project History. See all the changes made by you and other collaborators. Click on the entries to navigate to the edited items within the project.
• Version History. Taskade saves snapshots of your project so that you can restore a previous version of your project with a single click.

• Export and Print. You can export your projects as plain text or markdown files. Attach them to emails, presentations, or for print.

• Cloud File Upload. Share files directly from Google Drive, Dropbox, Instagram, and Box in your projects with our integrations.
• Breakdown Larger Tasks. Organize your thoughts with Taskade’s unlimited hierarchy to break down large projects into tasks.
• Quick Search. Use CMD / CTRL + K to jump between any projects within Taskade web and apps.

For an exhaustive list of Taskade’s features, click here.

Taskade Pros

• Free-forever plan is loaded with features
• Real-time collaboration within the same project 
• Free built-in video call and chat function in each project
• Customizable templates to give you a headstart
• Work and chat in the same window, in the same app
• Frequent updates based on user/your feedback and suggestions
• Tabbed workflow for working with multiple Projects

Taskade Cons

• No custom APIs (yet)

Taskade Pricing

Taskade Free Plan

• Unlimited Tasks & Projects
• Unlimited Members & Guests
• Unlimited Folders & Teams
• Templates, Calendar, Repeat Tasks
• Real-time Collaboration
• Built-in Free Chat and Video Call

Taskade Unlimited Plan - Starts from $5/month

• Everything in Free, plus:
• Version History
• Advanced Permission
• Cloud Upload Integration
• 2-Way Calendar Integration

Click here for more information.

Is Taskade Right for You?

Taskade can be used by individuals and teams working from anywhere. Use Taskade individually or collaborate with your team for weekly agendas, team meetings, note-taking, project management, product roadmaps, and more. 

Make use of customizable board views to visualize your projects into digestible smaller tasks. Multiple board views are available even on Taskade’s free plan, allowing you to get more work done the smarter way. 

Collaborate with your team in real-time with free and unlimited chat and video conferencing available on every project. Automatic syncing ensures that your data is always up to date across devices.

Our customizable templates are available even with our free plan. Find the perfect template to help you get started with your project, and customize it to fit your needs!

Taskade is the simplest way to create task lists, checklists, and workflows. Manage projects and get more work done the simple way with Taskade.

Taskade is the best free Whimsical alternative. Try Taskade for free today.