A Whimsical Review
First impressions of the white-boarding web app Whimsical, and how it stacks up against RealtimeBoard / Miro
Update 17 May 2019: Since this story’s publication on 12 Dec 2017, the app has received several updates, resolving many of the issues first reported here. I wanted to retain the original piece for journalistic reasons, so just added single-line notes in between the story, and a separate section for detailed updates at the end.
A cleaner version of this review, along with additional inputs can be found here.
TL;DR: Realtimeboard is now Miro. And I have switched to using Whimsical.
The Digital Nomad transition
Over the past few years, I’ve begun transitioning to browser based applications for my brainstorming & visual design needs. With browser based apps, I do not have to download bulky software and manage proprietary file extensions (that can only be viewed or edited with the same software). If I leave my heavy laptop home, and I need to work on something, I can use pretty much any device connected to the internet.
As someone who had been using powerpoint for sharing editable visualisations for years, when I found RealtimeBoard, I thought I hit the jackpot — the infinite canvas, sticky notes and arrows, huge selection of templates for ideation and real time collaboration were fun to use and easy to share.
With its beautiful visuals, I even began using it for all my visualisation needs — bye-bye bulky graphics software!
Recently, I received an invite to try out Whimsical — “the fastest way to express your ideas visually.” I was curious.
Whimsical describes itself as a “different diagramming app”. The website continues:
“Whimsical lets you focus on the idea rather than formatting. It keeps things simple, fast, and produces beautiful diagrams without any special effort.”
A minor hiccup
I used my invite link to create my account, and when I hit ‘Sign up’, here’s what a little birdie told me:
So this app works only on Chrome. Not a big deal, though it did cost me a few keystrokes and clicks. Just saying! (resolved: Safari and Firefox supported)
That strange conversation aside, the rest of the app experience was very smooth and intuitive. Although the value proposition of RealtimeBoard and Whimsical are different, the whiteboard analogy and drawing tools available are very very similar.
Comparing Whimsical with RealtimeBoard
It’s lightning fast: My broadband internet connection very conveniently ditched me when I began using Whimsical. Even though I was using my mobile phones’ data through a hotspot, Whimsical worked like a charm. Realtimeboard was not so kind. I’ve found, that on reloading tabs on any browser, RealtimeBoard is super slow, and many times loses its UI entirely. On my mobile data speed, it refused to reload.
The sticky notes: Whimsical lacks the cute stick notes that I absolutely loved in RealtimeBoard. What? But that’s no fun! But once you get over that, it makes sense why that isn’t really needed. This is a no-nonsense diagramming app to help you focus. (resolved: though the implementation is different; details in next section)
Shapes: All the basic shapes that you would find in any drawing editor are intact. There’s no speech bubble, but you do get a bracket shape, that comes with its own label. How many times have you had to use the { text and group it with another text box to recreate this?
Connecting the dots … err shapes: The connecting arrows of Whimsical are anything but whimsical. No curvy hand drawn type lines, but they come with own labels, saving you the headache of creating and aligning them separately (take that, RealtimeBoard!).
Alignment: One of the best features about RealtimeBoard is the ease with which you can align items on the board. It gives the user the option of selecting objects and aligning them the conventional way, and also offers contextual grids to help align individual shapes. Whimsical doesn’t provide so many alignment options, but the one it does provide is quite interesting. The guides that form around the bounding box of shapes when you drag them are an absolute delight! (resolved: traditional alignment options are now available.)
Extras: RealtimeBoard has a huge selection of templates including project plan, customer journey map, wireframes and business model canvas, just to name a few. (update: different templates are available; details in the next section)
Whimsical may not have templates, but it has a neat set of searchable icons that can be customised and labeled — something that’s not possible in RealtimeBoard.
Collaboration: RealtimeBoard scores a major point over Whimsical in the collaboration department. Multiple team members can edit the whiteboard in real time (hence the name!). Whimsical, right now only has the option of sharing the board without allowing editing capabilities. (update: team accounts are available)
Companion mobile app: RealtimeBoard has a companion app, Whimsical doesn’t (at least for now). I couldn’t navigate around the example board on my phone either.
Pricing: RealtimeBoard’s pricing is rather steep for even small teams — it’s free for individuals & teams upto 3 members, but for even one additional member, the pricing begins at a whopping $40/month. Whimsical is still in beta, and it’s not clear whether it’ll be free or freemium. (update: its freemium, and way cheaper)
It’s early days of course, and I’d love to see where the application is heading, and what it’s price structure will be like. But given its speed and no-nonsense sleek performance, I think I might jump ship (even without the sticky notes!)
(update: I jumped ship; and sticky notes are here)
Update: A sticky note
Since the addition of Wireframes and Sticky Notes, another key differentiator between the two applications has surfaced: Board types.
Both Whimsical and RealtimeBoard (now rebranded as Miro) limit the number of boards that a free user can create. However, while Miro allows the user to use a board for any purpose, Whimsical classifies each board: Flowchart, Wireframe, Sticky Notes and Mind Maps.
It appears that these different boards are individual applications, with different tools. So Sticky Notes are not available for Flowcharts and so on.
This board classification, at first stumped me. But it now appears sensible. The tools for each type of visualisation are different, and giving the user access to everything within a single board may overwhelm the user.
While I have gotten around to like this, there is one major issue: the board type cannot be changed. Once you have picked a board type, there’s no going back. Unfortunately, Whimsical doesn’t allow users to delete boards. So, for early users like me, users are stuck with the original board types. :(
Here’s the Whimsical board I created for this story.
Since Whimsical has limited the number of boards, I would like to remove this board from the public space and reuse it for my projects. But considering that anyone with the link could still view the board, I’m not sure if deleting this the link from this story would help.
Why I still use Whimsical
I use new applications every now and then, but most of them fall by the wayside. Whimsical is one such application that I am happy to have found early on and continue to use it.
Wireframes in Whimsical are especially powerful, with readymade components for rapidly creating wireframes.
In addition to all the great features, by far the biggest reason for me sticking to the app is the ability to export visualisations in high resolution— something Miro doesn’t provide.
The primary purpose of visualisation is to communicate ideas. Shareable links are great, but the ability to view them offline, and print them out are crucial for communicating and discussing ideas. And this is what makes Whimsical my go-to tool.
This story has undergone an update since it was originally published. I’m not sure if this type of update — retaining the original article with single-line notes and another section for detailed updates — works well for readers. What do you think? Did it feel organic, or was it disorienting or confusing? Let me know.
Also, if this review was helpful, clap your hands :)
