# Excaliself vs Shiplog: which to pick

> Excaliself vs Shiplog: pricing, platforms, launches, upvotes and makers side by side on ProductsFarm, with notes on which to pick.

Canonical: https://productsfarm.com/compare/excaliself-vs-shiplog
Last updated: 2026-11-06

|  | [Excaliself](https://productsfarm.com/product/excaliself) | [Shiplog](https://productsfarm.com/product/shiplog) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | Self-hosted whiteboard for teams that keeps every drawing on your own server | Host release notes and in-app update feeds for your apps |
| Pricing | Open source | Freemium |
| Platforms | API, CLI, Web | API, Web |
| Categories | Design, Developer tools, Communication | Developer tools, Communication |
| Made for | development teams, self-hosting enthusiasts, small teams | indie developers, solo founders |
| Built with | [Astro](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/astro), [TanStack Start](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/tanstack-start), [Cloudflare](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/cloudflare), [PostgreSQL](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/postgresql), [Drizzle](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/drizzle), [Claude](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/claude), [Tailwind CSS](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/tailwind-css) | [SvelteKit](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/sveltekit), [Svelte](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/svelte), [Netlify](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/netlify), [Convex](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/convex), [PostHog](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/posthog), [Tailwind CSS](https://productsfarm.com/tech-stack/tailwind-css) |
| Upvotes | 0 | 0 |
| Website | [excaliself.com](https://excaliself.com/) | [shiplog.cc](https://shiplog.cc/) |

## About Excaliself

Excaliself is a self-hosted version of Excalidraw, the hand-drawn style whiteboard editor. It embeds the official Excalidraw canvas unchanged and adds the parts a team needs to keep drawings over time: accounts, a shared Team space, folders, search, a shared library and a trash can. Deleted drawings stay in the trash for 30 days. Every drawing, including pasted images, is stored in your own Postgres database.

Team members can open the same drawing and see each other's cursors and edits as they happen. A share link lets someone outside the team draw together without an account. Press ⌘K to search over drawings, folders and actions. Excalidraw+ users can import their scenes, collections and images with an API key, and .excalidraw files can be dropped into a sidebar folder.

The app runs from a Docker Compose file that starts the prebuilt app image and a Postgres container, on amd64 and arm64. The first visitor becomes the admin, and everyone else joins through a single use invite link. Optionally, members can connect an MCP client such as Claude Code or Claude Desktop with a personal access token to search, read and create drawings and manage folders, without an AI API key on the server. It is aimed at teams that want to run their own whiteboard server.

## About Shiplog

Shiplog is a tool for publishing product updates. Each app gets its own public changelog page at a clean URL, and updates are written in a markdown editor with GFM support and code blocks. A single dashboard lists all your apps and recent updates.

An embeddable widget adds a notification badge and updates feed to your product and tracks which updates users have read. The widget code is public on GitHub under the MIT license. A scoped REST API lets coding agents draft updates from git history, and drafts stay unpublished until you publish them.

The free plan covers one app with unlimited updates and shows Shiplog branding. Starter is a one-time payment of $49 USD for up to five apps and removes branding, and Pro is a one-time $99 USD for unlimited apps, API access and read analytics. It is aimed at indie developers who ship updates.

## Related

- [Excaliself](https://productsfarm.com/product/excaliself)
- [Shiplog](https://productsfarm.com/product/shiplog)
- [More comparisons](https://productsfarm.com/compare)