# Miro's $1.355B Sale to Bending Spoons: The Best Whiteboard Alternatives If You're Hedging Your Bets

> Bending Spoons agreed to buy Miro on September 10, 2026 — the same acquirer whose Evernote, WeTransfer and Harvest deals were followed by steep price hikes and mass layoffs. Seven whiteboard alternatives, ranked on how exposed each one actually is to that playbook.

By Kate B. · Published 2026-09-28 · Updated 2026-09-28 · 12 min read · https://innvesti.com/reports/miro-bending-spoons-acquisition-whiteboard-alternatives-2026/

## Quick answer

Miro, the visual-collaboration whiteboard used by more than 100 million people, agreed on September 10, 2026 to be acquired by Bending Spoons for $1.355 billion; Excalidraw is the top pick for anyone who wants structural insurance against the price hikes and layoffs Bending Spoons has followed through on at Evernote, WeTransfer and Harvest, while Cnvs.app is the top pick for a genuinely free, no-account canvas with no paid tier for a new owner to ever raise.

## Key takeaways

- Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Miro for $1.355B in enterprise value (about $1.79B in equity value including net cash) on September 10, 2026; the deal is expected to close in Q4 2026 pending regulatory approval, and both companies say they will operate independently until then.
- This was Bending Spoons' second acquisition announcement inside a week: it closed its $1.285B purchase of Airtable on September 4, 2026, six days before the Miro deal was announced.
- Bending Spoons has a documented pattern: it laid off roughly 75% of WeTransfer's staff after acquiring it in 2024 (TechCrunch), cut Evernote's headcount and curtailed its free plan after acquiring it in 2022, and Bloomberg reported in August 2026 that some Harvest customers' bills rose more than 10x after Bending Spoons moved the tool to usage-based pricing.
- Excalidraw ranks first for anyone hedging against this specific risk: it is MIT-licensed and self-hostable, so even in the worst case the free product cannot be revoked by a new owner — you can keep running your own copy indefinitely.
- Cnvs.app ranks second: it has no paid tier at all today, so there is no subscription price for a future owner to raise, though as a smaller, closed-source product its long-term durability is not guaranteed the way open-source code is.
- Bending Spoons went public on Nasdaq (ticker BSP) on July 1, 2026, raising $1.68B, and has stated an ambition to keep acquiring software companies at scale.

## Key figures

- **$1.355B** — Bending Spoons' enterprise-value offer for Miro, announced September 10, 2026 (Bending Spoons investor relations)
- **Sept 4, 2026** — Date Bending Spoons closed its $1.285B acquisition of Airtable, six days before the Miro deal (Bending Spoons investor relations)
- **75%** — Share of WeTransfer's staff Bending Spoons laid off after its 2024 acquisition (TechCrunch)
- **10x+** — Reported increase in some Harvest customers' bills after a switch to usage-based pricing (Bloomberg, August 13, 2026)

## Ranked

1. **Excalidraw** — Best structural insurance against an acquisition-driven price hike. https://excalidraw.com
2. **Cnvs.app** — Best genuinely free canvas with no paid tier for a new owner to raise. https://cnvs.app
3. **tldraw** — Best drawing performance with no cap and no account. https://tldraw.com
4. **FigJam** — Best for teams already living in Figma. https://www.figma.com/figjam
5. **Mural** — Closest Miro substitute for live workshop facilitation. https://mural.co
6. **Lucidspark** — Best whiteboard-to-diagram handoff. https://lucid.app/lucidspark
7. **Conceptboard** — Most GDPR-focused option with private boards on the free plan. https://conceptboard.com

## Comparison

| Tool | Exposure to an acquisition-style price hike | Free tier (real cap) | Account required? | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Excalidraw | Lowest — open source, self-hostable, forkable if the company ever changed terms | Unlimited, no board cap | No | Structural insurance against a future price hike |
| Cnvs.app | Low today — no paid tier exists to raise, but closed-source | Free forever, no disclosed cap | No, either side | Genuinely free canvas with nothing to monetize later |
| tldraw | Low — open source (MIT) core, no paid tier for end users | No cap, no paid tier for end users | No | Best drawing performance, dev-friendly |
| FigJam | Moderate — large public company, no acquire-and-hike history | 3 shared files, unlimited personal | Yes | Teams already living in Figma |
| Mural | Unclear — privately held, venture-backed, no documented pattern yet | 3 murals, unlimited members | Yes | Closest Miro substitute for facilitation |
| Lucidspark | Unclear — privately held | 3 boards, 60 shapes/doc | Yes | Whiteboard-to-diagram handoff |
| Conceptboard | Unclear — privately held | 3 boards, 100 objects each | Yes | GDPR-first teams needing private boards free |

## FAQ

### Is Miro shutting down or changing right now?

No. Bending Spoons and Miro both stated that until the transaction closes, expected in Q4 2026 pending regulatory approval, the two companies continue to operate independently. Nothing about pricing, the free plan or the product itself has been announced to change yet; the risk this article covers is what has historically happened after Bending Spoons deals close, not anything confirmed for Miro specifically.

### Who is Bending Spoons and why does a Miro user need to know?

Bending Spoons is an Italian software holding company, public on Nasdaq under ticker BSP since July 1, 2026, that has built its business by acquiring consumer and productivity apps — Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo, AOL, Harvest, Airtable and, pending, Miro. It agreed to buy Miro for $1.355 billion in enterprise value on September 10, 2026, six days after closing its $1.285 billion purchase of Airtable.

### Has Bending Spoons raised prices after previous acquisitions?

Yes, repeatedly and publicly. Bloomberg reported on August 13, 2026 that some Harvest customers' bills rose more than 10 times over after Bending Spoons switched Harvest from flat per-seat pricing to usage-based fees. TechCrunch reported that Bending Spoons laid off roughly 75% of WeTransfer's staff after its 2024 acquisition and capped WeTransfer's free plan at 10 transfers per month; Evernote's headcount was cut and its free tier curtailed after Bending Spoons acquired it in 2022, which Bending Spoons' CEO has disputed, saying free-user value "almost every time" increased.

### What's the best Miro alternative if I'm worried about a future price hike?

Excalidraw is the strongest structural answer: it's MIT-licensed and self-hostable, so the free product can't be revoked by a future owner the way a hosted free tier can. Cnvs.app is the strongest answer if you want something with no paid tier at all today, though as a closed-source product it doesn't carry the same self-hosted fallback guarantee.

### When does the Bending Spoons acquisition of Miro actually close?

Bending Spoons and Miro both stated the deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Nothing changes for current users before then, according to both companies' public statements.

### Can I avoid this risk entirely by self-hosting my own whiteboard?

Yes, if you use an open-source tool. Excalidraw and tldraw are both MIT-licensed, so you can run your own instance indefinitely regardless of what happens to the company behind the hosted version. Closed-source free tools, including Cnvs.app, Miro and Mural, don't offer that fallback because there's no code to self-host.

### What other companies has Bending Spoons acquired?

Its portfolio includes Evernote (2022), Meetup (2024), WeTransfer (2024), Vimeo (2025), Brightcove (2025), Harvest, AOL (2026), Eventbrite (2026), Airtable (September 2026) and, pending regulatory approval, Miro (announced September 2026). It has laid off substantial portions of staff at several of these companies after closing, including roughly 75% at WeTransfer.

### Did Google's Jamboard shutdown push people toward Miro before this?

Yes. Google permanently retired Jamboard on January 1, 2025 and recommended Miro, FigJam and Lucidspark as replacements. Some of the same users who migrated to Miro's free tier after that shutdown are now the audience directly affected by the Bending Spoons acquisition news.

## How we evaluated

We verified the Miro acquisition terms, announcement date and expected closing timeline directly against Bending Spoons' own investor-relations press release and Miro's company blog post, both dated September 10, 2026, and cross-checked the deal value against independent coverage (PYMNTS). Bending Spoons' post-acquisition track record — the Harvest pricing changes, WeTransfer layoffs and Evernote free-tier cuts — is drawn from named, independent reporting (Bloomberg, TechCrunch and investigative outlet Follow the Money), not from Bending Spoons' own materials, and we note where the company has publicly disputed the framing. We then ranked alternatives specifically on structural exposure to that pattern — whether the free product depends on one company's pricing decisions, and whether open-source code offers a self-hosted fallback — alongside the usual criteria of real free-tier caps, signup friction and facilitation depth. No acquisition, layoff or pricing figure in this report is estimated; each is attributed inline to a named source.

- Structural exposure to an acquisition-driven price hike: open-source/self-hostable vs. hosted-only, and whether a paid tier exists for a future owner to raise
- Real free-tier caps and signup friction, verified against each vendor's own pricing or product page
- Facilitation and feature depth for teams that would only migrate reluctantly (timers, voting, templates, diagram handoff)
- Evidence quality: acquisition and pricing claims sourced to named, independent reporting rather than vendor or aggregator claims

## Sources

- [Bending Spoons — Agreement to acquire Miro (investor relations)](https://investors.bendingspoons.com/newsroom/bending-spoons-agrees-to-acquire-miro)
- [Bending Spoons — Completion of the Airtable acquisition (investor relations)](https://investors.bendingspoons.com/newsroom/bending-spoons-completes-acquisition-of-airtable)
- [Miro — "Miro + Bending Spoons: Building for the Long Term" (company blog)](https://miro.com/blog/miro-bending-spoons/)
- [PYMNTS — Bending Spoons' acquisition of Miro](https://www.pymnts.com/news/acquiring/2026/bending-spoons-pays-1-billion-dollars-collaboration-firm-miro/)
- [TechCrunch — Bending Spoons to lay off 75% of WeTransfer staff after acquisition](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/08/bending-spoons-plans-to-lay-off-75-of-wetransfer-staff-after-acquisition)
- [Bloomberg — Bending Spoons customers decry "outrageous" app price hikes](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-13/bending-spoons-customers-decry-outrageous-app-price-hikes)
- [Follow the Money — "WeTransfer owner buys up apps, then makes them more expensive"](https://www.ftm.eu/articles/wetransfer-owner-buys-up-apps-then-makes-them-more-expensive)