Milanote Alternatives for Moodboards and Visual Boards

Milanote is still running. Its home page links to a web app, desktop and mobile apps, a web clipper and live release notes. You put notes, images, links, files and video on boards, then share them for editing, comments or view-only access.

The free plan is what pushes most people to look around. It is capped at 100 notes and 10 file uploads, images or links, according to Capterra, and the individual plan costs $12.50 a month and a team plan $49 a month. A designer collecting references hits the 10-image limit on the first board. The tools below cover the same jobs: moodboards, research walls, story planning and client presentations.

Prices below are as of November 8, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Miro

Miro is the safe choice when boards are shared with clients or a whole team. It is a whiteboard first, with sticky notes, frames, diagrams and voting, so a moodboard can turn into a workshop in the same space. Most clients and agencies already have an account, which cuts the onboarding Milanote sometimes needs.

The Miro pricing page lists Starter at $8 per member per month and Business at $20, both billed yearly, with annual billing saving 20%. Starter includes unlimited boards and 25 AI credits per member each month. Enterprise is custom and starts at 30 members.

Best for: Agencies and teams that present boards to clients and run workshops on them.

Pricing:

• Free: 3 editable boards
• Starter: $8 per member per month, billed yearly
• Business: $20 per member per month, billed yearly
• Enterprise: custom, from 30 members

Watch out for:

• The free plan keeps only three boards editable. Once you pass that, only the three most recent remain editable.
• Miro's free plan includes only a limited AI trial, at most 10 credits a month.

Official site: Miro.

Apple Freeform

Freeform is Apple's own canvas app and comes with macOS, iPadOS and iOS. You place text, photos, files and sketches on an open board, and the Freeform user guide says boards stored in iCloud stay current on every device signed in to the same Apple Account. You can invite others and edit together in real time.

For a solo creative on a Mac and iPad it replaces Milanote's free plan with no caps on notes or images. Drawing with an Apple Pencil on iPad works on the same board you arrange on the Mac.

Best for: Freelancers who work only on Apple devices and want unlimited boards at no cost.

Pricing:

• Free, included with Apple devices
• Storage counts against your iCloud plan

Watch out for:

• The guide covers only Apple devices. There is no Windows, Android or web app, so a client on a PC cannot open a shared board.
• Freeform has no templates for briefs, scripts or moodboards the way Milanote does. You start from a blank canvas.

Official site: Apple Freeform.

PureRef

PureRef does one Milanote job, the image moodboard, and does it without accounts. It is a stand-alone reference viewer for Windows, Mac and most Linux distributions. You drag images onto a canvas, resize and group them, and keep the window on top while you paint, model or design.

Version 2 is the current major release. For personal use the PureRef download page asks you to pay what you want, with $15 and $7 presets and a custom field. Studios buy a commercial licence at $49 once for version 2.x, or $8 per seat per month on annual billing. The small business licence covers up to 3 seats per studio.

Best for: Illustrators, 3D artists and concept designers who collect reference images.

Pricing:

• Personal: pay what you want, presets $15 and $7
• Commercial: $49 once with free 2.x updates
• Commercial subscription: $8 per seat per month billed yearly, $10 monthly
• Small business: up to 3 seats per studio

Watch out for:

• It handles images only. Notes, links, to-do lists and file attachments still need another tool.
• The site mentions no sharing or cloud sync, so a board lives in one file on your computer.

Official site: PureRef.

Heptabase

Heptabase suits Milanote users who use boards for research rather than for looks. Every card is a note you can link, reuse on several whiteboards and open as a full document, so the same quote can sit on a thesis board and a chapter board. Highlights from PDFs and web pages become cards too.

Apps cover Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. The Heptabase pricing page lists Pro at $8.99 a month, Premium at $17.99 and Premium+ at $53.99 when billed yearly. Paying month to month raises those to $11.99, $23.99 and $71.99.

Best for: Students, researchers and writers who build arguments from many sources.

Pricing:

• Pro: $8.99 a month billed yearly, $11.99 billed monthly
• Premium: $17.99 a month billed yearly, $23.99 billed monthly
• Premium+: $53.99 a month billed yearly, $71.99 billed monthly
• No free plan; 7-day trial

Watch out for:

• There is no free plan, only a 7-day trial, so you pay before using it for real work.
• It is built around text cards. Image-heavy moodboards feel more natural in Milanote or PureRef.

Official site: Heptabase.

Notion

Notion is a different model: pages and databases, not a free canvas. It fits Milanote users whose boards were really project plans, such as a shoot schedule with references, a content calendar with mood images, or a pitch with a gallery view. Board and gallery views turn a database of ideas into something visual.

Solo users get unlimited pages and blocks free. Plus is $10 and Business $20 per member a month billed yearly ($12 and $24 billed monthly), per Notion pricing.

Best for: Teams whose boards are really plans, briefs and trackers with images attached.

Pricing:

• Free: unlimited pages for one person, 5 MB file uploads
• Plus: $10 per member per month
• Business: $20 per member per month
• Enterprise: contact sales

Watch out for:

• Free uploads stop at 5 MB per file, too small for many reference videos or print-quality images.
• Free workspaces with two or more members have a limited block allowance, after which you cannot add new content.

Official site: Notion.

Obsidian Canvas

Obsidian Canvas gives you an infinite board inside the free Obsidian notes app. The Canvas page says files are stored locally in the open JSON Canvas format, and you can place notes next to images, PDFs, video, audio and live web pages. Your boards are plain files you own, not records on someone else's server.

The app itself is free with no sign-up. Sync between devices costs $4 per user per month billed yearly, and Publish, for sharing boards and notes on the web, costs $8 per site per month.

Best for: Writers and researchers who want boards they can keep as local files forever.

Pricing:

• Obsidian and Canvas: free
• Sync: $4 per user per month yearly, $5 monthly
• Publish: $8 per site per month yearly, $10 monthly
• Commercial licence: $50 per user per year, optional (not required for work use)
• Catalyst: $25 once, optional

Watch out for:

• Real-time collaboration on a board is not part of the core app. Milanote's shared editing has no direct match here.
• Moving boards between devices needs paid Sync or your own sync setup.

Official site: Obsidian Canvas.

Muse

Muse is a canvas for iPad and Mac built around the pencil. Boards nest inside other boards, and you scribble, crop PDFs and drop in images on a zoomable surface. It feels closer to a paper sketchbook than Milanote's tidy columns.

Limits are counted in cards, and each board counts as one. The Muse pricing page sets Base at 100 cards on a 2x2 board size, Starter at $9.99 a month for 500 cards on 6x6, and a Pro tier with a 10x10 board and beta access.

Best for: iPad users who think with a pencil and want nested sketch boards.

Pricing:

• Base: 100 cards, 2x2 boards; labelled free forever but also shown at $3.99 a month
• Starter: $9.99 a month, 500 cards
• Pro: no public price, 10x10 boards

Watch out for:

• Only iPad and Mac are supported. There is no iPhone, Windows or web app listed.
• The Base tier is described as free forever and priced at $3.99 a month on the same page, so check the App Store before relying on it.

Official site: Muse.

How to choose

When to stay with Milanote

Keep Milanote if you share boards with clients who do not want another account and you work across Windows, Mac and phones. Few rivals here match its mix of a web clipper, mobile apps and templates aimed at creative briefs. If you plan novels or scripts on boards, our Causality alternatives cover dedicated story planners such as Plottr.

Frequently asked questions