← All tool ratings

Miro

Collaborative whiteboard for visual planning, investigation mapping, and newsroom brainstorming. SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified.

Adequate
https://miro.com Reviewed 2026-04-11 Editorial assessment by Mike Schneider — not an independent security audit

What should journalists know about Miro?

Miro is the dominant collaborative whiteboard — 80M+ users, $500M ARR, and a $17.5B valuation as of 2022. For journalism, it's useful for investigation mapping (linking people, organizations, money flows), editorial planning (kanban boards, calendars), and brainstorming sessions. The infinite canvas with sticky notes, connectors, mind maps, and embedded media makes it easy to build visual representations of complex stories. The June 2024 acquisition of Uizard (Danish AI design startup) signals Miro's push into AI-assisted workflows. The company was founded in 2011 in Perm, Russia as RealtimeBoard, rebranded to Miro in 2019, and is now co-headquartered in Amsterdam and San Francisco. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified, with enterprise-grade encryption, SSO, and SCIM. The free tier (3 boards, unlimited members) is enough for a small team to evaluate. The concern for journalists: boards are cloud-stored, and anything you put on a Miro board lives on their servers. For sensitive investigation mapping, consider an offline tool like draw.io (diagrams.net) desktop instead.

Best for

Investigation mapping and link analysis. Editorial planning and story tracking. Newsroom brainstorming and ideation sessions. Timeline reconstruction for complex stories. Visual project management for multi-reporter investigations.

Not for

Sensitive investigation boards with confidential source identities (cloud-stored). Offline environments without internet access. Simple task management (overkill — use a task list). Document writing or drafting (Miro is visual, not textual).

Security & Privacy

Encryption in transit Yes

Data is scrambled while being sent to their servers

Encryption at rest Yes

Data is scrambled when stored on their servers

Data jurisdiction United States and EU. RealtimeBoard, Inc. dba Miro is incorporated in the US (San Francisco) with co-headquarters in Amsterdam. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified. Enterprise customers can request data residency options.

Where servers are located — affects which governments can request your data

Security rating Adequate

Privacy policy summary

Account required. Board content stored on Miro servers. Free and Starter plans have limited admin controls over data. Business and Enterprise tiers add SSO, SCIM, advanced privacy controls, and audit logs. Miro collects usage analytics. Review the privacy policy for AI feature data handling — the 2024 Uizard acquisition expanded AI capabilities.

How to protect yourself:

Do not put confidential source identities, sensitive investigation details, or unpublished story specifics on Miro boards — content is cloud-stored. Use guest access controls to limit who can view boards. On Enterprise plans, enable SSO and SCIM for user management. Export board content regularly as backups. For sensitive visual mapping, use diagrams.net (draw.io) desktop app instead — it's free, open-source, and fully offline.

SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified. Enterprise-grade encryption, SSO, and SCIM on higher tiers. Zero Trust Architecture. The security infrastructure is solid for a collaboration tool at this scale. Free and Starter tiers lack admin controls. Not recommended for boards containing confidential source material or sensitive investigation details — content lives on Miro servers.

Who Owns This

Owner RealtimeBoard, Inc. dba Miro, co-headquartered in Amsterdam and San Francisco. Co-founders: Andrey Khusid (CEO) and Oleg Shardin. Founded in 2011 in Perm, Russia as RealtimeBoard; rebranded to Miro in 2019.
Funding Venture-backed. $476M total raised. Investors include ICONIQ Capital, Accel, Atlassian Ventures, Dragoneer, GIC (Singapore sovereign wealth fund), Salesforce Ventures. Last private valuation: $17.5B (January 2022 Series C).
Business model Freemium SaaS. $500M ARR as of 2026. 80M+ users. Revenue from Starter, Business, and Enterprise subscriptions. Acquired Uizard (AI design) in June 2024.

Pricing

Free: 3 editable boards, unlimited team members. Starter: $8/user/month annual ($10/month monthly) — unlimited boards, all collaboration tools. Business: $16/user/month annual — SSO, advanced admin, guest access controls. Enterprise: custom pricing — SCIM, data governance, audit logs, SLA.

This is an editorial assessment based on publicly available information as of 2026-04-11, using our published methodology. Independent security review is pending. Security posture can change at any time. This is not a guarantee of safety.

Something wrong or outdated? Report it.