Hi HN,
I’m Hiroshi — a developer who kept getting client requests to build collaborative apps similar to Figma or Miro.
At first, I used great tools like Y-Sweet and Liveblocks. But they came with ongoing monthly costs and vendor lock-in, which made them less ideal for client projects or long-term scaling.
So I decided to build my own boilerplate from scratch using:
Next.js (frontend)
Node.js (backend)
Yjs (for realtime sync, open source)
The result is a clean, self-hosted boilerplate that includes:
Realtime multiplayer canvas
Cursor syncing
Session creation & sharing
Extendable architecture for drawing tools, shapes, comments, etc.
It’s designed to get you from zero to a working collaborative whiteboard/canvas in days, not months — without relying on any paid third-party infra.
Hi HN, I’m Hiroshi — a developer who kept getting client requests to build collaborative apps similar to Figma or Miro.
At first, I used great tools like Y-Sweet and Liveblocks. But they came with ongoing monthly costs and vendor lock-in, which made them less ideal for client projects or long-term scaling.
So I decided to build my own boilerplate from scratch using:
Next.js (frontend)
Node.js (backend)
Yjs (for realtime sync, open source)
The result is a clean, self-hosted boilerplate that includes:
Realtime multiplayer canvas
Cursor syncing
Session creation & sharing
Extendable architecture for drawing tools, shapes, comments, etc.
It’s designed to get you from zero to a working collaborative whiteboard/canvas in days, not months — without relying on any paid third-party infra.