Allume

For designers, researchers, and strategists who need a calm nested canvas for deep thinking—not Miro facilitation kits and not Figma UI files. Allume (formerly Muse) keeps notes, ink, images, PDFs, and links on boards that nest inside boards, with an Inbox for incoming scraps and local-first sync across Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Prefer Lucid or Miro when workshop tools dominate; prefer Notion when linear docs are enough.

Design Productivity & Workflow

$Freemium

Use it when

You want nested boards for research synthesis, low-fi sketching, and idea growth—and you’ll upgrade when Free’s workspace, card, or collaborator caps get in the way.

What it does well

Nested boards plus cards for notes, ink, images, PDFs, and links in one thinking canvas
Free forever: Mac/iPad/iPhone, small boards, 2 workspaces, 100 cards/workspace, 1 other collaborator, community support
Unlimited: huge boards, unlimited workspaces/cards/collaborators, priority email support
Setapp option: huge boards and unlimited workspaces/cards with ~5 collaborators via Setapp
Local-first feel with intentional limits—less polish overhead, more ideation flow

Skip it when

You need large boards, many workspaces, or team collaboration beyond one guest—upgrade to Unlimited
Workshop timers, voting, and enterprise diagram suites matter more—use Miro, FigJam, or Lucid
You’re on Windows-first workflows—Allume’s story is Apple-native
You want complex drawing tools or heavy text formatting—Allume deliberately omits them
High-fidelity UI delivery belongs in Figma, not a thinking canvas

Fits your workflow

Dump scraps into the Inbox → nest boards as ideas branch → sketch and annotate lightly → export PNG/PDF for sharing → move keepers into Figma or docs when execution starts.