A FigJam alternative for tutors who teach on an iPad

What changed for FigJam on iPad

Figma's Help Center page "FigJam for iPad" (read November 5, 2026) says: "We will be retiring our FigJam for iPad app on January 8, 2026. After that, FigJam will be exclusively available in the Figma app or on the web." It adds that your work stays in your Figma account and that "the Figma app is at full feature parity". The old FigJam App Store link now returns "The page you're looking for can't be found".

• Where it opens now: the Figma app on iPad, signed in to your Figma account. Figma's mobile guide says you can "view and edit FigJam boards on the go within the Figma iPad app", and that Figma Design files and Slides decks can't be edited in the mobile app.
• Apple Pencil: it draws with the marker and highlighter, and a "Pencil always draws" setting keeps the Pencil as the pen while your finger moves around.
• One limit on iPad: per the help page, "pages cannot be created, renamed, or deleted on iPad, only from the file on a desktop".
• Gestures: two-finger tap undoes, three-finger tap redoes (Figma's help page).

Free FigJam, paid FigJam and open sessions

• Free (Starter): Figma's pricing FAQ says "you can create a team with 3 files for free and collaborate with unlimited users". Its plan-downgrade help lists "3 files per each for FigJam and Figma Slides" on Starter. Your personal drafts can be shared with unlimited viewers.
• Paid: FigJam is included in every seat. A Collab seat (full access to FigJam, Slides, Buzz and Specs, view and comment on Design files) is $3 a month billed annually or $5 billed monthly. A Full seat is $16 a month billed annually or $20 billed monthly. These are the Professional plan prices on figma.com/pricing with each billing toggle read in a browser on November 5, 2026.
• Open sessions: Figma's help says an open session gives "anyone can edit access to a FigJam file for unlimited 24 hour periods" and visitors can join "without needing to create a Figma account". It also says "Open sessions are only available on paid plans. This includes accounts with Education status", the file must be in a team space rather than drafts, and visitors in an open session can't use comments or audio conversations.
• Audio conversations: Figma's plan table lists them on Professional and above, not on Starter.

So for a tutor on the free plan, the student has to sign in to a Figma account to edit, and the open-session shortcut for students without accounts is a paid feature. We haven't confirmed from Figma's pages which seat type can start an open session, so check that before you buy a Collab seat for it.

Figma Education and independent tutors

Figma's Education pages (read November 5, 2026) say the free plan is for a current student or educator in a classroom, applying with a school email address, and give examples such as high schools, universities, trade schools, "select online courses, bootcamps, or workshops" with structured, teacher-led instruction, and coding academies. Not counted: "self-directed education", startups or edtech companies, and non-profits.

On its bootcamp and online-course criteria, Figma lists these among the "Potential disqualifications": "Independent tutoring: 1:1 or small group tutoring that is not part of a formalized program." Those criteria are written for bootcamps and online courses that apply on behalf of their students, so how Figma would treat one tutor applying alone is our inference, not something Figma's pages state. If you tutor privately, ask Figma before you rely on Education.

FigJam and Instaboard side by side, for tutoring

Where FigJam is the better choice

• Free collaborators. Unlimited collaborators in 3 editable files, with no board count to manage inside those files.
• Templates. Hundreds of free templates, with a weekly-updated education library from Figma's education team.
• Engagement tools. Stamps, emotes, voting, a shared timer and comments, all listed in Figma's plan and iPad pages.
• Diagramming. Shapes and connectors for flows, plus tables and sections.
• Free Education, if you qualify. Verified students and educators get Figma's Professional features free, and Figma says Education accounts can start open sessions.
• Schools. Admins can deploy Figma licences through the Google Admin Console, and schools get a classroom add-on for Google Classroom.
• No-account guests, if you pay. On a paid plan a student can join an open session without an account for 24 hours at a time.

If your students already have Figma accounts, or your school licenses Figma, stay on FigJam. Nothing here says it can't teach well: one tutor writes in a Figma forum thread that it is "a great app for tutoring and teaching" (one person's view).

When Instaboard fits a tutor better

• You teach on an iPad. Instaboard's iPad app has a pressure-sensitive Apple Pencil, and stylus mode lets the Pencil draw while a finger scrolls.
• You point at things while you talk. A laser pointer marks "this number, not that one" without leaving ink behind. In the Figma forum, tutors asked for exactly that in 2024 and 2025, and Figma staff pointed to spotlight instead (last post December 2025). We didn't check whether FigJam has added one since.
• You want the call on the board. Press Call on the board: 60 minutes per call free, a warning 10 minutes before the end, everyone on the call signs in free, no recording, and Pro has no limit. Or keep Zoom or Meet open and use the board next to it.
• You want one flat price. Free costs nothing and Pro is $5 a month billed yearly however many students you have, and they join free.
• You send worksheets. Add a page as a picture (3 per free board) or paste a screenshot, and you and your student both write beside it.

The ready board above is a percent-change lesson: a before-the-lesson checklist, the worked example in ink, the student's turn in blue, homework and the mistakes to redo. For a full walkthrough see our tutoring whiteboard guide, and for running a call alongside Zoom see iPad whiteboard for Zoom.

What tutors wrote about FigJam (one person's view each)

• Open sessions and students (Figma forum, May 2024, follow-up December 2024): a tutor who teaches online and homeschool AP courses wrote that, three times, a student could no longer edit a board even in an open session, while the same link worked for him in a private window. Figma's community support asked him to open a support case, and in December 2024 he wrote that support "couldn't replicate the issue". His workarounds were an incognito window or logging out of Figma completely, which he guessed was an unverified education account overriding the open session. The thread has no fix posted, it is two years old, and it is one tutor's report.
• Laser pointer (Figma forum, March 2024 to December 2025): several tutors wrote that a laser pointer is essential for tutoring, including one who uses an iPad to write out math problems. A Figma community support reply suggested spotlight.
• Undo on iPad (Figma forum, October 2026): one tutor and his student found the undo and redo buttons missing in the Figma iPad app. Figma staff confirmed a fix, and he wrote on October 14 that the October 13 update had restored the buttons. It is fixed for him; we mention it because it shows a tutor depending on the iPad app.

Trying it next to FigJam

1. 1Keep your FigJam files and try the board with one student.
2. 2Open the ready board on your iPad and copy its link. A 4-digit join code and a QR code also work.
3. 3Send the link to your student. They open it in a browser and sign in once, free, to write.
4. 4Teach one lesson on it. Write in ink, point with the laser and have your student answer in their own colour.

What Instaboard doesn't do

• Students sign in to write. Anyone with the link can view, but writing needs a free account with Google, Apple or email. There is no 24-hour guest editing.
• Free calls end at 60 minutes. Pro has no limit, or keep using Zoom or Google Meet next to the board.
• No lesson recording, class mode, scheduling or voting, and a much smaller template set than FigJam.
• No import from FigJam or other apps. Pictures (3 per free board) and one file per board.
• 3 images and 1 file per board on Free.
• The eraser removes whole strokes. Undo is the quickest way to fix the last thing you wrote.
• Changes made offline are kept and sync when you're back online, but it isn't an offline-first app.

Questions