Build a Full-Stack Collaborative Whiteboard (Serverless + Realtime + Video)

Hey folks I am excited to share that I have built a Full-Stack Collaborative Whiteboard (Serverless + Realtime + Video). For the past few months, I have been working on this project whenever I got some free time in between my daily life. The idea came when I was using tools like Excalidraw. They are good, but I always felt something missing. When you are drawing with someone, sometimes you want to quickly explain your thought. Chat option hona chahiye. Kabhi kabhi you just want to jump on a quick video call to explain better. But these features were not there. That’s where I thought, let me try building my own version. The features I wanted to add I wanted this to be more than just a drawing tool. My whiteboard has: - Real-time collaborative drawing - Chat alongside the canvas - Private rooms where others can join - Video call option so you can talk face-to-face while working It’s not just about lines on a canvas, it’s about making collaboration more human. I used AWS Lambda for my backend architecture and the backbone of this project Normally, when you think about building something like this, you imagine servers, scaling, monitoring, and all that complexity. But for me, working solo, that’s too much. That’s why I picked AWS Lambda. With Lambda, I don’t need to think about servers at all. I just write functions, deploy, and AWS handles scaling automatically. Best part is cost. Lambda works on pay-per-use. Matlab agar koi use nahi kar raha, toh koi cost bhi nahi. Another plus is that I didn’t need different services for different things. Lambda handled WebSockets for real-time drawing and chat, REST APIs for authentication and room info, and even video call signaling. What I used on frontend For the frontend, I chose Next.js. It gave me fast integration and smooth routing. For design, I used TailwindCSS, which keeps styling simple and quick. So the overall stack looks like this: Backend: AWS Lambda + API Gateway + DynamoDB Frontend: Next.js + TailwindCSS Features: Whiteboard, chat, private rooms, video calls This is just phase 1 of this. I will make improvements and add more features to it.