Echometer
5.3Psychology-backed retros and team health checks for engineering teams
Echometer is a German retrospective and 1:1 meeting platform built around recurring health-check pulses, structured retros, and longitudinal team development tracking. It pitches itself to engineering managers, scrum masters and agile coaches who want research-grounded surveys rather than a blank whiteboard.
Full review →
IdeaBoardz
2.9Free shared brainstorming boards
IdeaBoardz is a long-standing free brainstorming and retrospective board: pick 1-10 sections, name them yourself, share the URL, add ideas anonymously, upvote, and export to PDF or Excel. The app still works and is still in daily use, but development stopped years ago — the public source repository's last feature commits date to April 2020 and the Terms have not been revised since.
Full review →Summary
Echometer scores 5.3 overall and is best for engineering managers and agile coaches who want recurring health-check pulses tied to retros, with EU data residency and a research-flavoured question library. It offers a free tier.
IdeaBoardz scores 2.9 overall and is best for throwaway retros and quick distributed brainstorms when nobody wants to sign up. It offers a free tier.
Echometer leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations and enterprise-grade. IdeaBoardz leads on value and open platform.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, Echometer edges ahead with an overall score of 5.3. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | Echometer | IdeaBoardz |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retrospectives | Retrospectives |
| Team size | Mid-market | Small |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free limit | Starter: 1 team, 25 workspace members, unlimited retro guests, 1 retro/month after trial, 2-retro archive per team | Fully free, no paid tier |
| Starting price | €29/team/mo | Free |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | €87/mo billed annually (3 teams × €29 Pro) | Free (no paid tier) |
| Enterprise | Yes | No |
| Founded | 2019 | 2010 |
| HQ | Münster, Germany | Pune, India |
| Data residency | Germany | — |
| Languages | 2 (English, German) | English only |
| Export formats | PDF · Markdown · Email | PDF · Excel |
| Features | 43 | 9 |
| Integrations | 1 | 0 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | Echometer | IdeaBoardz |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | — |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | — |
| AI action items | ✓note | — |
| Action tracking | ✓ | — |
| Team Insights | — | — |
| Polling | ✓ | — |
| Action dashboard | ✓ | — |
| Custom templates | ✓ | ✓note |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓ |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Agile Estimations | — | — |
| Health Checks | ✓ | — |
| Team Kudos | — | — |
| Whiteboard | ✓ | — |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | — |
| Azure DevOps | — | — |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | — | — |
| GitHub | — | — |
| GitLab | — | — |
| Jira | ✓ | — |
| Linear | — | — |
| Microsoft Teams | — | — |
| Monday.com | — | — |
| Notion | — | — |
| Shortcut | — | — |
| Slack | — | — |
| Trello | — | — |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | — | — |
| GDPR | ✓ | — |
| SSO / SAML | ✓note | — |
| SCIM provisioning | — | — |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| On-premises | — | — |
| Public API | — | ✓note |
| Webhooks | — | — |
| MCP server | — | — |
Echometer — pros
- + 200+ research-grounded health-check items, custom models and automated pulse rotation
- + Longitudinal team radars, heatmaps and workspace dashboards tied to retros
- + EU-only data residency (Open Telekom Cloud, Germany) with GDPR DPA
- + Open actions resurface automatically in the next retro, with email reminders to owners
- + Per-team pricing — €87/mo covers three teams of eight, billed annually
Echometer — cons
- − Thin integrations — Jira and calendar sync only; no Slack, Teams or Confluence
- − No public API or webhooks; export is PDF and Markdown only
- − No SOC 2 — the ISO 27001 certificate covers the datacenter, not Echometer itself
- − Retro-side AI stops at suggesting measures; transcript coaching is a separately-priced 1:1 product
- − No scheduled or recurring retros — you copy a past format and start each session manually
IdeaBoardz — pros
- + Genuinely free — no paywall, no paid tier, no trial clock
- + No signup required to participate — just share the URL
- + 1-10 free-text sections build Start/Stop/Continue, 4Ls or Six Thinking Hats by hand
- + Drag one sticky onto another to merge them; the votes are added together
- + PDF and Excel export on every board, plus a working phone view
IdeaBoardz — cons
- − No templates at all — the only format choice is how many sections you want
- − No timer, no phases, no action items, no grouping beyond merging two stickies into one
- − Unlimited anonymous upvotes with no per-person vote budget
- − Zero integrations, no SSO, no SOC 2 and no published privacy policy — the URL is the only access control
- − No product work since April 2020; support is a Gmail address and a Twitter handle
Keep comparing
Other Echometer comparisons
Other IdeaBoardz comparisons
Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.