Retrospective Tools

GoRetro vs Parabol

A side-by-side look at scores, pricing, features and integrations to help you pick the right retrospective tool.

GoRetro logo

GoRetro

5.4

Make every sprint impactful, efficient, and fun

GoRetro is a sprint-centric retro and estimation suite combining retrospectives, planning poker, capacity planning and a Jira-fed sprint monitor, with a limited free plan and flat per-team paid pricing.

Full review →
Parabol logo

Parabol

7.4

Open-source agile meetings for retros, poker, standups and check-ins

Parabol is an open-source agile meeting platform spanning retrospectives, sprint poker, async standups, team check-ins and lightweight team health, with deep backlog sync to Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps and Linear, recurring meeting series, and a built-in knowledge base (Pages) that auto-publishes every meeting summary and runs AI queries across past retros.

Full review →

Summary

GoRetro scores 5.4 overall and is best for scrum teams that live in Jira and want a polished retro plus planning-poker bundle priced per team. It offers a free tier.

Parabol scores 7.4 overall and is best for distributed agile teams that want one open-source tool for retros, poker, standups and lightweight team health. It offers a free tier.

GoRetro leads on value. Parabol leads on retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations, open platform and enterprise-grade.

Across our eight scoring dimensions, Parabol edges ahead with an overall score of 7.4. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.

Scores compared

GoRetro
Ease of Use8.5
Retro Toolkit6.5
Value8.0
Fun Factor6.5
AI & Insights3.0
Integrations4.0
Open Platform1.5
Enterprise-grade5.0
Parabol
Ease of Use8.5
Retro Toolkit9.0
Value5.0
Fun Factor7.0
AI & Insights8.0
Integrations9.0
Open Platform5.0
Enterprise-grade8.0
DetailGoRetroParabol
CategoryRetrospectivesAll-in-One Agile
Team sizeAnyAny
Free tierYesYes
Free limitFree plan: 1 team, 5 public boards, 2 team boards per 31-day cycle, unlimited users and guests, 20+ templates. Excludes exports, retro analytics, Jira sync, happiness index, polls and icebreakers.Unlimited users, 2 teams, 10 meetings/month, 30-day history, 2 custom templates, 3 AI retro summaries/month
Starting price$29/team/mo$8/active user/mo
Est. 3 teams × 8 people$87/mo (Premium, 3 teams, billed annually)$192/mo
EnterpriseYesYes
Founded20202015
HQIsraelRemote (San Diego, CA)
Data residencyUnited States · European Union · Self-hosted
LanguagesEnglish onlyEnglish only
Export formatsPDF · CSV · ImageCSV · Email
Features3546
Integrations27

Feature & integration comparison

Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.

CapabilityGoRetroParabol
Features
AI Summariesnotenote
AI grouping/clusteringnote
AI action items
Action tracking
Team Insightsnotenote
Pollingnotenote
Action dashboardnote
Custom templatesnote
Anonymous input
Independent voting
Async modenote
Agile Estimationsnote
Health Checksnotenote
Team Kudos
Whiteboard
Integrations
Asana
Azure DevOps
Basecamp
ClickUp
Confluence
GitHub
GitLab
Jiranote
Linear
Microsoft Teams
Monday.com
Notion
Shortcut
Slacknote
Trello
Security & Privacy
SOC 2
GDPR
SSO / SAMLnotenote
SCIM provisioningnote
ISO 27001
On-premisesnote
Public API
Webhooksnote
MCP server

GoRetro — pros

  • + Flat per-team pricing ($29/team/mo) with unlimited members per team, plus a free plan for one team
  • + Polished, real-time facilitation UX with per-board anonymity toggles (hide author, hide cards, hide votes)
  • + Bundles planning poker, capacity calculator and sprint monitor with retros
  • + Tight Jira Cloud integration for sprint-data-driven discussions
  • + SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and SAML SSO available on Organization tier

GoRetro — cons

  • <strong>No published product updates since 2023</strong> — changelog last moved 23 May 2023, blog 28 Jul 2023
  • Free plan is thin: exports, retro analytics, Jira sync, happiness index, polls and icebreakers are all Premium-gated
  • Integration breadth is narrow — Jira and Slack only, with no native MS Teams, Azure DevOps, GitHub, Linear, Confluence or Trello
  • AI story is thin: 'Joker cards' and a meeting recap export rather than real AI clustering, summaries or sentiment
  • No public API or webhooks; async is a multi-day feedback deadline, not a structured async flow, and there is no scheduling or recurring retros

Parabol — pros

  • + Open source (AGPL-3.0) with Docker/Kubernetes self-host, on-prem and air-gapped deployment
  • + 40+ retro templates plus poker, standups, check-ins and team health in one tool
  • + Strong backlog write-back to Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps and Linear
  • + CSV export of reflections, groups, votes and discussion threads on <em>every</em> tier
  • + Recurring retro series with a real recurrence rule and Google Calendar sync
  • + DoD Iron Bank hardened container, cleared to IL4 via Platform One

Parabol — cons

  • Free tier capped at 10 meetings/month, 30-day history and 3 AI summaries
  • No native whiteboard, presentation mode or screen-share mode
  • Health-check is a single emoji poll — no custom radars or trend dashboards
  • AI grouping and team health checks need the paid Team tier; Pages Insights needs org-level enablement
  • Webhooks stop at Mattermost/MS Teams notification URLs — no general event subscriptions and no MCP server
  • No Confluence, Trello or multi-language support

Keep comparing

Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.