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 →
Miro
7.1Innovation Workspace where retros happen on the same canvas as discovery and planning
Miro is the dominant online whiteboard, now repositioned as an AI-powered Innovation Workspace. It pairs an infinite canvas with a 7,000+ template library (300+ retro formats among them), AI clustering by sentiment/keyword/author, Engage live polls and word clouds, real-time + async collaboration, and a 250+ app marketplace including Jira, Azure DevOps, Asana, Linear, Confluence, Slack and Microsoft Teams. Flows and Sidekicks ship as AI Workflows, a paid Enterprise product.
Full review →Summary
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.
Miro scores 7.1 overall and is best for large product, design and engineering orgs that already run discovery, planning and retros on one canvas and want AI clustering plus deep Jira/Azure DevOps/Asana sync. It offers a free tier.
IdeaBoardz leads on value. Miro leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations, open platform and enterprise-grade.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, Miro edges ahead with an overall score of 7.1. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | IdeaBoardz | Miro |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retrospectives | Whiteboard |
| Team size | Small | Enterprise |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free limit | Fully free, no paid tier | 3 editable boards, ~10 AI credits/mo, 100 MCP calls/day, full template library, 250+ app marketplace; no private boards, SSO, guests or two-way integrations |
| Starting price | Free | $8/user/mo |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | Free (no paid tier) | $192/mo billed annually (Starter, 24 seats) |
| Enterprise | No | Yes |
| Founded | 2010 | 2011 |
| HQ | Pune, India | Amsterdam, NL |
| Data residency | — | United States · European Union · Australia |
| Languages | English only | 8 (English, Spanish, German, …) |
| Export formats | PDF · Excel | Image · PDF · CSV |
| Features | 9 | 39 |
| Integrations | 0 | 11 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | IdeaBoardz | Miro |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | ✓ |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | ✓ |
| AI action items | — | ✓note |
| Action tracking | — | ✓note |
| Team Insights | — | — |
| Polling | — | ✓note |
| Action dashboard | — | — |
| Custom templates | ✓note | ✓ |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓note |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Agile Estimations | — | ✓note |
| Health Checks | — | — |
| Team Kudos | — | — |
| Whiteboard | — | ✓ |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | ✓note |
| Azure DevOps | — | ✓note |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | ✓ |
| Confluence | — | ✓ |
| GitHub | — | ✓note |
| GitLab | — | — |
| Jira | — | ✓note |
| Linear | — | ✓note |
| Microsoft Teams | — | ✓ |
| Monday.com | — | — |
| Notion | — | ✓ |
| Shortcut | — | — |
| Slack | — | ✓ |
| Trello | — | ✓note |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | — | ✓ |
| GDPR | — | ✓ |
| SSO / SAML | — | ✓note |
| SCIM provisioning | — | ✓note |
| ISO 27001 | — | ✓ |
| On-premises | — | — |
| Public API | ✓note | ✓ |
| Webhooks | — | — |
| MCP server | — | ✓note |
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
Miro — pros
- + Enormous template library (7,000+ board templates, 300+ retro formats) plus the Miroverse community gallery
- + AI clustering groups sticky notes by colour, tag, author, keyword and sentiment — real time saved on a 60-sticky board
- + Best-in-class integration catalog (Jira, Azure DevOps, Asana, Linear, ClickUp, Confluence, Slack, Teams) with two-way card sync
- + <strong>Engage</strong> activities — live polls, word clouds, scales, ranking — are bundled with Business; participants join by QR code with no Miro account
- + Enterprise-grade SSO, SCIM, audit logs, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022, ISO 42001 (AI governance) and US/EU/AU data residency
Miro — cons
- − Per-seat pricing: 24 people cost $192/mo on Starter (annual). The tier that actually matters for retros — Business, with two-way Jira sync, SSO and Engage — is $480/mo
- − No health checks, mood tracking or longitudinal team pulse; Engage Scales reads the room once, it doesn't draw a trend line
- − No recurring retros, scheduling, action carryover or cross-team rollup — facilitators rebuild structure each sprint
- − SCIM, audit logs, domain control and data residency are Enterprise-only (30-seat minimum)
- − No built-in retro report or action-tracker dashboard; actions only persist as Jira/Azure DevOps cards
Keep comparing
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See alternatives
Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.