IdeaBoardz
3.6Free shared brainstorming boards
IdeaBoardz is a long-standing free brainstorming and retrospective board where anyone can spin up a shared URL, add ideas in customisable sections, vote, and export to PDF or Excel. The site is still online and the app still works, but the product appears to be in maintenance mode at best — Terms were last updated in April 2020 and there is no blog, changelog or roadmap to suggest active development.
Full review →
Retrium
6.2Guided retrospectives and Team Radars for scrum and agile teams
Retrium is a long-running, retrospectives-only tool that emphasises guided five-phase facilitation, anonymous brainstorming, voting, a persistent action plan, and Team Radar health checks for distributed teams.
Full review →Summary
IdeaBoardz scores 3.6 overall and is best for throwaway retros and quick distributed brainstorms when nobody wants to sign up. It offers a free tier.
Retrium scores 6.2 overall and is best for scrum masters and agile coaches who want a focused, retro-only tool with strong facilitation guardrails and a built-in Team Radar. It offers paid plans from $39/mo.
IdeaBoardz leads on value. Retrium leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations and enterprise-grade.
Across our seven scoring dimensions, Retrium edges ahead with an overall score of 6.2. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | IdeaBoardz | Retrium |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retrospectives | Retrospectives |
| Team size | Small | Enterprise |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Free limit | Fully free, no paid tier | 30-day free trial (column techniques and Team Radar), no credit card required |
| Starting price | Free | $39/mo |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | Custom | $39/mo |
| Enterprise | No | Yes |
| Founded | 2012 | 2014 |
| HQ | Pune, India | Washington, D.C., USA |
| Features | 6 | 23 |
| Integrations | 0 | 2 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | IdeaBoardz | Retrium |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | — |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | — |
| AI action items | — | — |
| Action tracking | — | ✓ |
| Team Insights | — | — |
| Polling | — | — |
| Action dashboard | — | ✓ note |
| Custom templates | ✓ note | ✓ |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓ |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Agile Estimations | — | — |
| Health Checks | — | ✓ |
| Team Kudos | — | — |
| Whiteboard | — | — |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | — |
| Azure DevOps | — | — |
| Confluence | — | — |
| GitHub | — | — |
| Jira | — | ✓ note |
| Linear | — | — |
| Microsoft Teams | — | — |
| Slack | — | ✓ note |
| Trello | — | — |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | — | ✓ |
| GDPR | — | ✓ |
| SSO/SAML/SCIM | — | ✓ note |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| On-premises | — | — |
| Data residency (US/EU) | — | — |
IdeaBoardz — Pros
- + Genuinely free, no paywall, no paid tier
- + No signup required to participate — just share a URL
- + 1-10 customisable sections cover most retro formats (Start/Stop/Continue, 4Ls, etc.)
- + PDF and Excel export built in
- + Voting and async input out of the box
IdeaBoardz — Cons
- − UI is unchanged from the early 2010s and shows it
- − No timer, no facilitation phases, no drag-and-drop grouping
- − Zero integrations with the agile stack (Jira, Slack, Teams, Confluence, etc.)
- − No prebuilt templates, no health checks, no AI features
- − Boards are public-by-URL with no SSO, SOC 2, or stated privacy controls
- − Apparently in maintenance mode — Terms last updated April 2020, no changelog or blog
Retrium — Pros
- + Battle-tested five-phase guided facilitation flow
- + Anonymous brainstorming and grouping by design
- + Persistent team-room action plan that carries forward between retros
- + Team Radar covers psychological safety and custom health checks
- + Per-team-room pricing with unlimited users on every plan
Retrium — Cons
- − No free tier; 30-day trial only
- − Integrations are thin beyond Jira Cloud and a <em>still-beta</em> Slack app
- − <strong>No AI features at all</strong> — no summary, clustering, action-item extraction or insights
- − No native Microsoft Teams, Azure DevOps, GitHub, Linear or Confluence integration
- − Public shipping cadence has slowed — no 2025 changelog or product blog activity visible
- − Retro-only scope; no planning poker, kudos, icebreakers or whiteboard