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.
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RetroTool
3.2Anonymous online retrospectives, no login required
RetroTool is a low-friction online retrospective board built by NY/Poland software agency u2i as a side project. Free anonymous retros run from a unique URL with no signup; paid tiers add private boards, team management and longer retention. The product still works, but the site shows no shipped activity in years.
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.
RetroTool scores 3.2 overall and is best for small or ad-hoc teams who want a free, no-signup retro board with secret voting and a few standard templates — provided you're comfortable using a tool that hasn't shipped visible updates in years. It offers a free tier.
IdeaBoardz leads on open platform. RetroTool leads on ease of use, retro toolkit and fun factor.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, RetroTool edges ahead with an overall score of 3.2. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | IdeaBoardz | RetroTool |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retrospectives | Retrospectives |
| Team size | Small | Small |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free limit | Fully free, no paid tier | Anonymous boards; unlimited cards, columns, action points and participants; 3 basic templates; secret voting, dot-vote limits, timer, grouping, action points; Markdown export; 12-month retention |
| Starting price | Free | $10/team/mo ($100/team/yr billed annually) |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | Free (no paid tier) | $30/mo (Individual — 3 teams x $10/team, unlimited members per team; $25/mo billed annually) |
| Enterprise | No | No |
| Founded | 2010 | — |
| HQ | Pune, India | Poland |
| Data residency | — | — |
| Languages | English only | English only |
| Export formats | PDF · Excel | Markdown · Confluence |
| Features | 9 | 18 |
| Integrations | 0 | 0 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | IdeaBoardz | RetroTool |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | — |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | — |
| AI action items | — | — |
| Action tracking | — | ✓ |
| Team Insights | — | — |
| Polling | — | — |
| Action dashboard | — | ✓note |
| Custom templates | ✓note | ✓note |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓note |
| 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 | — | ✓note |
| SSO / SAML | — | — |
| SCIM provisioning | — | — |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| On-premises | — | — |
| Public API | ✓note | — |
| Webhooks | — | — |
| MCP server | — | — |
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
RetroTool — pros
- + Genuinely free anonymous retros with no account required
- + Three-click setup — unique URL, share, run
- + Zero-knowledge encryption with custom passwords on Company plan
- + Per-team flat pricing ($10 or $20/team/mo, 15%+ off annually) with <em>unlimited members per team</em>, not per-seat
RetroTool — cons
- − <strong>Apparently dormant</strong>: blog stopped in March 2022, no changelog or release notes, legal docs unchanged since August 2020
- − No native integrations with Jira, Slack, Teams or any agile-stack tool
- − No AI features (clustering, summary, action extraction, sentiment)
- − No health checks, recurring retros, or cross-team reporting
- − Most templates, image cards, named participants, private invite-only boards and zero-knowledge encryption are all behind paid tiers
- − Not SOC 2; no SSO/SCIM/audit logs for enterprise buyers
Keep comparing
Other IdeaBoardz comparisons
Other RetroTool comparisons
Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.