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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ScatterSpoke
6.3AI copilot for team feedback
ScatterSpoke is an AI feedback platform that turns retrospectives, standups and surveys into themes, sentiment and prioritised action items — and, since ScatterSpoke 3.0, exposes the whole survey lifecycle to AI agents over an official MCP server.
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.
ScatterSpoke scores 6.3 overall and is best for engineering orgs in Jira/Slack that want AI synthesis across many retros — or agent builders who need a survey backend over MCP. It offers a free tier.
IdeaBoardz leads on value. ScatterSpoke leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations, open platform and enterprise-grade.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, ScatterSpoke edges ahead with an overall score of 6.3. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | IdeaBoardz | ScatterSpoke |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retrospectives | Retrospectives |
| Team size | Small | Mid-market |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free limit | Fully free, no paid tier | 1 seat, unlimited static surveys and responses, 10 Agent Surveys and 50 Ask credits (one-time), basic signal detection, MCP access, social logins |
| Starting price | Free | $29/user/mo |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | Free (no paid tier) | $814/mo on Business (includes 5 seats; 19 extra seats at $35/seat/mo) |
| Enterprise | No | Yes |
| Founded | 2010 | 2019 |
| HQ | Pune, India | USA |
| Data residency | — | — |
| Languages | English only | English only |
| Export formats | PDF · Excel | PDF · CSV · Email · Jira · Confluence |
| Features | 9 | 38 |
| Integrations | 0 | 4 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | IdeaBoardz | ScatterSpoke |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | ✓ |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | ✓ |
| AI action items | — | ✓ |
| Action tracking | — | ✓ |
| Team Insights | — | ✓ |
| Polling | — | ✓note |
| Action dashboard | — | ✓ |
| Custom templates | ✓note | ✓ |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓ |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Agile Estimations | — | — |
| Health Checks | — | ✓note |
| Team Kudos | — | — |
| Whiteboard | — | — |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | — |
| Azure DevOps | — | — |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | — | — |
| GitHub | — | — |
| GitLab | — | — |
| Jira | — | ✓ |
| Linear | — | — |
| Microsoft Teams | — | ✓ |
| Monday.com | — | — |
| Notion | — | — |
| Shortcut | — | — |
| Slack | — | ✓ |
| Trello | — | ✓note |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | — | ✓note |
| GDPR | — | ✓ |
| SSO / SAML | — | ✓note |
| SCIM provisioning | — | ✓note |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| On-premises | — | — |
| Public API | ✓note | ✓note |
| Webhooks | — | ✓note |
| 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
ScatterSpoke — pros
- + Official MCP server on every tier, including Free — agents can create, distribute and query surveys
- + AI theme extraction, issue detection, sentiment over time and adaptive AI-moderated interviews
- + SOC 2 Type II since launch, with annual penetration testing
- + 20+ retro formats, guided phases, and cross-team/program rollups
ScatterSpoke — cons
- − $814/mo for 3 teams of 8 on Business — 5 seats included, then $35/seat
- − Free tier is a single seat, so it can no longer run a team retro
- − No dedicated health-check model, team radars or psychological-safety survey
- − Integrations stop at Jira, Slack and Teams — no GitHub, Azure DevOps or Linear
- − The 3.0 pricing tiers never mention retrospectives; help-centre release notes stop at Sept 2024
Keep comparing
Other IdeaBoardz comparisons
Other ScatterSpoke comparisons
Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.