Parabol
8.4Open-source agile meetings for retros, poker, standups and check-ins
Parabol is an <strong>open-source agile meeting platform</strong> 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 and AI-assisted grouping, summaries, icebreakers and discussion prompts.
Full review →
SprintRetro
4.8Free sprint retros, embedded in Jira
SprintRetro is a free <strong>Atlassian Forge</strong> app from Agile Pulse that runs sprint retrospectives directly inside Jira Cloud. It pulls live sprint metrics (velocity, predictability, scope change, carryover, cycle time) into a collaborative retro board with templates, anonymous voting, action items that carry over between retros, GIF reactions, kudos, polls, and icebreakers.
Full review →Summary
Parabol scores 8.4 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.
SprintRetro scores 4.8 overall and is best for scrum teams already living in Jira Cloud who want a no-cost, no-friction sprint retro tool with sprint metrics baked in. It offers a free tier.
Parabol leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations and enterprise-grade.
Across our seven scoring dimensions, Parabol edges ahead with an overall score of 8.4. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | Parabol | SprintRetro |
|---|---|---|
| Category | All-in-One Agile | Retrospectives |
| Team size | Any | Small |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free limit | Unlimited users, 2 teams, 10 meetings/month, 30-day history, 2 custom templates | Free for unlimited users on a Jira instance |
| Starting price | $8/user/mo | Free |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | $192/mo | Custom |
| Enterprise | Yes | No |
| Founded | 2015 | — |
| HQ | Remote | Waterlooville, United Kingdom |
| Features | 42 | 14 |
| Integrations | 6 | 1 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | Parabol | SprintRetro |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ✓ | — |
| Confluence | — | — |
| GitHub | ✓ | — |
| Jira | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linear | ✓ | — |
| Microsoft Teams | ✓ | — |
| Slack | ✓ | — |
| Trello | — | — |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | ✓ | — |
| GDPR | ✓ | ✓ |
| SSO/SAML/SCIM | ✓ note | — |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| On-premises | ✓ note | — |
| Data residency (US/EU) | ✓ note | — |
Parabol — Pros
- + Open source (AGPL-3.0) with self-host and on-prem options
- + 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
- + AI summaries, suggested groupings and discussion prompts that surface real themes
- + Anonymous reflections and lightweight team health check built in
Parabol — Cons
- − Free tier capped at 10 meetings/month and 30-day history
- − No native whiteboard, presentation mode or screen-share mode
- − Health-check is a single emoji poll — no custom radars or trend dashboards
- − SSO, SCIM, audit-grade controls and uptime SLA gated to Enterprise
- − No Confluence, Trello or multi-language support
SprintRetro — Pros
- + Genuinely free with unlimited users on your Jira instance
- + Pulls <strong>real sprint metrics</strong> (velocity, predictability, scope change, carryover, cycle time) into the retro context
- + Built on Atlassian Forge — runs entirely inside Jira Cloud, no external data egress
- + Action items carry over automatically into the next retro for follow-up
- + Covers the engagement basics: templates, voting, action items, GIFs, polls, kudos, icebreakers
SprintRetro — Cons
- − Jira Cloud only — no Slack, Teams, GitHub, Linear, Confluence, or standalone web app
- − No AI features (no clustering, summaries, sentiment, or action extraction)
- − No timer, drag-and-drop grouping, async mode, presentation mode, or scheduling
- − No SSO, SCIM, SOC 2, audit logs, or cross-team reporting
- − Young product (launched Sept 2025) with a small install base — fine for one team, less proven at scale