Parabol
7.4Open-source agile meetings for retros, poker, standups and check-ins
Parabol is an open-source agile meeting platform spanning retrospectives, sprint poker, team check-ins and recurring team health checks, with deep backlog sync to Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps and Linear, recurring meeting series, Zoom and Google Meet transcript capture, a scoped GraphQL API, and a built-in knowledge base (Pages) that auto-publishes every meeting summary and runs AI queries across past retros.
Full review →
TeleRetro
5.8Agile retros you'll love
TeleRetro is a remote-first retrospective tool built around team engagement — animated GIF reactions, emoji reactions on notes, AI icebreaker questions, background music and a clean facilitation flow. Participants join by link with no account. It pairs retros with a Pulse Survey module for tracking team health between sessions, and prices per team rather than per user, aimed at small to mid-size agile teams who want retros that feel lively rather than mechanical.
Full review →Summary
Parabol scores 7.4 overall and is best for distributed agile teams that want one open-source tool for retros, poker and team health checks. It offers a free tier.
TeleRetro scores 5.8 overall and is best for remote and hybrid agile teams who prioritise engagement and fun alongside a solid retrospective facilitation workflow. It offers a free tier.
Parabol leads on retro toolkit, AI & insights, integrations, open platform and enterprise-grade. TeleRetro leads on ease of use, value and fun factor.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, Parabol edges ahead with an overall score of 7.4. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | Parabol | TeleRetro |
|---|---|---|
| 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, 3 AI retro summaries per team | 1 team, 3 retros total (deleted retros still count), 14-day retro access, 1 pulse survey, limited AI Retro Bot access, 10 AI icebreaker questions |
| Starting price | $8/active user/mo | £26/mo (Team plan, 1 team, unlimited members; £21/mo billed annually) |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | $192/mo | £72/mo (~$96/mo) on the Business plan — 3 teams, unlimited members; £58/mo billed annually |
| Enterprise | Yes | Yes |
| Founded | 2015 | 2020 |
| HQ | Remote (San Diego, CA) | UK |
| Data residency | United States · European Union · Self-hosted | — |
| Languages | English only | 1 (English) |
| Export formats | CSV · Email | Email · Image · JSON |
| Features | 54 | 39 |
| Integrations | 8 | 10 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | Parabol | TeleRetro |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| Custom templates | ✓note | ✓note |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓ |
| Health Checks | ✓note | ✓note |
| Action tracking | ✓ | ✓note |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓note |
| Whiteboard | — | — |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Polling | — | — |
| Icebreaker games | — | — |
| Agile Estimations | ✓ | — |
| Team Kudos | — | — |
| AI grouping/clustering | ✓note | — |
| AI action items | — | — |
| AI Summaries | ✓note | — |
| Team Insights | ✓note | — |
| In-meeting AI assistant | — | — |
| Action dashboard | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | ✓note |
| Azure DevOps | ✓ | ✓note |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | ✓note | ✓note |
| GitHub | ✓ | ✓note |
| GitLab | ✓ | — |
| Jira | ✓ | ✓note |
| Linear | ✓ | — |
| Microsoft Teams | ✓ | ✓note |
| Monday.com | — | ✓note |
| Notion | — | ✓note |
| Shortcut | — | — |
| Slack | ✓ | ✓ |
| Trello | — | ✓note |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | ✓ | — |
| GDPR | ✓ | ✓ |
| SSO / SAML | ✓note | ✓note |
| SCIM provisioning | ✓note | — |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| On-premises | ✓note | — |
| Public API | ✓ | ✓note |
| Webhooks | ✓note | — |
| MCP server | — | — |
Parabol — pros
- + Open source (AGPL-3.0) with Docker/Kubernetes self-host, on-prem and air-gapped deployment, plus a DoD Iron Bank hardened container (IL4 via Platform One, IL5 via Arcus)
- + 40+ meeting templates plus poker, check-ins and team health in one tool
- + Strong backlog write-back to Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps and Linear
- + CSV export of reflections, groups, votes and threads, and a public GraphQL API with scoped personal access tokens, both on <em>every</em> plan
- + Recurring retro series with a real recurrence rule and Google Calendar sync, plus an opt-in facilitator rotation queue
Parabol — cons
- − Free Starter capped at 2 teams, 10 meetings/month, 30-day history and 3 AI summaries per team; AI grouping and Team Health need the paid Team tier
- − No native whiteboard, presentation mode or screen-share mode
- − Team Health, as of Oct 2026: 5 Likert questions per check across 5 fixed categories, trend limited to the last five checks in one series (no standalone history view), org-wide reporting still "coming soon", no export of health scores
- − Webhooks stop at Mattermost/MS Teams notification URLs — no general event subscriptions and no MCP server
- − English-only UI; no Trello, Asana, ClickUp or Notion integration
TeleRetro — pros
- + A rich <strong>retro-native engagement set</strong>: GIFs that float across the board, emoji reactions on notes, background music during brainstorming, an AI icebreaker bot, and 50+ themed formats with their own backgrounds
- + Participants join by link with <em>no account required</em> — the fastest path from invite to first note
- + Clean facilitation flow: brainstorming mode, drag-and-drop grouping, Spotlight to focus the room on one note, facilitator-gated voting with a configurable vote count, and mood polls at both ends of the session
- + Pulse Surveys track team health between retros — 16 fully anonymous templates, custom models, and a cross-team dashboard on the Business plan
- + Flat per-team pricing with <em>no per-user charge</em> — £72/mo covers 3 teams, unlimited members and unlimited retros
TeleRetro — cons
- − Slack is the only native integration; the in-app integrations panel offers Slack and Zapier and nothing else, despite Jira appearing on the vendor's comparison pages
- − No way to schedule a future retro or set one to recur, and actions carry owners but <em>no due dates</em> — nothing links an action back to the idea that prompted it either
- − AI never touches the board — Retro Bot generates formats and icebreakers, but there is no clustering, summary, sentiment or action extraction
- − Export is thin: an emailed summary, a PNG of the summary screen, and an org-metrics JSON dump. No CSV, PDF or Excel
- − No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 of its own (the certs cited are AWS's), no SCIM, no audit logs, and SSO is Enterprise-plan only
Keep comparing
Other Parabol comparisons
Other TeleRetro comparisons
Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.