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, async standups, team check-ins and lightweight team health, with deep backlog sync to Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps and Linear, recurring meeting series, and a built-in knowledge base (Pages) that auto-publishes every meeting summary and runs AI queries across past retros.
Full review →
TeleRetro
6.1Agile retros you'll love
TeleRetro is a remote-first retrospective tool built around team engagement — animated GIF reactions, emoji reactions on notes, icebreaker games, background music and a clean facilitation flow. It pairs retros with a Pulse Survey module for tracking team health between sessions, 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, standups and lightweight team health. It offers a free tier.
TeleRetro scores 6.1 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/month | 1 team, 3 retros, 14-day retro access, 1 pulse survey, limited AI Retro Bot access |
| Starting price | $8/active user/mo | £26/mo |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | $192/mo | £72/mo (~$91/mo) on the Business plan (3 teams) |
| Enterprise | Yes | Yes |
| Founded | 2015 | 2020 |
| HQ | Remote (San Diego, CA) | UK |
| Data residency | United States · European Union · Self-hosted | — |
| Languages | English only | 14 (English, German, Spanish, …) |
| Export formats | CSV · Email | Email · Jira |
| Features | 46 | 35 |
| Integrations | 7 | 7 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | Parabol | TeleRetro |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | ✓note | — |
| AI grouping/clustering | ✓note | — |
| AI action items | — | — |
| Action tracking | ✓ | ✓note |
| Team Insights | ✓note | — |
| Polling | ✓note | — |
| Action dashboard | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom templates | ✓note | ✓ |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓ |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓note |
| Agile Estimations | ✓ | — |
| Health Checks | ✓note | ✓note |
| Team Kudos | — | — |
| Whiteboard | — | — |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | — |
| Azure DevOps | ✓ | ✓note |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | — | — |
| GitHub | ✓ | ✓note |
| GitLab | ✓ | — |
| Jira | ✓ | ✓note |
| Linear | ✓ | — |
| Microsoft Teams | ✓ | ✓note |
| Monday.com | — | — |
| 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
- + 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
- + CSV export of reflections, groups, votes and discussion threads on <em>every</em> tier
- + Recurring retro series with a real recurrence rule and Google Calendar sync
- + DoD Iron Bank hardened container, cleared to IL4 via Platform One
Parabol — cons
- − Free tier capped at 10 meetings/month, 30-day history and 3 AI summaries
- − No native whiteboard, presentation mode or screen-share mode
- − Health-check is a single emoji poll — no custom radars or trend dashboards
- − AI grouping and team health checks need the paid Team tier; Pages Insights needs org-level enablement
- − Webhooks stop at Mattermost/MS Teams notification URLs — no general event subscriptions and no MCP server
- − No Confluence, Trello or multi-language support
TeleRetro — pros
- + The deepest <strong>retro-native engagement set</strong> of any tool here — GIF and 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, facilitator-gated voting with a configurable vote count, and mood polls at both ends of the session
- + Pulse Surveys track team health between retros, with 20+ ready templates and a cross-team dashboard on the Business plan
- + Genuinely cheap for a small org — £72/mo covers 3 teams with unlimited retros
TeleRetro — cons
- − Only Slack is documented as a native integration; Jira is claimed on the vendor's comparison pages but absent from its own integrations page, and everything else routes through Zapier
- − Actions carry owners but <em>no due dates</em>, and nothing links an action back to the idea that prompted it
- − AI never touches the board — Retro Bot generates formats and icebreakers, but there is no clustering, summary, sentiment or action extraction
- − 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
- − No product update shipped since August 2025 — the marketing site is actively maintained, the changelog is not
Keep comparing
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Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.