FigJam
7.2Figma's whiteboard with AI sticky clustering, voting sessions and a $3 Collab seat — free tier caps at 3 boards
FigJam is the whiteboard product inside Figma — sticky notes, timer, music, expressive cursor stamps, voting sessions, an AI co-pilot that clusters and summarises stickies, and 300+ ready-made templates including community retro boards. Design and product teams already living in Figma get retros without buying a second tool, backed by Figma's SAML/SCIM, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and EU data hosting on Organization and Enterprise plans. Voting sessions, audio chat and no-account guest links all require a paid team.
Full review →
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.
Full review →Summary
FigJam scores 7.2 overall and is best for design and product teams already on Figma who want retros on the same platform as their design files, with playful engagement and AI clustering. It offers a free tier.
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.
FigJam leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations, open platform and enterprise-grade. IdeaBoardz leads on value.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, FigJam edges ahead with an overall score of 7.2. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | FigJam | IdeaBoardz |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Whiteboard | Retrospectives |
| Team size | Mid-market | Small |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free limit | Starter: 3 FigJam files per team (unlimited personal drafts), 150 AI credits/day (500/month), templates, timer and music, 30-day version history — no voting sessions, audio chat or open (no-account) sessions | Fully free, no paid tier |
| Starting price | $3/user/mo | Free |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | ~$72/mo (24 Collab seats × $3, annual) — more if hosts need Full seats | Free (no paid tier) |
| Enterprise | Yes | No |
| Founded | 2012 | 2010 |
| HQ | San Francisco, US | Pune, India |
| Data residency | United States · European Union | — |
| Languages | English only | English only |
| Export formats | PDF · Image · CSV | PDF · Excel |
| Features | 39 | 9 |
| Integrations | 10 | 0 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | FigJam | IdeaBoardz |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | ✓ | — |
| AI grouping/clustering | ✓ | — |
| AI action items | ✓note | — |
| Action tracking | — | — |
| Team Insights | — | — |
| Polling | ✓ | — |
| Action dashboard | — | — |
| Custom templates | ✓ | ✓note |
| Anonymous input | — | ✓ |
| Independent voting | ✓note | ✓ |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Agile Estimations | ✓note | — |
| Health Checks | — | — |
| Team Kudos | ✓note | — |
| Whiteboard | ✓ | — |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | ✓note | — |
| Azure DevOps | — | — |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | ✓note | — |
| GitHub | ✓note | — |
| GitLab | — | — |
| Jira | ✓note | — |
| Linear | ✓note | — |
| Microsoft Teams | ✓note | — |
| Monday.com | ✓note | — |
| Notion | ✓note | — |
| Shortcut | — | — |
| Slack | ✓note | — |
| Trello | ✓note | — |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | ✓ | — |
| GDPR | ✓ | — |
| SSO / SAML | ✓note | — |
| SCIM provisioning | ✓note | — |
| ISO 27001 | ✓ | — |
| On-premises | — | — |
| Public API | ✓ | ✓note |
| Webhooks | ✓ | — |
| MCP server | ✓note | — |
FigJam — pros
- + Cheap $3/user/mo Collab seat unlocks unlimited boards without a full Figma editor seat
- + Free Starter tier includes real AI credits (150/day, 500/month), 300+ templates, the timer and music
- + Same login and platform as Figma — zero friction for design-led teams
- + Playful, engaging UX — stamps, emotes, high-fives, music, cursor chat — lifts retro fun factor
- + Strong enterprise posture inherited from Figma: SAML, SCIM, activity logs, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, EU data hosting on Enterprise
FigJam — cons
- − No native action-item tracking, recurring retros or health checks
- − Anonymity is weak — votes reveal who voted once the session ends, and stickies always carry a name
- − Official connectors embed Figma files in Jira/Confluence/Linear/Notion rather than pushing action items out; GitHub-issue creation is a community widget; no Azure DevOps
- − Free Starter caps a team at 3 FigJam files and excludes voting sessions, audio chat and no-account guest links
- − Built primarily for designers — the canvas paradigm is fiddly for structured retros, and large boards get sluggish
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
Keep comparing
Other FigJam comparisons
Other IdeaBoardz comparisons
See alternatives
Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.