IdeaBoardz
2.9Free shared brainstorming boards
IdeaBoardz is a long-standing free brainstorming and retrospective board where anyone can spin up a shared URL, add ideas in customisable sections, vote, and export to PDF or Excel. The site is still online and the app still works, but the product appears to be in maintenance mode at best — Terms were last updated in April 2020 and there is no blog, changelog or roadmap to suggest active development.
Full review →
Lucidspark
6.2Lucid Software's whiteboard with AI co-creation, breakout boards and tight Lucidchart integration
Lucidspark is the whiteboard product from Lucid Software (makers of Lucidchart) — an infinite canvas with sticky notes, voting, timer, breakout boards, AI sticky-note clustering and summary, and bidirectional sync with Lucidchart for diagrams. Strong enterprise posture inherited from Lucid: SSO/SAML, SCIM, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR and HIPAA-eligible deployments.
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.
Lucidspark scores 6.2 overall and is best for engineering and PM teams already on Lucidchart who want sticky-note retros and brainstorming on the same platform — and whose security review favours a SOC 2 / ISO 27001 vendor. It offers a free tier.
IdeaBoardz leads on value. Lucidspark leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations and enterprise-grade.
Across our seven scoring dimensions, Lucidspark edges ahead with an overall score of 6.2. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | IdeaBoardz | Lucidspark |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retrospectives | Whiteboard |
| Team size | Small | Mid-market |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free limit | Fully free, no paid tier | 3 editable boards, 100 shapes per board, basic templates, 1 AI sticky-note generation/day |
| Starting price | Free | $7.95/user/mo |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | Free (no paid tier) | $216/mo billed annually |
| Enterprise | No | Yes |
| Founded | 2012 | 2010 |
| HQ | Pune, India | South Jordan, US |
| Data residency | — | United States · European Union |
| Languages | English only | 10 (English, Spanish, German, …) |
| Features | 6 | 36 |
| Integrations | 0 | 6 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | IdeaBoardz | Lucidspark |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | ✓ |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | ✓ |
| AI action items | — | — |
| Action tracking | — | ✓ note |
| Team Insights | — | — |
| Polling | — | ✓ |
| Action dashboard | — | — |
| Custom templates | ✓ note | ✓ |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | — |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Agile Estimations | — | ✓ note |
| Health Checks | — | — |
| Team Kudos | — | — |
| Whiteboard | — | ✓ |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | ✓ |
| Azure DevOps | — | ✓ |
| Confluence | — | ✓ |
| GitHub | — | — |
| Jira | — | ✓ |
| Linear | — | — |
| Microsoft Teams | — | ✓ |
| Slack | — | ✓ |
| Trello | — | — |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | — | ✓ |
| GDPR | — | ✓ |
| SSO / SAML | — | ✓ note |
| SCIM provisioning | — | ✓ note |
| ISO 27001 | — | ✓ |
| On-premises | — | — |
| Public API | — | ✓ |
| Webhooks | — | — |
IdeaBoardz — pros
- + Genuinely free, no paywall, no paid tier
- + No signup required to participate — just share a URL
- + 1-10 customisable sections cover most retro formats (Start/Stop/Continue, 4Ls, etc.)
- + PDF and Excel export built in
- + Voting and async input out of the box
IdeaBoardz — cons
- − UI is unchanged from the early 2010s and shows it
- − No timer, no facilitation phases, no drag-and-drop grouping
- − Zero integrations with the agile stack (Jira, Slack, Teams, Confluence, etc.)
- − No prebuilt templates, no health checks, no AI features
- − Boards are public-by-URL with no SSO, SOC 2, or stated privacy controls
- − Apparently in maintenance mode — Terms last updated April 2020, no changelog or blog
Lucidspark — pros
- + Tight integration with Lucidchart — switch between diagram and whiteboard on the same canvas
- + Breakout Boards let you split a workshop or retro into parallel rooms
- + Strong enterprise posture: SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA-eligible, SSO/SAML, SCIM
- + Generous integration set: Jira, Slack, Teams, Confluence, Azure DevOps, Asana
- + Free tier exists and is enough to evaluate the tool
Lucidspark — cons
- − No native anonymous voting — names always visible on stickies
- − No health checks, recurring retros, action carryover or cross-team rollup
- − AI features lag Miro and FigJam — clustering and summary are present but not as polished
- − Free tier is restrictive: 3 boards and 100 shapes/board limits real use beyond evaluation
- − Brand is best known for diagramming; retro template depth trails Miro and Mural