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.
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Lucidspark
6.4Lucid Software's whiteboard with the Lucid AI assistant and tight Lucidchart integration — voting, timers and facilitator tools start at the Team tier
Lucidspark is the whiteboard product from Lucid Software (makers of Lucidchart) — an infinite canvas with sticky notes, private-mode brainstorming, anonymous voting sessions, timers, the Lucid AI assistant (prompt-to-board, clustering, summaries) and bidirectional sync with Lucidchart for diagrams. Voting, timers and facilitator tools start at the Team tier; Breakout Boards and the Jira/Azure DevOps card sync are Enterprise-only. Strong enterprise posture inherited from Lucid: SSO/SAML, SCIM, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001/27701/42001, FedRAMP, IRAP, GDPR, and US/EU/AU data residency.
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 6.4 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, open platform and enterprise-grade.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, Lucidspark edges ahead with an overall score of 6.4. 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, unlimited shapes per board, basic Visual Activities, presentation mode and Lucid AI — no voting, timer or facilitator tools |
| Starting price | Free | $9/user/mo |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | Free (no paid tier) | $240/mo (Team plan, 24 users at $10/user) |
| Enterprise | No | Yes |
| Founded | 2010 | 2010 |
| HQ | Pune, India | South Jordan, US |
| Data residency | — | United States · European Union · Australia |
| Languages | English only | 10 (English, Spanish, German, …) |
| Export formats | PDF · Excel | Image · PDF · CSV · JSON |
| Features | 9 | 38 |
| Integrations | 0 | 7 |
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 | ✓ | ✓note |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓note |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Agile Estimations | — | ✓note |
| Health Checks | — | — |
| Team Kudos | — | — |
| Whiteboard | — | ✓ |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | ✓ |
| Azure DevOps | — | ✓note |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | — | ✓ |
| GitHub | — | — |
| GitLab | — | — |
| Jira | — | ✓note |
| Linear | — | — |
| Microsoft Teams | — | ✓ |
| Monday.com | — | — |
| Notion | — | ✓note |
| Shortcut | — | — |
| Slack | — | ✓ |
| Trello | — | — |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | — | ✓ |
| GDPR | — | ✓ |
| SSO / SAML | — | ✓note |
| SCIM provisioning | — | ✓note |
| ISO 27001 | — | ✓ |
| On-premises | — | — |
| Public API | ✓note | ✓note |
| Webhooks | — | — |
| MCP server | — | ✓note |
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
Lucidspark — pros
- + Tight integration with Lucidchart — switch between diagram and whiteboard on the same canvas
- + <em>Private mode</em> hides sticky note authors until the session ends, and a voting session can be set fully anonymous
- + Strong enterprise posture: SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001/27701/42001, FedRAMP, IRAP, GDPR, SSO/SAML, SCIM, US/EU/AU data residency
- + Official Lucid MCP server is GA and shipping monthly — search boards, summarise them, generate synced Jira cards from Claude or ChatGPT
- + Lucid AI is included on every tier today, free plan included
Lucidspark — cons
- − Voting, timers and facilitator tools start at the $10/user Team tier — the free plan's three boards can't run a facilitated retro
- − Breakout Boards and the Lucid Cards sync to Jira/Azure DevOps are Enterprise-only
- − No health checks, recurring retros, action carryover or cross-team rollup
- − AI is general brainstorming/clustering, not retro-aware — no sentiment, action-item extraction or trend insight across retros
- − Retro template depth trails Miro and Mural, and the REST API needs a Team or Enterprise account
Keep comparing
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See alternatives
Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.