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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Spreo
5.3Playful collaborative whiteboard for agile teams
Spreo (formerly Metro Retro, then Ludi — renamed Spreo on 1 July 2026 after a US trademark cease-and-desist) is a visual agile collaboration whiteboard with 100+ templates spanning retros, planning poker, icebreakers and futurespectives. Its illustrated canvas and board gadgets — a shared Jukebox music player, timers, spinners, buzzers, confetti, throwable hats — make ceremonies feel engaging. Both the Jira integration and SSO require the $6/user Business plan, and AI stops at beta sticky-note clustering.
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.
Spreo scores 5.3 overall and is best for agile teams who want retros, planning and workshops to feel visual and fun, with a solid Jira-backed delivery loop — budget for the Business plan, which is where Jira and SSO actually live. It offers paid plans from $4/user/mo billed annually ($5 monthly).
IdeaBoardz leads on value and open platform. Spreo leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations and enterprise-grade.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, Spreo edges ahead with an overall score of 5.3. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | IdeaBoardz | Spreo |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retrospectives | Retrospectives |
| Team size | Small | Small |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Free limit | Fully free, no paid tier | 30-day free trial; boards become read-only when the trial expires |
| Starting price | Free | $4/user/mo billed annually ($5 monthly) |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | Free (no paid tier) | $144/mo billed annually (Business — 24 x $6; Starter's $96/mo covers only one shared team space) |
| Enterprise | No | Yes |
| Founded | 2010 | 2020 |
| HQ | Pune, India | UK |
| Data residency | — | European Union |
| Languages | English only | English only |
| Export formats | PDF · Excel | PDF · CSV · HTML · Markdown · JSON · Jira |
| Features | 9 | 40 |
| Integrations | 0 | 1 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | IdeaBoardz | Spreo |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | — |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | ✓note |
| AI action items | — | — |
| Action tracking | — | ✓ |
| Team Insights | — | — |
| Polling | — | ✓note |
| Action dashboard | — | — |
| Custom templates | ✓note | ✓ |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓note |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Async mode | ✓ | — |
| Agile Estimations | — | ✓ |
| Health Checks | — | — |
| Team Kudos | — | ✓note |
| Whiteboard | — | ✓ |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | — |
| Azure DevOps | — | — |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | — | — |
| GitHub | — | — |
| GitLab | — | — |
| Jira | — | ✓note |
| Linear | — | — |
| Microsoft Teams | — | — |
| Monday.com | — | — |
| Notion | — | — |
| Shortcut | — | — |
| Slack | — | — |
| Trello | — | — |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | — | ✓note |
| GDPR | — | ✓ |
| SSO / SAML | — | ✓note |
| SCIM provisioning | — | — |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| On-premises | — | ✓note |
| Public API | ✓note | — |
| Webhooks | — | — |
| MCP server | — | — |
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
Spreo — pros
- + Genuinely delightful, illustrated UI that energises in-person and remote retros
- + Broad template library (100+) covering retros, icebreakers, planning poker, futurespectives, planning and estimation
- + Deep gadget shelf that actually serves the session: shared Jukebox music player, timers, spinners, buzzers, confetti, throwable hats
- + Fully configurable voting rounds — votes per person, duplicate votes, and voting on topics as well as individual stickies
- + Solid two-way Jira integration: backlog refinement, story points and issue creation in-board
- + @mentions and a notification centre across stickies, cards, text blocks and comments
- + EU-hosted (Amsterdam) and GDPR-aligned (SOC 2 / ISO 27001 sit at the Digital Ocean infrastructure layer, not Spreo)
Spreo — cons
- − No async retro mode, no recurring or scheduled retros
- − No team health check or longitudinal pulse product; mood/radar work via whiteboard templates only
- − Integrations limited to Jira — no Slack, Teams, Confluence, GitHub, Linear or Azure DevOps
- − <strong>Jira and SSO both start at the $6/user Business plan</strong>, so the $4 Starter headline is misleading past a single team space
- − AI limited to beta sticky-note clustering — no summaries, action-item extraction, sentiment or coaching
- − No ongoing free plan; expired trials pause to read-only
- − Desktop and laptop only — the vendor states Spreo runs on <em>"all desktop and laptop devices"</em>, with no mobile or tablet support
- − Two renames in under a year leave the review trail split across three names — G2 files it under <em>Ludi</em>, Capterra and Product Hunt under <em>Metro Retro</em>
Keep comparing
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Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.