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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Mural
6.6Visual collaboration whiteboard with a mature facilitation toolkit and AI-assisted sessions
Mural is a long-established visual collaboration platform — an infinite canvas with sticky notes, anonymous voting, timers, Private Mode, hundreds of workshop templates (eight of them retro-specific), AI clustering, summary and emotional-tone classification, and a Facilitation Superpowers toolkit (Outline, Timer, Voting, Private Mode) refined for over a decade. Best-in-class enterprise posture: SSO, SCIM, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR and NA/EU/APAC 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.
Mural scores 6.6 overall and is best for workshop-heavy teams (design, product, agile coaching) that want a polished facilitation canvas with strong retro templates and enterprise-grade controls. It offers a free tier.
IdeaBoardz leads on value. Mural leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations, open platform and enterprise-grade.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, Mural edges ahead with an overall score of 6.6. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | IdeaBoardz | Mural |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retrospectives | Whiteboard |
| Team size | Small | Mid-market |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free limit | Fully free, no paid tier | Unlimited murals but only the 3 most recently created stay editable (older go view-only); unlimited members and visitors; no Mural AI |
| Starting price | Free | $9.99/user/mo |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | Free (no paid tier) | $240/mo billed annually |
| Enterprise | No | Yes |
| Founded | 2010 | 2011 |
| HQ | Pune, India | San Francisco, US |
| Data residency | — | United States · European Union · Asia-Pacific |
| Languages | English only | 9 (English, Spanish, German, …) |
| Export formats | PDF · Excel | Image · PDF · PowerPoint · HTML · CSV |
| Features | 9 | 39 |
| Integrations | 0 | 8 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | IdeaBoardz | Mural |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | ✓ |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | ✓ |
| AI action items | — | — |
| Action tracking | — | ✓note |
| Team Insights | — | — |
| Polling | — | ✓note |
| Action dashboard | — | — |
| Custom templates | ✓note | ✓ |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓note |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Async mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Agile Estimations | — | ✓note |
| Health Checks | — | — |
| Team Kudos | — | — |
| Whiteboard | — | ✓ |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | ✓note |
| Azure DevOps | — | ✓note |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | — | ✓ |
| GitHub | — | ✓note |
| 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 | ✓ |
| 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
Mural — pros
- + Mature facilitation toolkit — Outline, Timer, Voting, Private Mode — refined over 10+ years
- + Anonymous where it counts: votes hide who voted, and Private Mode can keep sticky authors hidden even after reveal
- + Best-in-class enterprise posture: SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, SSO/SAML, SCIM, NA/EU/APAC residency
- + Two-way Jira and Azure DevOps sync via interactive work-item cards turns sticky notes into tracked issues
- + Polished UX, especially for facilitators running synchronous workshops
Mural — cons
- − Per-seat pricing: a 24-person org pays ~$240/mo on the Team+ tier (annual), well above retro-native tools at that headcount
- − No native health checks, mood tracking or longitudinal team-pulse
- − No recurring retros, action carryover or cross-team rollup — facilitators rebuild structure each sprint
- − AI (clustering, summary, tone Classify) helps inside a session but doesn't track trends across retros
- − SSO/SAML needs the $17.99/user/mo Business tier; SCIM, audit logs and data residency are Enterprise-only
Keep comparing
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See alternatives
Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.