Retrospective Tools

Lucidspark vs RetroTool

A side-by-side look at scores, pricing, features and integrations to help you pick the right retrospective tool.

Lucidspark logo

Lucidspark

6.4

Lucid 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, magic sort, board summaries) and bidirectional sync with Lucidchart for diagrams. Free and Individual get static dot voting only; the timer, private voting and facilitator tools start at the Team tier, and Breakout Boards plus the Lucid Cards sync to Jira/Azure DevOps/monday.com are Enterprise-only. Strong enterprise posture inherited from Lucid: SSO/SAML, SCIM, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27701/42001, FedRAMP Moderate, IRAP PROTECTED, GDPR, and US/EU/AU data residency.

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RetroTool logo

RetroTool

3.2

Anonymous online retrospectives, no login required

RetroTool is a low-friction online retrospective board built by u2i, a ~60-person NY/Kraków software agency, as an internal tool it later opened up. Free anonymous retros run from a unique URL with no signup; paid tiers add private boards, team management, configurable retention and zero-knowledge encryption. The product works and is still used daily, but nothing has shipped visibly since 2024.

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Summary

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.

RetroTool scores 3.2 overall and is best for small or ad-hoc teams who want a free, no-signup retro board with private drafting, secret voting and a dozen standard templates — provided you're comfortable running on a tool whose last visible build is dated May 2024. It offers a free tier.

Lucidspark leads on retro toolkit, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations, open platform and enterprise-grade. RetroTool leads on ease of use and value.

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

Lucidspark
Ease of Use7.0
Retro Toolkit5.0
Value5.0
Fun Factor6.0
AI & Insights6.0
Integrations6.5
Open Platform7.0
Enterprise-grade9.0
RetroTool
Ease of Use7.5
Retro Toolkit4.0
Value9.0
Fun Factor3.0
AI & Insights0.0
Integrations0.0
Open Platform1.0
Enterprise-grade1.0
DetailLucidsparkRetroTool
CategoryWhiteboardRetrospectives
Team sizeMid-marketSmall
Free tierYesYes
Free limit3 editable boards, unlimited shapes per board, basic Visual Activities, presentation mode, Lucid AI and static dot voting — no timer, private voting or facilitator toolsAnonymous boards; unlimited cards, columns, action points and participants; 3 basic templates; private sections, secret voting, dot-vote limits, timer, grouping, action points with owner and due date; Markdown export; 12-month retention. A free registered 'Participant' account (not advertised on the plans page) adds access to private retros and cross-device drafts
Starting price$9/user/mo (Individual, billed annually)$10/team/mo ($100/team/yr billed annually)
Est. 3 teams × 8 people$240/mo (Team plan, 24 users at $10/user billed annually)$30/mo (Individual — 3 teams x $10/team/mo, unlimited members per team; $300/yr = $25/mo billed annually)
EnterpriseYesNo
Founded2010—
HQSouth Jordan, USPoland
Data residencyUnited States · European Union · Australia—
Languages12 (English, German, Spanish, …)English only
Export formatsImage · PDF · CSV · JSONMarkdown · Confluence
Features3919
Integrations80

Feature & integration comparison

Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.

CapabilityLucidsparkRetroTool
Features
Custom templates✓✓note
Anonymous input✓note✓note
Health Checks——
Action tracking✓note✓
Async mode✓—
Whiteboard✓—
Independent voting✓note✓
Polling✓—
Icebreaker games——
Agile Estimations✓note—
Team Kudos——
AI grouping/clustering✓—
AI action items——
AI Summaries✓—
Team Insights——
In-meeting AI assistant✓note—
Action dashboard—✓note
Integrations
Asana✓note—
Azure DevOps✓note—
Basecamp——
ClickUp——
Confluence✓note—
GitHub——
GitLab——
Jira✓note—
Linear——
Microsoft Teams✓—
Monday.com✓note—
Notion✓note—
Shortcut——
Slack✓—
Trello——
Security & Privacy
SOC 2✓—
GDPR✓✓note
SSO / SAML✓note—
SCIM provisioning✓note—
ISO 27001✓—
On-premises——
Public API✓note—
Webhooks——
MCP server✓note—

Lucidspark — pros

  • + Tight integration with Lucidchart — switch between diagram and whiteboard on the same canvas
  • + <em>Private mode</em> works on every plan, free included: it hides sticky note contents and authors, and the facilitator can keep authors hidden permanently
  • + Strong enterprise posture: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27701/42001, FedRAMP Moderate, IRAP PROTECTED, PCI DSS, GDPR, SSO/SAML, SCIM, US/EU/AU data residency
  • + Official Lucid MCP server is GA on every plan 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

  • − Timer, private voting and facilitator tools start at the $10/user Team tier — Free and Individual get static dot voting and nothing else facilitator-shaped
  • − Breakout Boards and the Lucid Cards sync to Jira, Azure DevOps and monday.com are Enterprise-only; audit logs need the paid Enterprise Shield add-on on top of Enterprise
  • − No health checks, recurring retros, action carryover or cross-team rollup
  • − AI is general brainstorming/summarising, not retro-aware — no sentiment, action-item extraction or trend insight across retros
  • − Retro template depth trails Miro and Mural; the REST API needs a Team or Enterprise account and there are no outbound webhooks

RetroTool — pros

  • + Genuinely free anonymous retros with no account required
  • + Three-click setup — unique URL, share, run
  • + Per-column Private Sections keep drafting unbiased until people publish
  • + Zero-knowledge encryption with custom passwords on the Company plan
  • + Per-team flat pricing ($10 or $20/team/mo, 15%+ off annually) with <em>unlimited members per team</em>, not per-seat

RetroTool — cons

  • − <strong>Dormant</strong>: the marketing build is dated 28 May 2024, the app still runs Meteor 2.9, the blog stopped in March 2022 and the legal pages are unchanged since August 2020
  • − No native integrations with Jira, Slack, Teams or any agile-stack tool
  • − No AI features (clustering, summary, action extraction, sentiment)
  • − No health checks, recurring retros, async mode, or cross-team reporting
  • − Export is Markdown only (plain or Confluence-flavoured), copied to the clipboard
  • − Most templates, image cards, named participants, private invite-only boards and zero-knowledge encryption sit behind paid tiers
  • − Not SOC 2; Google sign-in only, with no SAML SSO, SCIM or audit logs

Keep comparing

Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.