Retrospective Tools

Spreo vs RetroTool

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

Spreo logo

Spreo

5.9

Playful 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. An official MCP server (beta) and a signed-in HTTP API landed during 2026, but Jira, SSO and PDF export all require the $6/user Business plan, and in-product AI stops at beta sticky-note clustering.

Full review →
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.

Full review →

Summary

Spreo scores 5.9 overall and is best for agile teams who want retros, planning and workshops to feel visual and fun on a Jira backlog, and who would get real value from driving boards with an AI assistant over MCP — budget for the Business plan, which is where Jira, SSO and PDF export actually live. It offers paid plans from $4/user/mo billed annually ($5 monthly).

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.

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

Across our eight scoring dimensions, Spreo edges ahead with an overall score of 5.9. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.

Scores compared

Spreo
Ease of Use8.5
Retro Toolkit6.5
Value7.0
Fun Factor9.0
AI & Insights3.0
Integrations3.0
Open Platform6.0
Enterprise-grade4.5
RetroTool
Ease of Use7.5
Retro Toolkit4.0
Value9.0
Fun Factor3.0
AI & Insights0.0
Integrations0.0
Open Platform1.0
Enterprise-grade1.0
DetailSpreoRetroTool
CategoryRetrospectivesRetrospectives
Team sizeSmallSmall
Free tierNoYes
Free limit30-day free trial; boards become read-only when the trial expiresAnonymous 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$4/user/mo billed annually ($5 monthly)$10/team/mo ($100/team/yr billed annually)
Est. 3 teams × 8 people$144/mo billed annually (Business — 24 x $6; Starter's $96/mo covers only one shared team space)$30/mo (Individual — 3 teams x $10/team/mo, unlimited members per team; $300/yr = $25/mo billed annually)
EnterpriseYesNo
Founded2019
HQUKPoland
Data residencyEuropean Union
LanguagesEnglish onlyEnglish only
Export formatsPDF · CSV · HTML · Markdown · JSON · JiraMarkdown · Confluence
Features4419
Integrations10

Feature & integration comparison

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

CapabilitySpreoRetroTool
Features
Custom templatesnote
Anonymous inputnotenote
Health Checks
Action tracking
Async mode
Whiteboard
Independent voting
Pollingnote
Icebreaker games
Agile Estimations
Team Kudosnote
AI grouping/clusteringnote
AI action items
AI Summariesnote
Team Insights
In-meeting AI assistant
Action dashboardnotenote
Integrations
Asana
Azure DevOps
Basecamp
ClickUp
Confluence
GitHub
GitLab
Jiranote
Linear
Microsoft Teams
Monday.com
Notion
Shortcut
Slack
Trello
Security & Privacy
SOC 2note
GDPRnote
SSO / SAMLnote
SCIM provisioning
ISO 27001
On-premisesnote
Public APInote
Webhooks
MCP servernote

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
  • + Official MCP server (beta) lets Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot read, build and edit boards under your own permissions, with an account-level kill switch and a connected-members list for admins
  • + 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
  • + Hide Identities host control makes writing <em>and</em> voting permanently anonymous, toggleable per activity
  • + 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, SSO and PDF export all start at the $6/user Business plan</strong>, so the $4 Starter headline is misleading past a single team space
  • In-product AI limited to beta sticky-note clustering — no summaries, action-item extraction, sentiment or coaching; MCP moves the AI into your own assistant rather than the board
  • The HTTP API has no public reference — you need a Spreo login to see what it does, which makes it hard to evaluate before buying
  • 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>

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.