Metro Retro
3.1Now rebranded as Ludi — the playful retro whiteboard lives on under a new name
Metro Retro was a fun, freeform online whiteboard built for sprint retrospectives, known for its playful templates, timer and engagement features. In 2024 the product was rebranded: metroretro.io now redirects to ludi.co, and the maker (Deqo Software Limited) positions Ludi as the continuation — 'Metro Retro is now Ludi.' If you are searching for Metro Retro, the product you want is Ludi; the original Metro Retro brand and domain are no longer maintained.
Full review →
Parabol
7.6Open-source agile meetings for retros, poker, standups and check-ins
Parabol is an <strong>open-source agile meeting platform</strong> spanning retrospectives, sprint poker, async standups, team check-ins and lightweight team health, with deep backlog sync to Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps and Linear and AI-assisted grouping, summaries, icebreakers and discussion prompts.
Full review →Summary
Metro Retro scores 3.1 overall and is best for searchers looking for Metro Retro — the product now exists as Ludi. Use Ludi (or a dedicated retro tool) instead. It offers custom pricing.
Parabol scores 7.6 overall and is best for distributed agile teams that want one open-source tool for retros, poker, standups and lightweight team health. It offers a free tier.
Parabol leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, value, fun factor, AI & insights, integrations and enterprise-grade.
Across our seven scoring dimensions, Parabol edges ahead with an overall score of 7.6. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | Metro Retro | Parabol |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Whiteboard | All-in-One Agile |
| Team size | Small | Any |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Free limit | Unlimited users, 2 teams, 10 meetings/month, 30-day history, 2 custom templates | |
| Starting price | Free | $8/user/mo |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | N/A — rebranded as Ludi; see the Ludi listing | $192/mo |
| Enterprise | No | Yes |
| Founded | — | 2015 |
| HQ | United Kingdom | Remote |
| Data residency | — | United States · European Union · Self-hosted |
| Languages | English only | English only |
| Features | 7 | 43 |
| Integrations | 0 | 7 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | Metro Retro | Parabol |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | ✓ |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | ✓ |
| AI action items | — | — |
| Action tracking | — | ✓ |
| Team Insights | — | ✓ |
| Polling | — | ✓ note |
| Action dashboard | — | ✓ |
| Custom templates | — | ✓ note |
| Anonymous input | — | ✓ |
| Independent voting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Async mode | — | ✓ |
| Agile Estimations | — | ✓ |
| Health Checks | — | ✓ note |
| Team Kudos | — | ✓ |
| Whiteboard | ✓ | — |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | — |
| Azure DevOps | — | ✓ |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | — | — |
| GitHub | — | ✓ |
| GitLab | — | ✓ |
| Jira | — | ✓ |
| Linear | — | ✓ |
| Microsoft Teams | — | ✓ |
| Monday.com | — | — |
| Notion | — | — |
| Shortcut | — | — |
| Slack | — | ✓ |
| Trello | — | — |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | — | ✓ |
| GDPR | — | ✓ |
| SSO / SAML | — | ✓ note |
| SCIM provisioning | — | ✓ note |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| On-premises | — | ✓ note |
| Public API | — | ✓ |
| Webhooks | — | ✓ |
Metro Retro — pros
- + The product you remember still exists — it's now called Ludi
- + Carried its playful templates, timer, GIFs and icebreakers into the rebrand
- + Freeform whiteboard canvas that's friendly for engagement-first retros
Metro Retro — cons
- − The Metro Retro brand and metroretro.io domain are retired (the domain now redirects to ludi.co)
- − No standalone free tier under the new brand — Ludi is a 30-day trial then paid
- − Light on the agile stack: no Jira/Slack/Teams integrations, no SSO, no SOC 2, no AI
- − Not a dedicated retro platform — it's a general whiteboard you adapt for retros
Parabol — pros
- + Open source (AGPL-3.0) with self-host and on-prem options
- + 40+ retro templates plus poker, standups, check-ins and team health in one tool
- + Strong backlog write-back to Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps and Linear
- + AI summaries, suggested groupings and discussion prompts that surface real themes
- + Anonymous reflections and lightweight team health check built in
Parabol — cons
- − Free tier capped at 10 meetings/month and 30-day history
- − No native whiteboard, presentation mode or screen-share mode
- − Health-check is a single emoji poll — no custom radars or trend dashboards
- − SSO, SCIM, audit-grade controls and uptime SLA gated to Enterprise
- − No Confluence, Trello or multi-language support