NimbleRetro
3.6Time-boxed retros with 5-Why root cause analysis
NimbleRetro is the retrospective module inside NimbleWork's broader Nimble agile platform. It runs structured, time-bound retros through Icebreaker, Ideation, Grouping, Voting, and Root Cause Analysis stages, with anonymous input, action item tracking, and a 5-Why root cause workflow. Native iOS and Android apps complement the web product, and action items convert directly into Nimble workitems (user stories and cards).
Full review →
QRetro
5.8Manage team health, not sticky notes
QRetro is a completely free retrospective tool with no seat or team caps, built by solo developer Roman Ermilov and shipping continuously since January 2023. It runs a fixed seven-stage session — optional health check, optional icebreaker game, cards, grouping, voting, discussion, results — and closes with an auto-generated summary, ROTI score and action items. An official MCP server exposes 29 read/write tools so Claude, Cursor or VS Code can query boards, health trends and actions directly.
Full review →Summary
NimbleRetro scores 3.6 overall and is best for small agile teams that want a no-frills retro with built-in root cause analysis and a mobile companion app, especially teams already using the wider NimbleWork (SwiftKanban / Nimble) suite. It offers paid plans from $10/user/mo (Nimble Team tier, USD; standalone NimbleRetro is quote-only).
QRetro scores 5.8 overall and is best for small agile teams and independent squads that want a genuinely well-equipped retro — 52 templates, health checks, ROTI, timer, icebreaker games and MCP access — at zero cost, and can accept a solo-maintainer vendor with no SSO, no export files and no certifications. It offers a free tier.
NimbleRetro leads on enterprise-grade. QRetro leads on ease of use, retro toolkit, value, fun factor, AI & insights and integrations.
Across our eight scoring dimensions, QRetro edges ahead with an overall score of 5.8. That said, the right pick depends on your team — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown below.
Scores compared
| Detail | NimbleRetro | QRetro |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retrospectives | Retrospectives |
| Team size | Small | Small |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Free limit | Free trial only; no permanent free tier published for the retro module. A $0 Nimble suite plan (10 users / 10 projects) appears in a secondary table on the suite pricing page, but it does not list Retrospectives among its features | Everything is free with no seat or team caps — 52 templates, unlimited public and team boards, planning poker, team games, health checks, ROTI, summaries and MCP access |
| Starting price | $10/user/mo (Nimble Team tier, USD; standalone NimbleRetro is quote-only) | Free |
| Est. 3 teams × 8 people | $240/mo (24 users x $10/user/mo Nimble Team tier); standalone NimbleRetro is quote-only | Free (no paid tier) |
| Enterprise | Yes | No |
| Founded | 2002 | 2023 |
| HQ | Cupertino, CA, United States | — |
| Data residency | — | — |
| Languages | English only | English only |
| Export formats | — | — |
| Features | 16 | 32 |
| Integrations | 2 | 3 |
Feature & integration comparison
Side-by-side checklist across features, integrations and security. Hover a note for details.
| Capability | NimbleRetro | QRetro |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| AI Summaries | — | ✓ |
| AI grouping/clustering | — | — |
| AI action items | — | ✓note |
| Action tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Team Insights | — | ✓note |
| Polling | ✓ | — |
| Action dashboard | ✓note | ✓note |
| Custom templates | ✓ | — |
| Anonymous input | ✓ | ✓note |
| Independent voting | — | ✓ |
| Async mode | — | — |
| Agile Estimations | — | ✓note |
| Health Checks | — | ✓note |
| Team Kudos | — | ✓note |
| Whiteboard | — | — |
| Integrations | ||
| Asana | — | — |
| Azure DevOps | — | — |
| Basecamp | — | — |
| ClickUp | — | — |
| Confluence | — | — |
| GitHub | — | — |
| GitLab | — | — |
| Jira | — | ✓note |
| Linear | — | ✓note |
| Microsoft Teams | ✓note | — |
| Monday.com | — | — |
| Notion | — | — |
| Shortcut | — | — |
| Slack | ✓note | ✓note |
| Trello | — | — |
| Security & Privacy | ||
| SOC 2 | ✓note | — |
| GDPR | ✓ | ✓note |
| SSO / SAML | ✓note | — |
| SCIM provisioning | — | — |
| ISO 27001 | ✓note | — |
| On-premises | — | — |
| Public API | ✓note | — |
| Webhooks | ✓note | — |
| MCP server | — | ✓ |
NimbleRetro — pros
- + Structured 5-Why root cause workflow built into the retro flow
- + Anonymous input and time-bound stages keep retros focused
- + Native iOS and Android apps for mobile participation
- + NimbleWork runs an annual SOC 2 Type II audit and an ISO/IEC 27001:2022 audit, with SAMLv2/ADFSv3 SSO at the platform level
- + Action items convert directly into Nimble work items, so follow-up lands in the same backlog the team already works from
NimbleRetro — cons
- − Only four templates, and custom templates cap out at four columns
- − No SCIM provisioning or audit logs documented; SSO and the SOC 2 / ISO 27001 attestations sit at the NimbleWork platform level, not the retro module
- − Comparison pages tick 'Generative AI' for NimbleRetro, but no retro AI (clustering, summaries, sentiment) is documented — NimbleWork's AI Agents are a separately licensed add-on aimed at Nimble cards and analytics
- − No documented export of a retro board in any format
- − Thin direct-integration story for the agile stack — no documented Jira, GitHub, Linear, or Azure DevOps hooks for the retro module
- − Participants are limited to members of the Nimble project the retro is created from
- − NimbleRetro's own pricing page is demo-gated; the only published rate card is the Nimble suite's ($10/user/mo Team, $26/user/mo Business)
QRetro — pros
- + Genuinely free with no seat caps, team caps or paywalled features — a 24-person org across three teams pays nothing, and there is no paid tier to be upsold to
- + Retro toolkit is deep for a free product: 52 templates, private-mode submission, timer, drag-and-drop grouping with auto-named groups, action items, team agreements, ROTI and a radar-charted health check stage
- + Unusually strong engagement layer for a product that charges nothing — four built-in games (Draw & Guess, Sprint in one GIF, Hangman, Decoded) usable as a switchable icebreaker stage, plus GIF cards, emoji reactions and live cursors. TeleRetro and the whiteboard tools still go further, mainly on music and ambient audio
- + Official MCP server at a single address (mcp.qretro.com) with 29 read, write and delete tools and OAuth sign-in, so Claude, Cursor or VS Code can pull board summaries, health trends and action items with nothing to paste
- + Guest access with no account or password, and guest contributions now persist permanently rather than expiring after a day
- + Visibly active despite being a solo project — 15+ dated changelog entries across 2026, including the v4 relaunch, MCP OAuth, poker over MCP and two new games in July–August 2026
QRetro — cons
- − Built and maintained by a single developer (Roman Ermilov) with no support team, SLA or published company entity — the enterprise-grade cap for founder-only vendors applies regardless of how good the product is
- − No enterprise controls at all: no SSO or SAML, no SCIM, no audit logs, no SOC 2 or ISO 27001; a DPA and sub-processor list are published but there is no explicit GDPR compliance claim
- − No file export — results share to Slack or Telegram as a recap message, but there is no documented PDF, CSV, Excel, Markdown or email export, so the retro record cannot be filed anywhere outside those two channels
- − Integration set is narrow: Jira, Linear, Slack and Telegram only — nothing for Teams, Confluence, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps or any other tracker
- − No async or distributed-team support — the seven-stage flow assumes a live session, and there are no recurring or scheduled retros
- − Vote allowance is computed automatically (cards + 3, capped at 10) rather than set by the facilitator, and the stage order itself cannot be customised
- − AI is deliberately limited — summaries, recommended next steps and health trends, but no clustering, sentiment analysis or coaching; the vendor pitches this as avoiding 'intrusive chatbots'
- − No cross-team or org-level reporting, so health and action data stays inside a single team's boards
Keep comparing
Other NimbleRetro comparisons
Other QRetro comparisons
Not sure which to pick? Read our guide on how to choose a retrospective tool.