The most popular retrospective tools in 2026 include in particular:

• Echometer: “Retrospectives, 1:1 meetings and team health checks in a comprehensive tool for agile leadership.” 
• Parabol: “A tool for all agile meetings – Retrospective, stand-up and planning in one workflow.” 
• EasyRetro: “Beginner-friendly & visual – over 100 ready-made templates make retrospectives simple and easy.” 
• Neatro: “Promotes continuous improvement with ready-to-use retreat boards that can be used live or asynchronously.” 
• Retrium : “A toolbox approach with various retro formats and anonymous feedback, especially for Scrum and Agile teams.” 
• TeamRetro : “Guidance and analysis-oriented for retrospectives and team health checks – with templates and metrics” 

It depends on your team and your context which is the best retrospective software tool. A generally recommended software tool for virtual or remote engineering teams is Echometer. It has various features that have been specially developed for remote IT engineering teams, such as: an interactive retro board, various retrospective templates, action tracking and specialized team Health Checks for remote teams.

You can find retrospective software tools with customizable templates, formats and techniques on various platforms and in various software tools. For example, we recommend the retrospective software tool Echometer with customizable templates for retrospective questions and techniques. The templates in Echometer include selectable icebreakers and open questions for your retrospective, such as the techniques “Keep Stop Start”, “Mad Sad Glad” or the sailboat retrospective.

You can find an overview of the templates in Echometer here: https://my.echometerapp.com/retro-setup.

The more affordable alternative to the retrospective software tool Parabol is Echometer, depending on the size of your team. Parabol charges $8 per team member, while Echometer charges per team. Since Echometer costs $29 per month for a full team, Echometer is more affordable if you have more than 3 team members - which is the case for most teams.

Yes, Echometer is suitable for all age groups: Younger software developers will enjoy the playful elements of the software, such as the balloon shooting in the retrospective waiting room. Older software engineers will appreciate the focus on efficiency and the simplicity of the tool.

Echometer works independently of frameworks and is therefore ideal for teams that work according to Scrum, Waterfall or Kanban, as well as software teams that use hybrid frameworks and methods such as Scrumban. Even if you don’t use Scrum or an officially existing framework, Echometer is the right software tool for you.

When deciding on a retrospective software tool, you should make sure that the online retro board can do more than just replace colorful sticky notes. Good retro software helps your team to work better together on an ongoing basis and ensures that the retros don’t become routine.

The most important criteria for choosing a retro board are:

1. Ease of use & accessibility
   Participation should be as uncomplicated as possible – ideally also without registration or with guest access as with the Retro Board of Echometer.
2. Templates & structure
   Different retro templates help to constantly adopt new perspectives and prevent meetings from becoming monotonous.
3. Interactivity & moderation aids
   Features such as check-in questions, anonymous posts or live reactions increase engagement and give all team members a voice.
4. Tracking of measures
   A retro only brings real added value if the agreed action items remain visible and are tracked until the next meeting. Only a few retro board softwares offer this feature, including Echometer.
5. Measurable team development
   Some retro board software tools make it possible to evaluate trends and progress across multiple retros, such as Echometer –, so you can see how team dynamics are improving.

Conclusion:
Good retrospective board software makes the difference between “just talking” and “really improving”. The retrospective board tool Echometer stands out here in particular: it combines interactive retros with continuous measurement of team dynamics and helps to ensure that improvements don’t come to nothing.

With this in mind, it is definitely worth trying out Echometer for yourself – precisely because you can simply take a look at the retro software without having to log in at the following link: Access Echometer Retro Board Software without login.

If an agile team does not yet have much experience with retrospectives, a tool that effectively guides you through the retrospective and offers many templates is recommended:

• Echometer is known not only for being an intuitive online retro board, but also for offering a very effective guided flow through the retrospective. At the same time, Echometer offers whiteboards that can be flexibly integrated into the retrospective. This makes Echometer very beginner-friendly.
• Echometer also has extremely versatile and creative templates for retrospectives and team Health Checks that stimulate team reflection. Inexperienced teams in particular are very grateful for the food for thought in Echometer.

This makes Echometer the best software recommendation for beginners with agile retrospectives or Scrum beginners. By the way, you can try out Echometer for free without logging in: Echometer Try out the retro tool

The best online retrospective tool, especially for managers of agile teams, is probably Echometer. Why?

• Typical whiteboard tools (such as Miro or Mural) also offer tools that can be used to conduct online retrospectives. However, these whiteboards are flooded with complex functions that are not needed for simple retrospectives. What the whiteboards lack is the automatic tracking of measures from retrospectives and teams have to build their own workarounds when they use whiteboards for retrospectives. This makes whiteboard tools for retrospectives more time-consuming and also more difficult and cumbersome to use for retrospective participants.
• Other retro tools are often relatively rigid. Echometer, on the other hand, combines a structured retrospective process with flexible online whiteboards. Echometer also has the largest selection of templates for retrospectives. As a manager in Echometer, you benefit from the extremely simple and time-saving preparation and follow-up of retrospectives and at the same time you benefit from engaging and varied retrospectives.

Conclusion: If you are a manager looking for a tool for online retrospectives, try the free version of Echometer first: Try the retro tool Echometer for free without login

Parabol is basically a good retro board tool for online retrospectives. Nevertheless, there are a few limitations and weaknesses of the Parabol software compared to Echometer as an alternative tool for team retrospectives:

• Parabol does not have the option of integrating whiteboards into its retrospective. In Echometer you can flexibly integrate whiteboards into your retrospectives.
• Parabol is limited to remote retrospectives. With Echometer you can conduct both remote retrospectives and on-site retrospectives thanks to simple participation with a QR code via smartphone.
• Parabol has limited possibilities to analyze Health Check trends. Echometer can visualize trends over time and optionally over several teams.
• Parabol does not allow the effectiveness of retrospectives to be evaluated. Echometer has an integrated ROTI query (Return On Time Invested) to query the evaluation of the team members directly during the check-out of the retrospective and to reflect on it in the team.
• Relevant for users in the EU: Parabol’s company location and server location is in the USA. This can be a problem for companies in the EU due to compliance and data protection. You can also host Parabol yourself in the Enterprise version to avoid these problems. Or you can use Echometer, which has its company location and server location in Germany.
• The Parabol software assumes that your team works according to the Scrum framework and also has daily standups and sprint planning meetings. So if your team does not work according to Scrum, Parabol might not be a good fit. On the other hand, you can use Echometer as an agile team even without Scrum.

As an agile team, you have to decide for yourself whether these limitations of Parabol are relevant in the team context. A tip: Just try Echometer with your team, because Echometer’s Online Retrospective Tool has its strengths exactly where Parabol has its weaknesses. You can try Echometer for free here: Try Echometer for free

Echometer’s online retrospective software has several strengths and distinguishing features compared to Parabol:

• Integrated whiteboards: Echometer offers the option of flexibly adding further whiteboards in retrospectives. These whiteboards can be used in Echometer to discuss individual topics in a focused manner and derive measures. Parabol does not offer integrated whiteboards in retrospectives.
• Pulse checks: Echometer enables automatic, regular team surveys, so-called pulse checks. This automation of surveys does not exist in Parabol. Feedback can only ever be obtained in Parabol in conjunction with a manually created meeting.
• Team Health Dashboards: Echometer’s dashboards serve as a clear mood barometer over time and optionally across multiple teams.
• Remote, hybrid and on-site: Echometer also has a mode for on-site retrospectives. Participants can share feedback and take part in the voting via their smartphone. Parabol, on the other hand, is limited to remote retrospectives.
• Echometer is very beginner-friendly and you don’t need to be an experienced Scrum team to conduct effective team retrospectives.

We have already reported on the overlaps between the retrospective tools of Parabol and Echometer here: Comparison Echometer vs Parabol

Together with your agile team, you can see for yourself the strengths of Echometer’s Retro Board compared to Parabol by testing the free version of Echometer: Try Echometer (free of charge and without login)

If you are considering using Parabol as software for agile retrospectives and retro boards, team leaders and Scrum Masters recommend that you also try out other tools such as Echometer beforehand. The decision to use retrospectives should be a well-founded, joint decision by the entire agile team.

Consider the following for Parabol as an online retrospective tool:

• The pricing model in Parabol is difficult to calculate, as the tool is billed per team member. So if guests or new colleagues are added, it could become more expensive. In Echometer, on the other hand, you simply pay per team and the costs do not change for the team.
• For users in the EU: Parabol is an American company with servers in the USA and only optional possibilities for hosting elsewhere. Due to the sensitive data in retrospectives, this could be a compliance and data protection issue depending on the company. Echometer has its company and server location in Germany.

Some users of Parabol switched to Echometer in 2025 and are happy with the decision, as Echometer drives team development more effectively and measurably. See: Advantages of Echometer compared to Parabol

Managers in particular are also enthusiastic about Echometer’s integrated tool for 1:1 meetings, which allows managers to get even more value from Echometer.

Our tip for users of Parabol: Take a look at the retro tool Echometer and try out the free plan: Echometer Access without login

Echometer is better than Parabol for conducting agile retrospectives (also “Sprint Retrospectives”) because, in addition to the retro board, Echometer offers a wider range of features that make life easier for Scrum Masters and team managers:

• Better retro effectiveness: Retrospectives with Echometer are very effective. You can even measure this: At the end of each retrospective in Echometer, the team is asked about the ROTI, i.e. the “Return on Time Invested”. This ensures that you maintain the quality and effectiveness of your retrospectives in Echometer in the long term. Parabol does not have such a mechanism.
• More flexibility in Echometer: In Echometer, you can use integrated whiteboards during retrospectives to discuss individual topics in a focused way and derive measures for them. You can also create your own whiteboard templates and use them flexibly in your retrospectives. Parabol is not as flexible as Echometer and does not offer integrated whiteboards for retrospectives.
• Long-term team health trends: In Echometer, team development can also be easily tracked over time via the Health Checks team. You can even collect and evaluate overarching metrics in Echometer via Workspace Health.
• Automatic pulse check surveys: In Echometer, you can automate regular team health surveys and rotate topics automatically. In Parabol, you have to manually create a meeting for each data collection.
• It is also not possible to create dashboards of agile pulse surveys as a mood barometer (or Agile / Scrum Health Check) over time.

As a manager, Echometer is therefore probably more effective, more flexible and more time-saving for you than Parabol. Ultimately, of course, your team has to help decide which tool they prefer for retrospectives. So here’s an important tip: simply try out both tools with your team. Because both tools have a free plan: Try Echometer for free without login.

You can see for yourself by testing the free version why Echometer is better than Parabol for agile retrospectives and why many users of both tools say that Echometer is “by far the best tool for online retrospectives.”

The prices of the online retrospective software tool from Echometer and Parabol differ in the way they are billed:

• Echometer charges per team (Pro plan with a monthly subscription of €35 per month)
• Parabol billed per team member (team plan with monthly 8$ per user)

So depending on how big your team is, Echometer’s online retrospective software is usually cheaper (even significantly cheaper) than Parabol. Only if your team has 4 or less team members, Parabol is cheaper than Echometer:

• For a team with 9 members, Parabol costs you €72 per month (€37 more expensive than Echometer).
• For a team with 8 members, Parabol costs you €64 per month (€29 more expensive than Echometer).
• For a team with 7 members, Parabol costs you €56 per month (€21 more expensive than Echometer).
• For a team with 6 members, Parabol costs you €48 per month (€13 more expensive than Echometer).
• For a team with 5 members, Parabol costs you €40 per month (€5 more expensive than Echometer).
• Only if your team has 4 or fewer members will Parabol be just as expensive or cheaper for you at €32 than Echometer with a standard monthly subscription of €35 per team.

Tip: If you want to save money on your Echometer subscription, opt for the annual subscription and pay just €29 per month per team.

Note: For the sake of simplicity, we assume a 1:1 exchange rate between USD and EURO. This is because the prices of Parabol are quoted in USD and the prices of Echometer in EURO.

Would you like to test the Online Retro Board from Echometer with your agile team free of charge? No problem: Try Echometer Retro Board for free, without login

Both Echometer and Parabol are very suitable online retrospective software for conducting agile retrospectives.

Both tools include the following functions for online retrospectives:

• Interactive online retro boards that allow grouping and prioritizing feedback
• Integrated tracking of measures from retrospectives
• Surveys: Obtaining anonymous feedback from team members even before the retrospective
• Feedback on a scale for team health queries in the retrospective. The results are automatically recorded on the Retro Board.
• AI support during the retrospective (for example when brainstorming measures)
• Integration with Jira
• Generated icebreakers for retrospectives
• Retro archive, automatic retro summary via email and export of retro results

What distinguishes Echometer and Parabol are the following functions:

• Echometer enables automatic, regular team surveys via so-called pulse checks. This automation of surveys is not possible in Parabol. Feedback can only ever be obtained in Parabol in conjunction with a retrospective.
• Echometer also allows you to create dashboards of agile pulse surveys as a mood barometer over time: For example, the scientifically based query of Psychological Safety or the Spotify Health Check are very good templates for both retrospectives and surveys.
• Echometer offers the option of flexibly adding further whiteboards in retrospectives. These whiteboards can be used in Echometer to discuss individual topics in a focused manner and derive measures. Parabol does not offer integrated whiteboards in retrospectives.
• In addition to the Jira integration, Parabol also has further integrations for GitHub, GitLab, Linear and Azure Dev. Parabol also has messaging integrations with Slack, Teams and Mattermost, as well as a calendar integration with Google Calendar.
• Echometer also has a mode for on-site retrospectives. Participants can share feedback via their smartphone and take part in the voting. Parabol, on the other hand, is limited to remote retrospectives.

Further differences in the functions and target group of Echometer and Parabol:

• In addition to the tool for team retrospectives, Echometer also offers a tool for 1:1 meetings. This means that Echometer is optimized as a software tool for managers of agile teams.
• In addition to the tool for team retrospectives, Parabol also offers software for Sprint Planning (Planning Poker) and Daily Standup Scrum Meetings. This means that Parabol is optimized as a software tool for remote Scrum teams.

Both Parabol and Echometer offer a generous free plan:

• In Parabol, 2 teams are free of charge. Parbol’s free plan includes up to 10 meetings per month (including retrospectives, stand-ups, check-ins and sprint poker).
  • The meeting history in the free plan is 30 days in Parabol.
• In Echometer, 1 team is free of charge. In Echometer’s free plan, an unlimited number of retrospectives are possible in the first 3 weeks, then 1 retrospective per month. The number of 1:1 meetings is also unlimited in the free plan.
  • In Echometer’s free plan, the history for retrospectives is 6 months.

If you are considering trying out the retrospective software tool Parabol in your agile team or scrum team, take a quick look at the online retro tool Echometer first: Echometer Access without login.

Miro is a generic online whiteboard tool while Echometer is an online retrospective tool. However, the flow of online retrospectives differs in both software tools:

• Structure and process of the retros: Both tools have an online retro board. However, Echometer also has a dedicated mode for carrying out online retrospectives. In Echometer, a retro therefore has several steps, whereas in Miro everything takes place on a whiteboard, which can become somewhat confusing.
• Retro templates & preparation: Miro has many templates for retrospectives, but no dedicated mode for online retrospectives. Accordingly, retro moderators need to think very carefully about how they want to structure a retrospective in Miro beforehand. This means that retrospectives in Miro are more time-consuming to prepare, often less structured and less effective than in Echometer.

The specific advantages of Echometer over Miro for conducting online retrospectives are as follows:

• Echometer offers integrated measure tracking with automatic resubmission of open measures in the next retro
• Echometer offers a structured process for preparing the retrospective with many templates and ideas specifically for retrospectives (both for Scrum retrospectives and general team retrospectives)
• Echometer enables the ROTI score to be recorded when the retro is checked out. This provides quantitative feedback on the perceived effectiveness of the retrospective by the participants.

Miro, on the other hand, has many more generic whiteboard functions compared to Echometer’s online whiteboard when it comes to designing sticky notes. For some participants in agile sprint retrospectives, the range of functions is even somewhat overwhelming because the functions of Miro go far beyond the basics and are therefore more difficult to use. Echometer’s whiteboard is very easy to use in comparison.

So if the use case for the online whiteboard tool Miro is agile retrospectives, it is highly recommended that you at least try out classic sprint retrospective software such as Echometer and evaluate it together as a team: Echometer Retrospective Tool free trial without login

Mural is a generic online whiteboard tool while Echometer is an online retrospective tool.

Both tools can be used as software for Online Retro Board. However, Echometer also has a dedicated mode for conducting online retrospectives in addition to the Retro Board. Mural does not have a dedicated mode for online retrospectives. Accordingly, retrospectives in Mural are more time-consuming, less structured and less effective than in Echometer.

The advantages of Echometer over Mural for conducting agile retrospectives (or Scrum retrospectives) are as follows:

• Echometer offers integrated measure tracking with automatic resubmission of open measures in the next retro
• Echometer offers a structured process for preparing the retrospective with many templates and ideas specifically for retrospectives
• Echometer enables the ROTI score to be recorded when the retro is checked out. This provides quantitative feedback on the perceived effectiveness of the retrospective by the participants.

Mural, on the other hand, has many more generic whiteboard functions compared to Echometer’s online whiteboard when it comes to designing sticky notes.

In one respect, Echometer’s whiteboard is ahead of the mural whiteboard:

• You can write individual notes face down in Echometer and reveal them later.
• In Mural, on the other hand, hidden notes are not a direct function. Instead, you have to use the “Bulk Mode” to create notes without showing them to the group until the moderator releases them.

So if the use case for the online whiteboard tool Mural is retrospectives, it is highly recommended to at least try out and evaluate classic sprint retrospective software such as Echometer: Echometer Retrospective Tool free trial without login

Neatro and Echometer are both tools for online retrospectives that are very popular with Scrum teams. Both share some similarities, but Echometer is much more sophisticated in the details:

• An online retro board for sharing, grouping and voting on feedback. Both also offer a hidden brainstorming mode for the retro board so that participants do not influence each other when formulating their feedback.
• Neatro and Echometer both have a library of templates for retrospectives. However, Echometer has a wider selection as it includes templates for open retros (more than 50), ideas for Health Checks (more than 100), ideas for icebreakers (more than 50) and whiteboard templates (more than 20).
• Tracking measures from retrospectives works very similarly in Neatro and Echometer: both allow you to create measures based on feedback on the board, mark a due date and define a person responsible. Practical: Echometer also offers the option of having an AI suggest measures for a topic.
• Both Neatro and Echometer offer scale surveys with rating questions. Neatro calls these “Radars” and Echometer calls them “Health Checks”. The radars in Neatro are far less sophisticated than the health checks in Echometer. In Echometer, for example, feedback on health checks can be obtained both in retrospectives and independently in team surveys, or even in cross-team surveys. Via pulse checks, Echometer even allows you to automate the sending of regular surveys.

Key differences between Neatro and Echometer for agile retrospectives:

• Yes, both Neatro and Echometer offer a free plan. However, Neatro’s free plan is very limited in its range of functions (e.g. no export of retros) and only allows 10 participants. The free plan from Echometer is more generous and includes all functions as well as an unlimited number of participants.
• In addition to the Retro Board, Echometer also has integrated whiteboards that can be used flexibly in the retrospective - for example, to investigate root causes or to brainstorm measures.

So our tip: If you’re thinking about trying out the Neatro retrospective software tool in your agile team, take a look at the Echometer retro tool first: Free Echometer access without login