What Are The Top 10 Retrospective Tools (Free & Paid)?

Let's begin by looking at what a retrospective is. At the end of every sprint, an evaluation meeting reviews what went well and what didn't. It's an opportunity to improve everyone's development processes and learn from mistakes or features that weren't finished yet.

Retrospectives are often assisted by retrospective tools, software, or websites for agile teams and scrum masters.

Whether you're new to Agile or Scrum, veteran, or somewhere in between, everyone hits walls and bumps along the way. As a Scrum Master, you need to use some pro retrospective tools for better performance.

Here are our top 10 tools for running retrospectives. We have categorized these into a free and paid version for your ease. It will, of course, depend on your requirements as to which tool is best suited for retrospectives.

Free Retrospective Tools :-

#1 Retrotool.io

Here is a free retrospective tool that is so easy to use. Retrotool.io is one of the best tools available in the market.

This tool has a super clean interface and allows you to organize your thoughts in different ways. The tool supports creating a retrospective board which is great for remote teams.

It also includes a whiteboard section to create a timeline and link it to sticky notes. Apart from it, you can also add an image to any of your notes to add context and make it more memorable.

#2 Goretro.ai

Goretro is a 100% free retrospective tool available online for agile teams. Goretro offers flexibility for users to create and manage unlimited boards, private or public boards, retro board templates, and fun features, such as drawing boards and mood boards.

Goretro is the easiest retrospective tool to use with minimal features. Users can easily create a new board within seconds and share the invite link with their team members.

To access a retro board or add content, you do not need to sign up or register. You can share the invite link via email, Slack, or other communication channels.

The retro boards are made public by default so that anyone having access to the retro link can contribute without restrictions. However, the user can also make it private if he/she wants only invited participants to view the board by setting an optional password.

Goretro has a feature called 'Activity feed,' which lists all the activities performed on the retrospective boards.

Here the users can filter out their list of activities using filters like 'board name,' 'board creator,' and 'date range.' The user will also be notified whenever changes are made on his/her created boards.

#3 Scrumlr

Another free retrospective tool is Scrumlr. There is no sign-up required to start using Scrumlr, and feedback is easy to collect. Exporting the retrospective board data as PDF or CSV is possible with Scrumlr.

One of the main advantages of Scrumlr over other tools is that it allows you to track changes for each card, which is helpful if you want to see how team members update their feedback after a discussion. Following are its main features:

• Focusing on the essentials: Action items, things that went well, and improvements.
• Displaying the team's feedback in real-time.
• Enforcing privacy by hiding the feedback while it is being written.
• Providing tools to analyze and export the results of your meetings.

#4 Realtime Retro Tool

Realtime Retro is a free tool for agile teams to gather feedback and action items from their team retrospectives.

You can create a retro for your team in seconds and invite them via email or share a link. Retrospectives are saved to the cloud, which means that everyone on your team can access them from any device they choose.

Realtime Retro was created out of frustration at the lack of decent tools available to help run retrospectives remotely with distributed teams.

#5 SprintKi

SprintKi is a new online tool for retrospectives. It's easy to get started and offers several useful features. As a team, you will focus on the important things during your retro: your idea generation and discussion.

SprintKi is built on top of Google Drive, so there is no need for installations, account creation, or other hassles. Instead, SprintKi uses Google's infrastructure to share everything securely within your organization.

With SprintKi, you will be able to easily create your templates for specific types of retros. Then, you can use these templates or start from scratch according to your needs.

Paid Retrospective Tools

#1 TeamMood

TeamMood is the best tool for gathering daily insights into how your team feels and what may be bothering them. This can be a valuable source of ideas for your retrospectives.

You can use your team mood chart and feedback to facilitate discussions. The tool's price for BUSINESS is US$2 per user per month.

Moreover, you can get the customized plan by contacting them. The good thing about this tool is that you can use this tool for 30 days as a trial period.

#2 Retros.work

Retros.work is the most beautiful retrospective tool out there. It's a tool that focuses on people and emotions because we feel that this aspect is often forgotten in retrospectives.

With Retros.work, your team members can post their feedback all along with the sprint and not only at the end. This allows you to detect issues in real-time and react quicker.

In addition to text feedback, Retros.work also allows your team members to express how they are feeling with smileys and energy scores.

The free version of this tool has limited features. If you want the advanced version, you'll have to pay €2.69 per month per user.

#3 goReflect

The purpose of a retrospective, or retro, is to allow teams to reflect upon how work is going. Whether you are using agile software development methodology or not, a retro can be a valuable exercise for your team.

The retro helps teams identify what's going well, what's not going so well, and what can be improved.

But this isn't always possible. Teams often don't have the time or resources to get together for an offline retro meeting. goReflect is a retrospective tool for remote users.

With goReflect, you can conduct virtual retros with your distributed team members. Only $2.67per user per month is needed to use the premium version of this tool, or you can use goReflect free for 100 days.

#4 ScatterSpoke

ScatterSpoke is a modern tool for agile retrospectives. It enables teams to conduct remote retros with ease and efficiency, helping them continuously improve. Everyone who launches and shares a retrospective can add cards in real-time, vote on issues, create groups, or pin items to follow up on.

When the retro is over, ScatterSpoke creates a report with all the discussed ideas and actions. Other interested parties can view this report without being part of the team.

As a result of using ScatterSpoke, teams can expect to have more frequent and effective retrospectives that lead to continuous improvement of their ways of working.

Try any plan free for 21 days, and After that, ScatterSpoke is just $35 per month for up to 15 team members. Also, you can get the yearly package for this tool.

#5 Neatro

Whether leading a remote retrospective or an in-person activity, Neatro offers a selection of useful and proven retrospective formats.

Depending on your team's context, you can choose from pre-designed templates or design your own retrospective activity.

By creating an account, you will access the full Neatro experience, including board previews and feedback from other users. The $20 per month subscription includes all features and priority support.

Conclusion :-

It is important to make sure all the expectations of your retrospectives are clearly defined—both what you're trying to accomplish and the actual process or tools you use.

Once those expectations are in place, it is a matter of team coordination and leadership to remember that they can and should change over time as the team changes and grows more familiar with the retrospective process.

It doesn't matter whether you go for the free or paid Retrospective tools, but the thing is that tools must be according to your needs.