RetroStack vs SmartRetro
RetroStack
retrostack.appSmartRetro
smartretro.aiSide by side
| Figure | RetroStack | SmartRetro |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $49/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Retrospective Software | 8.5 (#5) | 7.4 (#25) |
| Audience | RetroStack is designed for agile, distributed, and remote teams running retrospectives, planning, brainstorming, and decision-making meetings. | The home page describes SmartRetro as aimed at engineering teams at AI-adopting companies. |
| Integrations | The documented external services are Google and Apple authentication, Firebase/Google Cloud infrastructure and OpenAI analysis. | The site names Slack, GitHub, and Linear for source signals; its pricing page lists Slack and Linear action-item exports on paid plans. |
| Purpose | RetroStack provides collaborative boards for agile retrospectives, brainstorming and team decisions in real time. | SmartRetro is an online retrospective tool for product and engineering teams that turns team reflection into owned action items and tracks recurring issues. |
| Support | Technical support and bug reports are handled by email, with a stated response time within 24 hours. | The pricing page lists community and documentation for plans, with dedicated support on Enterprise. |
Plans
In their own words
RetroStack
RetroStack is a collaborative board app for agile retrospectives, brainstorming, planning, and group decision-making. Participants edit the same board live across phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops, using six ready-made formats or custom boards. Voting limits can be set per section to 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10 votes, or left unlimited. Users can join anonymously with the full feature set, and no account is required to start a board. AI analysis can provide team sentiment insights and key themes, and generate action items and meeting recaps. Boards can be shared through private links or exported as PDF or JSON. The free plan is free and lists web, iOS, Android, and Mac access without sign-up. RetroStack says data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and user content is not used to train AI models; requested analysis is processed through OpenAI. The service may limit board creation, notes per section, votes per session, and AI analysis requests per day. Email support has a stated response time within 24 hours.
SmartRetro
SmartRetro is a web-based retrospective tool for product and engineering teams, aimed at engineering groups at AI-adopting companies. It offers formats such as Start / Stop / Continue and Glad / Sad / Mad, with card grouping and voting. The product says it detects themes that recur across retrospectives to preserve team memory. Action items can be assigned an owner and status, and unfinished work returns automatically in the next retro. The site names Slack, GitHub, and Linear as sources for signals; paid plans list Slack and Linear exports for action items. AI clustering and summaries require a customer-provided LLM key, and the customer pays the model provider separately. SmartRetro says its integrations do not store source code or read direct messages, and organization-scoped data is encrypted in transit and at rest. The product is in closed beta, with beta access free. The Free plan permits one active team, three retros monthly, three members, 30-day retention, and five action items per team. Team is $49 a month billed annually; Pro is $99 a month billed annually.