A free Retrium alternative for retrospectives

Retrium is built around good facilitation, and it has no free plan. If your team wants to keep running structured retros after the first month, here is how ProstoRetro compares, and when Retrium is still the better choice.

Start a free retro

What Retrium is and who it suits

Retrium is a retrospective tool that puts facilitation first. Teams start with 30 days of free access to its techniques, then move to a paid plan billed per team room. It suits teams and organizations that want a clear, repeatable structure for every retro.

Its strength is structure, and it shows in the details:

• Guided facilitation. Column-based retros move through five phases (Think, Group, Vote, Discuss and Wrap Up), and the tool guides the team through every activity. That helps new facilitators most.
• Details that reduce bias. Notes are blurred during the Think phase so people aren't swayed by each other, comments are anonymous, and the number of dot votes per person is the square root of the number of topics.
• A range of techniques. Column-based retros and team radars, Fishbone root-cause analysis on paid plans, and your own templates saved for the team.
• Action plans and history. Retrium keeps all of a team's previous retrospectives in one place.
• Guest access. People can join a public team room as guests by entering a name. Private team rooms need an account.
• Integrations and export. Action items go to Jira Cloud, there is a Slack app in beta and an API, and retros export to CSV or TXT.
• Enterprise support. SAML SSO, SCIM user management, access to a SOC audit and a dedicated customer success manager on the higher plans.

If your organization wants a vendor that helps roll out retros across many teams, Retrium is built for that. This page is for a different situation: the trial showed your team that online retros work, but a per-room plan isn't an option right now.

What happens when the trial ends

As of October 2026, Retrium's pricing page and help center say:

• There is no free plan. The Team, Business and Enterprise plans are all paid and billed per team room.
• The trial lasts 30 days. During it you can create unlimited team rooms, run unlimited retrospectives and invite unlimited guests. The sign-up flow lets you invite up to 50 people to your team.
• Some features are outside the trial. Fishbone is for paid plans only, and SSO is not available during the trial.
• One trial per person. You can't start a second one, but Retrium extends a trial on request.
• After the trial, retros need a paid plan. Retrium's help center doesn't spell out what happens to trial data if you don't buy, so export what you need before day 30.

Where ProstoRetro is different

Like Retrium, ProstoRetro is built around a facilitated retro rather than an open whiteboard. It is smaller, free, and has no monthly cap on retros. For a team coming from Retrium, these are the differences that matter:

• No time limit. Your team can keep holding retros month after month, and past retros stay with your team.
• A guided flow of its own. The facilitator moves the team through the phases: an optional icebreaker and mood survey, a review of open action items, then writing, grouping, voting and discussion. Cards stay hidden from others while people write, much like Retrium's blurred notes, and the number of votes per person grows with the number of topics on the board, as in Retrium. Give the retro a meeting length, and the app splits it across the phases and discussion topics and runs the timers.
• Public and private rooms, as in Retrium. A room open to "Anyone", the default for new teams, lets guests in with a name. A room limited to signed-in users or team members works like a private team room. The facilitator signs in with Google or email.
• AI that helps the facilitator. Similar cards can be grouped and the groups named for you, action items are suggested during discussion, and a short summary of the retro is ready when it ends. That takes some of the sorting and note-taking off the facilitator; Retrium lists no AI features.
• Email instead of integrations. The summary of each retro goes by email to participants who signed in, and action item owners are reminded a week after the retro and before the due date. Follow-up doesn't depend on Jira or Slack.

Anonymous cards are on by default, and each person can still decide per card. There are 19 ready templates, including Start Stop Continue, What Went Well and 4Ls, and custom templates with up to five columns. See them all in the retrospective template library.

Retrium vs ProstoRetro at a glance

Checked against Retrium's own pricing page and help center as of October 2026. The Retrium column describes its paid plans, which the trial gives temporary access to.

Start a free retro

When Retrium is the better choice

Retrium is likely worth its cost if:

• You want techniques beyond columns. Team radars and Fishbone root-cause analysis are part of Retrium. ProstoRetro's templates are all column boards.
• You need Jira or exports. Sending action items to Jira Cloud and exporting retros to CSV is built into Retrium. ProstoRetro has no integrations, no API and no file export.
• Your company requires SSO or SCIM. Retrium's Business and Enterprise plans include SAML SSO, SCIM and SOC audit access. ProstoRetro has no SSO and no enterprise admin.
• You want a vendor to support a rollout. A dedicated customer success manager is part of Retrium's higher plans.
• The budget is already approved. If the per-room cost is not the obstacle, Retrium's careful facilitation design is worth keeping.

Comparing other tools too? See how ProstoRetro compares with EasyRetro, Parabol and TeamRetro.

How to switch from Retrium

Retrium's exports can't be imported anywhere else, so keep them as your archive and start fresh with the next retro:

1. Save what you need before the trial ends. Retrium can export retros to CSV or TXT and action items to CSV. Keep a copy, or copy open items by hand, while you still have access.
2. Sign in with Google or email. The team created for you takes the place of your Retrium team room.
3. Pick the same format. If you ran Start Stop Continue, What Went Well or Mad Sad Glad in Retrium, choose the same one from the ready templates. If you saved your own template in your team room, create a custom template with the same columns.
4. Decide who can join. New teams start with rooms open to "Anyone": people type a name and join as guests, like a public team room. Restrict the room to signed-in people or team members if you want something closer to a private team room.
5. Share the room link in the place your team used to find the Retrium room.
6. Carry over your action plan. In the first retro, add the open items you saved from Retrium as action items with an owner and a due date. From then on they are reminded and reviewed like any new item.

FAQ

Is ProstoRetro free after the first month?

Yes, and every month after that. There is no time limit and no cap on how many retros your team runs, and up to 100 people can join one room.

Can people join without an account, like Retrium guests?

Yes. A room open to "Anyone" behaves like a public team room: guests enter a name and join. New teams start with that setting. Once a retro is completed, only its participants and your team can open it.

Does ProstoRetro guide the team through the retro like Retrium does?

Yes, in its own way. The facilitator moves everyone through the phases, from an optional icebreaker and mood survey to writing, grouping, voting and discussion, and an optional meeting length runs the timers. For a full walkthrough, read how to run a great retro.

Can ProstoRetro send action items to Jira?

No. There is no Jira or Slack connection, no API and no CSV export. Action items stay in ProstoRetro, where owners get email reminders and the next retro reviews them.

Can I reuse the templates I made in Retrium?

You can rebuild column-based ones: a custom template takes your own column names, descriptions and colors, up to five columns, and stays available to your team. Team radars and Fishbone have no equivalent.