On this page (9 sections)
Atlassian doesn't sell a separate retrospective tool. Teams that live in Jira run retros in Confluence, on a page built from a retro template or on a Confluence whiteboard with sticky notes, a timer and voting stamps. Jira's part is creating that page or whiteboard from the sprint and linking the two.
Confluence and Jira give you pages and whiteboards that can hold a retro. Retro Rabbit is a dedicated retro tool: the team adds notes during the sprint, CarrotIQ groups and summarises them and suggests action items, and last retro's action items show up on the next board.
If you want retros that run the same way every sprint, with notes collected as things happen and action items that come back until they're done, Retro Rabbit is built for that, at one flat price per team.
Retro Rabbit vs Confluence and Jira at a glance
- A retro tool vs pages and whiteboards. Confluence offers retro templates for pages and whiteboards. Retro Rabbit is built only for retros, with a Team Room per team that keeps its format, voting rules and sprint history.
- Price. Confluence is priced per user, and the per-user price depends on how many users you have. Retro Rabbit is $30 (Starter) or $40 (Pro AI) per team per month, with unlimited users. For 24 or 72 people who aren't already paying for Confluence, Retro Rabbit costs less (see the math below).
- Follow-through. Every Retro Rabbit board shows last retro's action items and older unresolved ones next to this retro's.
- AI. CarrotIQ groups related notes automatically, summarises the retro and suggests action items.
- Trial. Retro Rabbit's trial is 14 days with CarrotIQ and no credit card. Confluence's trial of Standard or Premium is 7 days.
How a Confluence retrospective works
Atlassian's own guides describe three routes:
- From Jira. On a sprint, "Create a retrospective" generates a Confluence page or whiteboard automatically linked to that sprint. It needs a linked Confluence space.
- A page template. The Retrospective template has sections for background, an opening, timed start/stop/keep exercises and next steps. The "set a timer for 10 minutes" is a suggestion in the text, not a built-in timer. There's also a 4Ls page template.
- A whiteboard template. Simple retrospective, 4 Ls and Sailboat, with a timer, stamps for voting and stickers for reactions. Free allows 3 active whiteboards per user and Standard 10; boards over the limit become read-only.
Retro Rabbit works differently. Each team's Team Room already has its format and voting rules, the board is open all sprint, and the action-item tabs carry the team's commitments forward from one retro to the next.
Feature comparison
| Retro Rabbit | Confluence and Jira | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Dedicated retro tool | Wiki pages and whiteboards with retro templates |
| Pricing unit | Per team, unlimited users | Per user; the per-user price depends on user count |
| Trial | 14 days, no credit card, CarrotIQ included | 7 days of Standard or Premium |
| Retro formats | 5 built in, plus editable columns | Pages: Retrospective, 4Ls. Whiteboards: Simple retrospective, 4 Ls, Sailboat |
| Live facilitation | Real-time board, timer, one vote per note or dot voting | Whiteboards: timer, voting stamps, stickers |
| AI | CarrotIQ on Pro AI: automatic grouping, summaries, suggested action items | Rovo on Standard and above: group selected stickies, summarize, suggest Jira tasks |
| Slack | Add notes with /retro and start the review | Notifications for page and space changes |
| Export | Notes as CSV or XLSX, board as PDF | Pages: Word or PDF. Whiteboards: PDF, PNG or JPG |
Pricing: Confluence vs Retro Rabbit
Atlassian's pricing page is a calculator: the price per user depends on how many users you have and how you pay. These are the figures we got on October 23, 2026:
| Confluence plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 for up to 10 users | 3 active whiteboards per user; no Rovo |
| Standard | $7.15 per user per month, billed monthly (at 24 or 72 users) | Rovo included; 10 active whiteboards per user |
| Premium | $14.10 per user per month, billed monthly (at 24 or 72 users) | Unlimited whiteboards |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Billed annually |
Retro Rabbit's plans:
| Retro Rabbit plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $30 per team per month | Unlimited users and retros, Slack integration, export |
| Pro AI | $40 per team per month | Everything in Starter, plus CarrotIQ |
| Enterprise | Custom | Everything in Pro AI |
For teams that aren't already paying for Confluence, here's the monthly bill at list prices:
| Setup | Confluence Standard | Confluence Premium | Retro Rabbit Starter | Retro Rabbit Pro AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 teams of 8 (24 users) | 24 × $7.15 = $171.60 | 24 × $14.10 = $338.40 | 3 × $30 = $90 | 3 × $40 = $120 |
| 8 teams of 9 (72 users) | 72 × $7.15 = $514.80 | 72 × $14.10 = $1,015.20 | 8 × $30 = $240 | 8 × $40 = $320 |
Assumptions: Confluence on monthly billing; Jira is licensed separately and not included; Retro Rabbit list prices, billed monthly.
On annual billing, Confluence charges the user tier closest to your count. 24 users came to $1,800 a year on Standard and $3,550 on Premium; 72 users came to $7,200 and $14,000. A year of Retro Rabbit at its monthly list prices is $1,080 (Starter) or $1,440 (Pro AI) for three teams, and $2,880 or $3,840 for eight.
So for these team sizes, if you'd be paying for Confluence to run retros, Retro Rabbit costs less than Confluence billed monthly or annually, and Pro AI with CarrotIQ still costs less than Confluence Standard with Rovo. Because Retro Rabbit is priced per team, adding people to a team doesn't change the bill.
Check current numbers on Atlassian's pricing page and ours on our pricing page.
AI features: CarrotIQ and Rovo
CarrotIQ is on Retro Rabbit Pro AI and Enterprise, and included in the 14-day trial:
- Automatic grouping. CarrotIQ groups related notes and names each group in a few words. You can still drag notes between groups or rename a group.
- Retro summaries. A short summary per column plus an overall sprint summary, saved in the Team Room's sprint list.
- Suggested action items. "CarrotIQ Suggest" proposes an action item from the notes, weighted by votes, and skips actions you've already created.
Rovo, for comparison, is on Confluence Standard, Premium and Enterprise, not Free: on a whiteboard it can group or organize sticky notes you select and summarize the board into a page, and on a page it can suggest Jira tasks.
How a sprint works in Retro Rabbit
- Notes go in as things happen. The board is open from the first day of the sprint. People add a note on the board, from Quick Notes on the dashboard, or with
/retroin Slack if the team uses it. - CarrotIQ groups the notes. On Pro AI and during the trial, related notes are grouped and each group is named. Drag notes to adjust.
- The team votes. One vote per note, or dot voting with a maximum per person, set per Team Room. A timer keeps each part of the discussion short.
- Action items get owners. CarrotIQ Suggest proposes actions weighted by votes; the team agrees one or two and gives each an owner. CarrotIQ writes a summary for each column and one for the sprint.
- They come back next time. The Previous Retro tab shows what the team agreed last sprint, and Old/Unresolved shows anything older that's still open.
Where Retro Rabbit is better
- A dedicated retro tool. Confluence gives you templates for pages and whiteboards. Retro Rabbit is only for retros, so each Team Room keeps its format, voting rules and a list of past sprints you can switch between.
- Notes all sprint, not just in the meeting. People add notes when something happens, so the retro isn't limited to what people remember on the day.
- Action items that come back. Every board has Current Retro, Previous Retro and Old/Unresolved tabs, and each action has an owner. The team sees last sprint's commitments before making new ones. In Slack workspaces you can send the owner a reminder.
- Built for the meeting. A real-time board with who's connected, drag-and-drop grouping, a timer from 30 seconds to an hour, and one-vote or dot voting.
- Notes without your name. Each person can choose to post notes without their name shown.
- Five ready formats. Went well / Didn't go well / Learned / Puzzling, Start / Stop / Continue, Sailboat, Mad / Sad / Glad and 4Ls, with editable column names.
- CarrotIQ. Automatic grouping, summaries and suggested action items, included in the trial so you can judge them on a real retro.
- One price per team. Confluence is priced per user; a Retro Rabbit team of 9 costs the same as a team of 4.
- A longer trial. 14 days, against 7 days for a Confluence Standard or Premium trial.
- Exports. Each retro's notes as CSV or XLSX, and the board as a PDF.
Moving retros from Confluence to Retro Rabbit
- Keep your history where it is. If you want copies, pages export to Word or PDF (PDFs leave out comments) and whiteboards to PDF, PNG or JPG.
- Leave existing Jira work items alone. Action items already in Jira stay there.
- Create one Team Room per Scrum team. Each room is billed as one team, whatever its size.
- Pick a familiar format. Confluence's 4Ls and Sailboat have direct equivalents: see the 4Ls and Sailboat templates.
- Bring over open action items only. Re-create them with owners in your first retro; from then on they appear in the Previous Retro and Old/Unresolved tabs.
- Start the trial at the start of a sprint. Fourteen days covers one two-week sprint of notes and one retro. Invite the team with the join link on day one.
Weighing a whiteboard instead? See Retro Rabbit vs Miro, or the best retrospective tools in 2026.
The bottom line
Confluence gives you pages and whiteboards that can hold a retro. Retro Rabbit gives you a retro routine: notes collected all sprint, CarrotIQ grouping and summaries, and action items that come back until they're done, at one price per team with unlimited users. See plans and start a 14-day trial (no credit card needed).
Frequently asked questions
Does Jira have its own retrospective board?
Not as a separate feature. Jira's 'Create a retrospective' option on a sprint generates a Confluence page or whiteboard that is automatically linked to that sprint, and it needs a linked Confluence space.
Which Confluence retrospective templates are there?
Confluence's retro page templates include Retrospective (start, stop and keep doing) and 4Ls. Confluence whiteboards add Simple retrospective, 4 Ls and Sailboat templates, with a timer, stamps for voting and stickers for reactions.
How much does Confluence cost for retrospectives?
Confluence Free covers up to 10 users, with 3 active whiteboards per user and no Rovo AI. When we checked, Standard was $7.15 and Premium $14.10 per user per month on monthly billing for 24 or 72 users; the per-user price changes with the number of users, and Jira is priced separately.
What does Retro Rabbit cost compared with buying Confluence for retros?
Retro Rabbit is $30 per team per month on Starter or $40 on Pro AI, with unlimited users. Three teams of 8 cost $90 or $120 a month, against $171.60 for 24 users on Confluence Standard billed monthly; eight teams of 9 cost $240 or $320, against $514.80 for 72 users.
Can Rovo AI help with a Confluence retrospective?
On Standard, Premium and Enterprise, Rovo can group or organize sticky notes you select on a whiteboard, summarize a whiteboard into a page, and suggest Jira tasks from a page. It isn't included on Free.
Does Retro Rabbit carry action items into the next retro?
Yes. Every board has Current Retro, Previous Retro and Old/Unresolved Items tabs, so last sprint's action items and older unfinished ones are in front of the team at the next retro. Each action item has an owner.
What does CarrotIQ do in a retro?
CarrotIQ, on Retro Rabbit Pro AI and during the 14-day trial, groups related notes automatically and names each group, writes a summary per column plus an overall sprint summary, and suggests action items weighted by votes.
Sources
Facts about other tools come from their own websites, checked on the dates shown.
- Jira has no separate retro feature documented; its 'Create a retrospective for this sprint' option generates a Confluence page or whiteboard automatically linked to the sprint and needs a linked Confluence space atlassian.com/blog/confluence/effective-sprint-retros-with-confluence-and-jira (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence Retrospective page template: background, opening, timed exercises (start, stop and keep doing) and next steps; the 10-minute timer is a suggestion in the page text atlassian.com/software/confluence/templates/retrospective (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence 4Ls retrospective page template: loved, longed for, loathed and learned atlassian.com/software/confluence/templates/4-ls-retrospective (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence whiteboards have Simple retrospective, 4 Ls and Sailboat retro templates, with a timer, stamps for voting and stickers for reactions atlassian.com/software/confluence/resources/guides/how-to/whiteboard-retros (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Active whiteboards: Free 3 per user, Standard 10, Premium and Enterprise unlimited; boards over the limit become read-only support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/understand-confluence-whiteboards-plans-and-features/ (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence pricing is a calculator: the per-user price depends on user count and billing cycle; Free is free for up to 10 users with 3 active whiteboards per user and no Rovo atlassian.com/software/confluence/pricing (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence monthly billing at 24 and 72 users: Standard $7.15 and Premium $14.10 per user per month atlassian.com/software/confluence/pricing (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence annual billing: 24 users Standard $1,800 and Premium $3,550 per year; 72 users Standard $7,200 and Premium $14,000 per year atlassian.com/software/confluence/pricing (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence annual billing charges the tier that most closely matches your user count; monthly billing charges your exact user count; Enterprise is billed annually atlassian.com/en/software/confluence/pricing (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence offers a 7-day free trial of Standard or Premium atlassian.com/en/software/confluence/pricing (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Jira is licensed and priced separately from Confluence atlassian.com/en/software/jira/pricing (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Rovo is available on Confluence Standard, Premium and Enterprise; Rovo can summarize a whiteboard and turn the summary into a page or live doc support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/summarize-a-whiteboard-using-atlassian-intelligence/ (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- In whiteboards you can prompt Rovo to group or organize selected sticky notes support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/atlassian-intelligence-in-confluence-whiteboards/ (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Rovo can suggest Jira tasks to create from a Confluence page support.atlassian.com/organization-administration/docs/atlassian-intelligence-features-in-confluence/ (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence Slack app sends notifications for changes to Confluence spaces and pages atlassian.com/software/confluence/resources/guides/extend-functionality/slack-microsoft-teams (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence pages export to Word or PDF; comments are never included in PDF exports support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/export-content-to-word-pdf-html-and-xml/ (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Confluence whiteboards export to PDF, PNG or JPG support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/export-or-import-your-whiteboard/ (checked Oct 23, 2026)
- Retro Rabbit: Starter $30 and Pro AI $40 per team per month; 14-day free trial, no credit card retrorabbit.io/pricing (checked Oct 23, 2026)
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