A free PlanITpoker alternative — no signup, no ads
PlanITpoker is a solid, long-running planning poker tool. But it's ad-supported, and securing your rooms means making an account. Planning Poker by TeamRetro does the same job — real-time estimation, the decks you expect — with no ads and no sign-up, and a full agile platform behind it when free poker stops being enough.
What PlanITpoker is
PlanITpoker is an online planning poker tool built by CodeFirst. It's been around a long time and claims 90,000+ developers. You start a quick play with no signup, pick a deck, and vote; create a free account if you want to secure your rooms. It supports Fibonacci and T-shirt cards, question and coffee cards, live anonymous voting, distribution graphs, and Jira XML/CSV story import.
The free tier is ad-supported and caps a room at 7 participants. PlanIT Premium is $20/month and lifts the cap. It works. The interface shows its age.
No signup, no ads — start in one click
Both tools let you start without an account. The difference is what free costs you. PlanITpoker funds its free tier with ads, and you need an account to keep your rooms. Planning Poker runs no ads and asks for no sign-up at all.
Open the app, share the room link, vote. Nobody registers, nobody downloads anything. That matters most for the people you invite once — a stakeholder, a contractor, someone from another team.
Decks and real-time voting
Estimation mechanics are close. Both hide votes until reveal, both show the spread so you can argue the outliers, both keep voting live. PlanITpoker has the edge on inputs — it imports stories straight from Jira XML or CSV, which we don't.
On decks we go wider: Scrum, Fibonacci, Modified Fibonacci, Sequential, Half-Card, Powers of Two, and T-shirt sizes, each with question and coffee cards, switchable mid-session.
Backed by the TeamRetro platform
This is the real difference, and it has nothing to do with the poker table. PlanITpoker is planning poker — that's the whole product. Planning Poker by TeamRetro is the free front door to TeamRetro, the paid agile platform from the same vendor.
When a team outgrows free estimation, the next steps — retrospectives, health checks, action tracking — come from one tool, one login, one company. With PlanITpoker, outgrowing poker means going shopping.
Where PlanITpoker wins
Be honest about it. PlanITpoker is older and battle-tested, has a large user base, and imports backlogs directly from Jira XML and CSV — useful if you estimate from an existing export every sprint. Its saved-account model also means persistent, named rooms you return to.
If Jira import and a permanent room are core to your workflow, PlanITpoker covers that today. We don't import from Jira, and our sessions are ephemeral by design.
Planning Poker vs PlanITpoker
| Feature | Planning Poker | PlanITpoker |
|---|---|---|
| Free to use | Yes Yes — fully free, no ads | Yes Yes — free tier is ad-supported |
| No signup / instant room | Yes No account required, ever | Partial Quick play works; account needed to secure rooms |
| No ads | Yes Yes | No No — free tier shows ads |
| Real-time hidden-vote reveal | Yes Yes | Yes Yes |
| Card decks (Fibonacci, T-shirt, …) | Yes 7 decks incl. Modified Fibonacci, Powers of 2, Half-Card | Yes Fibonacci + T-shirt + question/coffee |
| Vote distribution / stats | Yes Yes | Yes Yes — graphs, distribution, consensus |
| Jira / CSV story import | No No | Yes Yes — Jira XML and CSV import |
| Participant limit on free tier | Yes No hard limit | Partial Capped at 7 free; unlimited on $20/mo Premium |
| Saved / persistent named rooms | No No — sessions are ephemeral | Yes Yes — with a free account |
| Backed by full agile platform | Yes Yes — TeamRetro (retros, health checks, actions) | No No — planning poker only |
Which should you choose?
Choose PlanITpoker if you want a long-established tool, regularly import a backlog from Jira XML or CSV, and want a permanent named room you return to — and you don't mind ads or making an account.
Choose Planning Poker by TeamRetro if you want free, ad-free, no-signup estimation with a wider range of decks, plus a clean upgrade path to retros, health checks, and action tracking from the same vendor when free poker isn't enough.
Frequently asked questions
Is PlanITpoker free?
Yes. PlanITpoker has a free tier supported by advertising. It covers unlimited rooms and stories, multiple decks, and CSV/XML import, but caps a room at 7 participants. Its PlanIT Premium plan is $20/month and removes the participant cap.
Does PlanITpoker show ads?
Yes. PlanITpoker funds its free tier with ads. The $20/month Premium plan is about lifting the 7-participant limit and adding priority support, not removing ads specifically. Planning Poker by TeamRetro is free and runs no ads.
What's a good free PlanITpoker alternative?
Planning Poker by TeamRetro is a free, ad-free alternative. It runs real-time hidden-vote estimation with Fibonacci, T-shirt, and several other decks, needs no sign-up, and is backed by the TeamRetro agile platform if your team later wants retros and health checks.
Is there a free planning poker tool with no signup?
Yes. Planning Poker by TeamRetro requires no account at all — open the app, share the room link, and vote. PlanITpoker also offers quick play without signup, but you need a free account to secure and reuse your rooms.
Does Planning Poker by TeamRetro import stories from Jira?
Not currently. If direct Jira XML or CSV import is part of your sprint workflow, PlanITpoker supports that out of the box and Planning Poker does not. Planning Poker is built around fast, ephemeral estimation sessions rather than backlog import.
Last reviewed June 2026. Competitor pricing and features change — let us know if anything here is out of date.