Echometer

Overview

Echometer is a team-development suite that brings retrospectives, team health checks and manager–employee 1:1 meetings together. It suits agile managers who want those activities in one place, but its free retro tier is tightly capped and the product is cloud-only.

Its blend of team rituals and individual check-ins is more useful to managers seeking a continuing view of team health than to teams looking only for a lightweight retrospective board. For more options, see our Retrospective Software guide.

Key features

Retrospectives and follow-through

The retro tool offers more than 50 templates, a shared board, private brainstorming, dot voting, surveys, whiteboards and action tracking. Private brainstorming gives participants a way to form ideas before group discussion; voting can help a team prioritize them, while action tracking keeps follow-up attached to the retrospective. Anonymous feedback is supported, and the product can be used for online or in-person sessions.

Jira integration connects retrospective action items to Jira boards, which is useful for teams that manage work there. The range of facilitation tools is a strength, though the Starter plan’s one-retrospective-per-month limit makes it a poor fit for teams that hold retros more often.

Team health and 1:1s

Team dashboards and health trends include cross-team monitoring of health checks and activity. That gives managers a way to follow team development across more than one group, rather than treating each retrospective as an isolated event.

The 1:1 tool supports agenda and notes management and integrates with the Microsoft calendar. Managers can hold free 1:1 meetings with up to two employees, with all functions included in the free version. That is a meaningful way to try the individual-meeting workflow, but the employee cap limits its usefulness for managers with larger teams.

Security and support

Echometer says it uses TLS encryption and hosts exclusively at Deutsche Telekom in Germany, in a data center certified to ISO 27001, among other certifications. A GDPR data processing agreement is included with each subscription or contract, using the version current when that agreement is concluded.

Support is available by email or from within Echometer. Its customer success team can assist with onboarding and rollout for an additional charge, so organizations needing implementation help should account for that separately.

Pricing

Echometer is freemium, with a free trial and paid plans starting at €29/mo (annual). The Starter plan costs nothing. It allows one team, 25 workspace members, unlimited retro guests and one retrospective per month after the trial period; each team’s archive holds two retrospectives. That may be enough to try a monthly cadence with one team, but the small archive and monthly quota make it unsuitable for frequent retrospectives or long-term review of past sessions.

Pro costs €29 a year, billed per team/month with an annual term, or €35 with a monthly term. It removes the retrospective quota and archive cap, allows unlimited workspace members, and adds customizable retrospectives and health checks. This is the practical step up for teams that need regular retros and room to tailor their process.

Business costs €49 a year, billed per team/month with an annual term, or €60 with a monthly term. It includes Pro, plus SAML SSO, email domain filters, prioritized support, and the option of individual contracts and invoice payment. Organizations that need those administrative and support provisions have a reason to choose it; teams that do not need them can stay with Pro.

The free 1:1 allowance is separate from the retro limits: managers can hold unlimited meetings with up to two employees, and the free version includes all functions. Consider the trial and the relevant team or employee cap before choosing a plan.

Platforms

Echometer is browser-based cloud software for modern browsers and supports Windows, Linux and Mac PCs, as well as tablets without restrictions. The directory also identifies macOS, Linux, Windows and web as supported platforms. There is no on-premise version for organizations that require customer-hosted software.

Who it's for

Echometer is best suited to agile managers and organizations that want structured retrospectives, health tracking and 1:1 conversations in a shared team-development tool. Pro is the more fitting tier for teams holding retros regularly; Business is aimed at organizations that need SAML SSO, domain filters or prioritized support. A small team exploring the product can start with Starter, provided one retro a month and a two-retro archive are enough.

It is less suitable for teams that need to host software themselves, or for managers who need free 1:1 access for more than two employees. The additional-charge onboarding and rollout help may also matter to organizations that want guided implementation.

Pros and cons

• Pros: More than 50 retro templates and a broad set of facilitation tools support varied retrospective formats.
• Pros: Dashboards and cross-team health monitoring extend the product beyond individual retrospective sessions.
• Pros: Unlimited free 1:1 meetings with all functions included make it possible to use the meeting tool with up to two employees without a subscription.
• Pros: Jira action tracking and Microsoft calendar integration connect retrospectives and 1:1s with tools teams may already use.
• Cons: Starter permits only one retro per month and keeps just two per team in its archive, limiting repeated use and historical review.
• Cons: Free 1:1 meetings are capped at two employees, which constrains managers with larger teams.
• Cons: Cloud-only delivery rules out organizations that require an on-premise deployment.

Alternatives

For a free option with no sign-up requirement and web, iOS, Android and Mac availability, consider RetroStack.

EasyRetro is another freemium, web-based alternative with a free plan and free trial.

If a free tier with up to 10 members, unlimited retrospectives and radars, and more than 70 templates is the priority, Neatro is worth comparing. Its free plan also includes basic facilitation tools and a 30-day data history.

FocusRetro offers a free Starter tier with three personal boards per month, core templates, voting and reactions, phase timers and action items; its Team plan is $12 a year.

For a free plan covering three teams, up to nine members per team, ten active boards and one health check per month, consider Reetro. It has no AI features on that tier and provides self-service support.

ScatterSpoke is a freemium alternative with a one-seat free plan that includes unlimited static surveys and responses, plus one-time allowances for Agent Surveys and Ask credits.

FreeRetrospectives is a free alternative that includes retro rooms, live chat, templates, action tracking, exports, AI recaps, health checks and bridge workflows, with no per-user pricing.

Team O'clock is another freemium alternative.

Verdict

Choose Echometer if you want retrospectives, team-health tracking and 1:1 meeting tools together, especially when cross-team health trends and structured follow-through matter. Its broad facilitation toolkit and free 1:1 allowance are compelling, but the Starter retro cap is restrictive and the cloud-only model will not suit customer-hosted deployments. Teams that need frequent retros should budget for Pro; organizations needing SSO or prioritized support should look at Business.