Discover planning poker tools that can help your agile team estimate work quickly and accurately.
Planning poker is one of the most popular estimation methods that agile teams use (especially scrum teams). The main benefit of planning poker is that it’s incredibly straightforward and easy to use. All team members, whether they’re familiar with the technique or not, can take part in the estimation process.
You can play planning poker in person, but if your team is hybrid or remote, you’ll need a different approach because teams that work remotely often work asynchronously. Without some kind of online tool, nothing’s getting done.
Planning poker apps encourage collaboration and boost engagement, leading to effective teamwork and more efficient delivery.
This article gives you the scoop on five online planning poker tools that can make agile estimation quick and easy for your team. Read on to find the right estimation app for you.
How do I choose the best estimation app?
When evaluating an estimation tool, consider three questions:
- Is this set of features enough for my team? Make sure the features an app offers are a good fit for the way your team works. If its basic options are sufficient for you, that’s a good sign. But don’t totally give up on “nice to have” features: keep a wish list in mind to help you pick one app over another in the event two seem about the same.
- Can I rely on this product? Reliability is something you might not think about until there’s a problem. To head off buyer’s remorse, check whether the creators of an app develop different versions, fix bugs that customers discover, and offer up-to-date documentation. If so, that product is being maintained, and the application should be reliable.
- Is there a free trial? A free trial gives you the chance to test the app and make sure it works for your team before you commit. This is especially important if the price tag of a new app exceeds your budget or you need the approval to make the purchase.
What are the top 5 online planning poker tools for your agile team?
#1 Planning Poker by Appfire
Our personal favorite (if we do say so ourselves) — Planning Poker by Appfire. This tool facilitates discussions within agile teams, so they reach the most accurate, consensus-based estimations. Created by scrum masters for remote and hybrid teams.
Estimate the efforts your tasks, sub-tasks, or epics will take and assign story points, t-shirts, or custom values to them in real-time. Integrate the app with Jira and select backlog for the game, invite participants, view and edit issue details during the session, and add comments wherever necessary. Save your estimates after reaching a consensus.
Try the application free for 30 days as a cloud, server, or data center option from the Atlassian and Azure DevOps marketplace.
#2 Agile Poker for Jira
Agile Poker isn’t just another app to play planning poker with your remote team. It’s a flexible toolkit that gives you four estimation methods to choose from for refinement or planning sessions. And that’s not all: it also works for sprint planning events, PI planning, or prioritization based on your needs, experience, and backlog size.
Depending on your session type, you might use the interactive estimation we created based on the Planning Poker app. Cast your votes in story points to determine how much effort you will need to involve in a story.
Or use a relative method, inspired by Magic Estimation, to sort your work items into buckets based on their relative size. Set estimates and discuss them with your team until you reach a consensus on the most precise estimate for each item.
Select asynchronous mode if you’re working on a distributed team, and choose bucket sizing if moving fast is your top priority.Try the app free for 30 days, choosing a cloud, server, or data center option from the Atlassian marketplace.
#3 Whiteboards.io
A strong contender in the planning poker space, Whiteboards.io is the only tool you’ll ever need: Collaborate on a digital board with your team to perform any agile activity. Whiteboards has you covered for daily standup meetings, retrospective events, and estimation sessions.
With dozens of ready-to-use templates, you can easily host any type of event on the board while having a video call with your teammates. Choose between discovery, planning, or ideation templates to stay at the top of your game. to estimate your work items and efforts your team will need for tasks or user stories, use the specific, gamified template, Planning Poker.
Whiteboards.io is a stand-alone agile collaboration tool that can help you estimate your work in a fun, visual way. It offers free and paid plans with monthly and annual options so you can test the features, create your own plugin, or simply meet for an estimation session.
Give Whiteboards a try and see the possibilities for yourself.
#4 planningpoker.com
This application offers many features that help your team estimate work items for your upcoming sprint smoothly and correctly. Import stories directly into the app, so you don’t need to keep dozens of tabs open on your browser. This makes it easier for all participants to view relevant visuals and story information.
Planningpoker.com also displays a scoreboard at the end of the estimation session so you can see the average points of individual team members or the team as a whole. You can manage votes, choose different cards, and generally speed up the estimation process.
The Planningpoker.com team is constantly performing minor updates. You can test the application for free for 14 days with limited access to features, then switch to monthly or annual plans at affordable prices when needed. They also offer custom solutions for enterprise teams.
#5 Scrumpy Planning Poker
Scrumpy is a free online planning poker app you can use for your distributed agile team. It integrates with Jira, Confluence, Slack, GitHub, or GitLab. You can run Scrumpy on tablets, mobile devices, and desktop computers while connecting multiple game participants in real-time. The app supports regular, Fibonacci, and t-shirt voting options, and enables you to estimate your work items asynchronously. Try it if you’re looking for a basic option that will add some fun to your refinement sessions.
The Planningpoker.com team is constantly performing minor updates. You can test the application for free for 14 days with limited access to features, then switch to monthly or annual plans at affordable prices when needed. They also offer custom solutions for enterprise teams.
Take the next step
Now you’ve got the info on five online planning poker tools, each with different features. However your team operates, there’s a planning poker app that can make your work faster and easier. Try one and see!
Last updated: 2023-07-31
Angelika Troka
Angelika works in Appfire’s Product Marketing Management team and supports all new content releases of agile software development apps and Whiteboards.
See all content by Angelika Troka
