Planning Poker Agility Alternatives: 6 Estimation Upgrades (2026)
Planning Poker Agility holds a rare position: a genuinely free, unlimited Jira estimation app (by Agile Pulse, ~3,000 installs, Cloud Fortified) with private voting, auto-reveal, and custom scales. Nobody leaves it over price. Teams leave because of what free deliberately omits — no async estimation, no analytics or history, no AI, participants all need Jira seats — and because Agile Pulse's new features now ship in its paid successor, SprintPoker, not here.
So this list is about upgrades, not escapes: 6 tools for when "free voting in Jira" stops being enough.
DISCLOSURE: Online Planning Poker publishes this comparison and ranks first. All prices verified July 12, 2026 against vendor rate cards and Marketplace listings.
The quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Async | Analytics | Non-Jira voters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planning Poker Agility for reference | Free, unlimited | No | No | No |
| Online Planning Poker Our pick | Free; $19/mo flat for sync + reporting | No | Velocity, history, CSV | Yes — by link |
| SprintPoker | ≈ $0.84/user/mo (11–100) | Yes | Vote stats, AI insights | No |
| Agile Poker for Jira | $898/yr at 25 users | Yes (Wideband Delphi) | Deep | No |
| Planning Poker® (Appfire) | $730/yr at 25 users | No | Basic | No |
| Planning Poker for Jira (We Agile You) | Per user via Atlassian | No | Basic | No |
| Pointing Poker | Free (ads) | No | No | Yes — by link |
When to reach for Planning Poker Agility alternatives
Three triggers, in rising order of urgency. A stakeholder without a Jira license wants to vote — in-Jira apps can't do it; browser tools solve it instantly. Someone asks for numbers — velocity trends, estimation history, exports — and the free app has none to give. Your team splits across time zones — async estimation stops being nice-to-have, and that feature costs money everywhere it exists.
Online Planning Poker
Our pickKeeps the price you're used to (free, no limits, no accounts) while fixing two of the three gaps: anyone can vote by link — product managers, clients, contractors, no Jira seat required — and the $19/month flat Business plan ($190/year) adds the reporting the free app lacks: velocity tracking, session history with CSV export, plus two-way Jira sync and persistent team rooms. Async estimation isn't here either — but you're not paying $730/year to miss it.
PROS
- + Still free and unlimited, like what you're leaving
- + Non-Jira participants vote by link
- + Velocity + history at a flat $19/month
CONS
- − Lives in a browser tab, not the issue view (unless you add our Jira app)
- − No async mode
- − Jira sync is a paid feature
Best for: teams that hit the free app's walls but refuse instance-tiered pricing on principle.
SprintPoker
The intended upgradeAgile Pulse built SprintPoker as the answer to its own free app's limits: async sessions, AI complexity insights, reference-issue matching, quick per-ticket estimation, and vote statistics — at about $0.84/user/month for 11–100 user instances (free ≤10, 30-day trial). Migration is the smoothest on this page: same vendor, same design language.
PROS
- + Async mode at the lowest in-Jira price
- + Familiar vendor and UX
- + AI features free apps don't have
CONS
- − Bills every Jira user in the instance
- − Young app
- − Still no votes for non-Jira folks
Best for: teams happy with Agile Pulse who specifically need async and stats.
Agile Poker for Jira
Maximum depthThe full-featured end of the spectrum: Appfire's flagship brings four estimation methods (including async Wideband Delphi and relative sizing for big backlogs), AI-driven insights, and velocity/capacity analytics — at $898/year for a 25-user instance, tiered upward. The jump from a free app is steep; the jump in capability is too.
PROS
- + Every estimation style your coach can name
- + Analytics that satisfy management
- + Mature, widely deployed
CONS
- − Four figures a year for most real instances
- − Feature surface most teams won't touch
- − Instance-wide billing
Best for: organizations formalizing estimation across many teams at once.
Planning Poker® by Appfire
Middle pathBetween free and flagship: a refined real-time table for 30+ players with moderated or ad-hoc games and historical reference issues, at $730/year for 25 users. You're paying for polish and vendor heft rather than new capabilities — no async, basic analytics.
PROS
- + Noticeably smoother than the free apps
- + Reference issues aid consistency
- + Appfire support behind it
CONS
- − $730/year without async or real analytics
- − Cheaper rivals match its core
- − Instance-tiered like the rest
Best for: teams standardizing on Appfire without flagship needs.
Planning Poker for Jira
Most installedWe Agile You's app claims 147,000+ monthly active users and brings a livelier table than the free option — consensus robot, four deck families, dark theme, gamified touches — with estimates saved straight to issues and GDPR/ISO 27001 credentials. Per-user pricing via the Atlassian calculator; free below 10 users.
PROS
- + Biggest community of any Jira estimation app
- + More engaging UX than the free apps
- + Compliance credentials
CONS
- − Pricing requires the Marketplace calculator
- − No async mode here either
- − Same Jira-seat requirement for voters
Best for: teams upgrading the table experience while staying in Jira.
Pointing Poker
Free, off-JiraThe other free direction: leave Jira's walls entirely. Pointing Poker runs uncapped, account-free, ad-supported sessions where anyone with the link votes — the quickest fix for the stakeholder-without-a-license problem, at the cost of typing points back into Jira yourself.
PROS
- + Free with zero Jira coupling
- + Anyone votes instantly
- + Nothing to install or admin
CONS
- − Manual point entry back into Jira
- − Ads and a dated interface
- − No stats or history
Best for: mixed-audience sessions where Jira seats are the blocker and budget is zero.
Frequently asked questions
Why leave a free app at all?
Capability, not cost. The usual breaking points: async estimation for split time zones, reporting for management, or votes from people without Jira licenses. If none of those bite, staying put is the right call — it's a good free app.
Free browser tool vs free Jira app — which free is better?
Different frees. In-Jira keeps estimates on issues automatically but locks voting to license holders. Browser tools open voting to everyone but need a sync (paid) or manual entry to land points in Jira. Choose by who attends your refinement.
Will the free app disappear now that its successor is paid?
No signs of that — it's maintained and Cloud Fortified. The realistic expectation is stasis: it keeps working as-is while new capabilities ship next door. Plan around what it is today, not what it might grow into.
Verified July 12, 2026 against Marketplace listings and vendor rate cards. Tell us if something moved.
Free like you're used to — open to everyone
Unlimited sessions where the whole room votes, Jira seat or not. Reporting and sync when you're ready.