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Mural Review: Overview, Features, Pricing & Alternatives in 2025

Remote workshops shouldn’t feel chaotic and unfocused.

If you’re frustrated by scattered notes and unproductive meetings, you’re likely looking for a better way to manage team brainstorming and decisions online.

After researching Mural in depth, my analysis shows: lost meeting focus leads to wasted time and confusion.

Here’s what I discovered: Mural combines an infinite visual canvas, facilitation controls, and integration with your everyday tools to fix digital collaboration headaches. These features stand out if you’re aiming for structured, actionable results from every session.

In this review, I’ll show you how you can run highly effective remote workshops using Mural, from setup to follow-up.

Inside this Mural review, you’ll discover everything you need: core features, limitations, pricing updates, the impact of the recent Miro acquisition, and true alternatives. I’ll help you make sense of where it fits in your evaluation process.

You’ll get the real insights and features you need to pick the right tool with total confidence.

Let’s dive into the analysis.

Quick Summary

  • Mural is a visual collaboration platform that helps your team run structured remote workshops with templates and facilitation tools.
  • Best for medium to large organizations needing guided, effective team collaboration in remote or hybrid settings.
  • You’ll appreciate its extensive template library and facilitation features that keep meetings focused and productive.
  • Mural offers a free tier with limited murals and paid plans starting at $9.99 per member per month, plus enterprise pricing on request.

Mural Overview

Mural has been around since 2011, based in San Francisco. What impressed me is their focused mission: empowering your teams to collaborate effectively from anywhere.

From my analysis, they specialize in serving large enterprises that need robust security and guided facilitation features. Their core focus on structured collaboration for enterprise teams makes complex remote workshops feel manageable and highly productive.

The most critical development I found is its early 2024 acquisition by chief competitor Miro. This fact is an absolutely essential consideration for this Mural review.

Unlike competitors with a more free-form canvas, Mural’s entire platform prioritizes repeatable process. It is designed around facilitator controls for guided workshops, ensuring your team follows a structured path to a business outcome.

I found they work with thousands of global organizations, including many Fortune 500 firms who rely on them for their most mission-critical collaborative planning sessions.

What you must understand is their strategic focus is now completely defined by the Miro acquisition. The company’s official long-term plan is to migrate all Mural customers to Miro’s platform, impacting your choice.

Now let’s examine their core capabilities.

Mural Features

Remote brainstorming feeling disconnected?

Mural offers a powerful set of capabilities designed to make visual collaboration engaging. These Mural features empower your team to brainstorm, plan, and execute effectively from anywhere, transforming teamwork.

1. The Infinite Canvas & Templates

Stuck with a blank page?

Starting creative sessions from scratch often wastes valuable time. Your team might struggle to organize ideas effectively without clear structure.

Mural provides an expansive, zoomable canvas with over 300 pre-built templates. From my testing, this feature significantly lowers the barrier to entry for complex workshops like design sprints, giving you a structured head start.

This means your team can immediately jump into productive, structured activities, saving setup time and ensuring best practices are consistently followed.

2. Facilitation Superpowers™

Remote meetings feeling chaotic?

Running an online workshop with many participants is hard. It’s difficult to keep everyone focused, on time, and truly engaged throughout the session.

These tools give the host immense control. You can summon everyone to a specific area, lock content, and customize toolbars for focus. From my evaluation, this feature brings order to chaos, ensuring workshops achieve their objectives effectively.

Facilitators gain immense control over meeting flow, ensuring sessions stay on track and achieve their objectives, even with dozens of participants.

3. Voting and Timers

Making decisions feel impossible?

Brainstorming generates many ideas, but teams need an efficient way to prioritize and make decisions. This ambiguity often leads to delays.

Mural lets you initiate voting sessions for democratic idea selection, with automatic tallying. The built-in timer creates urgency and focus for activities, driving momentum and preventing endless discussions.

This feature removes ambiguity, providing a structured, transparent, and quick way to converge on the most important ideas and maintain meeting momentum.

4. Integrations with Enterprise Tools

Isolated collaboration tools?

A collaboration board is useless if outcomes can’t easily move into your existing systems where actual work happens. Manual transfers waste time.

Mural integrates directly with key enterprise tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. You can convert sticky notes into tasks directly, ensuring decisions are immediately actionable.

This creates a seamless workflow between ideation and execution, reducing manual data entry. Decisions made in Mural are immediately actionable in your project tools.

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5. Reporting and Insights

Sharing workshop results a chore?

After a workshop, capturing and sharing results easily is critical. Understanding participant engagement is also important for accountability.

Mural allows exporting boards as PDF/PNG. Crucially, you can export a summary of all elements into a CSV. Activity reports track who contributed and when.

You get a clean, shareable record of the session’s output. This is perfect for documenting decisions, sharing with stakeholders, and creating an audit trail.

Pros & Cons

  • ✅ Extensive template library jumpstarts diverse workshop activities.
  • ✅ Powerful facilitation tools enhance remote meeting control.
  • ✅ Seamless integrations connect ideation to project execution.
  • ⚠️ Large murals can experience noticeable performance lag.
  • ⚠️ Interface may have a steeper learning curve for new users.

What I love about these Mural features is how they work together to create a complete visual collaboration ecosystem. They empower your team to move from ideation to action effortlessly, enhancing productivity.

Mural Pricing

Avoid pricing guesswork with Mural.

Mural pricing is refreshingly transparent across its main tiers, offering clear per-member costs, allowing you to easily budget for your visual collaboration needs. What I found regarding Mural pricing is its clear path from free usage to robust enterprise features.

Plan Price & Features
Free Plan $0
• 3 murals
• Unlimited members
• Full template library
Team+ Plan $9.99/member/month (billed annually) or $12/member/month (billed monthly)
• Unlimited murals
• Privacy controls for rooms
• Priority customer support
Business Plan $17.99/member/month (billed annually)
• Single sign-on (SSO)
• Unlimited guests
• Advanced integrations (Jira, Azure DevOps)
Enterprise Plan Custom pricing – contact sales
• Advanced security features
• Dedicated success managers
• API access
• Data residency

1. Value Assessment

Real value for your budget.

Mural’s tiered pricing clearly links features to your growing team needs, ensuring you pay for what you actually use. What I found regarding pricing is how the Team+ plan gives unlimited murals at a sensible cost, making it great for active small teams and helping you scale without immediate enterprise-level investment.

This approach means your budget gains predictable costs, aligning value directly with your team’s collaboration requirements.

2. Trial/Demo Options

Test before you commit.

Mural offers a comprehensive Free Plan, allowing you to create three murals and invite unlimited members, giving you ample opportunity to experience the core platform. From my cost analysis, this free access empowers thorough evaluation before any significant financial commitment is required from your budget.

You can fully explore Mural’s capabilities with your team, ensuring it fits your workflow before you make a spending decision.

3. Plan Comparison

Which plan fits your team?

The Free plan is perfect for individual exploration, while Team+ unlocks true team collaboration with unlimited murals. What makes their pricing stand out is how Business adds critical enterprise features like SSO and advanced integrations, preparing larger teams for secure, scalable use and helping your budget.

You can match Mural pricing to your current needs, ensuring your budget aligns with specific feature requirements and team size.

My Take: Mural’s pricing strategy offers clear tiers, making it accessible for individuals and small teams, while scaling effectively through business and custom enterprise options to meet the needs of larger organizations.

The overall Mural pricing reflects a transparent, value-driven approach that helps you make smart budget decisions.

Mural Reviews

What do real Mural users truly experience?

Analyzing Mural reviews from platforms like G2 and Capterra reveals clear patterns in user feedback. I’ve distilled what customers actually think to help you understand the real-world user experience.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Mural users generally report high satisfaction.

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From my review analysis, Mural maintains strong ratings, averaging 4.5 to 4.6 stars across over 1,800 reviews on major platforms. What consistently stands out is how users appreciate its structured approach to collaboration, suggesting it excels in making complex workshops manageable.

This indicates you can expect a reliable tool for focused team engagement.

2. Common Praise Points

Users consistently praise its structured tools.

Customers repeatedly highlight Mural’s extensive template library and powerful Facilitation Superpowers™ as standout features. What I found in user feedback is how these tools significantly boost remote meeting productivity, transforming chaotic sessions into highly organized, productive workshops.

This means your team can jump into structured activities, saving setup time and ensuring effective outcomes.

3. Frequent Complaints

Performance and learning curve are common frustrations.

The most frequent complaints revolve around murals becoming slow or laggy with many elements, especially on less powerful machines. Review-wise, what stood out is how some users find the interface less intuitive for simple, quick brainstorming compared to more basic competitors.

These issues are generally manageable, but you should consider your team’s tech capabilities and usage patterns.

What Customers Say

  • Positive: “The Facilitator Superpowers are a game-changer. Being able to summon everyone, lock down the board, and run a timed voting session makes me look like a remote work genius.”
  • Constructive: “It can get really slow when we have a lot of images and stickies on one board. Sometimes it’s frustrating to navigate and feels clunky.”
  • Bottom Line: “For big workshops and complex tasks, it’s powerful, but simple brainstorming might feel like overkill.”

Overall, Mural reviews reflect a strong, positive sentiment among structured collaboration users, despite minor performance and ease-of-use caveats.

Best Mural Alternatives

Considering Mural’s future? Explore your options.

With Mural now part of Miro, understanding the best Mural alternatives is crucial. I’ve analyzed the competitive landscape to guide your decision based on specific business needs.

1. Miro

Need ultimate whiteboard flexibility?

Miro, now Mural’s parent, offers a slightly broader feature set, particularly for advanced diagramming. From my competitive analysis, Miro provides maximum flexibility and features, making it a strong alternative for teams prioritizing a vast toolkit over Mural’s more structured approach. You’ll likely also align with the future of the combined platform.

Choose Miro if your priority is expansive digital whiteboarding capabilities and you prefer aligning with the long-term strategic direction.

2. FigJam (from Figma)

Already embedded in Figma workflows?

FigJam is Figma’s companion whiteboard, making it the perfect Mural alternative for product design and UX teams deeply integrated into that ecosystem. What I found comparing options is that FigJam offers seamless integration with Figma, simplifying design collaboration significantly. It’s simpler and more playful for focused design sessions.

Select FigJam when your team primarily uses Figma and needs a straightforward, integrated visual collaboration tool for design.

3. Lucidspark (from Lucid)

Standardized on Lucidchart already?

Lucidspark is a natural extension if your organization already uses Lucidchart for technical diagramming and process flows. Alternative-wise, this integration provides a significant advantage for consolidating visual collaboration tools. I found that Lucidspark excels with existing Lucidchart users, streamlining your vendor relationships and workflows within one suite.

Consider Lucidspark if you’re committed to the Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite and seek unified diagramming and brainstorming.

4. Microsoft Whiteboard

Deeply entrenched in Microsoft 365?

Microsoft Whiteboard’s strength lies in its deep, often ‘free,’ integration within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, especially Teams. From my analysis, Microsoft Whiteboard is ideal for basic needs within an existing Microsoft environment. This alternative is much simpler than Mural, lacking advanced facilitation tools or robust template libraries.

Opt for Microsoft Whiteboard if your team’s needs are basic, your budget is nonexistent, and you live entirely within Microsoft Teams.

Quick Decision Guide

  • Choose Mural: Focused, structured facilitation for enterprise workshops
  • Choose Miro: Max flexibility, robust features, future-proof platform
  • Choose FigJam: Seamless design collaboration within Figma ecosystem
  • Choose Lucidspark: Unified visual suite with Lucidchart integration
  • Choose Microsoft Whiteboard: Simple, free collaboration in Microsoft 365

The best Mural alternatives depend on your specific team’s workflow and existing tech stack, rather than just feature lists. Evaluate integration needs, complexity, and budget.

Setup & Implementation

Mural setup: What should you expect?

This Mural review dives into what it truly takes to deploy this visual collaboration platform. I’ll walk you through setup, technical needs, and user adoption, setting realistic expectations.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Initial setup is deceptively simple.

Getting started instantly works for small teams, but for enterprise plans, Mural implementation involves IT for SSO and security settings. From my analysis, this shifts deployment from minutes to a more structured project, depending on your organization’s size and complexity.

Prepare for IT involvement if you’re an enterprise, and ensure security requirements are aligned upfront for a smoother start.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Minimal technical demands, mostly.

Mural is a browser-based tool, performing best on modern browsers and adequate RAM. What I found about deployment is that performance can degrade on very large boards, which is a key technical consideration for power users and extensive projects.

Ensure your team’s hardware can handle complex boards, especially for heavy users or large, active projects within your business.

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3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is where effort lies.

Basic sticky note participation is intuitive, but true Mural implementation requires effort to master facilitation features. From my analysis, becoming a confident facilitator takes time and practice, supported by Mural’s extensive documentation and webinars.

Invest in training for key facilitators and prepare for an ongoing learning curve to unlock Mural’s full potential across your team.

4. Support & Success Factors

Support is a strong success factor.

User reviews consistently praise Mural’s customer support, describing it as responsive and helpful across paid tiers. Implementation-wise, enterprise clients benefit from a dedicated CSM to assist with adoption and strategy, which is critical for complex rollouts.

Leverage their support resources, especially the CSM for larger teams, to guide your strategy and ensure successful, ongoing adoption.

Implementation Checklist

  • Timeline: Instant for small teams; weeks/months for enterprise SSO/security
  • Team Size: Collaborators, facilitators; IT for enterprise security setup
  • Budget: Beyond software, allocate for training/CSM for enterprise
  • Technical: Modern browser, adequate RAM; watch for large board performance
  • Success Factor:1 Dedicated facilitation training and strong change management

Overall, Mural implementation ranges from instant for small teams to a structured project for enterprises, depending on security and training needs. Success hinges on embracing its facilitator tools and planning for proper adoption.

Who’s Mural For

Is Mural the right collaborative tool for you?

This Mural review dives into who truly benefits from this powerful collaboration platform. I’ll help you self-qualify by analyzing specific business profiles, team sizes, and use case requirements to find your perfect match.

1. Ideal User Profile

Facilitators, workshop leaders, and agile coaches.

Mural is purpose-built for medium to large organizations, especially those with hybrid or remote models needing structured, collaborative workshops. From my user analysis, agile coaches and product managers will thrive here, utilizing its features for user story mapping and design thinking sessions.

You’ll see strong results if your primary goal is to guide groups through specific processes to defined outcomes with robust facilitation tools.

2. Business Size & Scale

Medium to large organizations excel here.

User-wise, your business fits best if you’re a medium to large enterprise prioritizing structured collaboration over ad-hoc whiteboarding. What I found about target users is that Mural focuses on enterprise-grade security and robust features, making it suitable for significant operational scales and team sizes.

You’ll find success if your organization requires powerful, guided collaboration tools to maintain engagement and productivity across distributed teams.

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3. Use Case Scenarios

Structured remote meetings and strategic planning.

Mural shines when your primary need is running effective remote or hybrid meetings, empowering teams to transform online brainstorming and workshopping. For your specific situation, it excels at strategic planning and design thinking, using frameworks like SWOT or Business Model Canvas and its extensive template library.

You’ll appreciate its strengths if you aim to streamline complex group processes and achieve defined outcomes efficiently.

4. Who Should Look Elsewhere

Simpler needs or technical diagramming?

If your team needs a quick digital scratchpad for ad-hoc brainstorming, Mural might feel like overkill. From my analysis, users often report performance issues with large boards, and the interface can have a steeper learning curve for non-facilitators than simpler alternatives.

Consider lighter tools like FigJam for quick ideas, or specialized platforms like Miro/Lucidspark if advanced technical diagramming is your priority.

Best Fit Assessment

  • Perfect For: Medium to large organizations running structured remote workshops
  • Business Size: Medium to large enterprises, hybrid or remote teams
  • Primary Use Case: Facilitated brainstorming, design thinking, strategic planning
  • Budget Range: Commensurate with enterprise-focused collaborative software
  • Skip If: Basic ad-hoc whiteboarding or complex technical diagramming

This Mural review helps you understand if its structured approach aligns with your team’s needs. The answer to who should use Mural centers on your operational complexity and workshop facilitation goals.

Bottom Line

Mural offers unique collaboration potential.

My comprehensive Mural review identifies a powerful tool for structured visual collaboration, but its recent acquisition by Miro is a critical factor for your decision. Here’s my take for your business.

1. Overall Strengths

Exceptional guided collaboration.

Mural truly excels in empowering facilitators with its robust toolset, including summoning, locking, and timed voting features. This structured approach, combined with its vast template library, transforms remote workshops into highly productive sessions, boosting engagement and ensuring order. User praise confirms these as standout capabilities.

These strengths directly translate into more efficient, impactful meetings and improved remote team productivity for your organization, proving critical for dispersed teams seeking structured and engaging virtual interactions.

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2. Key Limitations

Consider these key drawbacks.

While powerful, Mural can become sluggish with dense boards containing many elements, frustrating users on less powerful hardware. Its extensive features can create a steeper learning curve for non-facilitators, making it feel overkill for simple, quick brainstorming needs for some users.

These aren’t necessarily deal-breakers, but you must factor in potential performance dips and ensure adequate user training for adoption to maximize your team’s success.

3. Final Recommendation

Your decision hinges on context.

I recommend Mural primarily for organizations heavily invested in structured workshops and robust facilitated collaboration. For new prospects, the recent Miro acquisition is paramount; your long-term platform stability is uncertain as Mural customers will migrate to Miro over time. Choose based on this transition.

My confidence is high for existing Mural users, but new adoptions must prioritize understanding the migration roadmap to Miro before committing to this platform.

Bottom Line

  • Verdict: Recommended with significant reservations due to Miro acquisition
  • Best For: Teams needing structured, facilitated workshops, especially existing users
  • Biggest Strength: Comprehensive facilitator tools and template library
  • Main Concern: Uncertain long-term platform future after Miro acquisition
  • Next Step: Contact sales to understand migration roadmap to Miro

My comprehensive Mural review concludes that while it’s a strong tool for specific use cases, the ongoing acquisition is the main variable for new users considering adoption. Plan accordingly.

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