With more than 25,000 customers and 4.5 million users, IdeaScale has been the pioneer in innovation management. The numbers are a testament that it has been a market favorite for a good reason. However, it’s not one-size-fits-all because of various reasons. 

Are you looking for IdeaScale alternatives? You have reached the right place. We hope you’ll find one that suits you. What’s your reason for exploring other options?

• Better customization for your business or enterprise
• More features and flexibility
• Affordable pricing
• Better UI and UX 
• Campaign focus
• Strong workflow process
• Ease of use
• End-to-end tracking from ideas to patents

Listed below are some top IdeaScale alternatives we explored:

1. Ideanote
2. BrightIdea
3. Planbox
4. Idea Drop
5. Viima

As a bonus we are going to introduce a new entrant, an innovation management tool designed specifically for patent mining.

Two cents about IdeaScale

Source: IdeaScale.product-tour

IdeaScale licenses cloud-based innovation management software to its clients. Some of the key features of the software include

• Crowdsourcing of ideas
• Idea ranking through a voting system
• Workflow management
• Collaboration
• Feedback management
• Trend tracking
  
  etc…..

Pricing is a significant factor in choosing the right innovation management tool for your company. Here’s what IdeaScale’s pricing and plans look like:

Pricing

IdeaScale offers customized subscription plans with a starting price of $4,999 per year, per feature, as per information available on Capterra. These plans are tailored to fit the specific needs and features required by each organization, with detailed pricing available upon request. Additionally, for those interested in trying out the platform before committing, a free trial is available.

IdeaScale’s Standout Feature | Crowdsourcing

IdeaScale works on a crowdsourcing model by grouping problem-solvers under communities. Communities may be public or private, thereby helping with restricted access. Here is how the users in a community participate:

• Launch campaigns to solve problems
• Submit ideas to solve the problems
• Vote and comment on ideas

IdeaScale also has a community named IdeaScale Crowd. It’s open for everyone, where anyone can interact with any idea. You can sponsor a campaign here to find a solution to your problems. More than 30,000 problem solvers worldwide are part of this community. 

Pros:

• Suitable for large enterprises with employees located across different geographies
• Vote based ranking to choose best ideas for implementation

IdeaScale Alternative 1: Ideanote 

Source: IdeaNote

Overview

Ideanote is a cloud-based innovation management platform. It provides for the idea and innovation management in 4 different phases – 

• Collect: Initiating goal-driven idea collections to address specific business challenges with customizable forms and conditional fields.
• Engage: Utilizing tools for enhanced collaboration, such as comments, mentions, and leaderboards to maintain user engagement.
• Manage: Prioritizing and actioning ideas with features like a drag & drop Kanban board, customizable rating scales, and comprehensive review processes.
• Measure: Offering advanced analytics for tracking innovation impact with tools for ROI analysis, trend analytics, and customizable charts.

What makes IdeaNote Different from IdeaScale?

Attributes	IdeaScale	IdeaNote
Suitability	Medium to large enterprises	Small Businesses
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Initial setup cost	No	No
Ease of Use	Decent	Quite easy
Training to use the tool	No	Yes
Support	Yes	Round the clock for new users, face-to-face assistance
Pricing Plans	Starting at $4,999 per year, per feature. Detailed pricing is available upon request	Three plans- Free – $0 per month- Scale – $6 per user/month- Ultimate – Starting at $899 per month for 100 users
Minimum Commitment	1 year	1 Month

Ideanote’s Standout Feature | AI-Driven Innovation

Ideanote’s standout feature is its suite of AI-driven tools that streamline the innovation management process. These tools enable automatic idea generation, offer real-time translation for global collaboration, and utilize AI to identify trends with advanced topic mapping. Essential for fostering a dynamic innovation environment, this AI integration ensures that only the most impactful ideas are pursued. Ideanote’s thoughtful implementation of AI tools significantly enhances decision-making and optimizes resource allocation across multinational teams.

Pros:

• Intuitive interface and ease of use
• Affordable pricing
• Great customer support

IdeaScale Alternative 2: Brightidea 

Source: BrightIdea

BrightIdea’s IdeaBox is an employee-only innovation management software suitable for large enterprises. IdeaBox offers a collection of apps (shown below). Each app serves a specific function for various innovation stages. For instance:

• Optimize – If you want to improve a particular business area, you can invite ideas from employees around the same.
• Name – This one comes in handy if you are looking for names for a new product.
• Hack – Bringing people together for a limited time to solve particular challenges. In concept, this is quite similar to online hackathons.
• Recognize – It’s a great way to give shoutouts and increase employee engagement.

Source: brightidea.product-offerings

What Makes BrightIdea Different from IdeaScale?

Both of these tools are very competitive in terms of features and support. However, BightIdea offers a mobile application for iOS and Android users. IdeaScale doesn’t have a mobile application.

Source: iPhone AppStore

Attributes	IdeaScale	BrightIdea
Customization	Customization of in-site features to change site behavior	Custom CSS to change the look and feel to match your brand
User Interface	Intuitive and easy to use. Plus points for an infographic generator	Social media-esque UI. Crowded because of too many apps, hence confusing
Idea pipeline	Four stage pipeline – Idea Collection, Refinement, Review, Implementation	Drag and drop tools allow building pipelines to evaluate ideas
Mobile application	Yes – iOS only	Yes
Pricing	Starting at $4,999 per year, per feature. Detailed pricing is available upon request.	Not publicly disclosed

Brightidea’s Standout Feature | Large Scale Crowdsourcing & Hackathons

Large-scale crowdsourcing and hackathons make BrightIdea a standout. Have a problem and want more than the people in your employ to help you solve it? Sure! Use BrightIdea to launch a hackathon. 

What a great way to demonstrate to your workforce that you’re an innovation-driven enterprise! 

Pros:

• Made for large enterprises, especially those with a global presence
• Contests and hackathons open up a plethora of ideas
• Cloud access, iOS, and Android apps
• Increased employee engagement with mobile app

IdeaScale Alternative 3: Planbox 

Source: planbox-innovate

Planbox is an AI-powered, exhaustive, and modular innovation management software. It has four modules:

• Discovery central: Explore and discover the right problems and prioritize them to find innovative solutions
• Innovation central: Manage the control innovation lifecycle – from challenge launch to building a business model canvas
• Agile central: Manage agile work for projects with the ability to track deliverables, plan experiments, and develop a proof of concept
• Portfolio central: Empower your teams by pitching out of the box reports of commercialized strategies

What Makes Planbox Different From IdeaScale?

Planbox’s Innovation Central module is akin to IdeaScale. While both take you through the innovation cycle, Planbox ranks slightly higher on the value addition it provides through external ideation and crowdsourcing. 

Attributes	IdeaScale	Planbox
Visualization	Built-in reporting as well as the ability to integrate web analytics. Data exports available too	Easily configurable reporting engine for creating effective visualization
Free trial	Yes	No
Scalability	It can handle large volumes of members as well as ideas	Resources available to scale with the growth of enterprise
Ease of Use	Decent	Good. Allows for internal management of site
Integration	Allows integration with Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, Intercom, Google Analytics, Social Share	Allows for integration with Zapier, Slack, Sharepoint, Teams, G Suite, Microsoft 365 and more
Idea Evaluation	Voting system to rank ideas	Idea Manager Evaluation and Task-driven Evaluation
Pricing	Starting at $4,999 per year, per feature. Detailed pricing is available upon request	$6/user/month for up to 250 users

Planbox’s Standout Feature | The AI Algorithm

Planbox pioneered AI-powered innovation management. The ethos of Planbox using AI is that it helps simplify innovation tasks and the innovation process. It makes them more efficient and provides better analysis. The result of this combination is more accurate predictions with less risky decision-making. 

Organizational resistance can prove to be a significant hurdle in innovation management. An AI algorithm helps overcome that hurdle by using improved processes to choose and implement more potent ideas. 

The risk of loss is another deterrent. With AI, the system can allow management to keep a record of innovation. The system can track and measure all factors that play a part in an idea’s success or failure. Analyzing and archiving these efforts’ results helps cultivate a culture of continuous improvement that drives long-term success.

Source: Planbox

Planbox’s AI-powered algorithms help search for related data from various trusted sources on your recording of an idea in the software. Those sources include Twitter, designated RSS feeds, USPTO and other patent databases, support tickets and emails (of your customers), and any other data source that you have access to.

Pros:

• The modular structure covers the entire innovation cycle
• The AI-powered algorithm provides for data gathering pertinent to each invention keyed in
• PlanBox mobile application available for both iOS and Android
• Highly customizable

IdeaScale Alternative 4: Idea Drop (Acquired by Wazoku)

Source: Idea Drop

Idea Drop, now a part of Wazoku,  is suitable for large enterprises and businesses. With easy connectivity and the option to submit ideas anonymously, it helps collaborate on a large scale towards strategic business goals. 

It has a clear and well-organized dashboard and ranks quite highly on the ease of use scale. 

What Makes Idea Drop Different from IdeaScale?

It is easier to customize as compared to IdeaScale. It provides a whole list of innovative features, some of which are currently lacking in IdeaScale. Features such as engagement monitoring, evaluation workflow, feedback management, gamification, trend tracking.

Idea Drop is accessible on the web as well as on mobile with their iOS and Android applications.

Source: iPhone AppStore

Idea Drop gives you complete access to the platform whether you are a user or an administrator. As a user, you can submit your ideas and engage with others. As an administrator, you have access to the analytics to give you a deeper understanding of each idea. It also sends real-time notifications and reports to keep all the stakeholders updated.

Attributes	IdeaScale	Planbox
Collaboration Features	Besides community discussion, it goes a level beyond for collaboration by routing ideas to subject matter experts for thorough vetting	@mentions, #hashtags, comments, link sharing, and real-time notifications
Duplication Check	No	Yes, it flags similar ideas and suggests collaboration
Ease of Use	Decent	Good. Allows for internal management of the site
Integration	Allows integration with Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, Intercom, Google Analytics, Social Share	Allows for integration with Yammer, SSO, Microsoft Teams, and Slack
Customization	Allows for styling customization for branding purpose	Highly customizable – workflow, idea evaluation metrics, and branding
Pricing	Starting at $4,999 per year, per feature. Detailed pricing is available upon request	Details not publicly available

Idea Drop’s Standout Feature | Intelligent Algorithms

Idea Drop’s USP is its intelligent algorithms. There are 3 main algorithms that make it seamless. Those are:

• Intelligent Duplicate Check: With intelligent pattern recognition technology, Idea Drop automatically checks for duplication of ideas. If a similar idea is found, the tool recommends the user to collaborate over the existing idea instead.
• Smart Search: Idea Drop’s intelligent search makes it very easy to search your Idea Drop database, including the content of supporting documents.
  
  
• Idea Score: Once an idea is submitted to your organization’s Idea Drop, an automated algorithm assigns it a score. It’s a real-time score depending on social interactions with the concept. The higher the social vote on the idea, the higher the score. 

Pros: 

• Easy to use interface and UI
• Intelligent algorithms optimize the ideation process
• Real-time notifications increase engagement
• Real-time analysis allows for better collaboration

IdeaScale Alternative 5: Viima (now HYPE Boards) 

Source: Viima

HYPE Boards, suitable for middle to large-scale organizations, is an advanced ideation and discussion platform, which includes several distinct phases: 

• Collect: This phase allows for the collection of ideas, categorizing them into predefined buckets and enabling the creation of boards with selective access.
• Develop: Users can tailor processes based on specific business needs, with features like person-specific mentions and attachments.
• Prioritize: Metrics can be applied to ideas to prioritize them effectively, supported by automated scoring and visualization tools for better decision-making.
• Analyze: Real-time analytics help users improve processes, identify bottlenecks, and track trends.

HYPE Boards aka Viima enables comprehensive idea gathering from employees, customers, and other stakeholders, ensuring a diverse input base for innovation strategies.

What Makes HYPE Boards Different From IdeaScale?

Attributes	IdeaScale	HYPE Boards
Suitability	Large enterprises	Scalable from small to large
Localized Services	No. Only available as a cloud service	Yes. Available as part of the Enterprise plan
Ease of Use and UI	Decent	Colorful and engaging interface that is easy to use
Integration	Allows integration with Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, Intercom, Google Analytics, Social Share	Comprehensive SSO for Office365, Google for Business, and Microsoft AD
Customization	Custom community styling to match the branding aspects	Highly customizable – possible to create customized workflow
Mobile Application	Yes, for iOS only	Yes, for iOS and Android
Pricing	Starting at $4,999 per year, per feature. Detailed pricing is available upon request	Basic Plan– $79/month – for up to 10 users; Pro Plan– $499/month – for up to 100 users; Enterprise Plan– Contact for pricing – for 1000+ users and comprehensive organizational needs.

HYPE Boards’Standout Feature | IP Whitelisting

Understanding the need for access to the software from anywhere, Viima has enhanced security with IP Whitelisting. This way, whether employees are in the office or outside, the company can create a list of IP addresses in a whitelist for secure access and privacy of the company’s potential Intellectual Property.

Pros:

• Simple to set up and use, good UI
• Great customer support
• Affordable pricing 
• Mobile app available on both iOS and Android
• IP whitelisting feature for security

IdeaScale Alternative 6: Wazoku

Source: wazoku-portal

Wazoku is an end-to-end innovation management platform designed to harness ideas from employees, customers, and external stakeholders. With capabilities for running targeted innovation challenges, gathering feedback, and analyzing ideas with AI-powered insights, it supports businesses in uncovering trends and transforming ideas into measurable outcomes. Its versatile toolkit includes project tracking, goal-specific surveys, and global collaboration networks

What Makes Wazoku Different From IdeaScale?

Attributes	IdeaScale	Wazoku
Suitability	Large enterprises	Enterprise-grade, ideal for large organizations with global innovation goals
Customization	Custom community styling to match branding aspects	Tailor-made solutions provided by Wazoku’s team; adjustments are done on request
Collaboration	Basic collaboration tools like comments and voting	Includes innovation challenges, open innovation networks, and co-creation features
Open Innovation	Limited open innovation features	Wazoku Crowd: A global network for open innovation and idea sharing
Ease of Use	Decent	Comprehensive solution with training resources to assist with implementation and onboarding
Insights & Surveys	Lacks dedicated insights and survey tools	Tools for gathering feedback on organizational health and the competitive landscape through Pulse Surveys
Integration	Supports integration with Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, and more	Seamless integrations with enterprise tools
Mobile Application	Yes, for iOS only	No dedicated mobile app
Pricing	Starting at $4,999 per year, per feature. Detailed pricing available.	Custom quotes based on requirements

Wazoku’s Standout Feature | Wazoku Crowd

Wazoku’s Nexus Challenges redefine open innovation by enabling businesses to crowdsource ideas and solutions from a vast global network, the Wazoku Crowd. This unique combination allows organizations to collaborate with external experts, innovators, and communities, delivering breakthrough results that traditional internal innovation methods often miss.

Source: wazoku-crowd

Pros:

• Connects organizations to a global network of innovators via its Crowdsourcing Hub, driving partnerships and external collaboration.
• Provides an Innovation Academy to train teams and ensure smooth platform adoption and engagement.
• Supports custom surveys to gather insights on organizational health, competition, and innovation impact.

IdeaScale Alternative 7: InnovationCast

Trusted by global giants like DHL and Novo Nordisk, InnovationCast is designed to streamline and amplify the innovation process across industries. Here’s how it works:

• Discover: Identify new opportunities and insights that could inspire innovation within your organization.
• Capture: Gather ideas systematically from various stakeholders to ensure a diverse and rich input.
• Select: Evaluate and prioritize ideas using robust criteria to ensure that only the most promising move forward.

• Incubate: Develop selected ideas into viable projects, refining them through collaboration and iterative feedback.
• Accelerate: Launch and scale the refined projects to drive significant impact and growth within the market.

This structured approach helps companies navigate from initial ideation to successful implementation efficiently.

What Makes InnovationCast Different From IdeaScale?

Attributes	IdeaScale	InnovationCast
Suitability	Large enterprises	Suitable for small, medium, and large enterprises, adaptable to various industries
Customization	Custom community styling to match branding aspects	Highly customizable workflows for different types of innovation projects
Collaboration	Basic collaboration tools like comments and voting	Advanced collaboration tools including challenges, idea voting, feedback, and engagement tracking
Implementation Support	Focuses mainly on idea collection and voting	Comprehensive project management tools, including idea tracking, hypothesis testing, and experimentation
User Interface	Decent	Intuitive and engaging interface
Localized Services	No. Only available as a cloud service	Available globally with multilingual support and localization
Integration	Allows integration with Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, Intercom, Google Analytics	Integrates with tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, Office365, and enterprise systems
Pricing Flexibility	Starting at $4,999 per year, per feature. Detailed pricing available upon request	Starts at $1,199/month for the Starter plan (up to 100 members). Custom quotes for larger enterprises

InnovationCast’s Standout Feature | Comprehensive Lifecycle Innovation

InnovationCast’s standout feature lies in its ability to manage the entire lifecycle of innovation. Unlike platforms focused solely on idea collection, it excels at moving ideas from inception to implementation through:

• Fully Customizable Workflows: InnovationCast offers unmatched flexibility with workflows tailored to different types of innovation projects—be it new product design or operational improvements.
• Signals and Radars: Unique tools for trend scouting and market foresight, enabling businesses to stay ahead by identifying emerging opportunities.
• Integrated Experimentation: Built-in tools to test and validate ideas quickly, minimizing risks before full-scale implementation.

This end-to-end capability makes InnovationCast one of a kind, empowering organizations to drive results by transforming ideas into tangible outcomes.

Pros:

• Unique tools like Signals and Radars help users identify market trends, technologies, and opportunities to fuel innovation strategies.
• Built-in gamification features such as badges and point systems encourage employee engagement and motivation.
• Offers tailored onboarding processes and pre-configured email templates to ensure high user adoption and continuous engagement.

Here is a quick summary of the tools we’ve discussed with their standout features:

Innovation Management Tool	Free Trial/Demo	Mobile App	Pricing	Standout Feature
IdeaScale	Yes	No	$4,999 per year	Communities
Ideanote	Yes	No	$6 per user/month	AI-Driven Innovation
BrightIdea	Yes	Yes	Not disclosed	Crowdsourcing and Hackathons
Planbox	Yes	Yes	Not disclosed	AI algorithm for data population
Idea Drop	Yes	Yes	Not disclosed	Intelligent algorithm for duplicate check, smart search
HYPE Boards	Yes	Yes	$5 per user per month	IP Whitelisting
Wazoku	Yes	No	Not disclosed	Wazoku Crowd
InnovationCast	Yes	No	Starts at $1,199/month (up to 100 users)	Comprehensive lifecycle innovation

Triangle IP – An Idea Management Tool for Patent Mining

TIP by Triangle IP is an intuitive drag and drop tool to help you track the journey of ideas to patents. TIP’s inventor-friendly idea form helps you capture more innovation. Its collaboration feature brings together people from business, R&D as well as IP departments. This enables thorough vetting of ideas ensuring only the most promising ideas/inventions get patented. The TIP tool is constantly evolving. The team is looking to add more features to help users make better patenting decisions. Currently supported workflow in the software has four stages namely:

• Idea Capture: A dynamic dashboard where anyone in the organization can submit innovative ideas effortlessly. Its customizable, inventor-friendly idea form ensures that every thought, no matter how nascent, is captured and stored. Supporting documents and additional details can be added to expand on ideas over time, creating a comprehensive and organized repository of innovation.
• Internal Vetting: Submitted ideas are collaboratively vetted by stakeholders across departments, ensuring thorough evaluation of feasibility and potential. The real-time collaboration features enable discussions, edits, and tracking of changes, refining ideas into strong candidates for patent protection.
• Patent Drafting: Once an idea passes internal vetting, it progresses to the patent drafting stage. Here, patent attorneys take over, leveraging detailed insights and supporting materials to craft robust patent applications that maximize protection and value.
• Patent Filing: As applications are filed with the patent office, critical information such as serial numbers, filing dates, and application copies are meticulously recorded. The system ensures seamless tracking, with automated USPTO updates and instant notifications keeping all stakeholders informed about progress and timelines.
• Portfolio Management: A powerful, role-based dashboard provides a bird’s-eye view of the entire patent lifecycle. Teams can monitor each idea’s journey, track bottlenecks, and assess patent performance with detailed analytics. This stage empowers organizations to make data-driven decisions, optimize resource allocation, and maximize ROI on innovation efforts.

Triangle IP – A Quick Video Tour

What’s Unique about Triangle IP?

The TIP tool follows a minimalistic design approach. It is built for ease of use whether used by one person or an enterprise. 

Triangle IP specifically caters to 4 personas:

• Individual inventors
• Startups
• Enterprises
• Patent practitioners

TIP has a neat UI with simplified login through magic link. Its role based access feature allows for more control. Within the software you can score ideas, merge ideas as well as lock ideas post approval. There may soon be an automatic patentability score option available for evaluating ideas. TIP helps you manage the IP workflow from idea collection to portfolio management. TIP tool is free for all until its most comprehensive version is out

Here are a few key functionalities you would love about the tool. 

TriangleIP’s Standout Feature | Patent Democratization 

The TIP Tool is transparent and allows collaboration and in essence, democratizes the patent process. Generally, in most corporate structures, the handling of innovations and patents is limited to the top brass. The TIP Tool aims at making this a process that involves the whole enterprise. With patent attorneys being looped into the tool through the Patent Drafting, and Patent Filing stages, the attorney can be directly in touch with the innovator.  Hence, the possibility of filing more comprehensive patent applications is enhanced. 

In addition, TIP provides a set of advanced tools that enhance the patenting process and can be used either within the platform or independently:

Art Unit Predictor: With just a short summary of your draft, this tool predicts the most likely USPTO art units for your application. It doesn’t stop at predictions—it goes further by suggesting relevant keywords you can incorporate into your draft to align your application with the most favorable art units. This feature significantly boosts the chances of landing in art units with higher allowance rates, streamlining the process and reducing the back-and-forth with the USPTO.

Don’t Miss Out: Top 5 Art Unit Predictor Tools to Turbocharge Patent Approval in 2025.

Examiner Analytics: Detailed insights into examiner tendencies and historical behaviors allow users to tailor their applications strategically. By understanding an examiner’s track record, you can better anticipate challenges and refine your approach.

Family Tree Visualization: For those managing complex portfolios, TIP’s Classic view of the patent family tree simplifies the relationships between patents. With a genealogical layout, color-coded indicators for patent statuses, and clear relationship mapping, this feature makes it easy to track and understand interconnected filings across jurisdictions.

Pros:

• Intuitive and customizable invention disclosure form
• Real-time collaboration for seamless idea vetting
• Drag-and-drop interface for easy workflow management
• Role-based dashboards for better control and oversight
• Advanced analytics for informed IP decisions
• Automatic USPTO updates for published and unpublished applications
• Scoring and filtering to prioritize high-impact ideas
• Secure, U.S.-based servers for data protection
• End-to-end visibility of the patent lifecycle

The Final Word

We’ve given you a round up of the IdeaScale alternatives. 

But the final word must only be yours. What suits your business is a personal choice – one that hopefully this post will help you make. While we have given you facts and figures, the best way to figure out what works for you is to give all these options a fair chance. 

Go ahead, try the free versions of these tools before you choose one to commit to. And while you’re at it, give the TriangleIP tool a try for an end-to-end solution to your patent mining needs. 

Do consider these 5 factors while you are evaluating any innovation management tools!

Disclaimer: The information in this article/review is sourced from the internet and may not be entirely accurate or up-to-date. We recommend visiting the respective software websites for the most current and reliable information. The opinions expressed here are those of the author and may not reflect the views of Triangle IP. We are not liable for any consequences that may arise from relying on the information provided in this article/review.

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