Mural
Spark
| Feature | Mural | Spark |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $12/mo | Free / from $7.99/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Best For | design-teams, facilitators, consultants, enterprise | professionals, small-teams, freelancers, mac-users |
| Founded | 2011 | 2015 |
| Sticky Notes | ✓ | ✗ |
| Templates | ✓ | ✓ |
| Facilitation Tools | ✓ | ✗ |
| Voting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Timers | ✓ | ✗ |
| Integrations | ✓ | ✗ |
| Smart Inbox | ✗ | ✓ |
| Ai Writing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Team Email | ✗ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| Priority Sorting | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Mural Pros
- Great facilitation tools
- Extensive templates
- Design thinking focus
- Enterprise ready
✗ Mural Cons
- Expensive
- Can be slow
- Learning curve
✓ Spark Pros
- Beautiful design
- AI writing assistant
- Smart inbox
- Team features
✗ Spark Cons
- Limited platform support
- Privacy concerns
- Some features behind paywall
The Verdict
Mural is built for design teams and facilitators, with a focus on sticky-notes and templates. Spark targets professionals and small teams and leads with smart-inbox and ai-writing.
Pricing is close: Spark starts at $7.99/mo versus $12/mo for Mural — not a deciding factor on its own.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.