For when the story map outgrows the whiteboard.
CardBoard is a dedicated user story mapping tool for teams whose Miro story map has become hard to manage. Miro's User Story Map widget has activities, tasks, stories, and releases, but its cards can't be grouped or locked, and editing guests need the Business plan. CardBoard names groups of cards without moving them, can freeze the backbone in view on big maps, lets guests edit on every plan, and syncs with Jira, Azure DevOps, Linear, Shortcut, and Trello from $10 a month. Miro is the better pick if the story map is one part of a wider whiteboard practice.
Miro has a story map. It's one widget in a whiteboard.
Miro is the whiteboard most teams already pay for, and its User Story Map widget is a real one, with rows for activities, tasks, and stories and first-class releases. For a map you build in a workshop and revisit now and then, it does the job.
The strain shows when the map becomes the plan you run the product from. Miro's community asks for things a dedicated tool takes for granted: a header that stays put on a long map, releases you can hide, a map built from Jira's parent links. CardBoard is only about maps, and it has been since 2012.
CardBoard vs Miro for story mapping.
| CardBoard | Miro | |
|---|---|---|
| The story map | ||
| Structure | Backbone, stories beneath, release slices across | User Story Map widget with activities, tasks, stories, and releases |
| Grouping and locking | Name a set of cards anywhere on the map with no card moved. Cards can be locked. | Cards in the widget can't be grouped or locked |
| Big maps | The backbone row can be frozen at the top while you scroll | Users have asked for a sticky header and hideable releases |
| Starting from a backlog | Import from Azure DevOps and the first layout follows the Epic, Feature, Story tree | Users have asked for a map built from Jira parent links |
| Other maps | More than twenty map types on the same structured canvas | 7,000+ templates on an open whiteboard |
| Trackers | ||
| Jira | Title, description, status, assignee, story points both ways. | Two-way and live, on Starter and up. Task-row cards can't become Jira issues. |
| Azure DevOps | Six fields both ways, including acceptance criteria and story points | Two-way, including acceptance criteria, on Business and up. Description can't be edited. |
| Linear, Shortcut, Trello | Two-way sync on Pro | Linear and Trello on Business and up. No Shortcut. |
| All trackers from | Pro, $10 a month billed annually | Jira on Starter, $8 per member. Azure DevOps and Linear on Business, $20 per member. Minimum two seats. |
| AI agents | ||
| MCP server | Every plan | Every plan, with daily call caps from 100 on Free to 10,000 on Enterprise |
| What an agent sees | Cards with their row, column, and type | The canvas as SVG |
| Agent edits | Arrive as proposals a member accepts | Written directly to the board |
| People and plans | ||
| Free plan | Three boards. Guests can edit. | Three editable boards. No guests. Visitors view only. |
| Guests who edit | Free on every plan | Free, on Business and up. Starter allows editing through a public link. |
| Dark mode | Yes | Mobile app only. The web request has been open since 2020. |
| Version history | Activity feed. No restore. | Board versions on paid plans |
Miro facts from its own site and help center, checked September 28, 2026: User Story Map, Jira Cards, Azure Cards, Guests, Pricing, MCP tools, MCP limits, Sticky header request, Map from Jira request, Dark mode request. CardBoard facts from our docs and pricing.
What a dedicated story mapper adds.
Groups that don't move anything
A story map often holds several paths through the same steps: a new customer's checkout and a returning customer's, say. Miro's widget can't group its cards. In CardBoard you select the cards wherever they sit, press Enter, and name the path. Nothing moves, so the backbone stays intact. The idea came from David Hussman, who built CardBoard alongside Jeff Patton.
The whole room edits, on any plan
Miro lets guests edit only on Business, at $20 a member. On the free plan there are no guests at all. CardBoard guests are free on every plan, including the free one, and can edit the map. You pay for the people who build and own maps, not for everyone who comes to the session.
Agents that understand the map
Miro's MCP server hands an agent the board as SVG, and its edits land directly. CardBoard gives an agent the map's structure: which cards are in the backbone, which slice a story is in, what type each card is. Its changes show up as proposals a member accepts or dismisses.
More on how agents work in CardBoard: CardBoard for agents. Tracker detail: Jira and Azure DevOps.
Stay in Miro if:
- The story map is one board among many whiteboards, diagrams, and retros your team already runs in Miro.
- You draw during sessions. Miro has a pen and smart drawing, and CardBoard doesn't.
- You rely on voting, timers, and a template library in the thousands.
- You need to restore an earlier board version, or search across every board.
- You want Mermaid diagrams that round-trip between code and board.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Miro have a user story map?
- Yes. Miro's User Story Map widget has activities, tasks, stories, and releases, and Jira and Azure DevOps cards can sit in it. Its limits show up on bigger maps: cards can't be grouped or locked, and cards in the Tasks row can't become Jira issues.
- What's the best Miro alternative for story mapping?
- A dedicated story mapping tool. CardBoard and StoriesOnBoard are both built for it and sync with Jira and Azure DevOps. The difference between those two is whether the tracker decides the map's layout. The full field is on our comparison of story mapping tools.
- Can guests edit a CardBoard map for free?
- Yes, on every plan including the free one. Edits to fields linked to Jira or Azure DevOps still go through a workspace member's own tracker account, so the tracker's history shows who changed what.
- Can I move a Miro story map to CardBoard?
- If the stories are already in Jira or Azure DevOps, connect a CardBoard board to the same project and import them. For the rest, paste a Mermaid journey, import cards from CSV, or retype the backbone and let the team fill it in.
Comparing more tools? See the best user story mapping tools or CardBoard vs StoriesOnBoard.
Give the story map its own home.
Keep Miro for the whiteboarding. Start a CardBoard map free, bring the whole team as guests, and connect your tracker from $10 a month.