Orchidea

Orchidea is an innovation platform for organizations that want to collect, develop, evaluate, and manage ideas with employees, customers, or partners. It supports AI-assisted workshops that take participants from sharing ideas through developing and selecting them. Organizations can also run time-limited campaigns on a particular topic or keep idea collection going through focused channels for a team, site, product, or service. A discussion feed offers comments, reactions, @mentions, and hashtags for working through proposals, while analytics and reports are intended to provide insight into the innovation process. Native Android and iOS apps let users create and comment on proposals, take pictures, and save drafts; the platform is also available on the web. Single sign-on supports several identity providers, and SCIM can synchronize user profiles and status. Orchidea says customer content is hosted in the EU, with US hosting available for Enterprise, and customer data is not used to train AI models. A Free plan supports up to 15 members. Paid plans start at $695/mo for Challenge, with five facilitators and a three-month minimum subscription.

Orchidea combines workshops, challenges, and channels for collecting and developing ideas. Its free plan offers a way to start, while paid plans add capabilities and support at listed prices.

Orchidea suits organizations that want to involve employees, customers, or partners in structured idea collection and development. Its workshops, topic-based challenges, and ongoing channels serve different innovation processes.

Orchidea is an idea-management platform for organizations that want employees, customers, or partners to shape innovation. It suits teams that can assign facilitators to run campaigns and keep ideas moving. Its mix of guided workshops and ongoing channels is compelling, though the cost of scaling facilitation can be substantial.

Overview

Orchidea gives organizations several ways to collect and develop ideas: time-limited challenges around a defined topic, continuing channels for a team or product, and AI-boosted workshops that take participants from brainstorming toward selection. That flexibility can support both targeted campaigns and steady improvement, provided someone is responsible for guiding contributions through review.

After submission, contributors can discuss proposals in a social-style feed with comments, reactions, @mentions, and hashtags. Evaluation workflows, scoring, voting, custom fields, and duplicate detection help teams sort and assess submissions. Analytics and reports can help track the innovation process, but they depend on teams using Orchidea consistently.

Key features

Collection formats and collaboration

Challenges focus participation on a specific subject for a limited period and can involve employees, customers, or other stakeholders. Channels keep submissions open around a team, site, product, or service, with processes tailored to each channel. Workshops add a guided route from idea sharing to development and selection. Together, these formats make Orchidea more suitable for organizations managing a program than for teams seeking only a basic suggestion box.

Mobile, identity, and data controls

Native Android and iOS apps let users create and comment on proposals, take pictures, and save drafts, making mobile participation practical for people away from a desktop. Single sign-on supports ADFS, Entra ID, Google identity provider, Okta, and custom providers; SCIM can synchronize profiles and user status with Entra ID, Okta, or a custom provider. These options make the platform a stronger fit for organizations with established identity systems.

Orchidea says it commissions annual third-party security audits, encrypts data in transit and at rest, and keeps real-time backups for 30 days. Customer content is hosted in the EU, with US hosting available for Enterprise. It also says its AI providers are prohibited from using customer data to train models.

Pricing

The Free plan costs nothing, requires no credit card, and includes up to 15 members, unlimited open and public channels, challenges, and workshops, 5,000 AI credits per member, unlimited visitors, and self-serve support. It is a useful way for a small group to try the full range of collection formats, but the 15-member cap limits its role as a wider organizational program.

Challenge costs $695 a month, billed monthly, and includes five facilitators; each additional facilitator costs $22/month. It allows unlimited members, but supports innovation challenges only, has a three-month minimum subscription, and includes SSO (SAML 2.0). This plan fits organizations running campaigns at scale, but not those that also need channels and workshops.

Professional costs $1,065 a month, billed monthly, and includes 15 facilitators; each additional facilitator costs $30/month. Its annual billing cycle is a significant commitment. In return, it adds channels and workshops, full AI features, idea-management automation, and invention-disclosure management, making it the more complete choice for a sustained program.

Enterprise has custom pricing. It adds real-time AI translations, multiple workspaces and languages, SCIM, on-premise and private-cloud hosting, priority support, and a designated account and customer success team. Organizations needing those controls or support should request a quote; they should also weigh the cost against the paid tiers' per-facilitator charges. Orchidea has no free trial.

Platforms

Orchidea is available on Android, iOS, and the web. The mobile apps support proposal creation and comments, photos, and saved drafts; identity integrations and administration features suit larger deployments.

Who it's for

Orchidea is a good fit for organizations that want employees, customers, or partners to contribute through structured campaigns as well as ongoing idea channels. Its workflows and integrations serve teams prepared to facilitate evaluation and follow-up. Smaller groups can start on Free, while organizations needing more facilitators, broader program formats, or enterprise controls should budget for a paid plan. It is a weaker fit for teams that want channels and workshops without a large monthly commitment.

Pros and cons

• Several ways to involve contributors: challenges, workshops, and continuous channels cover both focused campaigns and ongoing collection.
• Structured review: scoring, voting, custom fields, duplicate detection, and evaluation workflows help organize submissions.
• Useful enterprise connections: SSO options and SCIM provisioning support established identity systems.
• Free plan has a firm ceiling: up to 15 members makes it better for a pilot than broad organizational use.
• Facilitation adds cost: both paid plans charge for additional facilitators, and Professional uses an annual billing cycle.
• Challenge is deliberately narrow: it supports challenges only, so teams wanting channels and workshops need Professional.

Alternatives

Ideanote is another freemium option with a free plan and support for Android, iOS, web, API, and self-hosted deployments; consider it when those platform choices better match your setup.

Viima offers a free plan for up to 10 users and one board, plus a free trial; it may suit teams that want to begin with a single board or try the product before committing.

IdeaGist has a free plan with 100 Gist Points per month and runs on a wider range of platforms, including desktop operating systems; consider it if those platform options or its points-based free tier suit your needs.

Brightidea has a $99 a month Memo Team Site plan with AI writing and unlimited memo creation, contributors, and evaluators; consider it when that memo-focused plan matches your workflow.

Axon Ivy Ideation Management Platform is another paid option with a free trial.

GI2MO is a free option available on iOS, self-hosted deployments, web, and Windows.

ITONICS Ideation offers a Core plan with 10 full users, unlimited viewing users and views, and email and ticket support; consider it if those user allowances and support fit your organization.

KaiNexus offers a preconfigured Fundamentals plan for smaller teams and single sites, described as going live in days; consider it if that setup matches your needs.

See more options in Idea Management Software.

Verdict

Choose Orchidea if your organization needs more than idea intake: its challenges, workshops, channels, and review tools support a program that can collect and develop contributions over time. The free plan gives small groups room to begin, but the 15-member cap and paid plans' facilitator charges make broader adoption a budget decision. Look elsewhere if you need a low-cost way to run channels and workshops at scale.