10 Best Mind Mapping Software

What is mind mapping software?

Mind mapping software is a brainstorming tool for organizing and communicating ideas, enabling you to create visual diagrams of your ideas.

Using mind mapping software, you can easily create a diagram of ideas that can be used to illustrate the hierarchy and connections between different ideas.

Mind mapping software covers the range from simple brainstorming applications to complex data visualization and charting tools.

Mind mapping tools are used in the following practical application scenarios.

Brainstorming: Create mind maps to visually organize and express ideas.

Diagramming: Create engineering diagrams, project timelines, architecture diagrams, organizational charts, network diagrams, and other business or technical diagrams.

Software Development and Web Design: Create wireframes and site maps.

Business Intelligence: Import and visualize real-time data from business applications in the form of charts, etc.

10 Best Mind Mapping Software

What is a mind map?

A mind map is a conceptual network that shows the relationship between ideas. Here is a simple example of a mind map:

The process of generating a mind map is a brainstorming and creative thinking process. Mind maps have been called the “Swiss Army Knife” of ideas, allowing for easy and clear deconstruction of various types of ideas, concepts and inspirations.

How to make a mind map

Since mind mapping is a creative process, the method of creating a mind map will vary depending on your personal preferences, tools, and the project at hand. There is no “right way” to do mind mapping, but if you are using a mind mapping application, the following process will be followed.

Start with a blank canvas.

  1. Add a central node – your central idea or topic.
  2. Brainstorm sub ideas or related ideas and add them to the canvas.
  3. Draw lines to connect ideas and represent the relationships between ideas. Drag and drop elements to reorganize your ideas as you add them to the map.
  4. Use formatting tools to visually organize and display your information – change colors and sizes, add icons and images, etc.

Why use mind mapping software?

Mind maps are great tools for understanding and communicating ideas because we humans are visual beings and we can process visual information very quickly.

Of course, you can also create a mind map on a piece of paper, but using mind mapping software has several advantages, such as

  • No size limit: You are not limited to the size of the paper.
  • Flexibility: You can easily reorganize ideas by clicking and dragging.
  • Co-creation: In software that allows you to create mind maps online, it is often possible for multiple users to collaborate on the same mind map.
  • Visual presentation: You can use formatting tools to create professional diagrams that can be shared and presented quickly.

Still not convinced of the benefits of these types of brainstorming tools? A survey of the mind mapping software industry found that online mind mapping software can increase your productivity by 44%, boost creativity by 30%, and save up to 7 hours of user time per week.

10 Best Mind Mapping Software

10 best mind mapping software recommendations for 2020

Ayoa Mind Mapping Software

10 Best Mind Mapping Software

Ayoa is a cloud-based mind mapping software tool that combines the creativity of mind mapping with visual task management and team collaboration. Ayoa is for individuals and teams who want to inspire their most creative ideas and bring them to life.

Unlike other mind mapping tools, Ayoa provides a multi-platform tool where users can create beautiful mind maps, monitor projects and to-do lists, and collaborate with others. Ayoa’s unique visual interface helps stimulate creativity and generate ideas.

Ayoa features a unique mind mapping style inspired by traditional hand-drawn mind maps. You can also select “Speed Mind Map” for automatic layout and “Box” branches to quickly capture ideas. Their newest feature (Radial Maps) lets you present your ideas in a visual pie chart and add structure to your goals and ideas.

You can create mind maps and collaborate in real time by inviting colleagues and friends, or even set the diagram to “public” and share the link with multiple people – even if they don’t have an account! The “Auto-Hide” feature allows you to focus on selected branches and hide cluttered images for professional presentations. Ayoa’s intuitive interface makes it easy to use the application and quickly switch between menus of functions.

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Ayoa integrates with Dropbox, Google Cloud Drive, and Google Contacts; you can also use Ayoa to convert notes from Evernote to executable tasks; using Google Calendar, you can automatically sync Ayoa items; and Email2Task allows you to send emails directly to Ayoa and automatically generate tasks.

Ayoa costs $9 per user per month, and they offer discounts for team users. Ayoa offers a free version with limited functionality and free webinars and examples. In-app tutorial videos and weekly webinars are available to help you get started quickly.

Pros:

  • Support for real-time drawing
  • Support for simple file attachments
  • Demo and sharing capabilities
  • Integration with other tools and software
  • Powerful interconnectivity

Cons:

  • Limited sample templates
  • Not available when offline

Milanote mind mapping software

10 Best Mind Mapping Software

Milanote is an easy-to-use mind mapping tool that organizes your ideas and projects into visual panels. Milanote differs from basic mind mapping tools in that you can add rich media (images, videos, links) to panels while creating mind maps and make complex and rich hierarchies on a single topic.

With Milanote’s drag-and-drop interface, you can place your work side-by-side on a virtual keyboard with unlimited extensions. Milanote can handle annotations, links, images and files, and also has a rich library of templates to make starting new projects easier.

In addition, Milanote supports real-time collaboration, making it ideal for brainstorming workshops with remote teams.

The free version of Milanote allows you to add up to 100 notes, images or links (no time limit.) Milanote PRO offers unlimited storage for $9.99 per person per month.

Pros:

  • Support for real-time drawing
  • Support for easy file attachments
  • Presentation and sharing capabilities

Cons:

  • Weak integration with other tools and software
10 Best Mind Mapping Software

Visio, from Microsoft, is a visual diagramming tool that is great for mind mapping and creating many other graphical representations. If you are already using Office 365, Visio is great because it can extract data from Office 365 and let you visualize it in real time using the charts you set up in Visio.

More than just a simple brainstorming application, Visio provides ready-made templates to create block diagrams, flowcharts, time diagrams, flowcharts, floor plans, engineering design diagrams, and Specification and Description Language (SDL) diagrams (it also supports AutoCAD drawings). Users can share Visio diagrams as links, attachments, images, or PDFs, and can collaborate with the annotation feature. In addition, unlike many other mind mapping software, Visio allows multiple users to collaborate on the same mind map at the same time.

Overall, Visio is one of the most powerful mind mapping tools available. However, Visio does have a steeper learning curve than many other tools, and it certainly offers more features than you need if you are just looking for a simple interface to create mind maps. For technical teams, engineers, architects, and business users, Visio is the first choice – as long as you’re willing to stay in the Microsoft ecosystem.

Microsoft offers Visio as a one-time purchase (Visio Standard and Visio Professional) or as SaaS (Visio Online).

Visio costs $6.40 per user per month, and a one-time license costs $459.

Pros:

  • Support for real-time drawing
  • Support for simple file attachments
  • Presentation and sharing capabilities
  • Seamless integration with Office software

Cons:

  • Complex functionality, difficult to learn
  • Price

SmartDraw Mind Mapping

10 Best Mind Mapping Software

SmartDraw is positioned as an alternative to tools like Microsoft Visio and is more user-friendly for the average user, while being equally powerful and affordable. It does offer an intuitive interface compared to Visio and its practical features are suitable for almost any industry, such as environmental engineering, design, IT, etc.

SmartDraw provides users with over 4,500 templates for over 70 different types of diagrams, including flowcharts, infographics, landscaping, decision trees, timeline diagrams, mind maps, engineering diagrams, and CAD drawings. It offers online collaborative drawing, and users can automatically adjust and keep their diagrams aligned and updated using a smart formatting engine. SmartDraw integrates with MS Office, Google Apps, Jira, Confluence, DropBox, Box, WordPress, and Trello.

Overall, SmartDraw is a powerful tool that is a strong competitor to Microsoft Visio and is arguably more intuitive for the average user. As with Visio, enterprise teams can also take advantage of its many advanced features.

For plans with more than 5 users, SmartDraw costs $5.95/per user/month and $9.95/per user/month for a single user.

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Pros:

  • Support for real-time drawing
  • Support for simple file attachments
  • Presentation and sharing capabilities
  • Integration with leading software tools
  • Straightforward appearance and ease of use

Cons:

  • Stability of some software features needs to be improved
  • Price

Lucidchart mind mapping software

10 Best Mind Mapping Software

Lucidchart is for concept map creation and general purpose mapping tools, ideal for organizations that want to present data visually and can be adapted to businesses of all sizes. Available as SaaS, it allows users to easily and quickly create online mind maps as well as flowcharts, technical diagrams, wireframes, floor plans, flowcharts, organizational charts, ER diagrams, and many other graphics.

Lucidchart offers a full set of basic features: real-time collaboration capabilities; easy export of projects to many different file formats; revision history and hundreds of templates. You can also embed Lucidchart diagrams into a Wiki, website or blog, and they will automatically update when you make changes in Lucidchart.

Overall, Lucidchart is one of the best mind mapping software for those who want to get started and use it quickly. It is similarly positioned to SmartDraw and is a more affordable and intuitive alternative to Microsoft Visio. It is one of the most affordable solutions than the first two, offering an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and integration with Google Apps, Confluence, Jira, Jive and Microsoft Visio.

Lucidchart costs $4.95 per user per month with the annual subscription, and Lucidchart also offers a “perpetual free” account with limited features and the ability to try its paid version for free.

Pros:

  • Support for real-time drawing
  • Support for simple file attachments
  • Rich object library and templates
  • Integration with major software tools
  • Intuitive and easy to use

Cons:

  • No desktop application
  • Complex pricing and package plan system

Coggle – Simple and Beautiful Mind Mapping Software

10 Best Mind Mapping Software

Coggle is arguably one of the most beautiful and intuitive concept mapping software on the market. The software supports online real-time collaborative mapping and allows multiple team members to work together to create mind maps and flowcharts.

Coggle’s features also include automatic branching, image attachment, full change history and collaborative drawing. You can download mind maps as PDF or image files, as well as export to .mm and text and to Microsoft Visio. In addition, you can display Coggle diagrams on the web and make any changes to the diagrams through the mind mapping tools.

Coggle does not provide mind mapping templates and does not support the creation of multiple technical diagrams, such as network diagrams, engineering diagrams and architecture diagrams. However, if you are looking for a simple, well-designed and easy-to-use mind mapping software, then Coggle should be the perfect choice. It is the best mind mapping software choice for those who are new to mind mapping and need only basic functionality.

Coggle costs $5 per user per month, and they also offer a free version of their mind mapping software with unlimited public charts and up to 3 private charts.

Pros:

  • Support for real-time drawing
  • Support for easy file attachments
  • Integration with major software tools
  • Intuitive and easy to use

Cons:

  • Lack of object libraries and templates
  • Fewer chart types
10 Best Mind Mapping Software

XMind is a popular brainstorming application that can be used by everyone from startups and entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies. It offers some useful features that make mind mapping and business charts (organization charts, timelines, etc.) easier to use.

XMind offers unique features to speed up the automatic generation of mind maps, convert mind maps to outlines and quickly transform mind maps into professional presentations using automatic formatting and one-click slides. XMind provides styles and themes to help you get started, and you can attach files, audio, images and links when creating mind maps. You can also work in “Zen mode” to eliminate the distractions of the interface.

The most useful XMind feature for project managers is the Gantt View feature, which converts mind maps into Gantt charts. PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, RTF, HTML, plain text, PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP or SVG file formats.

The XMind app costs $1.24 per month, or $129 for a one-time purchase, and you can also download it for free to try it out before paying for it.

Pros:

  • Advanced automatic mind mapping features
  • Good integration
  • Intuitive and easy to use

Cons:

  • Slow startup and response time
  • Does not support real-time collaborative mapping

MindManager – powerful mind mapping software

10 Best Mind Mapping Software

Mindmanager Mind Mapping Software always claiming to be “the world’s most powerful mind mapping software”, MindManager is indeed a first-class mind mapping and charting tool. It is already in use in corporate organizations such as Procter & Gamble and conEdison, and MindManager is also available for individual purchase under a single license.

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MindManager is a powerful tool with many useful data integration tools, and it can be used by integrating with Office 365 so that data can be extracted directly from Microsoft applications. When creating and presenting charts, you can use the View Customization feature to quickly and easily visualize data and present it in different ways to different audiences.

Overall, although it does not provide real-time collaborative mapping, MindManager is a popular and widely supported tool with a simple and reasonable pricing system (you can also get a license with a one-time purchase). It can be used not only for mind mapping creation, but also provides data visualization tools for creating organizational charts, timelines, project plans, and more. It even provides a dashboard that integrates and displays visually all the data related to a project or idea.

MindManager costs $229 for a perpetual license (SaaS is not available). You can also download the software for free to try it out for 30 days.

Pros:

  • Good integration
  • Intuitive and easy to use

Cons:

  • High requirements for runtime environment
  • Does not support real-time collaborative drawing
  • Price

Mindomo – Easy to learn mind mapping software

10 Best Mind Mapping Software

Mindomo is easy-to-learn concept map generation software for teachers and students, and is also useful for small businesses and corporations. It provides a set of mind mapping tools that emphasize collaboration, enabling users to easily create, share and present mind maps together.

Mindomo’s mind mapping tools include features such as real-time collaboration, template libraries, adding links, video and audio to mind maps, and the ability to easily search for Web images directly from within the application. You can use its presentation mode to quickly convert mind maps to presentations or export them to multiple formats (pdf, .docx, .pptx, .txt, .opml, .mpx, .html, .zip, .png).

Overall, Mindomo is a practical and user-friendly mind mapping software focused on applications in the field of mind mapping. Mindomo’s native mobile application is easy to use and allows users to create and edit mind maps from any mobile device (Android, iPad, iPhone, etc.) while offline. In addition, compared to most other mind mapping software (including Google Apps, Office 365 and LTI) and educational apps (such as Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn, itslearning, Schoology, etc.), Mindomo is more compatible and integration is better.

Pricing for Mindomo is $6 per user per month, and Mindomo also offers a free version of its mind mapping software that supports up to 3 mind maps.

Pros:

  • Good integration
  • Intuitive and easy to use
  • Combination of social and mapping features

Cons:

  • High price
  • Free version has extremely limited features

Slickplan – mind mapping software for development teams

Slickplan was developed as concept mapping software for web development teams. It can work well as a concept mapping tool, but it can do a lot more than just help you create concept maps. It offers features for web design (UX designers, content teams, application designers and developers, web marketers) and has multiple pricing plans for individuals, freelancers, small teams and agencies.

Slickplans’ diagramming tool is includes a symbol library, an automatic design module and integration with the Slickplan site map generator. It supports simultaneous editing, live chat, commenting, and can easily export projects to various formats (HTML, DOCX, PDF, XML, etc.) as well as directly to integrated CMS platforms (WordPress, Joomla!, concrete5, Drupal, and Expression). It also integrates with Google Analytics, Slack, Basecamp and Teamwork.

Overall, for web design or mobile app development teams, Slickplan is the preferred choice. The entire suite provides visual collaboration capabilities for conceptualizing and designing websites from sitemaps to content marketing processes.

Slickplan costs $8.99 per user per month and is available as a “perpetual free” version with limited functionality, as well as a free 30-day trial of the paid version.

Pros:

  • Intuitive and easy to use
  • Rich web development team concept charting capabilities

Cons:

  • Compared to other sitemap software, it is paid
  • The free version has extremely limited features
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