6 Best Mind Mapping Software [Free and Paid]

Introduction to Mind Mapping Software

If you are looking for the best mind mapping software online, the reasons are obvious, mind mapping lets you organize your thoughts in a much more expressive way. Mind Mapping is the modern science of understanding and learning the connection between the human brain structure and its functions associated with its working. In plain words, it relates the brain functions with its structure. From our day-to-day activities like picking up a glass of water, scientists are engaged in research activities to understand the neural activities of our brain and improve them.

In a normal sense, it is the way to organize information or data by drawing maps and other structures.

In information technology, we refer to brain mapping software to be the one used for effortless note-taking and easily understandable relations between various pieces of information. It improves many skills including communication and collaboration.

There are many tools available in the market for brain mapping. Most of the mind mapping software is available for free on Android or other platforms like Mac.

Applications of Brain Mapping Software

• Project Managers for sharing creative ideas with each member of the team
• Students can learn better from visual diagrams rather than linear notes.
• Financial planners for planning and forecasting revenues
• Event managers for organizing the events in a planned way.
• Human resources can use it for structuring the manpower requirements
• CEOs can prepare dynamic and foolproof business plans
• Sales and Marketing teams can forecast and share promotions, funnel reports, and sales forecasts.
• Bloggers can plan an article with the main topic at a center and create nodes and subnodes.

Six Best Mind Mapping Software Worth Trying

1. XMind

It is one of the popular brainstorming and brain-mapping tools being used by project managers and academia. XMind helps in capturing ideas and constructs self-organized paths and charts. Till now, it has been awarded four times for its excellence in various categories. XMind is a flexible tool that can be integrated with other applications like Evernote or your own productivity software. This mind map software has all the professional features required to increase efficiency in the workplace.

Key Features

• The latest XMind 8 comes with a new look and a user-friendly interface with one-click switching of views.
• Mind mapping is all about visual expression. Embellish your maps with the new 108 clip arts.
• You can save your precious time by using amazing readymade templates to create beautiful mind maps.
• Export your mind map to multiple formats that include PDF, excel, word, PowerPoint, HTML, GIF, PNG, JPEG, plain text, and much more.
• XMind 8 comes with a versatile toolbox, much needed for office collaboration. Some of the tools include a to-do list, relationships, summary, notes, labels, markers, comments, information cards, callouts, and boundaries.
• Customize your mind mapping with an advanced theme editor and open-sourced fonts.
• Manny business tools like organization charts, Gantt charts, timelines, fishbone charts, and matrices are available.

Supported Platforms

Windows, Android, and Mac

Pricing

Free | Plus ($79) | Pro ($99)

2 Coggle

The information that you want to share with colleagues or friends might not always be in a simple form. Coggle is a mind-mapping tool that allows you to share this complex information in a simple and clear form. Mind mapping with Coggle is not available as an Android or Mac app instead it is an online web application. You need to sign up and then use this software in the web browser. Coggle offers planning, brainstorming, or note-taking in visual maps that are updated instantly online and ensures quick collaboration with friends and colleagues.

Key Features

• Fast updates ensure real-time collaboration to work on maps or diagrams simultaneously.
• Every time you change a diagram, it gets automatically saved and you can revert back to any point of change with a single click.
• You can easily drag and drop any number of images from your system to the working map.
• Make your maps more revealing by using annotations of text and images.
• Unlike other brain mapping software, Coggle allows you to create more than one central point for mapping related nodes.
• Loops and branches in Coggle provide more flexibility and power to the diagrams.
• Provision of Active Directory authentication at enterprise-level solutions.

Supported platforms

Web Browser

Pricing

Free | Awesome ($5/month) | Organisation ($8/month)

3 iMindMap

Chris founded the iMindMap in collaboration with the inventor of the mind-mapping technique, Tony Buzan. Starting in the early nineties, iMindMap has already become popular in educational institutions and organizations. This mind-mapping software is being used by over two hundred and fifty million users worldwide and helps them in their presentations, project planning, studying, and much more.

Key Features

• With fast capture, you can quickly input your raw ideas into maps without any formatting issues.
• iMindMap’s Brainstorm view lets you pin your ideas directly onto canvas without needing any structures and create mind maps instantly.
• Unlike traditional mind map views, iMindMap comes with thought-provoking features like a branch drawing tool, flowcharts, a pop-up edit menu, images and icons, multi-maps, and much more.
• To excel in competition, you can create professional presentations with presentation views that include innovative tools like the 3D view, templates, export to youtube and PowerPoint, kiosk mode, built-in backgrounds, sync with other views, and dual view.
• Available in the iMindMap ultimate edition, the time-map view allows you to create a fresh view or you can switch your ideas from other views along the interactive timeline.
• With iMindMap integration, you can save and share on popular storage spaces like google drive, Dropbox, Evernote, iMindMap cloud, and much more.
• To let you organize your work in a better way, the side panel feature helps you to categorize your thoughts. Search filters, tags, drag and drop, and flow charts are some of the side panel components.

Supported platforms

Windows, Android, Mac

Pricing

Home & Student ($100) | Ultimate ($235) | Ultimate+ (310)

4 Mindmaple

This mind-mapping software comes in two versions. Mindmapping Pen is designed for users who want to utilize the features of the advanced pen of Microsoft Surface Pro 3.0 and later. The other version is a classic version that you can use on Windows, Android, or Mac devices. MindMaple is the best tool for note-taking, presentations and meetings, project planning, travel plans, and managing complex finances.

Key Features

• You can move the topics and subtopics anywhere on the map unlike other mind-mapping tools online which allow only fixed positions in maps.
• In Mindmaple, you can manage and integrate tasks or other attachments directly on maps.
• Additional tools allow you to add relationships and hyperlinks to the mind maps.
• Decorate and design your maps with clip art, colors, images, and styles.
• You can import the maps from other mind-mapping software like Mindjet or Freemind. Mindmaple also supports TXT files.
• With Mindmaple, you can export maps to multiple types of formats like PPT, HTML, DOC, XLSX, and image formats.

Supported Platforms

Windows, iOS, Mac OS.

Pricing

Windows ($49) | iOS (free) | Mac  (free)

5 Mindomo

Right from brainstorming to mind maps to real-time collaboration, Mindomo is the best visual solution for your ideas and organizing work. Mindomo has been developed in order to streamline the working of teachers and students. Apart from instant access to students’ assignments, Mindomo maps can easily be integrated into google apps, office 365, and many learning management systems like Canvas, Moodle, itslearning, etc.

Key features

• Presentation mode in maps helps students to share their ideas through professional slides.
• Mindomo provides a simple and user-friendly interface on its Android and iOS apps. You can use these native apps in both online as well as offline modes.
• Playback mode helps to record and track all the previous actions or changes done by students on the maps.
• Students can search for any relevant image online directly from the maps with the image search feature.
• You can create your own videos or record related audio and embed them into maps to make your thoughts more clear.
• Students can start mind mapping without any professional training with the help of in-built templates.

Supported Platforms

Android, Windows, iOS, and Mac

Pricing

Free | Premium ($36 / six months | Professional ($90/six months) | Team ($142/six months)

6 Freemind

With a strong prominence on folding, this tool is basically used for the management of content and information. Freemind is an open-source mind-mapping tool built in Java and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. It has a wide variety of features, including location-based mind mapping, collaboration tools, restore session support and more. It is generally used to keep a track of data.

Key Features

• Freemind mapping software supports hyperlinks and local file linking in all its nodes and subnodes.
• Simple user interfaces with the one-click operation.
• Option to undo an unlimited number of times.
• You can drag and drop files and text directly to the map with the smart drag-and-drop feature.
• Many designing tools are available in the form of colors, fonts, and icons to beautify the nodes.
• Freemind maps can be easily switched to other mind mapping apps since it is stored in XML format.

Supported Platforms

Windows, Linux

Pricing

Free

Present your Thoughts with the Best Mind Map Software now

Mind maps depict the more clear view with the visual presentation of your ideas. It even helps you to find loopholes in your concept before finalizing it. Stop wasting your time filling papers with diagrams and give a try to some of the mind mapping software reviewed in this article.