Best Mind Map Software

Question

I like to use mind mapping software when I first start a project to gather specifications. What are the best free and commercial mind mapping applications?

Answer 1

MindJet MindManager. I use it on my Tablet PC and love it.

Answer 2

I've used FreeMind before: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

It's written in Java and a little clunky, but it gets the job done (for free!).

Answer 3

Mindomo is a nice web-based mind-mapping tool. There's both a free and a paid version available; I've used the free one on occasion, and it's really well done.

Answer 4

CMAP Tools is a very good one that I have used before. It generates websites of your maps and allow you to attach documents etc.

Answer 5

Personal Brain 4 is the best mind mapping software that I've come across. It's available on all major platforms and has free and commercial editions. It makes use of a dynamic GUI that is able to map both hierarchical as well as network relationships.

Answer 6

imindmap

Answer 7

You might also want to take a look at Tree, which is for the Mac.

Answer 8

[I am plugging my own product here, but it's 1) free 2) it's so free that currently I make no money from it in any form.]

I recommend my .Net product, TheKBase, or the Flex/ASP.NET version (although I wouldn't mention that fact if we weren't on StackOverflow), which is hosted by me here. Why is it good for mind-mapping?

• Because it works in a way that we are used to: Windows-Explorer type tree (or whatever you want to call it, you get the point).
• But in TheKBase, instead, they are multiple-hierarchical (multiple children AND parents).
• That's it. There are snippets which have a title, text (including links, but no attachments (yet? ever?)), and an icon. And they can be arranged in a multiple-hierarchical fashion. Totally simple, like your brain (we're trying to mind-map, right?), but able to handle structures of any complexity. Like your brain.

Now you might want to see a giant cool clicky map like PersonalBrain, which is interesting and beautiful but in the end it's really cumbersome (even though their product is way more advanced in terms of overall features, like attachments, and obviously has more person-hours dedicated to it). How can I demonstrate that other maps are cumbersome? Because PersonalBrain, aside from the really cool map, uses 'tags.' In TheKBase, there are no tags. One concept covers everything: a multiple hierarchy running in one direction (because hierarchies need to have a flow direction: free will is too hard to handle).

And it works and you can find stuff and once you do, you can work on it without worrying about 'where it really is' in the hierarchy. Because it's actually in multiple places, one of which is as a child of the Search Results snippet. Some of those other places might interest you... hence it's got a Parents' Pane as well (just the hierarchy flipped).

And it works, and it's stable, and we, I mean I, fix a all known bugs so it's way more stable and dependable than many other freewares [sic] of its class... I keep my important stuff in it, in fact.

Answer 9

Forever conceptdraw mind map.

Answer 10

mindmeister is my favourite so far. Nice web interface. Its free to use online, and they offer an offline (that uses google gears) version that you pay a subscription for.

Answer 11

I find XMind (free) to be pretty good.

Answer 12

I use Mindmanager and it does the biz. It's commercial (a couple of hundred I seem to recall) and they seem to be very active in adding features. There is a web version as well as desktop and one thing I thought was cool (but haven't ever really used ;-) is that it can output your interactive mind maps into a pdf ...