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Anyone with experiences on mindmap software? I've used Freemind and iMindmap for a while.

What are do you consider strong and weak points of the mindmap programs?

Freemind is as the name already suggests free but doens't look that good, in terms of look and feel. I think a mindmap program should look like you really want to use it and inspire you. A strong point is the format that Freemind uses to save the maps to. A lot of other mindmap tools support exporting to the Freemind format.

iMindmap is an awesome product but, when you want to use all the features is a quite expensive option. It has nice looking icons and a huge library of images. Also, iMindmap uses a lot of memory.

Up till know, the best option -to me- is just using paper. Only weak spot of using paper is that you have to carry it around.

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What do you mean by "FreeMind doesn't look that good"? The user interface or the resulting Mindmaps? You should describe more specifically which features you absolutely need or would like to use. – Martin Oct 5 '11 at 10:15
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I don't think this question is very well scoped at the moment. Are you asking for pros/cons of using mind map software? Or are you asking for an overview of the different available software. If it's the second one, then this is a good place to start: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… – Chris Quenelle Oct 5 '11 at 15:52
I don't get why you don't like freemind. I like how you can enter things quickly onces you learn only 2-3 keyboard commands. – 0x6d64 May 6 at 7:28

6 Answers

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You should try XMind - it has very powerful free version, it's in active development and has great UI.

XMind screenshot

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could you elaborate on the pros and cons of Xmind? – Roel Nov 15 '11 at 13:58
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I'm using FreePlane which is a fork of FreeMind with very powerful additional features and a very active developer community.

However, if you did not like the optical result of FreeMind, I'm not sure if it will be that much different.

Anyway, it should be worth a look!

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You should check out Mindomo.com. I don't quite understand the pricing at Imindmap, but it looks "old-ish", comparing to Mindomo.

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Can you elaborate on why you like this tool? – Jeanne Boyarsky♦ Oct 5 '11 at 23:14
Well, besides working with Mindomo, I love the interface. Really easy to use, intuitive creation and I didn't encounter any bugs while I was creating. – Daniel Oct 6 '11 at 14:53
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Thanks. In the future, try to put more pros/cons in the original answer. "I like a tool" isn't very objective. – Jeanne Boyarsky♦ Oct 7 '11 at 0:35
Thank you for the tip Jeanne :) – Daniel Oct 10 '11 at 11:57
@daniel the pricing model won't hold me back if the software is good. Why is it more intuitive than, for example imindmap or any other mindmap software? – Roel Nov 15 '11 at 14:02
up vote 2 down vote

In one of my previous assignments, we looked at mindmap software specifically for integration into a larger application. We chose VYM (View Your Mind). It's not the most polished software, but it has a couple of really good points from a development point-of-view.

  1. It's GPL'ed, so you can do what you want with it within the GPL.
  2. It's based on Qt, which we were already heavily-invested in.
  3. This came after we made the decision--it was relatively easy to convert the software to run as a dynamic library rather than a stand-alone application.

Given all three reasons, we were able to tightly integrate our software with it, using Qt's signals-and-slots architecture.

So, if you're interested in programming and mindmaps, VYM is a great choice.

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up vote 3 down vote

VUE is an interesting solution. It has a good mind mapping interface, but it can also be used to create presentations.

It isn't tree-based (no forced central point), which is sometimes nice. You can add images or hyperlinks or other things. It is more free-form, almost like a flow-charting program. You can do "Format -> Arrange -> (Circle, Tree, Ripple Out...) if it starts getting messy.

Check out example mind-maps here: http://vue.tufts.edu/gallery/index.cfm

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+1: VUE user here as well. Love this software. – Penguin_Knight May 6 at 13:23
up vote 0 down vote

Shortcomings of most Mind Mapping Software

  1. lack of non-linear associations

  2. unable to create weighted associations

  3. impossible to make multiple associations bidirectional

As an exo-brain repository 2d mind maps are insufficient

3d mind mapping software.

The Brain

3d TopicScape

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Can you explain why you think 2d mind maps are insufficient. As a standalone statement it doesn't provide much value. Also, can you explain your 3 points a little further. – Rory Alsop♦ May 6 at 7:25

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