Mind Mapping Software Descriptive Comparison
You want the best Mind Mapping software - we have done the hard work, and downloaded the latest versions of all the major Mind Mapping applications and reviewed them for you. We show a comparison of the top three products and our recommendation of which one you should buy.
Overall if we were to categorize the three programs, we would say that iMindMap has attempted to take a single interpretation of the visual look of a Mind Map, and implement that in software, and has done a moderate job of that.
MindManager is a business mapping application, and does a good job of that in most respects, although you should be well aware of the issues mentioned in the detailed review.
NovaMind has just about all the business data collection and display that Mind Manager has, along with better visual display of Mind Maps than both Mind Manager and iMindMap, and the NovaMind support is impeccable, and rate of development of the product is very strong.
| Product | NovaMind version 4 |
iMindMap version 4 |
Mind Manager version 8 |
| Rating | #1 |
#2 |
#3 |
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| Basic Mind Mapping |  Excellent - full Mind Mapping support, with flexible branches, line, oval, rectangle, rounded rectangle, chamfered corners etc. Good boundary and floating image support. |
 Good - flexible branches, but just one style. |
 The program takes control of the layout, and while it is possible to change elements visually, it is difficult to do so. Also there are no flexible or organic looking branches available. |
| Layout Flexibility | Excellent - you have the flexibility to move any branch to wherever you want it. |
Good in the normal layout mode. Avoid "Speed Mind Map" mode! |
Poor - the program takes control of layout for everything except the first level branches. This is very limiting. |
| Color and Images | Excellent image libraries, with a large number of high quality images. Ability to resize and flip images, add reflections, chamfer or round corners within the program make it very visually appealing. Excellent support for color, with "rainbow coloring" and easy setting of branch line and fill colors, including "glassy look" fill. |
Large number of images available in an online database. More images to choose from than NovaMind, but the quality is not quite as good, and you don't have the image layout options that NovaMind has. You can set the branch line color fairly easily. |
Small collection of images of moderate quality. Quite difficult to set the colors of branches because of lack of live update when selecting colors, and having to use a modal dialog for changing color settings. |
| Outline Numbering | Pretty good automatic numbering. The setup is a little tricky on the Mac version of the program. You can limit the display of outline numbers to just some branches if you want, and can reset and format them with numeric, alpha, or Roman numerals. |
Really weird handling of outline numbering. No automatic numbering by position. No ability to show outline numbering for some branches only. |
Very flexible outline numbering options, with formatting and ability to reset the numbers etc. |
| Outliner | While none of the outliners were perfect, the NovaMind one is better than the others due to the ability to edit with the outline view and Mind Map side by side with live update between them. |
The outliner is called "text mode", and you can't edit anything there. Very poor. |
A moderately good outliner (but see the full review for some drawbacks), but you can't view the Mind Map at the same time as the outline view. Also, although you can print the outline, you can't preview the printout. |
| Performance | Good performance. |
A bit slow due to technology choices for the development of the software. |
Good performance. |
| Mac Support | Excellent Mac support. Developed entirely using native tools. Best Mac Mind Mapping program for the last 7 years. The presenter in NovaMind Platinum for Mac is just stunning. |
Works OK, but doesn't really feel like a Mac program due to the cross platform development tools used to create it. |
Although this was developed using native programming methods, it feels like a Windows program ported to Mac. Many people who purchased the Mac version have now switched to NovaMind, and posts on the MindJet forum seem to throw doubt on what updates to expect for the Mac version. MindJet lowered the price significantly to try to increase Mac sales, and although they have released version 8 for Windows, they have not done so for Mac. |
| Windows Support | Uses the Microsoft Ribbon toolbar interface, and implements it well, with live update of all formatting options. There are still a few rough edges here and there, but overall very good. |
Uses its own style of interface, which works, but is not as familiar to the new crew of people familiar with Office 2007 and beyond. |
Uses the Microsoft Ribbon toolbar interface, and visually it looks like a good implementation, but doesn't have the live preview of formatting updates. There are a lot of unnecessary modal dialogs for changing detailed formatting. |
| Map Styles | Support for templates, themes, styles. Could do with some improvements, but overall a good implementation. |
No themes and styles etc. |
A bit awkward to use, but it does have support for "Map Parts" which NovaMind doesn't have (though you can copy and paste branches to achieve much the same thing) |
| Task Information | Support for start and finish date, duration, percentage complete, resource allocation etc. Nice display of percentage complete on branches, but you have to hover the mouse over the branch to see the assigned resources. Exports and imports MS Project format files, and Mac users can directly import and export from Merlin. |
Good project management information recording and built in Gantt chart. |
Has the same sort of task information stored on branches as NovaMind. Displays percentage complete as an icon, which is not so good. JV Gantt is an extra cost plugin. |
| Internationalization |
English You can also create Mind Maps in any other language. |
English You can also create Mind Maps in any other language. |
English We have heard that there are problems creating Mind Maps in other languages, but have not tested this ourselves. |
| Other features | There are many other unique featues, like the Suggesterator to suggest new ideas, the integrated Screenwriting system, and many other goodies. It also has the ability to upload to NovaMind Connect, the social Mind Map sharing web site. There are many imports and exports to all the common formats like MS Word, Powerpoint, Project etc. It also integrates with iBlueSky Mind Mapping for iPhone. |
There is a wide range of import and export functionality built in, including MS Word, PowerPoint, MS Project etc., as well as SVG export for scalable graphics packages. |
There is a wide range of import and export functionality built in, including MS Word, PowerPoint, MS Project etc. |
| Support, Tutorials and Training | Our test support case was answered very promptly and completely. When you download, you get a series of follow up emails that take you through the program and its use. There are built in tutorials including videos. There is a wide range of articles on the NovaMind web site, and lots of example Mind Maps that you can download from NovaMind Connect. There is a forum on the NovaMind web site for discussing things related to NovaMind, and an FAQ on the web site. There is also an excellent free course called Power Mind Mapping, which is a video based course, taking you through a wide range of uses of Mind Mapping. In short, these people know how to look after their customers. |
Our test support case was answered reasonably promptly and resolved the issue. There are video tutorials available, including one which goes over the basics of what Mind Mapping is. Overall a good user experience. |
Our test support case was answered by someone in their European office who didn't know the answer and we had to push to try to get someone else to contact in their US office. Even then, we were just given a generic contact point rather than a person's name. You also have to create an account on their system to be able to contact them. Our problem was not resolved to our satisfaction. They have some tutorials in the software and on the web site. There is a user forum and a knowledge base (FAQ). Overall we felt that although they are trying to provide a good service, our particular experience felt bureaucratic and didn't completely resolve our issue. |
| Overall Rating | #1 |
#2 |
#3 |
Click Here For NovaMind |
Click here for iMindMap |
Click here for Mind Manager |
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Get Started Mind Mapping Now!
Mind Mapping is a very powerful technique for organizing your thoughts, generating new ideas, solving problems, planning projects, managing your to-do list, and many other uses. Choose the best of the products above for your needs, and you can get started straight away, and almost instantly improve your productivity.
We realize that some people prefer to look at a table of features to help them decide, so we have included our checklist of features that we used when doing the reviews - see the link below. Also if you need more information about our impressions of the three Mind Mapping programs, click the links below.