Five Best Mind Mapping Softwares for Me

Mind mapping is a powerful tool for visualizing the relations between ideas, concepts, people, objects in a way that it is easy for human brain to understand, memorize and recall. It was first proposed by the world famous self helping guru Tony Buzan in his book “The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain’s Untapped Potential“. After that, it has been widely used in all kinds of tasks such as capturing concepts, brainstorming, project planning, …. You name it, anywhere you need a clear though to guide you through the complexity.

There have been many softwares, websites embracing the idea of mind mapping. Here are a few that I liked.

1. MindJet MindManager (from $15/mon, Windows/Mac/Web/Mobile)

Mindjet Manager is thus far the best mind mapping software that I used. It has no free version but you get what you paid for. The user interface is polished, and the integration of Microsoft Office software is a great plus. My subscription expired sometime ago, so I don’t have screen shots available for this one. But it is a great software.

2. XMind (Freemium, Windows/Mac/Linux)

The alternative that I found for MindManager is XMind. The free version satisfied most of my needs. If you want more features you can also choose to upgrade the premier versions.

3. Mindmeister (from $4.99/mon, Web/Mobile)

It is a web based service, the interface is pretty simple to use.

4. FreeMind (Open Source, Free, Linux/Windows)

FreeMind is probably the most widely used open source mind mapping software used in Linux.

5. VYM (View Your Mind, Open Source, Free, Linux/Windows)

I just found VYM recently. But it looks pretty good. I might use it more for my future Linux platform Mind mapping generation.

Besides the softwares that I mentioned above, there are several other candidates that are also good softwares and almost made to my top 5 list, for example  MindDomo and Blumind.

 
What is your favorite Mind Mapping software? Let us know.