When it comes to organizing ideas and thoughts, mind mapping is an ideal method. Thanks to Tony Buzan, the inventor of mind mapping, we can quickly organize our thoughts for business or personal uses.
Although there are plenty of Mac mind mapping apps available in the App Store, most of them require payment and not worth it just for occasional users. Luckily, here we found the 9 best mind mapping software for Mac.
The mind map is popular among different fields, such as education, technology, and business etc. The surge of mind map tools makes potential users difficult to choose from. Free brainstorming. Freeplane is an open source, free mind mapping tool that is available for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac OS, Linux distributions and BSD. Furthermore, there is also a portable version of this app for Windows, which can be run from a USB drive. Create Vibrant Mind Maps. ConceptDraw MINDMAP is the best mind mapping software for mac and pc. Excellent tool for mind mapping, Brainstorming and planning processes. A versatile, yet easy-to-use tool for organizing ideas and data.
Top Free Mind Mapping Software for Mac
GitMind (Web)
GitMindis a free browser-based mind mapping application. It has an extremely simple interface and numerous mind map templates to choose from. The template categories vary widely from project management to wedding timeline. Thus, when you need some graphic tools to present your ideas intuitively, and you have no idea about designing a mind map, GitMind is the best choice for you.
Features:
- Automatic layout
- Support team collaboration on one map
- Hundreds of free editable mind map templates
- Retrieve history versions & secure cloud storage
Get Started:GitMind Website
SimpleMind (macOS, Windows, iOS, Android)
SimpleMind is as easy to use as its name implies. The most unique function of SimpleMind is you can import a PDF file and transfer it to a mind map. It’s extremely useful when you want to mind map the ideas in an e-book or an article. For mobile versions, users can add video and voice memos to mind maps. It’s dedicated to simplifying the process of making a mind map.
Features:
- Allows to convert PDF to mind maps
- Users can create reusable mind map styles
Download:SimpleMind Mac Version
FreeMind (Any OS)
FreeMind is a premier open-source mind mapping application written in Java. Though FreeMind may not be updated any longer, it’s still very popular for making mind maps. FreeMind users built a mind map gallery voluntarily so that you can refer to it for inspiration. FreeMind allows users to export mind maps to HTML files. Moreover, since FreeMind stores maps in XML files, it takes little risks of switching away to another mind map tool.
Features:
- Can switch to other mind map tools
- Limited support for fancy graphics
Mac dvd burner torrentfasrsun. Download:FreeMind
iMindMap (macOS, Windows, iOS)
Ayoa was previously called iMindMap, but includes much more than mind mapping. If you are looking for an alternative to Trello for project and task management, Ayoa is what you need. Its task side panel stores due dates, file attachments, and checklists. What’s more, you can even receive a daily review email to check upcoming deadlines.
Features:
- Real-time collaboration on mind maps and task boards
- Instant messaging
- Sync with Google, Evernote and Dropbox
Download:iMindMap Mac Version
Mindly (macOS, iOS, Android)
If you are looking for some tools which could maximize your creativity, Mindly is the answer. One concept leads to another and with Mindly it’s even easier to form a universe of thoughts. To some degree, its expanding hierarchical structure is not always befitting formal cases.
Features:
- Sync data on different devices
- Keeps focused on one element
Download:Mindly Mac Version
Flv Player Free For Mac free download - Free FLV Player, Free Flash FLV Player, Riva FLV Player, and many more programs. Flv Downloader For Mac free download - Mac Video Downloader, Moyea YouTube FLV Downloader, Flv Crunch, and many more programs. Flv player mac free download - Sothink FLV Player, FLV Player Free, Free FLV Player, and many more programs. Flv player for mac free download - Sothink FLV Player, FLV Player Free, Free FLV Player, and many more programs. Free flv player for mac. Sothink FLV Player. Sothink FLV Player is a multifunctional media player for Mac, which can play a variety of formats, including FLV. It is lightweight, easy to use, and supports a lot of codecs, including Screen Video, Sorenson H. 263 and H.264, on2 vp6, and many others. This media player's interface is clean and simplistic.
MindMeister (Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows)
For MindMeister, it’s worth mentioning that it allows you to embed live videos into the canvas. You may add members of the team and also comment on ideas. Since MindMeister is integrated with MeisterTask, it makes project management even more convenient.
Features:
- Supports to import FreeMind, XMind, MindManager files
- Users can create an animated presentation of the mind map
Download:MindMeister Mac Version
Draw.io (Web, macOS, Linux, Windows, Chrome OS)
With Draw.io, you can almost create anything you want, not only mind maps. Besides an extensive shape library and various templates, it also integrates with Confluence and Jira. Confluence users can convert Gliffy to Draw.io with one click and Jira users can find every diagram related to Jira issues.
Features:
- Works online & offline
- Integrates with Google Drive, Office 365 and etc
- A little harder than common mind map makers
Get Started:Draw.io Website
Coggle (Web)
Coggle is a browser-based mind mapping tool as well. It’s special because of its multiple starting points, floating texts and images. Users can control line paths and change text alignments in Coggle. Additionally, users can invite collaborators by sharing a link and they can edit the mind map anonymously, which means no registration is required.
Features:
- Team members don’t need to log in to collaborate
- Still can view diagrams if subscription expired
Get Started:Coggle Website Oh my, that was fun!.
MindMup (Web)
MindMup is an online option for mind mapping. Google and Office 365 authentication make account management easier. Users can also add measurements to mind map nodes to present important factors.
Features:
- Convert mind maps to PDF, PPT and outlines
- Users can create a storyboard of idea slides
Get Started:MindMup Website
Conclusion
Above are the best 9 mind mapping software for macOS we selected in 2020. Whether you like simple and fast solutions, or you have a rigid standard on designing and displaying, you can find an application that fits you.
Related posts:
Making a Mind Map
First off, how easy is it to make a mind map, because let’s face it if you can't use the software easily than what’s the point, right?
We found that all three Mac mind mapping software tools were fairly easy to work with because they all seem to share Mac OS best practices. Since we are comfortable with other Mac OS software, these tools made us feel right at home.
Just like with any software, it takes a few tries to figure out the interface, and what is what, but after we built out a few branches of the mind map, we were up and running in all three tools. With MindManager, it took a little while longer to get our map going, whereas MindView and Novamind were more intuitive. We loved the keyboard shortcuts in all three tools, they really speed things up. In contrast, working with online tools was a very different experience, which was expected since with most online tools, it takes a while to find your bearings.
Some Mac mind mapping software tools can be overloaded with features, making their interface seem overwhelming. MindView, however, has solved this problem with a simplified user interface that was packed full of useful features, well organized in a logical and customizable menu structure.
In the end, making a mind map in Novamind and MindView was pretty similar, kind of like comparing Ford vs. Chevy. If you like more features and options in your interface, however, MindManager is the choice for you. If you like a simplified user interface, then go with MindView.
But we didn’t stop there..
Let's dig into the features a little deeper. Being able to attach files is very useful in Mac mind mapping software. When attaching files, MindView, MindManager and Novamind were similar and intuitive, but viewing the attachments was what stood out for us. MindView has a quick-click view option that is activated by simply hovering the branch attachment icon and clicking your attachment. MindManager, however, forced us to first open the Inspector, find the attachment and then double-click to view it. A few too many clicks in our opinion… Don’t worry, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out, but we preferred the ease of use in MindView above the other three Mac mind mapping software tools.
I hope we still have your attention, because here comes the section that all you Mind Mapping die-hards have been waiting for. Not to worry though, we will keep it brief!
In all three applications, you can add images and colors to your mind map, change line colors, branch colors, branch shapes, line thickness, and branch order. Also, all three Mac mind mapping software tools enable you to easily add images, icons, and colors to the branches at any level, not just the main branches, which we found very helpful.
Free Mind Map Tool For Mac
So far, we have focused only on mind maps, but not all of us think non-linearly as in a mind map. Some may want to overview data in a linear layout like an outline. And this brings us to the different ways you can communicate data. MindView made it very easy to swap back and forth between the various views and had the most options, whereas MindManager and Novamind only offered a mind map and outline view. If you’re wondering about a Gantt or timeline view, sit tight, we discuss these two views later.
Free Mind Map Tool For Mac
Since there were plenty of ways to customize the maps in all three Mac mind mapping software programs, and all three were basically the same, let's move on to something more interesting… something that really separated the pack… MS Office integration.