10 Best Mind Mapping Software to Plan Projects in 2023

Miro is a collaborative online whiteboard with over 1,000 templates including mind maps, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, product wireframes, research boards, and flowcharts. It’s trusted by 99% of the Fortune 100, and used by teams at TransUnion, HP, Upwork, Cisco, Qlik, and Atkins. Miro’s visual platform is built for hybrid work, and has robust resources for continuous learning like Miro Academy, online events, and a community forum.

Try one of Miro’s top templates — Mind Map. It’s a fast, intuitive way for teams to capture, organize, and structure ideas. Mind mapping empowers in-person, remote, and hybrid teams to brainstorm, plan projects, map out information architecture, create org charts, and develop sales strategies. Plus, on Miro, communication is seamless with chat, comments, and the ability to auto-organize and add content to your map.

At The Digital Project Manager, we use Miro to map out content clusters and to visualize content workflows from start (brainstorming ideas) to finish (publishing the content on our site).

Miro has integrations with a whole suite of tools, including Zoom, Figma, Asana, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Slack, Google Drive, Box, Airtable, Notion, Azure, and Webex. Some integrations are limited to paid plans only.

Miro is free to use for unlimited members with up to 3 editable boards. Paid plans start at $8/user/month (billed annually).

Lucidspark provides real-time collaboration and facilitation features including sticky notes, freeform drawing, comments, tasks, automatic sorting, Breakout Boards, a laser pointer, a timer, and voting. Users can start with a blank canvas and easily add sticky notes and other shapes, or they can start with templates for brainstorming, mind maps, meetings and workshops, strategic analysis, project planning, and Agile development.

Users can quickly embed PDFs, PNGs, and other files onto the canvas, as well as create presentations and frame-by-frame paths to guide collaborators through content. Lucidspark has a simple and customizable UI that can be mastered in a few minutes. Users can access all features from the toolbars, as well as take an onboarding tutorial and view all keyboard shortcuts.

Lucidspark is ideal for individuals and teams looking to collaborate in ways that lead to decision-making and action. It’s a flexible application that allows you to brainstorm, plan, and make decisions in a way that’s best for your team.

Lucidspark offers integrations for leading apps like Zoom, Slack, Azure DevOps, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Smartsheet, Confluence, and others.

Lucidspark has a free version available for individual users. Paid plans start at $7.95/month with a 7-day free trial.

MindMeister is an award-winning mind-mapping tool built for brainstorming and ideation in business teams. The tool allows each team member to capture, develop, and share ideas from anywhere, which makes it perfect for remote and hybrid collaboration.

The map editor is a blank canvas with endless customization options. There is a great styling toolbar that helps you:

• connect ideas,
• add comments, notes, media, and attachments,
• customize fonts, topics, borders, and connecting lines
• add emojis and tintable icons.

Also, version history lets you revert back to a previous iteration and if like me, you don't have the best eye for design, you can choose from an extensive range of themes to create eye-catching maps that spark team creativity. Additional customization includes formatting topics as mind maps, org charts or lists (even on the same map), free topic positioning, and switching to Outline Mode to view your mind map as a bulleted list. 

Finally, Focus Mode is available for distraction-free mapping. This feature is especially good when you have a looming deadline or need to present your ideas to coworkers or external stakeholders. MindMeister’s extensive online help center, tutorial videos and email support will help you master this and any other feature.

The tool integrates seamlessly with the Meister Suite. Project planning and execution are closely linked via the MeisterTask integration, which enables teams to create tasks directly from mind maps. Likewise, embedding mind maps into notes in MeisterNote makes documentation and meeting management all the more simple.

InVision Freehand is a free online whiteboard that can be used for collaborative mind mapping, note taking, and wireframing. It's used by teams from Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, American Express, and KPMG.

From product managers and marketers to recruiters and engineers—Freehand’s simplicity makes everyone feel at home from the first time they try it. Whether you’re brainstorming, planning, or facilitating a meeting, Freehand allows you to spend more time contributing than figuring out how to contribute.

You can draw a variety of shapes quickly and easily with intuitive tooling and connect shapes with snapping line connectors. Then, add sticky notes and collaborate with others in real-time on a shared canvas. Integration with Microsoft Teams allows you to co-create during a live meeting or asynchronously through chat.

Some noteworthy features included: pre-made templates from leading companies; facilitation features like voting, present mode, and sticky notes; Advanced controls like locking and version history. Enterprises plans can access custom templates, SSO, SCIM integrations, audit logging, and a dedicated customer success team

InVision Freehand is free to use for up to 10 users and 3 projects. Paid plans cost from $4.95/user/month.

Creately is an online visual workspace with advanced capabilities to make drawing mind maps online quick and easy. It's suitable for both individual and team use, and can be used in any industry, from marketing to education.

It has an infinite canvas, simple drag-and-drop functionality, and the ability to create shortcuts to visualize and organize information and ideas. With its context toolbar, you can also easily color code and format mind maps. The tool has an extensive library of mind map templates apt for all kinds of scenarios including brainstorming, design thinking, problem-solving, documenting research, and more.

Creately allows you to copy and paste or drag and drop images and graphics from your device, or browse and add more elements with its built-in Google image search option. You can also add hyperlinks which can be displayed right within the app with an iFrame, to make your mind maps more resourceful.

You can also collaborate with others on your team, or with your clients in real-time using in-app video conferencing or in-line comments which also serve as an in-app chat function.

You can track changes other teammates make on the canvas with real-time change previews and live mouse tracking. Additionally, you can export your mind map in SVGs, PNGs, JPEGs, or PDFs for printing or publishing, or you can embed them as images in a web page or document with a secure link.

Creately also has plugins for Slack, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Confluence, and a desktop version. However, Creately’s free version only allows 3 collaborators; if you have a larger team, you will have to consider switching to a paid version.

Whimsical is a mind mapping software that's built for real-time (or asynchronous) team ideation. Users can comment on individual connections and follow another teammate's cursor around the map. Your mind maps can be integrated with other Whimsical files so you can switch between mind maps, wireframes, projects, and docs.

Whimsical also gives you the ability to create mind maps without over-complicated styling options. Keyboard shortcuts help with organizing your ideas, which you can add in the form of text, images, links, and even icons from Whimsical’s library.

You don't have to download any additional apps or browser extensions to use Whimsical mind maps as all functionality is available within your browser.

Whimsical has a direct integration with Github and can be embedded in Notion docs. It also supports two-factor authentication with any authenticator app.

Whimsical costs from $10/user/month. You can create up to 1,000 items in Whimsical for free

MindGenius is a combination of a concept map creator and a project planning tool. It’s designed for use in educational settings as well as for freelancers, small businesses, and agencies.

MindGenius’ suite includes drag-and-drop mind map creation, along with project planning features like Gantt charts, kanban task views, and some basic project reporting tools. They include several features for making mind maps more useful, with filtering, highlighting, and labelling tools to help you organize and present your mind maps effectively. MindGenius also integrates with Microsoft Office, so you can easily export project data and mind maps to Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint and Microsoft Project.

Overall, MindGenius is a useful brainstorming tool that helps you convert your mind maps from simple brainstorming documents into tools for managing your projects and business. They consistently roll out cool new features; most recently, their MindGenius 2019 version offers ways to share information with others with integration to MindGenius Online, Twitter, Facebook and Dropbox, One Drive and Google.

MindGenius offers two pricing models – Perpetual and Subscription. Perpetual is $256, Subscription is $160 in year one followed by $56 annually from year 2 onwards. A subscription includes upgrades to all future revisions of MindGenius.

Mindomo is an easy-to-learn concept map generator geared towards teachers and students, but it’s useful for small businesses and corporate agencies. It offers a suite of mindmapper tools with an emphasis on collaboration, providing users with the ability to easily co-create, share, and present their mind maps.

Some of Mindomo’s most useful mind mapping tools include real-time collaboration, a template library, the ability to add links, video, and audio to mind maps, and the ability to easily search for web images directly within the app. You can quickly turn mind maps into presentations with their Presentation Mode feature, or you can export in various formats (pdf, .docx, .pptx, .txt, .opml, .mpx, .html, .zip, .png.)

Overall, Mindomo is a practical, user-friendly mind mapping software that focuses on doing one thing and doing well. Their native mobile apps make it all the more convenient to use this tool, enabling users to create and edit mind maps while offline from any mobile device (Android, iPad, iPhone, etc). Additionally, Mindomo integrations are more numerous than most other mind mapping software, including Google Apps, Office365, and LTI integrations with education apps like Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn, itslearning, Schoology, and others.

Mindomo pricing works out to $6/user/month, and they also offer a free mind map software supporting up to 3 mind maps.

Ayoa was developed by Chris Griffiths, the world’s leading mind mapping expert, who worked with Tony Buzan for over 20 years, the inventor of the Mind Map. 

Ayoa mimics the natural thinking process through organic mind mapping, and it’s the only mind-mapping software with artificial intelligence built in, as well as freehand mind mapping capabilities. Ayoa is the perfect blend of whiteboard, task management, and mind mapping tools. 

Ayoa has powerful whiteboard features like adding free-form text, documents, notes, images, and lists. You can also draw diagrams, flowcharts, and even embed other boards. Despite all of these features, it remains easy to use, making it perfect for brainstorming ideas, taking notes during meetings, teaching lessons, and making plans for various projects.

Ayoa is perfect for creating fun and stunning organic mind maps that improve creativity whilst helping you solve complex problems or learn complex topics. Ayoa is also ideal for delivering memorable presentations.

EdrawMind is a collaborative mind mapping, brainstorming and outlining tool. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and web.

EdrawMind comes with 12 different structure options including a radial mind map, timeline and bubble, fishbone diagram, and sector map. Its minimalist layout keeps things simple and is complemented by the auto-alignment feature, which makes the overall editing process simple for non-designers.

EdrawMind features a customization toolbox for colors, fonts, notes, outlines, as well as 33 themes and 700+ clipart graphics and lets you export to editable file formats such as graphics, PDF, MS Word, Excel, PPT, HTML, and SVG.

In the EdrawMind Brainstorming Mode, you can enter as many ideas as you want and color-code each concept, then drag and drop them onto your mind map to organize. When turning ideas into actionable tasks, you can use the Gantt Chart mode to track project progress. You can also discover more creative ideas from the Mind Map Gallery where mind maps are shared by users from all over the world.

The online edition offers a collaborative workplace where you can share files across your teams and control editing and viewing access. Project managers or students can also use the Slideshow and Traverse feature to present in the boardroom, and use the Outline mode to take notes.

EdrawMind costs from $4.92 per month (billed annually) and comes with a lifetime plan. They have a free version with some feature limitations.