What is the best alternative to ThinkComposer?

Question

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score 34 · Answer 1

MindMup

Top Pro

Frictionless interface

MindMup allows focusing on thoughts and productively capture them without getting in the way. See More

Top Con

Note capacity is limited

MindMup is good for mapping out thoughts that could be summarized in bullet points, but longer notes aren't as practical for this service. See More

Top Pro

Browser-based

Don't need to install anything, just open the website and you are set. See More

Top Con

Unconventional note taking style

It's a mind mapping application, not a traditional text based note storage platform. See More

Top Pro

Just works

Top Pro

Compatible with Google Drive and Github

Top Pro

Easy sharing & presenting

After taking notes, it only takes seconds to share and/or prepare them for presentations. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

MindMup is free with source code available on GitHub. See More

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34 2

score 42 · Answer 2

Mindjet MindManager

Top Con

Lacks elegant ability to be able to connect ideas in the reverse order or different direction

This isn't uncommon, but there are mind mapping software that will let you connect a number of ideas that branched off from one idea, back to one idea again. Usually the branching analogy of the details getting more as you go further away from the main branch works, but occasionally it is nice to map multiple ideas back to a single idea or loop back to a previous idea. This can be done with connections, but if you want to see something that gives true freedom, look at the examples of the application Coggle. See More

Top Pro

Business oriented

Business oriented, mind maps look professional. See More

Top Con

Very expensive compared to all other alternatives

Not really viable for personal mind mapping, as the high cost clearly targets the business market. See More

Top Pro

MS Outlook strong integration

Top Con

No free/personal version

It is has so many great features, but this comes with the pricetag of the only version of this software. A lighter version, with many advanced business features removed would be ideal for a free/freemium version See More

Top Pro

Integrates with multiple web services

Top Con

Odd UI interaction conventions

Some conventions used to interact with the software are either questionable or simply going against what's commonly accepted. For example, right-click + drag will move around, holding down the right-click will open up the context-menu and left-click in an open space will start a new unconnected node. What this results in is constant accidental opening of context-menu then accidental creation of a new node trying to get out of the context-menu. See More

Top Pro

Real-time Gantt charts

Top Con

Mac version has severely limited functionality

Top Pro

MS Projects and Sharepoint integration

Top Pro

Excellent team collaboration support

Top Pro

Cross-platform desktop and mobile, and web versions available

Works on Windows, OS X, iOS, Android and Web. See More

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42 5

score 16 · Answer 3

Scapple

Top Pro

Customizable

You can customize your styles, background and font as you wish. See More

Top Con

It looks abandoned

Despite being a great software as it is, theres no update for more than a year : either to fix minor bugs, or implement new functions. See More

Top Pro

Flexible

It gives you the freedom to use visual thinking without the hierarchical rigidity of a mind map. See More

16 3

score 82 · Answer 4

MindMeister

Top Pro

Notes can be shared and collaborated on in real-time

MindMeister allows sharing maps with an unlimited number of collaborators so it's possible to take notes and brainstorm together. Mind maps can be shared by inviting people either directly via email or by sending them a link to the map. Even people without a MindMeister account can access the maps and even edit them. See More

Top Con

No good offline mode

You can only work completely offline when using an iOS or Android device. For your browser there's only a clumsy 'offline mode' available. If you didn't hit the switch before you have the need for working offline (for instance: in a meeting, at a customer's location, in a plane, etc.) than your out of luck... no tool for note taking. Especially with all those HTML5-capable browsers and the Chrome App store (including Desktop apps), this limits the usage of this commercial product. See More

Top Pro

Comments and votes

Users can create polls and have collaborators vote individual topics up or down, or comment on them. See More

Top Con

Expensive compared to the competition

A basic monthly subscription ($92 USD) gives you no more than XMind FREE except PDF exporting. XMind paid with PDF export is $79. $20 less for lifetime use of an app with more features as of writing. See More

Top Pro

Various layouts

User can switch between classical mind map layout, a layout where all topics are aligned on the left or the right, and org chart layout. See More

Top Con

Free option limited to 3 mind maps

A free XMind app/online account or MindMup account both provide unlimited mind maps. See More

Top Pro

Web and mobile versions available

In addition to web software, MindMeister is available on iOS and Android mobile platforms as well. See More

Top Con

MindMeister has very poor Evernote integration

Evernote is the number one 'store-everything-archive' when it comes to unstructured data or information. MindMeister markets there Evernote integration as a very cool feature. But this integration is very basic and buggy: only the last 50 (?) notes from Evernote's default notebook are shown in the list, and it takes about 30 seconds to one full minute to generate that list. After that it takes about the same amount of time to add a copy of the selected note as an attachment to a topic. MindMeister support is well aware of this poor implementation, but doesn't put any effort in fixing it. See More

Top Pro

Clear overview without losing any details

The mind mapping format provides with a clear overview of connections, hierarchies and relationships of notes. At the same time, it's possible to add more detailed notes, links, pictures and even whole files to the keywords, so that no important information gets lost. See More

Top Con

Very basic

Top Pro

One node can have marks, emoticons and comments

Top Con

The interface has only very basic features

For example, it lacks the possibility to define a long text under the node title showing it in a permanent way. The software is 1000 less powerful than Microsoft Visio. Meanwhile it should just be more specific. See More

Top Pro

Adding a Table or Matrix

Xmind is one of the few mind maps that allows you to add a table or matrix to your mind map. Very useful when you have content that works better in a table. See More

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82 12

score 88 · Answer 5

Freemind

Top Pro

Free and open source

Top Con

Boring visual appearance

Top Pro

Intuitive UI with drag and drop support

For the most part, navigating the editor is pretty intuitive - moving around is done by clicking and dragging the background, clicking on nodes will expand/collapse them, dragging and dropping in files will add them, etc. It also offers shortcuts for power users. For example, ctrl + up/down will rearrange ideas up/down, alt +up/down will zoom in/out, etc. See More

Top Pro

Lots of export options, including html with folding

Freemind offers many choices when exporting. It allows exporting the project as Java Applet, Flash file, Open Office Writer document, picture (png, jpg), PDF, SVG, multiple variants of (x)html, among other options. See More

Top Pro

Good documentation

Top Pro

Cross-platform desktop and mobile

Works on Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS and Android. See More

Top Pro

Fullscreen mode available with a patch

A user-contributed patch is available that adds fullscreen mode to FreeMind. See More

Top Pro

Can copy entire hierarchy to/from Word with a simple copy/paste action

Freemind allows quickly copying over structure of the mindmap as a bulleted, tab-indented list starting at the node selected. It can also take a bulleted, tab-indented list and create a mindmap from it. See More

Top Pro

Multi-user support

Top Pro

Supports media files, recognizes URLs and commands

Freemind accepts drag-and-drop for any kind of file, URL or command as part of the mindmap. Files it recognizes, like images, will be displayed. Other files will open in a separate, appropriate application. URLs, links to folders, and executable commands pasted in will be recognized and turned in to clickable links. See More

Top Pro

Supports node and map encryption

Top Pro

Revision control

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

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88 15

score 150 · Answer 6

XMind

Top Pro

Free and open source

XMind, except for Plus and Pro features, is open source with code available on GitHub. See More

Top Con

No offline capability

If the Internet goes down, you cannot use this XMind. This is painful on the iOS phone where data link must be online before you can use it. See More

Top Pro

Clean, easy to use UI

XMind's interface is uncluttered and easy to overview. It allows for quick, intuitive navigation and use. For example, Enter adds more items to a node, Tab adds a child node, all commonly used shortcuts works as expected, etc. See More

Top Con

Newer versions become heavyweight and bloated

Even though there are more features, starting with version 8 application is very unstable. A lot of users still prefer version 7.5 or 6.5. See More

Top Pro

Extremely flexible

XMind is capable of displaying information in a multitude of ways (classic mindmaps, charts, timelines, decision trees, etc), it can add labels, clip-art, notes, files, audio recordings, it can then take the project and export it in a variety of ways including an synced gantt chart. See More

Top Con

Used to offer their NOT-free products

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Works on Windows, OS X and Linux. See More

Top Con

FreeMind files sometimes don't work

XMind claims it can read FreeMind files, but certain .mm file saves from Freeplane or MindMup generate an error on open. See More

Top Pro

A wide variety of templates available

XMind has preset templates available that allow getting started quickly. There are templates for project planning, status reports, dashboards, organizational charts, swot analysis, timelines, decision trees, weekly plans, among others. See More

Top Pro

Built-in Gantt view

XMind has a build-in Gantt chart view and with the pro version, XMind allows synchronizing it. See More

Top Pro

Can copy entire hierarchy to/from Word with a simple copy/paste action

XMind allows quickly copying over structure of the mindmap as a tab-indented list starting at the node selected. It can also take a tab-indented list and create a mindmap from it. See More

Top Pro

Local Network Sharing

Top Pro

XMind Plus & Pro adds more export options

XMind Plus & Pro can export to Word, PowerPoint, PDF, SVG & MindManager. See More

Top Pro

Task management (pro)

Top Pro

Audio recording (pro)

Top Pro

Very good performance

The app is incredible complete, flexible, and fast. See More

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150 23

score 17 · Answer 7

Lucidchart

Top Pro

Integrates with a variety of services

Lucidchart has Google Drive, Google Apps, JIRA, Confluence, Jive, and Box integration. See More

Top Con

Limitation for free users

Limit to 60 components per document and up to 3 document See More

Top Pro

Revision history

Keeps track of previous version of files and is capable of reverting any changes made. See More

Top Con

Only web version available

Dekstop or other platforms are not supported See More

Top Pro

Simple UI

Top Pro

Secure

Top Pro

Tutorials

A selection of tutorials are available. See More

Top Pro

No data ownership

Users keep all rights to documents created using Lucidchart services. See More

Top Pro

Can import and export Microsoft Visio documents

Specs

Platforms:Web

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17 4

score 12 · Answer 8

Mind Vector

Top Pro

Web and cloud based App

It is available on the web, and can be used for free online. See More

Top Pro

Available on Mac, iOS and Android devices

Mind Vector is available on Mobile devices (iPhone, iPad and Android) and also for Mac. See More

Top Pro

Export maps as image(.png), PDF and CSV

It enables to export maps as an image, PDF and CSV format. See More

Top Pro

Cost effective

Available for trial and pro version is available only for $10. See More

Top Pro

Share maps

You can share your maps with friends and colleagues across platforms. See More

12 3

score 1 · Answer 9

Visual Understanding Environment (VUE)

Top Pro

Presentation Mode

Parts of a map can be used for a presentation by drawing a rectangle selection around the nodes to be presented. Different presentation nodes can be used to build a presentation for, e.g. a quick discussion. Just don't expect highly polished presentations as from specialized presentation software. See More

Top Con

UI is not the most fancy one

The UI seems a little bit dated needs a bit of an adaptation phase. See More

Top Pro

Maps can be nested

Top Pro

Maps can have layers

You can use different layers for different aspects of a concept (map). See More

Top Pro

Concept Mapping Tool

VUE is not only a hierarchical mindmap but a concept mapping tool, thus giving more freedom when exploring ideas and concepts. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

Exports:HTML, JPEG, PDF, SVG

1 0

score 27 · Answer 10

Coggle

Top Pro

Supports Markdown (their own variant)

Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can optionally be converted to HTML using a tool by the same name. See More

Top Con

Tree relations only; no non-parent links

Coggle's model allows a node to have multiple children, but only one parent, and no other connections of any sort. See More

Top Pro

Collaborative

Coggle allows inviting friends and colleagues to work collaboratively on notes and diagrams in real-time. See More

Top Con

Unconventional note taking style

Coggle is a mind mapping application, not a traditional text based note storage platform. See More

Top Pro

Pretty diagrams

No effort to create beautiful diagrams. See More

Top Pro

Supports LaTeX

LaTeX is a document preparation system and document markup language. It is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents. See More

Top Pro

Allows easy color-coding of paths

Top Pro

Versioning support

Enter history mode to view all changes to a diagram over time, and make a copy from that point. See More

Top Pro

Optional Chrome store App

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

Lots of export options

Exports to PDF, image, plaintext and .mm files. See More

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27 12

score 6 · Answer 11

Creately

Top Con

Watermark on export for free users

If you are free users, exporting document will create watermark See More

Top Pro

Professionally designed templates

The templates are well thought-out and actually helps you get started. Not like many other sites where the details are already filled in. See More

Top Con

Web version requires FLASH

Flash is known to have security flaws and use high resources See More

Top Pro

Intuitive UI

Easy to use drag and drop interface and a contextual toolbar that shows you all the important actions when you select an object. The automatic creation and connecting of next object alone saves tons of time. See More

Top Con

Dekstop version is commercial

If you want to use dekstop version, you need to pay $75.00/ user See More

Top Pro

Real time collaboration

You can invite anyone by their email addresses to collaborate with your diagram. You can see others' changes to the diagram real time with the Creately Online and Desktop app. See More

Top Pro

Visio Import

Top Pro

iSO and Android apps to view diagrams

You can't edit diagram using the apps but provides a nice clean interface to view, share and comment on them. See More

Top Pro

SVG import and export

Creately supports SVG (Scalar Vector Graphics) import and export to make your diagrams more attractive. It allows you to re-size your diagram as much as you want without getting it messed up. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

Exports:JPEG, PNG, PDF, SVG

Real-time collaboration:Yes

Imports:JPEG, PNG, SVG

See All Experiences

6 3