When comparing Freeplane vs MindManager, the Slant community recommends Freeplane for most people. In the question“What are the best offline mind mapping apps for Windows?” Freeplane is ranked 3rd while MindManager is ranked 4th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free and open-source (FOSS)
Pro Supports most used *.mm file format
Pro Easy to use
Pro Possesses all Freemind pros and more
Pro Developed by veteran FreeMind devs
Pro Integrates with a good variety of tools
MindManager integrates with MS Office applications (Excel, Outlook, Word, SharePoint), Box.net and many other tools.
Pro Real-time Gantt charts
Data can be represented as a map and as an outline simultaneously.
Cons
Con Not as beautiful as XMind
Con Does not have a mobile counterpart
You have to find yourself other tools (using the interoperable mm) on mobiles.
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.