When comparing Freeplane vs Coggle, the Slant community recommends Freeplane for most people. In the question“What are the best mind-mapping apps for UNIX-like systems?” Freeplane is ranked 2nd while Coggle is ranked 6th.
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 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.
Pro Collaborative
Coggle allows inviting friends and colleagues to work collaboratively on notes and diagrams in real-time.
Pro Pretty diagrams
No effort to create beautiful diagrams.
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.
Pro Allows easy color-coding of paths
Pro Versioning support
Enter history mode to view all changes to a diagram over time, and make a copy from that point.
Pro Optional Chrome store App
Pro Free
Pro Lots of export options
Exports to PDF, image, plaintext and .mm files.
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 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.
Con Unconventional note taking style
Coggle is a mind mapping application, not a traditional text based note storage platform.