Trello vs MindMeister

There are two primary columns: the board is shown on the left and all the other controls on the right. The main means of interaction is dragging and dropping to-do cards into the various lists.

The board structure is very customizable, and includes a variety of features that help along the way: color-coding, due dates, card images, checklists with a graphics bar that allows following progress easily, and card aging for cards that haven’t been touched in a long time.

Trello has permissions at the board level as well as the ability to assign multiple people to each card. There are a lot of sharing options available and boards can be made visible for the public. It's also possible to subscribe to a card to be notified of its progress. The simplicity of the UI makes collaboration easy because it’s very simple to see the progress of each card and who is responsible for it. It also updates constantly to reflect real-time changes in progress.

The simplicity of the UI makes collaboration easy as it’s very simple to see the progress of each card and who is responsible for it. It also reflect changes on boards in real-time.

Trello calls items used in the workflow “cards.” Cards are double-sided and can contain subtasks as well as notes and other details.

Card columns can be used to simulate a workflow by moving cards from left to right as they are completed, or as a way of indicating task priority.

The workflow is highly flexible as the columns are completely customizable to suit the task flow. For example, tasks can be put through a workflow "idea > approved > in-progress > pending review > released" or simply "ideas > released" depending on the granularity level needed.

This makes Trello a great solution to feature management as it's possible to set up boards to handle everything from agile sprints to a more generic to-do list, all with status management.

Trello offers a very generous free version that has no ads, no restrictions on the number of users, and very little restriction on how the program can be used. The paid features are generally cosmetic, such as the ability to change the background, add stickers or integration with other tools.

The UI is based around Kanban, so you can see all your tasks and their status clearly.

Voting, view, and calendar plug-ins further increase the functionality.

Trello supports Markdown, meaning that HTML input is represented appropriately. Cards with attachments are also rendered well. For example, images are shown correctly on the card, bug links are detected etc.

Each card can have one or even multiple task lists.

Trello works on all modern devices through the web application and has native apps for iOS, Android and Windows 8/10 devices.

Keep all of your files (images, documents, etc.) organized on their relevant cards.

The responsiveness and layers of customization make it easy for team members of various disciplines to collaborate on the same task board.

Can set different priorities to various tasks, set appropriate due dates and Story points - timing allotted to each task.

Trello offers support for features to add voting on cards, often referred to as 'power-ups'.

Works like a charm.

There is a global history system which allows to rapidly follow changes. There is also a notification system if another user updates the board while you're watching it.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.