Best Mind Mapping Software (Free and Paid Tools) | Selzy Blog

How to choose the best mind mapping software

It all depends on what goals you pursue when picking the “best” mind mapping software tool.

A project manager at KPMG will probably pick something vastly different from a freelance blogger sitting at home in his PJs (no hard feelings, freelance bloggers — I’m one myself). Here are the most important questions you should answer when deciding which tool to pick.

1. Is it intuitive to use?

It’s easy to get a pen and paper and start drawing, so it’s only reasonable to expect mind mapping software to follow suit. Remember it’s just a tool for your team/project at hand, a means to channel creativity and brainstorm ideas. An app should not be slowing the process down.

2. Does it fit your or your company’s needs?

In short, you should decide which features are essential for the work you are doing, and which are nice-to-haves but ultimately expendable. Budget is also a consideration here. Depending on how much you can spend, going for a free version and upgrading it later on might be the way to go.

3. Does it integrate with your company’s tech stack?

While some whiteboard and visualization tools might boast a wider set of features, they’ll be of little use if you can’t properly use the app within your company’s existing ecosystem.

If, for example, you use Asana and Teams in your day-to-day, then you’ll need something like Miro or Mural as your mind-mapping friend — because Mind Meister, for example, won’t work with Asana.