Mind mapping is an awesome way for organizing your thoughts. However, not every team member might use the same mind mapping tool. Mind mapping applications can vary greatly in terms of features, usability, and price tags. I myself have used a number of mind mapping tools over the years and developed a first-hand experience. Having this on hand, I’d like to help you and your team find the best office 365 mind mapping tool.
Mind mapping is becoming more and more popular especially if your work in teams. And the reason for that is simple: mind mapping makes brainstorming easy! However, there are many different ways to do mind mapping (and mind mapping software), and it can be difficult to choose which to use. That’s why I decided to create this blog post about mind mapping tools in teams.
Scapple
This is a brainstorming whiteboard that’s like a virtual sheet of paper to scribble notes and connect them using lines or arrows. Write notes anywhere, and connect them using drag-and-drop editing. Stack notes in columns of related ideas, create background shapes to group notes, and then customize the notes’ appearance. Scapple is a simple and inexpensive app to work on your ideas. Price: $18.
ClickUp
ClickUp is a mind mapping software for planning and organizing your projects, ideas, and more through mind maps.
ClickUp’s mind mapping features allow you to draw relationships between projects and tasks, visualize workflows and project or task structures, and easily create and manage tasks directly from your visual roadmap.
Create powerful free-form diagrams, use nodes as reference points for work to be completed, and then convert nodes into tasks. Users can create and link tasks within a mind map using drag-and-drop functionality. Share your mind maps with your team and other collaborators for collaboration in real-time.
ClickUp offers native integrations with Slack, G Suite, Dropbox, and many more tools, as well as over 1,000+ integrations through Zapier.
ClickUp’s free plan is robust and includes all primary features. The unlimited plan starts at $5 a month per user and offers additional functionality.
Pros
- Free plan comes with 100 mind map uses
- Frequently updates with new or improved features
- Easy to convert map nodes into tasks
- Many additional diagram/chart options to choose from, incl. Gantt chart & Kanban
Cons
- Unlimited mind maps limited to Business and Enterprise plans
- Mobile app can be a bit slow
- Edit permissions are not available with the free plan
Lucidchart
This is a tool to create project diagrams and flowcharts. Teams work together with real-time co-authoring, in-editor chat, shape-specific comments, and collaborative cursors. Overlay important metrics on existing diagrams through data linking or use auto-visualization to generate organization charts, entity-relationship diagrams, and more. Price: Basic plan is free for up to three documents. Premium plans start at $7.95 per month.
MindMeister
MindMeister is a beautifully designed, cloud-based mind mapping tool that lets you visually capture, develop, and share ideas. Used alone or with a team, MindMeister allows you to easily collaborate, share, and present from anywhere in the world.
MindMeister has an easy-to-use interface so you can quickly add ideas, attach images, videos, files, links, or quickly sketch out a concept using the drawing feature. There are some useful collaboration features to help you share ideas with your team, vote, comment, and chat in real-time and in-app, so it’s more than just a mapping tool. It’s also quite easy to turn your map into a presentation with the auto-create or drag and select presentation feature. You can share your maps privately with a unique share link, publish to Meister’s public map universe, or generate embed code.
I’d definitely recommend this for newbies, as it only takes a few minutes to sign up and start mapping. Something I appreciate is that
the app isn’t overloaded with choices. What you get is a thoughtfully designed interface, and a curated selection of templates, themes, and styles to create ready-to-share mind maps. The basic set up is quick and easy. If you’re stuck, MindMeister offers an extensive online help center with tutorial videos and fast email support.
MindMeister integrates with the task management app MeisterTask where you can turn your mind map into a project, assigning tasks using the built-in integration. MindMeister also comes integrated with popular tools such as Microsoft Teams, GSuite, Confluence, and Dropbox.
MindMeister costs from $4.99/user/month. They also offer a free plan with three free maps.
Pros
- Simple controls with attractive output
- Comes with lots of templates
- Easy to use and adopt
Cons
- Sub-par user experience on touchscreen
- Integrations are lacking
- Could use more in depth text editor features
Coggle
It is an easy-to-use online tool for creating and sharing mind maps and flowcharts. Collaborate with your team in real-time. Drag and drop unlimited notes, add floating text, create loops, and join branches. Create unlimited private diagrams. Pick from a range of shapes to quickly start your flowcharts and process maps. Price: Basic is free. Premium plans start at $5 per month.
Milanote
Milanote is an easy-to-use concept map maker to organize your ideas and projects into visual boards. Far from a basic mind map maker, Milanote allows you to add rich media to your boards when you create a conceptual map (images, videos, links), and create as many levels of hierarchy as you wish to go deeper into topics.
This drag and drop interface on this diagram designer lets you put your work side by side on an infinite virtual pinboard. It handles notes, links, images and files. It also has a library of templates to make it easier to start new projects faster.
You can also collaborate in real-time, making it perfect for brainstorming workshops with remote teams.
Overall, it’s an easy-to-use diagram maker that helps you collaborate and brainstorm new ideas.
Milanote’s free version lets you add 100 notes, images or links (with no time limit). Milanote PRO gives you unlimited storage from $9.99/month per person.
Pros
- Easy to save links and make notes
- Ability to link boards to one another
- Good combination of notes, boards, images
- Lean, lightweight, and fast UI
Cons
- No live sharing without sign-up
- Only 100 elements on the free plan
- No way to hide comments without deleting
Mindomo
This is a tool to create maps and easily turn them into presentations. Add hyperlink resources, drop files in the map, or upload files directly. Turn any mind map into an outline, collaborative Gantt chart, or even a slide-by-slide presentation. Share mind maps via email or guest link with others. Price: Basic is free. Premium plans start at $5.50 per month.
Microsoft Visio
From Microsoft Visio is visual diagramming tool that works well for mind mapping as well as creating many other graphical representations. If you’re already using Office 365, Visio is a top choice because it can pull data from Office 365 and let you visualize it in real-time with the charts you’ve set up in Visio. This functionality sets it apart from other tools, as Visio enables you to bring you data to life in dashboards that display data-linked diagrams. It does more than simply help you illustrate your ideas on a screen.
Much more than a simple brainstorming app, Visio provides ready-made templates to create block diagrams, flowcharts, timelines, flowcharts, floorplans, engineering designs, and Specification and Description Language (SDL) diagrams (and it also supports AutoCAD drawings). Users can share their diagrams as a link, attachment, image, or PDF and can collaborate through the comments and annotations features. Additionally, unlike a lot of the other mindmap software, Visio allows multiple users to collaborate simultaneously on the same mindmap.
Overall, this is one of the more robust mind mapping tools out there. Keep in mind, it does have a steeper learning curve than many other tools, and it definitely offers more than you need if you’re just looking for a simple interface to make an idea map. However, for technical teams, engineers, architects, and business intelligence use cases, Visio is a top choice—as long as you’re willing to stay within the Microsoft ecosystem.
Microsoft offers Visio through a one-time purchase (Visio Standard and Visio Profession) or as a SaaS (Visio Online).
Visio costs from $6.40/user/month. A one-time license costs from $459.
Pros
- Robust library of templates
- Best for writing UML diagrams
- Over 250,000 shapes to choose from
- Ready-made blocks and flow diagrams
Cons
- Lags on older PCs
- Complicated UX and features list
- No customization of predefined shapes
Miro
This is an online whiteboard and platform to create and collaborate. Use pre-built templates or make your own. Utilize sticky notes, freeform pen, shapes, arrows, smart drawing, and more. See collaborators’ cursors to track how they engage with your boards. Embed video, chat, and comments. Share your work directly from the Miro platform. Scale account administration and user permissions company-wide. Streamline your workflow with integrations to Slack, Jira, Google Drive, Sketch, and more. Price: Basic is free. Premium plans start at $8 per month.
Conclusion:
Mind mapping is a technique used to generate, visualize, structure, and manipulate ideas. When done correctly, the technique leads to the development of ideas, solutions, understandings, and strategies. This makes it an effective tool for individual brainstorming sessions or team meetings. Many mind mapping software programs are packed with useful features that can help create better mind maps in no time at all. However, each person’s needs are different – some might want to create stunning diagrams while others require advanced sharing capabilities in order to work together on their projects.