Help me tame this unorganized mind.

November 16, 2008 4:07 PM

I need recommendations for free or inexpensive mind mapping software for Windows.

I absolutely love MindManager 8, but my 30 day free trial is almost up, and there’s no way I’m shelling out $349 to pay for the license. There seem to be quite a few free options out there but I would like to narrow down the options before I download and start playing around with them. I’ll be using it for keeping track of projects and organizing research notes. I’m looking for something that is easy to learn, and not too much of a system resource hog. Bonus points if it plays nicely with Word or OneNote.

posted by c lion to computers & internet (5 comments total)

For an open source alternative take a look at Freemind.
posted by Nixie Pixel at 4:25 PM on November 16, 2008

I second Freemind for it's simplicity and price. Another alternative that I've been using is ConceptDraw MindMap 5 (note, latest version is 6). You can grab a free professional license (aprox. $200 savings) at http://www.conceptdraw.com/registration/mm5special.php

Grab the app from download.com, and make sure it's version 5.

Neither of these are Mindjet's MindManager, but quite good replacements--IMHO.
posted by Mike Johnson at 4:34 PM on November 16, 2008

I have never used it, but I saw today on Lifehacker that something called XMind was just open sourced and is now free.
posted by procrastination at 5:02 PM on November 16, 2008

Freemind is great. Even if it has been stuck at version 0.8 for the last 2+ years.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:37 PM on November 16, 2008

Concept Map
posted by abdulf at 8:40 PM on November 16, 2008