As a student, you know that organizing your thoughts can be difficult at times. When you’re writing an essay or studying for a test, things can get messy. This is why mind maps are such a great tool for students—they help you organize your thoughts in a visual way that’s easy to understand later on.

In this article, we’ll cover what mind mapping is and we’ll introduce you to some great mind mapping tools for students. We’ll also show you how to use these tools to create mind maps that will help you study and write better papers.

Mind Mapping Tools For Students

1. Popplet

Popplet is a great tool for creating and sharing mind maps. The way it works is simple and easy: simply drag and drop then add images, videos, drawings, and text and when you are done share your mind maps with others. There is also Popplet for Education which offers a wide variety of student-friendly features including real time collaboration. Popplet for Education also offers a special discount for the educational community. 

Pricing: the free version offers limited features and allows for the creation of only one popplet. The Solo version comes at $2.99 per month or 29.99 per year and offers way more features. There is also the Groups and Schools version which offers custom pricing.

2. AYOA

AYOA is another great tool for creating and sharing mind maps. AYOA offers numerous features ideal for us in education. These include real time collaboration, commenting, and branch voting. Using Team view,  users can get a quick overview of collaborators availability and view what everyone is working on.  
Mind maps created by AYOA can include attachments, imagery, text, videos and many more. Besides mind maps, AYOA can be used to create radial map which is a pie-chat style map ideal for setting goals and visualizing steps in a project. The Whiteboards feature further allows users to capture and organize ideas using sticky notes, annotations and more. 

Pricing: Mind Map ($5.75 per user/month when billed annually), Pro ($10 per user/month/ when billed annually), and Ultimate ($13 per user/month/when billed annually).

3. SimpleMind

Simple enables you to create beautiful mind maps using free-form layout and auto-layouts. There are also over 15 style sheets to choose from or you can create your own style sheets. Other interesting features provided by SimpleMind include the ability to add multimedia materials to your mind maps such as images, icons, labels, checkboxes, links to documents or webpages; customize your templates the way you want; share mind maps in different formats including as PDF, seamless integration with cloud-based tools such as Dropbox, iCloudDrive, and Google Drive, among others. 
Pricing: Free version with limited functionality (no ads, no registration and works only on iPad, iPhone, and Android)

4. MindMup

MindMup is another mind mapping creation tool that lets you create unlimited mind maps. Everything you create on MindMup is stored online for you to access anytime, anywhere and across different devices. More importantly, ‘Maps saved to MindMup Cloud support concurrent editing for teams and classrooms, enabling you to instantly see updates made to your map by other users’.
Mind maps created in MindMup can be easily converted to PDF, PowerPoint, and outlines. Other interesting features provided by this tool include: the ability to attach various elements to your maps including longer text, videos, spreadsheets, images, icons; link to other project documents on Google Drive; integration with Office 365 and Google Drive, among others.
Pricing: Free version offers: unlimited number of maps, no account/login required, community, publish maps for up to six months. More advanced features are embedded in the premium plans: Personal Gold plan costs $2.99 and Organizational Gold costs $100.

5. MindNode

MindNode offers a number of powerful mind mapping features that enable you to brainstorm your ideas anywhere and anytime. You can start your mind app in your iOS device and finish it in your Mac. The syncing capabilities are awesome. For a more structured and organized brainstorming you use the Outline feature, or better yet,  user mind map and Outline side by side. 
Other useful features provided by MindNode include the ability to add more context to maps using visual tags, focus mode to highlight key data, over 250 stickers to illustrate maps, pre-made themes that are fully customizable, the ability to share  mind maps in various formats including PDF, rtf, docx, plain text, image, markdown, among others.

Pricing: MindNode free edition offers basic features that include creating new nodes, adding titles, reordering nodes, importing and exporting supported file format, folding child nodes, among others. MindNode Plus offers more features such as editable outline, visual tags, focus mode, notes, stickers, connections, layout options, and more.  The introductory prices for MindNode Plus are $2.49 per month and 19.99 per year. A free 14 day trial is offered.

6. Cacoo

Cacoo is a diagramming tool that provides you with a virtual space where you can visualize your ideas and collaborate with your team. You can create, edit, share comment and chat with your collaborators in real-time. You can use the presentation mode to share your screen with others and engage with them in video chats right from within the editor. You can free-draw on a blank canvas or start with a pre-made template. 
Also, you can create your data or import it from a spreadsheet and edit it in Cacoo. Similarly you can import your Visio files and edit them in Cacoo. Revision history allow you to track edits applied to a diagram over time. Your final diagrams can be exported as SVG, PDF, PowerPoint, and PostScript. Additionally, Cacoo supports  numerous integrations including Google Drive, Google Docs, Adobe Creative Cloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Slack, Box, Visio, Microsoft Teams, and more.

Pricing: Cacoo free version offers the following features: 6 sheets, templates and shapes, PNG exports, real-time editing, in-app video chat, comment and chat. For more features such as revision history, 1 on 1 training, multiple export options, unlimited sheets, etc., you need a premium version. There is a Pro plan that comes at $45 per month and a Team plan for $5 per month per user.

7. Mindly

After it was an exclusive app for iOS and Android, Mindly is now available for MacOS X. Mindly helps you capture and organize your thoughts and ideas into mind maps. Features supported by Mindly include: the ability to add unlimited number of elements, attach multimedia materials (e.g., notes, images, icons, and web links), copy and paste nodes, multiple export formats (e.g., PDF, text, image or OPML), passcode your mind maps, and more.
Pricing: Free version offers very limited features. Pro version offers full functionality: $29.99 for MacOS, $6.99 on iOS devices, and $5.49 on Android.

8. Miro

Looking for a powerful whiteboard tool where you can collaborate with your team in real time (or asynchronously)? Miro has you covered. Miro is especially ideal for use in remote teaching. You and your students can use the digital whiteboard for collaborative brainstorming and ideas generation. 
Some of its helpful features include video conferencing, screen sharing, presentation mode, note taking, pre-made templates, the ability to add different resources to your board including documents, spreadsheets and PDFs. Another cool feature in Miro is Stickies Capture which enables you to easily  digitize your hand written notes  and turn them into editable sticky notes. 

Pricing: Miro’s free version offers the following features: 3 editable boards, pre-made templates, core integrations, and basic attention management. Pro plans offer way more functionalites including custom templates, private boards, unlimited visitors, unlimited editable boards, and many more. the Team plan comes at $8 per member per month billed annually, the Business plan comes at $16 per member per month billed annually, and the Enterprise plan uses custom pricing.

9. XMind

XMind is another good mind mapping tool to consider. XMind lets you design visually appealing mind maps with multiple structures. You can visually record your brainstorming into timelines, free tables, org charts, diagrams, fishbone, among others. What I personally like the most about XMind is the Hand-drawn style which allows you to convert your digital mind map into a hand-drawn look with a single click. Other interesting features provided by XMind include stickers and illustrations, Pitch mode to present your mind maps in slideshows,  Math Equation to create mind maps for scientific calculations and symbols, smart color themes and more.
Pricing: For students and educators, the Academia plan costs $34.99/annually or $22.49/6 months. For the rest, XMind costs $59.99/annually. There is also a Team plan, and NGOs plan, and  an Enterprise plan, each has different  pricing.

10. Visio

Visio by Microsoft is another good tool to help you capture your ideas into beautiful visual configurations. Visio offers a wide variety of ready-made templates and a huge number of editable shapes that you can use on your visuals. Visio also supports real time collaboration allowing you to co-design diagrams, flowcharts, and org charts with anyone anywhere they are. The tool also supports accessibility features that include Narrator, Accessibility Checker, high contrast support, and more.
Pricing: Visio is not included in Microsoft 365 plan and you need to buy it separately. Visio offers two types of subscriptions Visio Plan 1 ($5.00 user/month) and Visio Plan 2 ($15.00 user/month).

coggle mind map

Make mind map documents that flow like your ideas.

Unleash your creativity

Produce beautiful notes quickly and easily. Share them with friends and colleagues to work on your ideas together.

Or take a look at the Coggle Gallery for inspiration.

Powerful Online Flowcharts

Use Coggle to map out your processes, systems and algorithms using our powerful new flowcharting features.

Collaborative Mind Maps & Flowcharts

Coggle is online software for creating and sharing mindmaps and flowcharts. It works online in your browser: there’s nothing to download or install. Log in to start diagramming now!

Whether you’re taking notes, brainstorming, planning, or doing something awesomely creative, it is super simple to visualise your ideas with Coggle. Share with as many friends or colleagues as you like. Changes you make will show up instantly in their browser, wherever they are in the world.

Realtime Collaboration

Invite your friends and colleagues to work with you, at the same time, on your diagrams.

Save Every Change

Look through all the changes to a diagram and make a copy from any point to revert to a previous version.

Unlimited Image Uploads

Drag-and-drop images right from your desktop to your diagrams. There’s no limit to the number of images you can add.

Add Floating Text and Images

Add text labels and images that aren’t part of the diagram tree to annotate parts of your map.

Create Loops and Join Branches

Join branches and create loops to create more powerful and flexible diagrams representing process flows and other advanced things.

Multiple Starting Points

Add multiple central items to your diagrams to map related topics in a single workspace.

Unlimited Private Diagrams

Awesome Plan

Create as many private diagrams as you like. If you do ever cancel your subscription they stay private, and you keep access.

Powerful Flowcharting

Awesome Plan

Pick from a range of shapes to create expressive, powerful flowcharts, process maps, and other diagrams.

No-Setup Collaboration

Awesome Plan

Allow any number of people to edit a diagram simply by sharing a secret link with them. No login required.

Conclusion

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