If youve never used the app before, how quickly can you get up and running The interface can help facilitate this, but the way that MindNode and iThoughts approach user onboarding is very different.

MindNode: A Comparison of the Two Best Mind Mapping Apps March 17, 2020 by Mike Schmitz When it comes to mind mapping on Apple hardware, there are lots of great options available.

But two apps rise above the others as the true cream of the crop: MindNode, with a stunningly beautiful user interface, and iThoughts, with powerful features and impressive flexibility.

Both of these apps are great, but they take very different approaches to mind mapping that can make it difficult to choose which one is right for you.

In this post, we compare these two apps side-by-side, using the following criteria: Overall Design Ease of Use Features Data Portability Price Lets start by looking at the design.

Overall Design Our ethos in evaluating mind mapping app design is that the app you choose to use should give you the features you need, then get out of your way.

The app is not the hero of the story, nor should it try to be.

It should help you capture and develop your ideas, but the value is in the ideas themselves, not the features.

What your mind mapping app should do is give you a great looking interface that helps get your creative juices flowing.

Mind mapping is one area in particular where you really need an app that is fun to use, because the better mental state you are in the better your ideas are going to be.

MindNode The design of the user interface is where MindNode really stands out.

The design is simple, but it still gives you everything you need to make beautiful mind maps.

In fact, its hard to create a mind map in MindNode that doesnt look great.

It has several great-looking themes to choose from, and in our opinion every single one looks good.

It even has cleverly-designed floating toolbars that give you access to all the features without cluttering up the interface.

MindNode looks incredible, even on the small screen of an iPhone.

Like MindNode, there are several templates and themes you can use with iThoughts, but the ones included in MindNode are significantly better.

There are also some interface design choices that negatively impact the user experience, especially on iOS where it can be difficult to discover things.

For example, the toolbar at the top of the screen on iOS eats up precious screen real estate and we much prefer the floating controls in MindNode.

This makes the iOS version feel a bit clunky, and its still difficult to discover features if you dont know exactly where to find them.

In short, iThoughts feels like an engineers approach to mind mapping.

Winner: MindNode Ease of Use Related to overall design is ease-of-use.

Mindnode App For Mac