I used an old-school app called Freeplane years ago when I first got introduced to mind mapping. Over time, I shifted toward modern tools like Notion, Logseq, Obsidian, and Joplin. They offered beautiful interfaces, cloud sync, and countless plugins. For general note-taking tasks, they genuinely saved me time. But here’s the problem: none of them are particularly good at creating mind maps.

Mind mapping requires deep understanding of a topic and the ability to break information down to its most essential parts, then reorganize it into a visual structure that makes sense. Most note-taking apps focus on storing and organizing data. Freeplane transforms it. That’s why making mind maps with modern tools feels clunky and unintuitive, even though newer dedicated mind-mapping tools like Xmind and MindMeister provide better outputs than general note-taking apps. I’ve found that they still fall short when compared to Freeplane.

Freeplane lets you work with information your way

Clarity matters more than features

With so many modern tools sacrificing depth to add as many features as possible, people are now looking for simple apps to organize thoughts and information. This isn’t without reason. Many web-based platforms often feel sluggish. You wait for things to load, watch sync bars crawl across your screen, and if your internet connection wavers or their server is struggling, everything grinds to a halt. Desktop apps aren’t much better. They demand lengthy setups, drop critical plugin updates during startup that break your workflow, and sometimes features vanish without warning.

Freeplane gives you none of that friction. When you open it, you get a blank canvas and can start typing immediately. No loading animations. No template screens. No setup wizards.

To create a mind map, I type my core idea, press Enter to create nodes at the same level, and Tab to create child nodes. That’s it. Press Enter for siblings, and Tab for depth. It sounds simple, but this makes an enormous difference. You can outline, refine, and branch ideas without ever touching the mouse.

Dragging text directly from web pages or documents into nodes saves serious time. If I need to include a reference, I just highlight and drag it onto a node. When that doesn’t work (like with certain PDFs), copy and paste still gets the job done.

Making mistakes mid-map used to slow me down. I’d hate having to recreate nodes once I was already deep into the structure. Freeplane solves this elegantly. You simply drag a branch and reposition it. The entire subtree moves with it. You can duplicate sections, merge ideas, or promote and demote branches in seconds without losing anything.

You can add colors, icons, and cloud shapes to make sections more distinguishable, though collapsing branches keeps everything organized just fine. The basics are honestly all you need to start making effective mind maps. Freeplane has advanced features like attributes, node details, and scripting for power users, but the core workflow is already fast, intuitive, and genuinely satisfying to use.

Manual work is the point, not the problem

Only you can make mind maps that fit your understanding

Yes, making mind maps with Freeplane is all manual. You create each node, decide how ideas connect, and refine the structure by hand. Modern tools like Logseq can automatically translate notes into mind map format. Obsidian paired with an LM lets you generate mind maps from your files using well-crafted prompts. Online tools like Xmind and MindMeister offer AI that generates mind maps instantly from any file, plus polished GUIs for manual creation.

But here’s what I’ve noticed: AI-generated mind maps need a lot of work afterward. They pull keywords and structure them automatically, but the structure rarely reflects how you actually understand the topic. You end up reorganizing, clarifying, expanding, and refining anyway. Even with a local LLM setup in Obsidian, you need carefully thought-out prompts and manual cleanup before the map becomes genuinely useful. AI speeds up the initial outline, but you often spend more time polishing the output than you’d spend building it manually.

Online tools like Xmind bring overhead, too. Browser load times, connection issues, subscription limits, and features locked behind paywalls add friction. You’re paying largely for AI features you end up not using because the real work still happens by hand.

If you’re going to build mind maps manually, choose something simple, predictable, and always available. There are other free and downloadable mind-mapping tools you can try, but I still prefer Freeplane for how consistent and straightforward it remains without trying to add unnecessary features or change its interface every year.

I’ll keep using Freeplane

Thinking comes first, software comes second

At the end of the day, mind mapping is about thinking, not software. Tools can help, but they can’t replace the part where you work through ideas yourself. Freeplane supports that process without slowing you down or pulling your attention away. It’s stable, simple, and always ready when you need it. No accounts, no subscriptions, no waiting. Just space to think clearly.

If you want a tool that helps organize what you already know, modern apps excel at that. If you want a tool that helps you understand something from scratch, Freeplane deserves another look.

Freeplane

OS Windows, Linux, macOS

Price model Free

Freeplane is a simple and efficient mind-mapping tool for clear thinking and structured note-taking. It is stable, free to use, and trusted for long-term projects.