8 Best Free Mind Mapping Software of 2026

Xmind ranks first because its free plan works on more devices than any rival here. The download page lists macOS, Windows (including Arm), Linux packages, iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, Android and a browser app, so a student can start a map on a school PC and finish it on a phone. The free plan covers up to 10 online maps, basic themes and stickers, link publishing, a 5-slide Pitch presentation and 50 AI credits at sign-up. That is enough for a term's worth of course outlines. The limits show up when a group works together: real-time co-editing, unlimited collaborative maps and 30-day version history sit in Premium at US $8.25 a month on the yearly plan, while Pro at US $4.92 a month raises the cap to 50 online maps with basic collaboration and removes the export watermark. Verified students and educators get 30% off, which brings Premium to US $5.75 a month.

Coggle is the simplest free option for a group that wants to work on the same map at once. The free plan includes real-time collaboration, sharing by link or QR code, collaboration by email, shared folders, full change history and unlimited image uploads, and Coggle says you can share with as many friends or colleagues as you like. Branches can join and loop, and a diagram can have several starting points, which helps when a topic does not have one center. Exports cover PDF, images, .mm and text files and a Microsoft Visio format, and .mm imports make it easy to bring in maps from Freeplane. The catch is privacy: free accounts get 3 private diagrams, and anything beyond that is public. The Awesome plan at $5 a month removes the private limit and adds flowchart shapes, line controls and file attachments. Organisation at $8 per member per month adds SAML single sign-on and consolidated billing.

Freeplane is the most capable option for anyone who wants everything for free and is willing to learn. It is free and open source, written in Java, and runs on any operating system with a current Java installation, either installed or portably from a USB drive, which suits school computers where you cannot install software. The documentation covers styles, conditional node styles, templates, LaTeX, a spell checker, formulas and Groovy scripting, plus newer AI chat workflows and a Model Context Protocol server. Freeplane started as a fork of FreeMind and documents how it relates to it, and unlike FreeMind it is still updated: the GitHub repository shows release 1.13.4 on October 30, 2026. The trade-offs are collaboration and polish. There is no real-time co-editing or cloud account, so groups have to share files, and the interface is dense compared with web tools like Coggle.

MindMeister works in a browser and on iOS and Android, and its free plan is built for sharing: you can invite unlimited collaborators to a map, present it as a slideshow and use templates and focus mode. Each free account also gets 500 Meister AI credits a month, and MindMeister notes that generating a map uses 100 credits. The limit is volume. Free users can create only 3 mind maps, so a student with several courses will hit the cap quickly. The Personal plan, listed at $7.49 a month on the US App Store, adds unlimited maps, image and PDF exports, printing, 2 attachments per map and 7-day version history. MindMeister offers a 50% student discount on paid plans. Teams already using MeisterTask can turn map topics into tasks on a project board, which links a brainstorm to follow-up work.

Miro is a whiteboard first, but its mind map maker is strong enough for team brainstorms. Auto Layout keeps branches aligned as you drag them around, and the AI mind map generator builds a multi-branch map from a short description of the central idea. Miro lists 26 mind map templates and more than 7,000 templates overall, and a map can sit on the same board as sticky notes, Docs, Tables, Slides and Kanban, so a workshop can go from ideas to a plan without leaving the canvas. The free plan lets you create and share unlimited boards, but only the 3 most recent stay editable, and visitors who want to edit without an account need the Starter plan at $8 per member per month billed yearly. For a student who only needs to outline an essay, Miro carries more interface than necessary.

SimpleMind suits students who want a private map on a phone or tablet without signing up for anything. The free edition on the App Store lets you create as many mind maps as you want, change their look with style sheets, add notes, collapse branches and switch to an outline view. SimpleMind says it has no ads and no tracking, does not need an account and has no access to your maps, which you store and sync through iCloud, Dropbox or another cloud. Upgrading is a one-time purchase rather than a subscription: Pro functionality costs $10.99 on the US App Store and adds free-form and auto layouts, crosslinks, images, links, checkboxes, PDF and image sharing and OPML exchange. SimpleMind also makes apps for Mac, Windows and Android, but each platform is sold separately, and there is no live co-editing for group work.

GitMind leans hardest into AI for studying. The company says it turns text, videos, audio, PDFs, websites and images into summaries and structured mind maps, and also generates flowcharts, UML and class diagrams. The free Basic plan includes up to 10 mind maps or whiteboards, 30 image uploads per mind map, regular format exports, unlimited slide shows and sync across all platforms, with apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android and a Chrome extension. Sharing runs through planets: free users can create 1 planet and invite up to 5 members. The paid plan costs $9 a month, or $4.08 a month on the annual plan, and adds unlimited maps, 5 planets with up to 30 members each and HD exports. GitMind credits for separate features are sold on a metered license, so heavy AI use can cost more than the plan price suggests.

MindNode is a natural pick for students who live in Apple's ecosystem. It runs on Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro and Apple Watch, and the free version covers mind mapping plus import and export with secure, private storage. That is enough to sketch out an essay or revise for a test. Almost everything else sits in MindNode Plus, which costs $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year, the cheapest paid upgrade on this list. Plus adds outlining, connections, notes and tasks, images, emojis and stickers, focus mode, visual tags, themes, Apple Intelligence features and collaboration. MindNode Plus includes MindNode Classic, the previous version, and the app is also part of the Setapp subscription. The free version ranks last here because it has no collaboration and no styling, and there is no app for Windows, Android or the web, which rules it out for mixed-device groups.