April 19, 2023 (Updated April 3rd, 2024)

Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa: Definitive Comparison [2023]

by Mihael Cacic posted in Compared, Mind Mapping, Quick Tips.

Mindomo and MindMeister are two well-known mind mapping tools on the market. They are both great for visualizing, collaborating, and sharing ideas with mind maps but are targeted at two very different audiences. 

I also included Ayoa into the mix because it offers something both Mindomo and MindMeister don’t: an organic approach to mind mapping combined with a whiteboard for brainstorming ideas with your team.

   

So, here’s how they measure up: Mindomo vs. MindMeister vs. Ayoa

 

Comparison Summary: Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa

 

Mindomo is designed for teachers who want to create an interactive learning experience for their students, or individuals looking for a quick and easy mind mapping tool. MindMeister is made for larger teams who need a simple and clean interface with essential mind mapping and task management features. Ayoa is ideal for professionals, business consultants, teachers, and students looking for an organic mind mapping tool to boost creativity, collaboration, and productivity.

What is Mindomo? 

“Collaborative Online Classrooms” 👨‍🏫

Since its launch in 2007, Mindomo has become one of the most popular online mind mapping tools on Earth, with over 6 million users worldwide and a 4.6 rating from 44,000 user reviews.

It’s made for teachers in schools and universities. With Mindomo, teachers can collaborate with students and use mind maps for visualizing ideas, sharing videos and images, and exchanging opinions. Mindomo offers useful collaborative features like task boards, live chat, audio notes, and presentation mode to allow real-time communication. Their pricing plans also show their commitment to educators with an Education plan designed specifically for interacting with a larger group with one facilitator.

Mindomo is ideal for schools, universities, and NGOs looking to develop more ideas and improve their learning experience.

What is MindMeister?

“Mind Map, Beautifully” 🌸🗺️

MindMeister was launched in 2007 to help over 25 million customers visualize and share their ideas as sleek, interactive mind maps.

MeisterLabs keeps things simple by only offering what’s essential for creating mind maps: options for customizing bubbles, adding comments and notes, and inserting images and attachments. You can share mind maps with team members, assign tasks, and set up votes for the best ideas. MindMeister also supports native integrations with MeisterTask and MeisterNote.

MindMeister is a dedicated mind mapping solution, ideal for large teams and enterprises looking for a mind mapping tool with all the essentials.

What is Ayoa?

“Mind Mapping That Helps You Think” 🧠🤸‍♂️

Ayoa was made by Chris Griffiths, the world’s leading mind mapping expert. For the last 10 years, Chris has been coaching CEOs and Nobel Laureates on creative thinking, and now he is sharing his expertise with the world through Ayoa – the complete productivity suite that helps students and creators collect and organize their thoughts.

Ayoa mimics the natural thinking process through colorful and organic mind mapping. The interface inspires creativity, which is further aided by the AI-driven idea generation feature as well as the freehand mind mapping capabilities. Ayoa also has a complete productivity suite, with features like whiteboards, flow charts, task boards, Gantt charts, and Kanban boards: everything you need to track your projects. Another exciting feature of Ayoa is its extensive collection of expertly designed templates for business strategy and personal planning. If you’d like to try them yourself, grab the 7-day trial (no card required) today. 

Ayoa is the best mind mapping software for students, teachers, coaches, consultants, and business executives that need to think through difficult problems, innovate, and find creative solutions.

Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa: Pricing

MindMeister is perfect for enterprises, Mindomo for schools, and Ayoa for small teams of 5 users or fewer

MindMeister and Mindomo have a free plan, Ayoa has a 7-day free trial.

With the free plan for MindMeister and Mindomo, you can create up to 3 mind maps and use basic collaboration features like adding team members and comments. But you won’t get access to premium features, like adding multimedia, icons, attachments, map themes, and exporting mind maps.

You can test Ayoa’s features with the 7-day free trial, making it the best option for someone new to mind mapping. 

MindMeister is the cheapest, but offers less compared to the others.

MindMeister offers a free plan called Basic and three paid plans: Personal, Pro, and Business. You get 30% off if you bundle MindMeister with the task management app, MeisterTask. 

Mindomo offers different pricing for professionals and educators.

Mindomo has two pricing structures, each designed for specific audiences:

• Work & Personal, for professionals and individuals
• Education, for teachers and students

The Work & Personal plan has four tiers: Free, Premium, Professional, and Team

The Education plan also has four tiers: Free, Basic, Teacher, Classroom / School

Ayoa’s starting plans cost more but offer the best value for money.

Ayoa has two different tools: Ayoa Mind Map and Ayoa Task.

Both cost $10 per month, or you can buy both for $13 per month.

• Ayoa Mind Map comes with all mind maps unlocked: organic, radial, speed, and capture maps. You also get unlimited sharing and collaboration and an extensive image library.

• Ayoa Taskhas unlimited task boards, including Kanban workflow, and unlimited real-time collaboration and sharing.

• Ayoa Ultimate comes with Ayoa Map, Ayoa Task, and features like AI-generated images, Gantt charts, whiteboards, audio notes, mind map presentations, and live map collaboration.

   

Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa: Mind Mapping

Ayoa has four AI-powered mind map types, MindMeister has the most attractive interface and Mindomo is the most immersive

Ayoa has four different mind map types and built-in AI to help you visualize and brainstorm faster.

Each map has its own purpose:

• Organic maps, for creating super customizable mind maps that simulate freehand drawing.
• Speed maps, to quickly put down your ideas in a structured mind map.
• Capture maps, to quickly build up a cloud of ideas.
• Radial maps, for goal setting and prioritizing in a dynamic pinwheel.

(And even more among the templates — concept maps, funnels, matrixes, content calendars …)

So many choices can feel a little overwhelming at first. Luckily, Ayoa offers a ton of resources on mind mapping, including blog posts, a YouTube channel, and Chris’ books.

Here’s Chris talking about mind maps and how to create them (the right way):

   

Ayoa is the only app of the three with a neuro-inclusive design, i.e. designed to let neurotypical and neurodivergent people work together in any way that suits them. It promotes visual learning via a freehand mind mapping feature, aiding hand-eye coordination, divergent thinking, and cognitive performance. 

Ayoa also offers AI-powered mind mapping within its Ultimate plan, perfect for overcoming mental blocks and generating ideas during long brainstorming sessions. 

Just click on a piece of text in your mind map, and get AI-generated suggestions added to your mind map as branches. Depending on what you need, AI can generate questions, ideas, and explanations.  

MindMeister has a simple user interface with everything you need to create a beautiful, intricate mind map.

MindMeister offers everything you need to organize your thoughts right at your fingertips. 

The Styling Toolbar (1) acts as a home base when customizing each bubble. You find everything you need to add comments and notes, assign tasks to team members, change styles, and add media. 

You can use Outline Mode to organize your meeting notes in a mind map format and vice versa. It also gives you a new perspective when reading the information.  

Mindomo’s features make mind mapping a breeze.

Mindomo offers the full gamut for mind mapping. It lets you create topics and sub-topics, attach files, leave comments, and so on.

However, it doesn’t offer any special mind mapping capabilities like Ayoa’s AI Mind Maps and Mindmeister’s Outline Mode. 

But you do get a more immersive experience with features like the drill-down option. You can also add video links, audio notes, and comments when researching or presenting your ideas.

  

Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa: Task Management

Ayoa has Ayoa Task, MindMeister has MeisterTask, Mindomo combines mind mapping and task boarding

Ayoa Task is an in-built tool, MeisterTask is a not-so-optional integration, Mindomo has a task management feature.

Ayoa Task is Ayoa’s in-built task management app with all the project planning essentials: task boards, Kanban workflows, and Gantt timelines. You can add comments, notes, and additional information to your tasks. You can also toggle between each view easily. 

Task management is done a little differently in MindMeister. 

Like Ayoa, MindMeister has a separate task management app called MeisterTask. But unlike Ayoa, you need a separate account with MeisterTask to create and manage tasks on MindMeister.

Mindomo keeps it simple and gives you a quick overview of all tasks and their details right on the mind map (1). You can also switch to the Gantt Chart view (2) at any time to get a detailed rundown of your tasks.

Ayoa makes task management simple and fun, MindMeister has a longer workflow, while Mindomo is not really built for it.

Apart from the classics, Ayoa also has a Canvas mode for visualizing and managing tasks in a whole new way. You can break down your tasks into simpler categories and work with them intuitively.

If you prefer a more traditional look, you can always switch to the Gantt or Kanban task board, and even convert this into a mind map.

On the other hand, MindMeister takes a more traditional approach.

You can add tasks to a topic with basic details, but you have to visit the MeisterTask app for more in-depth task management features. 

This is useful for enterprises managing multiple projects with dedicated project managers. 

But for smaller businesses where one employee usually juggles multiple responsibilities, switching between MindMeister and MeisterTask can become cumbersome and interrupt your thought process. 

Mindomo makes task creation easy but misses the point when it comes to task management. You can view all your tasks in one place, but this also makes the mind map “bulky”, especially if it’s like the one in the image below. You don’t have the option to collapse the task details either. 

  

Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa: Templates

Ayoa’s templates are created by mind mapping experts, MindMeister offers useful templates, Mindomo limits template availability

Ayoa’s templates are curated by an expert.

Ayoa’s 121 templates are designed by the leading expert in mind mapping, Chris Griffiths, intended for studying, productivity, innovation, business, and more. 

You can also save your existing taskboards, whiteboards, and mind maps as templates. 

MindMeister has a small library with only essential templates.

MindMesiter has 42 templates on subjects like education, business planning, productivity, and personal goals. They are also available in different languages like Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. 

Mindomo has a comprehensive library of templates but limited availability.

Mindomo lets you create your own templates or choose from existing ones. However, you only have access to the pre-built templates available with your plan. Business mapping templates are only available with a personal/work account, and educational templates with an educational account. Also, I found editing and customizing templates harder on Mindomo compared to the other two.

  

Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa: Whiteboards

Ayoa has a dedicated whiteboard tool, while MindMeister and Mindomo don’t

Ayoa’s AI-assistant makes brainstorming faster and easier.

Ayoa has a dedicated whiteboard tool to brainstorm ideas with the team using notes, images, and lists. You can also add flowcharts, diagrams, and embed existing mind maps to easily visualize ideas. Although heavy with features, Ayoa manages to create a simple whiteboarding experience. 

With the Ultimate plan, you can enlist the help of Ayoa’s AI assistant to generate ideas for your blog, business, or marketing efforts. Here, I used the AI assistant to generate ideas for a productivity blog.

  

Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa: Sharing and Collaboration

Ayoa encourages collaboration, Mindomo focuses on sharing, while MindMeister believes in feedback

Ayoa offers more for collaboration than MindMeister and Mindomo.

All three tools let you invite and collaborate with team members in real-time. However, how you collaborate with team members in each is different. 

MindMeister lets you leave comments and vote on ideas. This is a great way to give and receive feedback if your team works asynchronously. 

On the other hand, Mindomo has a native chat feature (1) that lets you discuss ideas with your peers in real-time. 

You can also use Ayoa chat or leave comments (2) and notes (3) for your team members.

Ayoa and Mindomo have presentation mode, while MindMeister does not.

Mindomo lets you create your own presentation flow by manually selecting the topics and branches you want to display, and the order you want to display them.

Ayoa, meanwhile, has an auto present option that presents the mind map in the order you placed the elements. You can also manually edit the order.

Mindomo offers a plethora of export options, while Ayoa and MindMeister offer only what’s necessary. 

Ayoa offers basic but necessary, export options: 

• You can export your mind map as a .pdf, .ppt, word, or image file
• You can export your whiteboard as an image, mind map, or convert it into a task board
• You can export task boards as a .csv file

Similarly, MindMeister lets you export your mind map as PDFs, image files, and word documents. You can also export your mind map to XMind, Freemind, and MindManager when sharing with customers using other mind mapping tools. 

Compared to the other two, Mindomo offers a lot more export formats to its users. 

As you can see in the screenshot below, you can export your mind map and Gantt charts in 16 different formats (1) in Mindomo, useful when creating PowerPoint presentations and reports for school. You can also choose the specific elements you want to export (2). Along with the common file formats, you’re able to export to Microsoft Excel as well.

  

Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa: Pros & Cons

Mindomo and MindMeister are designed solely for mind mapping. Ayoa is the complete brainstorming package. 

Final Verdict: Mindomo vs MindMeister vs Ayoa

MindMeister is best for organizing ideas, Mindomo for creating interactive learning experiences, Ayoa for boosting creativity and productivity

All three tools perform the same function, some just do it better than others. 

Mindomo is for teachers who want a budget-friendly option to engage and collaborate with students using interactive elements like images, videos, audio clips, and live chat. MindMeister offers a sleek and easy-to-use interface with only what’s necessary for busy teams to quickly organize their thoughts. Ayoa is the complete mind mapping solution for work or study, offering AI-powered suggestions and organic maps to boost productivity & creativity.

 

Use Mindomo if:

• You are looking to collaborate and share with large groups.
• You are looking for a budget-friendly option.
• You are a teacher or individual.

Click here to get started with Mindomo!

 

Use MindMeister if:

• You are an enterprise with multiple teams and dedicated project managers.
• Ease of use is what you’re looking for in mind mapping software. 
• You need mind maps for internal use only.

Click here to get started with MindMeister!

 

Use Ayoa if:

• You are an individual or consultant.
• You work in a team with neuro-diverse individuals.
• You need a dedicated Task, Gantt, and Kanban workspace.
• You want to boost creativity with organic mind maps and AI suggestions.

Click here to get started with Ayoa!