MindMeister vs. SmartDraw

This product is well suited for making mind maps and outlining projects and ideas from the start. It can be tough if you are trying to convert something you began in Docs. It allows for a lot of intuitive creation, making your work flow easily. It can get to be a bit clunky though if you make your map too large.

Incentivized

As a developer i use it extensively for sharing ideas specially related for system design and application flows. Entire team finds it comfortable to use it, understand it and make changes swiftly. We use it for High Level System design. While discussing the only missing thing we find about it is the integration of an ide for Low Level Design but in my opinion this tool isn't made for that purpose.

Incentivized

• The UI is well laid out and easy to use. The workflow makes perfect sense and makes creating tasks a breeze.
• The collaboration features make brainstorming not only easy but fun! Everyone enjoys using the tool, which was not the case with other collaboration software we used.
• I love being able to get all of my thoughts and ideas on the screen to see them and then be able to connect them in a logical way.

Incentivized

• Provides examples to work off of--these are helpful when you don't know exactly where to start.
• Provides a number of stylistic options without making things too complex, so you can be creative without getting overwhelmed.
• Provides a wide variety of templates, meets a wide variety of needs.

Incentivized

• I wish collaborators could add comments without having to be given editor privileges. A "Reviewer" role would be helpful.
• I would like to be able to toggle note visibility on and off. If there is a way to do it now, I haven't found it. As it is, I have to hover or use the sidebar to see notes.
• Two or three times I have seen my nodes spontaneously reverse order in a big map (over their recommended limit). Even so, they are working on tracking the issue down.

• A month-to-month plan would be ideal for users that don't have a need to create many projects
• The sidebar navigation can be a little confusing with all of the tools listed.
• Offering customizable plans with only the feature you need would simplify navigation

Incentivized

Never had an issue with customer support, though we never really needed anything major as far as technical help. I do not believe they offer 24 hour customer support but we don't need it as MindMeister is not the type of tool we need need 24 hour a day support for. Overall, very happy with the level of support.

Incentivized

They are always very helpful, we get computers every two years and I have to call them to move the license from one computer to another and they do it with a smile in their voice!

Incentivized

Mindmeister has a good free plan compared with Lucidchart, and better Google Drive integration in my opinion. draw.io has a better free plan than MindMeister, but I prefer MindMeister for mindmap creation still, while I prefer draw.io for other types of diagrams. Xmind is powerful, but bloated, and requires installation on every machine that needs to open the file. The fact that MindMeister is in the cloud is a huge bonus.

Incentivized

As noted in first question, SmartDraw has them beat in every category I can think of (except for price; but need to keep in mind the old adage "you get what you pay for"!). This product allows for VASTLY-improved uploading of data than the Lucidchart product, and customer service is real, tangible service... they understand that when you have a question and need an answer, waiting 2 or 3 days for an email response is not acceptable.

Incentivized

• Our meetings became more productive (time saving /better outcome).
• Project management activities became more efficient (time-saving/increased quality/better collaboration).
• It became easier to create online repositories to share relevant and well-organized information to our teams (before it was dispersed, incomplete, and difficult to find/manage).

Incentivized

• SmartDraw has provided good return for our internal purposes. Using it to understand an organization's structure and inner workings has been valuable. On the client side, creating steps and businesses processes has also been a big plus. It has helped decrease confusing reporting structures and has provided a detailed map for individuals to understand where they fit within their organization.
• Unfortunately, SmartDraw has been somewhat inefficient with some of the more complex projects on our plate and has really deterred certain employees from even wanting to use it.

Incentivized