iThoughtsX - Mind Map App Reviews

I am big user of mind-mapping across PC, Mac, iOS platforms. iThoughts has excellent value. Latest (Sep’14) update made this app much more easy to use.

The recent update was a vast improvement in the areas I found lacking. However, it has completely crippled it for me. I am a medical student, and I heavily rely on images. Before the update, I could drag image directly from the powerpoints. Now they show up as embedded PDFs. The only other option I have is to save each image from a powerpoint then insert them, making the process very tedious. If you use images heavily, I recomend staying away until this is fixed.

I have always been a huge fan of the ithoguhtsHD app for iPad - and was excited when Toketaware brought the mindmapping tool to Mac OSX. However, the first gen of the app was lacking much of the functionality and ease of use that made the iOS app addictive. 2.0 has made a huge leap forward and is now nearly as awesome to create from as the original. Good job on the update Toketaware team!

This is a great “mind mapping” app for your Mac. There are more expensive options such as MindJet, but for the price and functionality I highly recommend this app. Also, this app has the ability to export all or part of a mind map to a variety of formats.

I have been using mind maps for years-all the way back to those horrible PC days. This app is really easy to use and cool. At this point I don’t see any missing features. Export formats are estensive. The ability to use the program on my Macbook, Ipad and iPhone is hard to beat. I highly recommend this “suite?”

Have used iThoughts for iPad for a couple of years and use it extensively for first place to begin a new project. One downside was that some projects were too large to view easily on small iPad screen (in spite of screen sizing capability). Along came iThoughtsX for Mac for a great solution; however, the synchronization between iThoughts for iPad was somewhat clumsy. The new iThoughts (iOS) for iPad, however, made synchronization seamless. When I initially start a project, I just start putting down thoughts and easily organize as dependents as I progress - very flexible. Also, my projects incorporate a fair amount of initial research, and the ability to paste interactive URL addresses in an inconspicuous manner captures necessary information w/o clutter. Together, they are a great package, highly recommended, and well worth the price.

I have been a mindmaper for many years but Ive always found Mac and PC apps to be clunky and awkward to use. I have tried most of the well-known mindmapping software and haven’t found one that was not a chore to use. I go back to drawing the maps by hand and then copying them into the software. All this changed a couple of years ago when I first found iThoughts for iPad which is so well designed, easy-to-use, and excellent for planning, brainstorming, organizing, and for creating business documents and training. The app doesn’t get in the way. I can focus on the content, shape of the diagram, and the ideas I’m trying to understand or use. Now that iThoughtsX is on the Mac you have the best of both worlds. You can build the diagrams on the iPad or the Mac. You can print them or project them directly from the Mac or iPad. There is full synchronization, as well as cloud backup. iThoughts & iThoiughtsX are so practical they have opened up a whole lot of new uses for my mindmaps. Excellent app. Buy both the Mac and iPad/iPhone/iPod apps so you get the full convenience of these simple yet powerful apps. Oh…. and also….. every couple of months or so there are releases that expand the features and the usability of iThoughts & iThoughtsX.

I have used this software for years. I love it. Initially, I was merely intrigued by the term “mind mapping.” So I started digging around, and I found that there were several choices of mindmapping software available. The notion of organizing my thoughts with a visual component intrigued me. I decided to give it a try. iThoughts was available for both my Macbook Pro and for my iOS devices. Also, it was visually appealing and was sold in the Apple App Store. So iThoughtsX (then without the “X”) got the nod. This software is awesome. Yes, there is a bit of a learning curve, but not much. Soon I was using this colorful app to brainstorm ideas. The visual element made brainstorming fun and created a permanent record of my ideas. It even helped me to generate ideas more freely and to see connections between ideas that wouldn’t have been obvious otherwise. I’m convinced that adding the visual element is not only attractive and fun, but that it actually facilitates and improves the results of the brainstorming process. I am very glad that I chose iThoughts in particular. A little pricy, yes, but well worth it, and on sale by 20% at the App Store as of this date. Craig Scott, the designer of this app, never stops working on and improving it. He’s also very open to fielding questions and comments from users and listening to ideas on how to improve the software. Craig gives you a trial period to check out iThoughtsX, so if you decide that mindmapping or this particular app is not for you, simply return it for a refund. By the way, if you prefer to work on an iOS device, the corresponding iThoughts app is only $9.99.

I really like mind-mapping and feel it is an extremely valuable exercise to help organize thoughts and visualize ideas floating in your brain. It can be used in so many ways, from studying complex issues in academia, to review of options on a future course of action one might take. I was a big user of the original iThought for iPad from its early beginnings. When I heard of the updated versions I quickly applied them to my iPad and iPhone; I then became aware of the Mac IOS 8 version. I reluctantly paid the $47.99 (a lot compared to other mind-mapping tools in the App store), but felt that from the history of this app’s preceding versions it would be worth it. My sadness came in actually using it. It relies very heavily on the menu bar on the top of your screen desktop screen for interaction, it is rather stiff in usage unlike the original iPad version. It does not allow for clean flexible mind-maps, but rather largely restricts users to use more predetermined layouts that sometimes won’t fit the need. The freedom and free flow of the old version was exceptional… I hope it is regained one day soon in the Mac desktop version! Since I’ve made the investment, I’ll wait and hope for updates that expand the usage capabilities and flexibility. May be even it’ll be able to utilize the iCloud drive, which competitor desktop apps utilize, or at least a simple dropbox interface — both missing at this time! I trust that since the Mac version is new, that updates and expansion will one day make my investment worth the money spent… right now, I’d suggest others examine what the competition offers in this category.

Unless you are familiar with mind maps, many people don’t really know why or how they can be helpful. It’s kind of a solution looking for a problem. iThoughts is intuitive and simple, it makes getting the thoughts out of your brain much easier. I’ve installed the iphone & ipad apps and it makes it so easy to revisit your ideas wherever you are. The developer has his pulse on mind mapping software and constantly polishing it to make it better.

Can’t praise this app enough. 5 stars for customizability of the maps 5 stars for developer effort (exceptional!) 5 stars for the iOS app (compatibility) 5 stars for visual appeal 5 stars for functionality Yes, there are some minor tweaks I would like to see (clickable check mark box rather than icon for example) but the app is great!

Amazing … it all just works. I have all the apps (iPad, iPhone, Mac) and they are highly functional, totally reliable, and always improving. If you are looking to escape the Mindjet rat-race, or the XMind subscription, consider iThoughtsx (and its IOS cousins). Plus, I’ve never encountered a more responsive App builder! My last inquiry got a response in 4 minutes! ccp

While there are a few features here and there that I’d like to see, this has still become my goto mind mapping application. It’s simplicity, reliability and easy cross-platform support between iOS and OS X makes it an indispensable tool for me. The only feature I’d really, really like is the ability to attach a callout to a boundary. Other than that, I love the clean simplicity of this app. The developer is very responsive too. I’ve sent off a few suggestions and questions and receive a response quickly every time.

I just started a new job where project information was being tracked in lots of documents, spreadsheets, notes, emails, and MS Project. I condensed everything into one, east to read, mind map. I am a visual learner so this is great for me. I have an overall view of the whole project - what I know, and what I don’t know, and it replaces a dozen pages of notes. I am not replacing the issue tracking system for actual work, but as a note / issue tracker for me, the scrum master, this is great.

The Safari clipper is a pain. Why build something that has to be reconfigured for every document you want to send clips to? It’s simpler just to copy/paste URLs into an iThoughtsX document than it is to use the clipper. Back to the drawing board for this one. Otherwise, iThoughtsX is as perfect as always.

I have used many (if not most) of the mind-mapping applications out there - this one continues to amaze me with its power, simplicity and flexibility. The developer is incredibly responsive and the sync across devices is a true bonus and a must for todays multi-device users (like me). I have recommended this application to many of my colleagues.

Switched from Mindjet, which I liked but was cost prohibitive. Tried just about every other Mac based mindmapper out there and landed with iThoughts. For the price, this package is feature packed - many of which I use. Some of the more expensive packages had minor improvemenets in some areas, but not enough to justify the price disparity. The winning combo is integration with the iThoughtsHD iPad app. Others have an iPad app as well, but I wasn’t impressed with any of them. I’m using iThoughts integration with Marked 2 which is cool for drafting reports. Testing Curio, which includes mindmapping functionality as well; albeit in my opion not as robust as iThought and did experience performance issues are large maps. In my testing, I am considering it complimentary, as it has other other features like whiteboarding and PDF markup which I leverage in my workflows. It’s easy to copy/paste between the two. The only functionality I really miss is combining multiple map styles in a single map (i.e. horizontal with top-down). The author is responsive and advises it’s on a future feature list (hope a sooner one than later).

Find me a better mindmapping app. Wonderful user control over all aspects of design. You can set alarms for certain “to-dos” in your map, number items in different styles, append notes to branches. You can then group those branches visually. I’m using it to outline dissertation chapters.

After buying a couple cheaper mind map apps I finally decided to pay the $49 (ouch!) for this one. It is well worth the money if this is the process you use for organizing your thoughts! I used XMind for mapping my PhD dissertation and loved it but had continuous problems with updates. iThoughtsX is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. AND, I was able to open and save my XMind dissertation map to iThoughtsX - fantastic! Thanks!

By far my favorite mind mapping software. I am a Busan disciple and everything that I like about his philosophy and more is in this package or soon appears. My favorite feature is the ability to import almost any application generated mind map. I had a gratis copy of a competitor’s sw and had hundreds of maps. I can recapture them in an iPad or on the expansive iMac screen. Jump on the iThoughts train. Either on IOS or Mac OS, or both like I have.