Design and diagrams decision
SimpleMind
A competent developer can build a useful web-based mind-mapper (core edit/export/search) in a few weeks, but replicating the cross-platform native apps, years of polish, packaging, and official support that SimpleMind provides is non-trivial.
Visit website↗Not priced
No pricing page we fetched carried a figure, so there is nothing to compare against. The build side is still real.
$100one-off80 h to build
$0/mo6 h/mo upkeep
No published price to break even against.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All SimpleMind alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Create and edit a mind map (nodes, links, styles), persist maps to files, export as PDF/PNG/HTML, and open existing maps.
What it still won’t have
- Native per-platform packaged apps (Mac, Windows, iOS, Android) and their installers
- Years of product polish and continuous UX improvements
- In-app purchase infrastructure used by the official Pro edition
- Official support, video tutorials and documentation provided on the product site
What remains hard
- Execution quality
Trustworthy and reliable: 17+ years of updates and improvements.
First-year cost
No published price
SimpleMind does not publish a price we could read, so there is nothing to compare against. What building costs is below.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a web-based mind-mapping app using React for the frontend, Electron (optional) for desktop packaging, Node.js + Express for optional sync endpoints, and PostgreSQL or file-based storage. In scope: interactive canvas with draggable nodes, basic auto-layout (radial/vertical), node metadata (notes, images, checkboxes), save/load maps as JSON files, export to PDF and PNG, search and collapse/expand branches, and optional Dropbox sync using a user-provided OAuth token. Out of scope: mobile native apps (iOS/Android), in-app purchase flows, and proprietary visual themes. Include input validation, error handling, unit tests for core logic (layout, serialization, export) and end-to-end tests for the editor flow.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 5 cited sources+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Evidence score64
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 5
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productSimpleMind Mind Mapping - World leader in Mind Mapping
- official pricingFeatures & Pricing - SimpleMind
- official docsFeature comparison table - SimpleMind
- open sourcewanglin2/mind-map
- open sourcefreeplane/freeplane
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.