MindMeister test
Project Management
Mindmapping can assist in avoiding action lists are being managed instead off project goals. And keeping focus on the project planning becomes a lot easier this way. Also in the different phases of a project, mindmapping can be crucial, e.g. in terms of risk management and setting up dashboards. With a mindmap, everybody involved in a project is literally looking at the same picture of the project status.
MindMeister does not offer extensive project management functionality, but does include some handy features for simple project management. As with most mindmapping programs, MindMeister enables you to add progress checkboxes to a branch. You can choose between 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% completion. Besides, tasks can be assigned to people and e-mail notifications can be set to remind of deadlines. In case you want to assign tasks to people quickly, you can use the “Wundertask” function which after clicking automatically takes care of allocating project collaborators to unassigned tasks. Even though cleverly thought off, this function it is not very suitable in very many situations.
When adding a task in a mindmap, a ‘task overview’ is added to the MindMeister screen the next time you sign in. A powerful feature is that tasks can be exported to a calendar program via a ‘task feed’; this does require a web subscription. Tasks that are added to a project dashboard (mindmap) are immediately available in Google Calendar or Apple iCal, whereby the e-mail notification system takes care of reminders for deadlines. The latter option is only available for Premium users with a paid subscription.
Additional information
MindMeister is fully based on Java/Ajax technology whereas most competitors built their software on other technology platforms like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight. A big advantage of an online mindmapping program is, that it runs operating system independent. Windows, Mac OSX or Linux users will all have the same functionality. Moreover, with MindMeister, no additional plug-ins like MS Silverlight or Adobe Air / Flash are required. Because of that, MindMeister is very suitable for use within highly secured IT-environments.
A single MindMeister license costs € 40,00 per year, gives access to all functionality and allows you to create an unlimited amount of mindmaps. In addition to a pc version, MindMeister is also available for the iPad and iPhone (two different applications) for € 5,99 via the Apple App-store. A discount applies to educational institutions. Furthermore, special pricing (quantity discounts) applies to e.g. teams of users and educational institution-wide bundles.
For a full MindMeister price list please click here.
For a multi-user commercial license a MindMeister subscription fee of € 6,00 per user per month applies. Extra functionality with this business version includes user statistics, automated back-up of mindmaps and one’s own sub domain (companyname.mindmeister.com). A 30-day trial version of MindMeister is also available.
In addition, a free version of MindMeister is available, which is limited to a total of three mindmaps and lacks export functionality. What has been included are important functions like sharing mindmaps and importing mindmaps from other vendors (with different formats).
For organizations who would like to run MindMeister on their internal IT-environment instead off on the ‘public’ MindMeister environment, an enterprise version is available as well. This version is available from 100 users and up and costs € 50,00 per user. This option might be interesting for e.g. Governmental institutions where the IT-environment is fully closed off from the outside world by the firewall and the installation of software by users is not allowed. In case you would like to know more about this alternative, the Hypershifters team will gladly answer all your questions.
MindLabs embraces new standards and innovations and one attribute is definitely worth the while mentioning in this test. MindMeister can be integrated in Google Apps and it is also available for Google Wave. For example, with ‘Docs integration’ mindmaps can be saved just like MS Word and MS Excel document. Also, contacts in Google Mail can be selected for sharing mindmaps.
Conclusion
MindMeister is a user friendly and technologically sound application. Without a doubt, it is one of the best choices for online mindmapping. MindMeister enables you to work place, time and operating system independent, and is a great tool for (online) collaboration, especially in combination with Skype integration. There are more extensive (and more expensive) online mindmapping programs available, but MindMeister delivers on its promises and does what it needs to do for the tested areas of application. The many advantages by far outnumber the few shortcomings. Furthermore, MindMeister is also available for mobile devices, ideas can be quickly added via the well thought out Geistesblitz application, and even working offline is possible. Finally, Meisterlabs embraces new standards and innovative technologies like Google Apps.
To conclude, following the extensive testing, Hypershifters concludes that MindMeister is an excellent choice for mindmapping. Especially the sharing and collaboration functionality get high scores. Moreover, it is a great tool for personal, team and organizational effectivity and productivity.
