FigJam vs. MindManager vs. Miro

If you're working in small product teams, like triads, and already using Figma, this is a no brainer for white boarding, quick/fast sketches, wireframing, collaborative doodling ... it gets less appropriate with large teams, infrequent. IMO, due to the way in which they price, it's better to keep the inner circle small-ish.

Incentivized

It is well suited for a quick prototype of product/development planning to show relationships amongst the APIs used. This helps developers understand the impact of the product changes and identifies the need to update integration components to avoid erroneous deployments. I have not personally experienced a less appropriate scenario at the moment.

Incentivized

Actually I answered this question on the first step. Detailing it I’d say that it’s comfortable to use for company education or brainstorm sessions, but I lack of flexibility to use it for operations quick stuff cuz team plans are limited

Incentivized

• One file, auto updated, no need to get latest
• Easy to preview
• Lack of client is benefit to some (not me)

Incentivized

• Allows me to learn by organizing notes.
• Enables me to create and present strategic plans.
• Empowers me to present complex concepts in a different and straightforward way.
• Captivates my audience when I prepare and present a conference, a class, or a seminar in MindManager.
• Allows me to share mind maps in a variety of formats like JPG, PDF, and HTML.

Incentivized

• Makes internal coordination between admin team and tutors extremely painless. It's like a single place where everyone can drop ideas, get updates and notes without loss of context which usually happens in long email threads.
• Versioning and board history are handled very well, which drastically reduces the workload. They help me track how a policy or math guideline has evolved, and also make it easy to revert changes if something doesn't work.
• Comments stick exactly where they are meant to, making internal reviews much clearer. Admins don't have to guess which note refers to which rule or section.
• Exports are clean, so even non-Miro teammates get it instantly.

Incentivized

• It misses easy-to-use pre sets of diagrams. The ones presented seem to be not native and hard to use. Miro is a good benchmark.
• Navegating throught projects in the main page is confusing, specially when people are not admin users.
• It should suggest ways of organizing the pages designers do, specially when the project is big and have many pages and sections.
• It could have, for example, a draft version for every page, so that one can hide it when they finish the work, but can open it whenever something needs to be modified, versioning the job.

• There should be some more functionality in the Notes window, such as a "Paste Special " Icon in the notes area to maintain format control.
• Although I create many of my own Web export templates, an add-on for web export design would be great, as I regularly create Interactive Electronic Technical Publications (IETP) in HTML export format.
• The ability to sync Map shortcuts between devices would also be welcome. I use MM on three devices, and I have to add or amend the Map list individually. My maps are on OneDrive, so using them should not be that hard if they are cloud-based.

Incentivized

• As a designer, I miss some more creative features. I can't even get really into designing small things (like paths). Many of my colleagues have already switched to the Figma board because it is possible there.
• Things often get lost in the workflow, especially in teams. Working on the same file often leads to misunderstandings and can be frustrating. For example, if text is accidentally deleted and cannot be recovered, or if images become distorted.
• The scale on the board is missing, which often leads to size differences.

Incentivized

I feel the main issues of the old Mindjet seem to be gone with the
Corel purchase. With the huge advance of sharing via browser HTML even 1
user can affect many. And, actually, using MM kind of forced my rigid
brain to rethink how I categorize and classify information/projects.

The
idea of paying $69USD for an annual cost is more than fair and a great
model for Corel/Mindjet to keep rolling out improvements!

Incentivized

Miro saves my day. I would spend at least 4x more time on documenting my projects and work without this tool. It support my day to day role and helps me be successful while saving my capacity. It is not only very easy to start working on it without additional training required, but also adapts to any use case that I might need to implement

Incentivized

I don't use it often, because the organization I work in uses a different environment on a commo basis. This is rather used between the designers, who prototype the solutions in Figma - they just have it as a workbook/notebook for their ideas. However, if those need to be shared with stakeholders or other organization members, the designers are expected to use a different environment.

Incentivized

MindManager is very intuitive. The user interface is not cluttered and the ribbon icons are easy to understand. Several excellent "how-to" videos are available on the MindManager site as well as on YouTube. MindManager starts quickly and the user interface is very responsive. Launching other programs from MindManager such as Excel is very fast and issue free. The browsing feature is lightning fast. The drag-and-drop capability is also very fast and reliable.

Incentivized

There are some features that I think could be smoother or more dynamic in the free version; for instance, the connection of graphics/text boxes with lines can get a bit messy and a bit limited if you want to do something specific with the line, like a free-drawn element. But this is really minor!

Incentivized

We have had no issues with the application's availability

Incentivized

I have not encountered events where Miro is not available. It is quite nice and reliable to be fair, even on my freemium version (startup) I don't have reliability issues. It does have sometimes where the screen refresh or "freezes" or "consumes a lot of data" and we have to rewind windows and the likes, this instances are very less

Incentivized

The application is quick and responsive. We are able to produce mindmaps and reports with ease. The program is not complicated at all and integrates well with software and programs like Microsoft Outlook and Teams, which we truly appreciate.

Incentivized

I took the loading quickly to be related to availability which I commented on before, so ditto with those comment on load time here. Although to reemphasize, Miro doesn't crash or just refuse to load like some other programs. The weak point of Miro for me is integration of files like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint (especially the later two). When you embed these, it gets slow, and complicated to bring them up while you're in the application.

Incentivized

I have called technical support a few times. During the COVID Crisis, I called a few times repeatedly due to a rush request. The technical support guy called me back in minutes. He somehow knew that I had called repeatedly and wanted to make sure my issue was resolved immediately

Incentivized

We have never reached out to or contacted support because Miro's platform has been incredibly intuitive and user-friendly. The comprehensive resources available, such as tutorials, documentation, and community forums, have provided all the guidance we needed. The seamless integration with our existing tools and the reliability of the platform have ensured that we rarely encounter issues that require external assistance. This self-sufficiency has allowed us to focus more on our projects and collaboration without interruptions. Overall, our experience with Miro has been smooth and efficient, eliminating the need for additional support

Incentivized

There is a wide range of online training through webinars led by expert users. They are particularly useful for explaining how to use new features and using MindManager 'in the real world' for projects, tasks etc.

Incentivized

There was a series of webinars which Miro hosted with our organization that went over the basics, then progressively became more advanced with additional sections. The instructors were knowledgeable, and provided examples throughout the sessions, as well as answered peoples' questions. There was ample time and experience on the calls to cover a range of topics. The instructors were also very friendly and sociable, as well as honest. Of course Miro isn't a "God-tool" that does absolutely everything, but the instructors were aware and emphasized the strengths where Miro had them and sincerely accepted feedback.

Incentivized

better backup and exporting functions

Incentivized

Easy to learn, Miro has a series of videos on YouTube that effectively taught this program to my team members and me. The program is drag-and-drop and works excellently. People pick up on how to use it efficiently, and it's great for organizing ideas more freely. This product is more challenging for some older audiences who are not accustomed to using a touchpad, but for most, it was very easy to use.

Incentivized

FigJam works best in pair with Figma, as it allows you to keep track of your project in one place, supporting all phases of the process. The functionality is more intuitive, quick, and efficient. Visually, I also prefer it more —it’s more enjoyable and playful, making the experience much more engaging.

Incentivized

MindManager stands out for its wide range of export options, customization and how they have enriched the format over time. As a constantly evolving tool, and having tried others, I consider it superior for the abovementioned reasons. Its cross-platform nature has been decisive, and although there are many alternatives in the form of web applications or the like, MindManager presents itself as a more complete and robust option.

Incentivized

Both FigJam and Canva have infinite whiteboarding, but Miro is a much more complete package. FigJam is very fast, but it's also very simplistic in its features. Canva has other qualities, like being more design-heavy, but its whiteboarding feature set is not on par with Miro's. Miro is the only platform that lets a user start a project from a messy brainstorm and bring it to full completion, along with all tasks and deliverables, all on one board.

Incentivized

A team can collaborate on the same project but cannot create a shared project file. It would be helpful for that feature to be added.

Incentivized

Maybe is possible now so... Could be useful to manage in some way source code for the projects? not to edit so when we make solutions with different components in MIro, maybe each component could redirect to the source code of this component

Incentivized

• FigJam saves a lot of time ... it's nice to have all my visual notes/sketches within Figma itself where a lot of design work lives
• The project organization and other features contribute to the ease of answering that age old question ... "where can I find that mockup?"
• Dev Mode is pretty cool. Not many use it, so some designers may spend unnecessary time spec'ing out things that no one will appreciate, let alone look at.

Incentivized

• For a single person business presentation it is a plus.
• Project difficulty is well assessed using the map.
• Giving away a paper version of a map is a positive gesture. People like the map, the look, and what it says, and it may also be a way to promote MindManager to them.
• Keep the PDF or JPEG saving capabilities for small customers like me. It's important.

Incentivized

• This is one of those platforms where the entire team needs to be bought into it, or it doesn't function as intended. Once we achieved that, it's been a wonderful tool for brainstorming and project management internally.
• Surprisingly, Miro has not allowed us to reduce software; however, it's a worthwhile addition to our tech stack.
• Our team has Miro boards bookmarked, and we know exactly where to go when we have ideas or things that we want to add. It's great to know that we will receive notifications when that happens.

Incentivized