TheBrain for Mac

User Reviews

• So much potential! Such bad pricing. Does anyone use?

  kevin.quinceyMay 15, 2012

  Pros

  Gorgeous Interface Really helps you keep organised - but only as an individual - team tools are still weak and expensive. This product still has so much potential - but it needs attention.

  Cons

  Terrible pricing model Unreasonable lock-in Nearly useless free product - should just be called a "taster" No iOS version Manual Sync model - really in 2012? If you're built on Windows backend, how about using Mesh? Or even DropBox? No live team modification (Groove and MindManager did that in 2005) so having team modify a brain in a meeting is out. Suggestions to TheBrain: Add more to the free client, price the pro at $49, and build a better sync. People will happily pay monthly to use the online services if they get a reasonable amount of development attention. Adoption will go through the roof once you put something into the back-end. You could sell professionally build "brains" for all sorts of organizations - for example, if a help desk had50 people using Pro and could buy a brain with a starter pack of a question tree to traverse with linked articles, they would value something like this. If you could see public "brain of the week" picks that customers sold, you could get a cut.

  Summary

  I loved the interface back when TheBrain launched about 10 years ago but it looks as though it's not been updated since then. Their sync model is weak (shared brains don't atomically stay up to date when everyone has an internet connection and I can't see how there aren't hundreds of update conflicts if they rely on manual syncs). They also still don't have an iOS version so I can't take it with me where I go. But the big drawback for me is the pricing and rather unorthodox lock-in they force on the product. Information in it is so hard to get out that it will mean you will always struggle to get a whole team to use it. The pricing doesn't work well either: The free version is so limited that it really should just be called a taster because no one could use it productively for much. The price of the client is so high that an organization would really have to think long and hard about making such a commitment. I so wish this product could be mainstreamed. I love the presentation.

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• Holds your data hostage!!!!

  yuanxhingoMay 12, 2012

  Pros

  Good interface and BUT you're locked in.

  Cons

  CAN NOT EXPORT YOUR DATA, AVOID IT. They've chosen not to let you export your data; consequently, once you enter data, it is held hostage. There is no way of utilizing your data in another app. If you want or need to export, every other mind map app lets you export in a wide variety of formats, you're not able to. Forget about using your own data on an iPad.

  Summary

  DO NOT purchase if you every want to used your data in any other app. There are a number of good apps for the iPad but you'll never be able to export your data to use these apps. This is only apps that I've ever bought that does not export.

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• good product

  blavernetteDecember 31, 2010

  Pros

  powerful mind-mapping and/or project management tool.

  Cons

  the build-up of a useful "brain" is hard work

  Summary

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• Interested But Pass

  mhenzetdcOctober 6, 2010

  Pros

  Just like other mindmap software.

  Cons

  Expensive, like other mindmap software.

  Summary

  With the free Xmind available, I don't know why people would pay $250 for mindmap software anymore. Maybe $20 for a personal and $50 for a pro version, but that depends on features and capability. I cut my mindmap teeth on MindJet and ConceptDRAW's products - which are in the same ball park price and feature-wise. So far, Xmind does everything that I need, including linking objects, etc, which is why I haven't had a reason to upgrade from versions 7 and 5 of Mindjet and ConceptDRAW, respectively. Viewing attachments in an app is nice, but there isn't a piece of software that does it without a spinning beachball popping up and slowing a system down, unless one has a lot of RAM - which also is affected by the size of the attachment, size of the app's database, and how many apps they routinely have open. On top of that, Xmind has a free community. So I don't understand the $250 for the software, and then $6.25/month fee for the WebBrain service. Where as Xmind is $49/year, but that's IF they want to go for the Pro version. Comparison-wise, it's cheaper to go with Xmind (free or $49/year), or PersonalBrain ($224/year or $234/year (includes WebBrain fee)).

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• TheBrain is a great product

  PaulJYoungDecember 8, 2009

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />PersonalBrain provides a cross platform tool that allows you to organise your thoughts and data in myriad of ways. In fact once you get used to it, you will stop using finder or explorer to find your files within your file system (which can only have one hierarchy structure) and you will put them in your brain where you can refer to to them in many different ways. Think mindmapping Plus data storage Plus search on steroids Its a really good product Paul

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• Now I'm happy !

  mejax.oheimerJanuary 24, 2009

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I stumbled over this tool and I am really happy with it. I am german - so I have to adopt to the missing language flexibility - but the offered way of organizing my thoughts, linking my files and data into this "brain model" is the kind of way to work on a computer I always was looking for. For me it is the next step beyond mindmapping or concept maps which I used until now. Great Idea and great tool!!! It is not really cheap, but you still get something useful in the free version.

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• Mac and Java, yeah right.

  jarlaxle.mercDecember 11, 2008

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Just what I've always wanted, a big, fat, clunky, fugly Java app on my Macintosh. Big surprise that this is a cross-platform app? Hardly.

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