Top 5 Concept Mapping Tools for Education
Algor Education
Algor Education is a web application for creating, customizing, and sharing concept maps online in a simple and intuitive way. It is accessible from any device via a browser (e.g. Google Chrome) and does not need to be downloaded.
This site offers a very modern multimedia editor that allows you to edit your maps in real time with other users. Among the main features of Algor Education, we find:
- Create concept maps from scratch or starting from a ready-made map;
- Create concept maps automatically from a keyword, from photos of book pages, or from a long digital text with AI functions;
- Customize maps with different layouts and insert images, videos, audio, and web resources;
- Share maps with other users and make real-time changes;
- Upload PDF documents and make them interact with the map environment in a few clicks;
- Listen to the text of maps or documents with speech synthesis with karaoke highlighting;
- Print and export maps as images or PDFs.

Maps and documents in Algor Education are organized in convenient folders, distinguished by colors and icons. All materials are accessible from different devices with the same account.
The advantages of Algor Education are certainly the ease of use and automatic text functions, which make creating concept maps online much simpler and more interactive. Among all the sites for creating concept maps, Algor is the only one that allows you to create maps automatically.
Extremely useful is the ability to create maps from documents, such as digital books or note files: in a few clicks, it's easy to transition from the document to the map.
2. CmapTools
Cmap Tools is a free software developed by the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition of the State University System of Florida that allows you to create, share, and print concept maps. The software is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Cmap Tools offers a wide range of features, including the ability to create custom concept maps, add images, and share maps online. It allows users to create graphical nodes that represent concepts. They can then connect them using lines and linking words to form a network of related propositions that represent knowledge on a topic.
The software is available in both a downloadable version and a web version. To use the downloadable version of Cmap Tools, you must first download the program from the official website. Once installed, you can start creating maps using the user interface.
3. FreeMind
FreeMind is a free software for creating concept maps. The software is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. FreeMind offers a wide range of features, including the ability to insert links and images into the map, modify the layout of the map, and export the map in PDF or HTML format.
These are the main features of FreeMind:
- Fold branches of the map;
- Insert icons on nodes;
- Hyperlinks to the web and files from nodes;
- Export to HTML;
- Export images in PNG, JPEG, and SVG formats.
4. Vue
Vue is a downloadable open-source software that allows you to build maps, change shapes, colors, create links, insert images, audio, video, text, and links.
The obtained map can be saved in different formats, so it can be used on devices where the software used to create it is not installed, and it allows building maps starting from Excel.
5. MindMup
MindMup is an English language application for creating concept maps and mind maps designed to run in browsers. In fact, the created maps are saved in your online account. With MindMup, the user can:
- Create maps with different layouts in a convenient interface;
- Convert maps to PDF for printing;
- Publish and share maps online;
- Save maps to Google Drive.
The application's interface is easy to use for creating maps from scratch, although the commands are only available in English. MindMup does not integrate speech synthesis on maps and documents and does not allow creating concept maps from digital documents and books.