# Mindscope - Thought Organizer — The Mind-Mapping Outliner > A simple, powerful outliner for organizing thoughts and ideas. (iPhone/iPad app by John Goering.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mindscope-thought-organizer/id901513028 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [John Goering](https://appshunter.io/developer/507507566) - Category: Productivity, Education - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 4.00/5 from 46 App Store ratings · 181 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 14.0 · 27 MB - Languages: American English, German (Germany) - Released: 2014-08-19 - Data updated: 2026-08-27 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mindscope-thought-organizer/id901513028/reviews.md ## What is Mindscope? Mindscope is a new and powerfully simple way to store your thoughts without getting lost in the details. • Quickly create text entries with a double-tap and drag them around, aligning them to each other. Perfect for brainstorming, capturing, and sorting thoughts or taking notes. • Tapping an entry enters its own page where you can create more entries (and as many sub-boards as you like). • Drag entries into other entries to quickly sort your thoughts into categories and projects. • Keep track of lists, todos, notes, and anything else you feel like keeping track of, for example a list of ways to be funny when writing an app description. Or something. • Copy and paste entries including their sub-entries • Export all entries and sub-entries of a board via e-mail as a bullet list. • Import any saved .mindscope file. • Set a default font size for any board (long-press on a font size and select "Set As Default" All of the above, as a universal app, with iCloud sync...completely for free! Yeah, I know, I can't believe it either. You can "pay" me with an App Store review, how does that sound? However, if you are up for spending money, with the "Unlock Everything" in-app purchase, you can also save your own .mindscope files, search through all your entries instantly, create cross-links between boards, create arrows and lines between entries, set up a grid background for a page, set your own colors per page, and export boards to an OPML file (suitable for opening in most major mind-mapping programs). Any upcoming features in future updates will be included for the unlocked version at no extra cost. See a video of Mindscope in action at http://www.mindscopeapp.com Quotes from happy customers: "It’s hitting a sweet spot for me. I have pretty much every single Mind-Mapping or Outlining app for iOS, and this is among the best.” “This is EXACTLY what I've been hoping for. I so need to send flowers to your mother for having you.” "Mindscope is a terrific app, elegant, easy to use, and incredibly useful.” "Scapple for Mac comes closest to Mindscope in its combination of function, ease of use and minimalism but Mindscope is better." "A very cool app. Think of it as Workflowy unbound from the outline." ## Key features - Create and drag text entries - Nested sub-boards - Sort thoughts into categories - Export as bullet list - Import .mindscope files - In-app purchase for advanced features ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | Unlock Everything | $3.99 | one-time | ## What do users think of Mindscope? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Intuitive and easy-to-learn interface - 💡 Unique hybrid of mind-mapping, outliner, and note-taking - 🎯 Excellent for organizing thoughts without clutter - ⚡ Fast and responsive performance - 💰 Affordable one-time purchase ($5) - 🔄 Flexible free-form spatial organization - 📤 Export functionality (OPML, text, email) - 🎨 Clean, minimalist design - 🧠 Great for ADHD and divergent thinkers - 🔗 Cross-linking and hierarchy system - 📚 Drill-down capability for organizing details - ⌨️ Keyboard shortcut support (in later versions) - 👨‍💻 Responsive and friendly developer **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues - 📱 Poor iPad optimization and crashes - ⚠️ Text overlapping in free version - 🔄 Sync issues across multiple devices - 📵 Limited iCloud functionality and hanging - 🖼️ No image or photo support - ✏️ No Apple Pencil support - 🔤 No text formatting (bold, colors, fonts) - 📄 Limited canvas size (not infinite) - 🗂️ Poor file management system - ❌ No multi-document support - 🔌 Lack of recent updates and maintenance - 📲 No iPhone version available - 🔗 Limited import/export compatibility - ⌨️ Keyboard support issues in earlier versions - 🎯 Overly sensitive grouping behavior - 💾 Data loss on iOS upgrades **Commonly reported bugs** - App crashes when adding entries - Text input box disappears before typing - Crashes on iPad with iOS 15 upgrade - iCloud access causes app to hang indefinitely - Crashes when exporting to plain text - Data loss during iOS version upgrades - Layout issues when rotating device orientation - Crashes when searching linked elements - Crashes when inserting text - Bluetooth keyboard input not working (earlier versions) - Audio playback interruption - Alignment and sync issues across devices - Copy-paste groups items on top of originals - Undo/redo sequence inconsistencies - Version 1.5 splash screen hang on startup **Most requested features** - Image and photo insertion capability - Apple Pencil handwriting support - Text formatting (bold, colors, font options) - Infinite or larger canvas with zoom - iPhone app version - Cloud sync (Dropbox, iCloud improvements) - Multiple independent maps/documents - Dark mode theme - Better file management system - Import from other mind-mapping apps - Color-coding individual entries - Calendar and reminders integration - Web version or Mac companion app - Notification features - Improved animation controls - Circular context menu for faster access - Plain text export without HTML markup - Randomize board item locations - Flowchart options ## Recent user reviews (10 of 181) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mindscope-thought-organizer/id901513028/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Einfach, minimalistisch - super! *2025-05-22* Ich habe lange nach einer Alternative zu Scapple gesucht und sie hier gefunden. Mindmap-Maps sind mir in der Regel zu überladen. Ich möchte mich auf das Wesentliche konzentrieren. Was mich bei Mindscope begeistert: Schlichtes Design gepaart mit absoluter Funktionalität. ### 2/5 — Overlapping Text *2025-04-08, version 1.60* I got the free version to try and it has a lot of overlapping text. I decided not to buy. ### 5/5 — Still excellent and unique years on *2025-02-07* I’m not looking forward to the day this app stops existing or working! I wish it was supported better by users and perhaps updated a bit more often purely to breathe life into it. There’s nothing exactly like it and it’s excellent for organising thoughts without clutter. Love it. ### 5/5 — The future *2024-12-24* Please fix the crashes on iPad!!! Soon we will all need software like this, as the world becomes faster and thoughts become non-linear. The simplicity of capturing dwindling thoughts with this app is amazing. I use obsidian on my pc, but this is so much simpler in utilization than canvas, love the drawers, the cross-links The only thing it’s missing is infinite (or larger than iPhone screen) canvas & ability to zoom in and out. ### 5/5 — The future *2024-11-19* Soon we will all need software like this, as the world becomes faster and thoughts become non-linear. The simplicity of capturing dwindling thoughts with this app is amazing. I use obsidian on my pc, but this is so much simpler in utilization than canvas, love the drawers, the cross-links The only thing it’s missing is infinite (or larger than iPhone screen) canvas & ability to zoom in and out. ### 5/5 — Useful and Affordable! *2024-10-09* MindScope has the perfect balance between functionality and simplicity. It’s easy to learn but also has the features you need to quickly organize your ideas and make them look great. Plus it’s extremely affordable via one time payment. Thank you John! ### 4/5 — Great App - one wish *2024-08-23* Was looking for something like scapple on the iPad and iPhone, found Mindscope, great. Here my wish: option to import/export from/to scapple 😃 ### 3/5 — Can’t add photos *2024-07-12* So far I’m loving this app but a big drawback is not being able to add photos which is important to my digital mind mapping experience as a writer and an artist. ### 5/5 — Love this but… *2023-08-05, version 1.60* Sometimes it crashes while I’m typing or editing and I would also like to suggest we can add pictures. ### 4/5 — Novel Planning 4 stars *2023-06-04* I’m giving Mindscope 4 stars, because I needed a portable, fast way to fill in all aspects of novel planning, that could then be exported to other apps for desktop based planning and writing. I haven’t explored that aspect yet, so I can’t give it 5 just yet. That will be the icing on this cake. On my desktop I use Scapple from Literature and Latte who make Scrivener. Similar reason in the it’s a free placement system. However, I like Mindscope’s hierarchy system. This lets me have a short and snappy top level, and drill down for detail. Scrivener does something similar, but not free placement and the ipad version isn’t as good as the desktop anyway. For reference, I’m still using the free version. But fast approaching buying and unlocking other goodies. ## Frequently asked questions about Mindscope ### What is Mindscope? Mindscope is a productivity app designed for organizing thoughts and ideas. It allows users to create text entries, drag them around, and nest them within sub-boards to build complex structures for brainstorming, note-taking, and project management. ### What are the key features of Mindscope? Key features include the ability to quickly create and arrange text entries, create unlimited sub-boards, sort thoughts into categories, export content as a bulleted list, and import saved .mindscope files. The app also offers iCloud sync. ### Is Mindscope free to use? The core functionality of Mindscope is completely free, including iCloud sync. However, an optional 'Unlock Everything' in-app purchase is available for advanced features such as saving custom files, instant search, cross-linking, and exporting to OPML. ### What devices is Mindscope compatible with? Mindscope is a universal app, meaning it is designed to work across different Apple devices. It also features iCloud sync, allowing your data to be accessible across your devices. ### How can I use Mindscope for my projects? Mindscope is ideal for brainstorming sessions, capturing fleeting ideas, creating to-do lists, organizing research, and managing project outlines. Its flexible structure allows you to map out complex thoughts and sort them into manageable categories. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.60 — 2022-09-25 Mainly a bug fix release for you guys! Thanks to everyone for their massive patience and kind words - so honored that so many of you find this concept useful and helpful! * FIXED: now once again able to save / load boards * FIXED: potential crash when picking colors * FIXED: some iCloud sync issues * FIXED: some issues when typing with connected Bluetooth keyboards ### 1.55 — 2017-11-15 This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon. Thanks for everyone's awesome feedback! Here's what's new in this update: * iPhone X compatibility * Fixed too small font size on iPhone * You can now set a font size as global default - for new entries not only on the current board but on any board. * Fixed help video and description referring to the old edit button (pencil) instead of the new one. ### 1.53 — 2017-09-18 * Fixed: OPML export created invalid OPML when quotation marks were in entries. * Added simple drag & drop functionality: drag text into Mindscope and it will become a new entry! * iOS 11 compatibility ### 1.52 — 2017-06-28 Mindscope 1.52 Added iOS 11 compatibility and fixed a rare crash bug. ----- Mindscope 1.51 A quick bug fix update, plus I've added a contact button so you can email me easily (located at the bottom of the Help section) ----- Mindscope 1.5 After many, MANY hours of work, this is the update you've all been waiting for! Before I get to what all is new, I first want to give a HUGE thank you to...YOU. You all have been incredibly kind and patient and encouraging over this long wait. Your emails and app reviews have been one of the highlights of this whole project for me. So, without further ado, here are the big new things in Mindscope 1.5: --- iPhone & iPad compatible --- That's right, Mindscope now runs on your iPhone as well for when you're on the go! It's really useful for taking notes on the go. Especially because of... --- iCloud sync --- Your Mindscope entries can now be stored in iCloud. If you do so, it will sync between your iPhone and your iPad! If there are any problems, please let me know! I have spent many hours testing and polishing this - it should Just Work. Note that if you don't want to use this, you also have the option to simply work locally (like before). The entries are synced when you have Internet and are primarily updated when you first open up the app. If you've made a change on your other device that you aren't seeing yet, trying exiting and re-entering. --- Bluetooth keyboard fix --- Bluetooth keyboards now work great again with Mindscope! Creating entries used to not work when a Bluetooth keyboard was connected. This has now been fixed, in fact, I've gone even further and added a ton of... --- Keyboard shortcuts --- Many, MANY new keyboard shortcuts makes using Mindscope with a keyboard simply awesome. Hold down the Cmd key on your keyboard to see them all. Everything from navigating to creating to editing to styling can now be done via keyboard. It's AWESOME, if I do say so myself (and I do). --- New action side menu --- Instead of a popup, an action bar now slides in when highlighting entries - this makes life way easier especially on the iPhone, since this way the action buttons won't pop up under your finger, and also there is room for all the actions. --- Massive internal refactoring & rewrite in Swift --- This one you won't see much of on the outside, but I've rewritten many parts of the app in Swift to provide a better foundation for The Future. Please let me know what you think, and if you like it, consider updating your App Store review! Finally I'd like to give a special shoutout to Chris Galtenberg who was far and away the biggest encourager of them all - Chris, your passion for Mindscope nearly rivals my own. Thanks for being awesome, man! ### 1.51 — 2017-06-22 Mindscope 1.51 A quick bug fix update, plus I've added a contact button so you can email me easily (located at the bottom of the Help section) ----- Mindscope 1.5 After many, MANY hours of work, this is the update you've all been waiting for! Before I get to what all is new, I first want to give a HUGE thank you to...YOU. You all have been incredibly kind and patient and encouraging over this long wait. Your emails and app reviews have been one of the highlights of this whole project for me. So, without further ado, here are the big new things in Mindscope 1.5: --- iPhone & iPad compatible --- That's right, Mindscope now runs on your iPhone as well for when you're on the go! It's really useful for taking notes on the go. Especially because of... --- iCloud sync --- Your Mindscope entries can now be stored in iCloud. If you do so, it will sync between your iPhone and your iPad! If there are any problems, please let me know! I have spent many hours testing and polishing this - it should Just Work. Note that if you don't want to use this, you also have the option to simply work locally (like before). The entries are synced when you have Internet and are primarily updated when you first open up the app. If you've made a change on your other device that you aren't seeing yet, trying exiting and re-entering. --- Bluetooth keyboard fix --- Bluetooth keyboards now work great again with Mindscope! Creating entries used to not work when a Bluetooth keyboard was connected. This has now been fixed, in fact, I've gone even further and added a ton of... --- Keyboard shortcuts --- Many, MANY new keyboard shortcuts makes using Mindscope with a keyboard simply awesome. Hold down the Cmd key on your keyboard to see them all. Everything from navigating to creating to editing to styling can now be done via keyboard. It's AWESOME, if I do say so myself (and I do). --- New action side menu --- Instead of a popup, an action bar now slides in when highlighting entries - this makes life way easier especially on the iPhone, since this way the action buttons won't pop up under your finger, and also there is room for all the actions. --- Massive internal refactoring & rewrite in Swift --- This one you won't see much of on the outside, but I've rewritten many parts of the app in Swift to provide a better foundation for The Future. Please let me know what you think, and if you like it, consider updating your App Store review! Finally I'd like to give a special shoutout to Chris Galtenberg who was far and away the biggest encourager of them all - Chris, your passion for Mindscope nearly rivals my own. Thanks for being awesome, man! ## Apps similar to Mindscope | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Escape - Mind Map & Outline](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/escape-mind-map-and-outline/id1361976813) | 4.3 (41) | Free | Productivity | | [MindSpace - Mind Map](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mindspace-mind-map/id1585502524) | 4.6 (284) | Free | Productivity | | [EdrawMind: AI Mind Map, Notes](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/edrawmind-ai-mind-map-notes/id1483705713) | 4.6 (203) | Free | Productivity | | [Mind Mapping - MindMeister](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mind-mapping-mindmeister/id381073026) | 4.4 (1,265) | Free | Productivity | | [Inclr: Mindmap Notes Organizer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/inclr-mindmap-notes-organizer/id1060692932) | 3.8 (27) | Free | Productivity | | [Mindly (mind mapping)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mindly-mind-mapping/id771221376) | 4.5 (1,049) | Free | Productivity | ## More apps by John Goering - [In-Flight Assistant](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/in-flight-assistant/id1180642964) - [BridgePad](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bridgepad/id1311836790) - [In-Flight Operations](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/in-flight-operations/id1448204117) - [SmoothTrack: Head Tracker](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/smoothtrack-head-tracker/id1528839485) - [Stack 5 Dice Roller](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/stack-5-dice-roller/id1580956160) All apps by John Goering: https://appshunter.io/developer/507507566 ## Related topics [brainstorm organizer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/brainstorm-organizer) · [thoughts organize](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/thoughts-organize) · [thought organizer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/thought-organizer) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*