Comparison

MindSpace vs BigPaper

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MindSpace

Create and organize ideas quickly with a visual mind mapping tool. Edit, export, and share your maps across devices. Offers a minimalist design and secure data storage.

Highlights
  • Create concise mind maps
  • Organize ideas with colors and stickers
  • Capture fleeting inspiration
  • Exquisite and minimalist themes
  • Secure document editor for data
  • Free sharing of mind maps
Features
Read full description

Quickly create clean and simple mind maps. Edit them on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Export anytime to PDF, Images, Markdown, and other formats to share in your work and studies. Quickly Create Personalized Mind Maps • Efficiency: We split "Themes" into "Layouts" and "Color Schemes", carefully designing over 50 layouts and 60 color schemes. They support one-tap switching and can be freely combined into multiple styles. • Personalization: You can create your own layouts and color schemes, presetting almost all formatting options such as growth direction, width, spacing, structure, shapes, and the color of each individual branch. • Freedom: You can set different layouts for two separate mind maps, or even different layouts for different branches to form a hybrid structure mind map to present your content. You can also set it to "Manual Layout" to flexibly place every single node. Enrich Your Mind Maps in Multiple Ways • Notes: Add a place for supplementary information with support for quick viewing. • Links: Add a web link or local link. Local links can specify and jump to concrete nodes within the file. • Tasks: Add task buttons that can display progress checkboxes. • Relationships: Add relationship lines between two nodes or internal positions within a node. • Summaries: Add curly braces or polygon shapes for multiple nodes. • Images: Insert local images and set their alignment with text. • Drawings: Drawings made with Apple Pencil can also be inserted inside nodes. • Equations: Support adding LaTeX equations and modifying them at any time. • Stickers: Built-in with more than 1,000 beautiful stickers. AI Assistant Doubles Your Efficiency (Optional) • Expand: Enter an idea to quickly branch out content from different angles. • Convert: Transform a long article into a clearly structured mind map. • Image to Mind Map: Convert images containing text into a mind map with the matching structure. • Rewrite: Re-output much better text for a specified node. Mainstream Import & Export Formats • Import: Supports Markdown, OPML, TXT, FreeMind, iThoughts, etc. • Export: Supports PDF, JPG, PNG, TXT, Markdown, OPML, etc. More Convenient Features • Outline: One-tap toggle to outline mode, or start editing and arranging structures directly from the outline view. • Shortcuts: Provides a rich keyboard shortcut system that is fully customizable. • Focus Mode: Light up only your selected node and its related nodes for seamless presentation work. • Other Features: Canvas guides, widgets, auto-follow, and more. Data Security We build the App using the most safe and reliable architecture—a document-based editor. Your data belongs solely to you. The AI assistant only processes data you provide to it, and you can turn off AI globally. Subscription Information • You can subscribe to the "Pro" version monthly or annually. • Payments will be charged to your iTunes Account. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current billing period. • Manage or cancel subscriptions anytime in your App Store Account Settings after purchase. Email: todo-color@outlook.com Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://rednowapp.github.io/privacy-policy/

About

BigPaper

This app offers an infinite canvas for note-taking, PDF annotation, and mind mapping. Import various document formats and add text, handwriting, tables, and more. Efficiently organize and edit content without page limitations.

Highlights
  • Infinite canvas for freeform note-taking
  • Import and annotate PDFs and other documents
  • Mind mapping with element connections
  • Handwriting and drawing tools with Smart Shapes
  • Table creation and linking
  • Multi-format document import and export
  • Screenshot mode for quick content capture
Features
Read full description

BigPaper is a borderless note taking application. You can import and expand PDFs and other formats in BigPaper and freely take notes in an infinite canvas without being limited by the edges of the document. You can use BigPaper on both iPhone and iPad for efficient editing with iCloud data sync. Whether it's annotating PDFs, making handbooks, or creating mind maps, BigPaper is ready to go. BigPaper's features include multi-format document import, text input, handwriting, mind mapping, tables, scanned documents, free edge screenshots, containers, folder management, search for handwriting and text, etc. We welcome every rating, and we will read every piece of feedback and take notes to incorporate it in future updates. Your 5-star review will encourage us to continue to upgrade BigPaper and introduce new features. —— Introduction of functions —— 「Infinite canvas, freeform add elements」 Canvas can be zoomed and moved for editing. Add documents in multiple formats such as PDF, as well as multiple types of elements such as tables, text, drawings, handwriting, pictures, stickers, paper, scanned documents, and more. These elements can be scaled and rotated. 「Mind Mapping - Easily connect ideas」 Innovative mind mapping mode. Connect elements on the page (text, pictures, tables, etc.) to quickly generate mind maps from inspiration. Also support the step-by-step enlargement of the idea by expanding the mind map. 「Type anywhere」 Customize the font, size and color of the text. To-do list, bullets can be added to the text. 「Brush Tool - Handwritten and Drawings」 Customize brush presets including color, transparency, tip size. Full-screen drawing, freely annotated documents that are not limited by the edges of the document. Smart Shapes: Hold a stylus or fingertip after drawing a graphic on the screen, intelligently recognize and generate the perfect shape. 「Create Table」 Easy create forms. Add row, add column, move row, move column. Tables can be linked to mind maps. 「Import and Export」 Imported document formats: PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, etc. Expand all pages of the document to easily read and highlight all the content. Select text in the document to copy. Export PDF, export image, and BigPaper format. WYSIWYG, everything can be displayed in the exported document. 「Reading Mode」 Customize the "scrolling direction" to realize the classic reading mode. 「Screenshot Mode - Quickly capture key points」 In screenshot mode, you can continuously select areas to take screenshots, these screenshots will be added to the canvas immediately, and can continue to be edited and added to the mind map. 「Stickers, Paper Templates」 The themes of stickers include weather, three-dimensional geometry, music, etc., saving creation time and improving note-taking efficiency. Use stickers and paper stencils in combination to create beautiful manuscripts. 「Multiple Selection Tool - Efficient Editing」 You can freely select an area on the canvas using the multi-selection tool. The selected content as a whole can be resized, rotated, moved, deleted, and exported.Draw borders to take screenshots freely. 「Manage files with folders」 You can create folders to manage files. Easy personalization includes folder editing, file moving, sticking to the top, and more. 「iCloud Sync」 Continue to create notes on different devices and capture inspiration anytime, anywhere. 「Scan」 Scan documents, OCR text recognition(Available in English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and Spanish.) 「Search and Jump Locations」 Search for handwriting, text, text in documents. Also: OCR text recognition results of scanned documents and recognition of text in pictures. Contact us and send feedback: bp_10happy@hotmail.com

Screenshots

MindSpace4 screens
BigPaper3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: MindSpace at 89% against BigPaper's 27%. MindSpace also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.0) and ratings volume (287 vs 17). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. MindSpace sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and BigPaper sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

MindSpace holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MindSpace has 287 ratings behind it against 17, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 89% of MindSpace's written reviews are positive against 27% of BigPaper's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 15, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
MindSpace versus BigPaper: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMindSpaceBigPaper
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (287 ratings) — better4.0 (17 ratings)
Positive reviews88.7% of reviews — better26.7% of reviews
Number of ratings287 — better17
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size55 MB253 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer佳文 潘10happy Technology Development(Dalian) Co.,Ltd.

Customer experience

MindSpace

All ratings287 ratings
Positive91.3%
Neutral2.4%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews141 reviews
Positive88.7%
Neutral6.4%
Negative5.0%

BigPaper

All ratings17 ratings
Positive64.7%
Neutral29.4%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive26.7%
Neutral46.7%
Negative26.7%

Bugs and requests

MindSpace

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Nodes and content randomly disappearing
  • Compatibility issues with older devices
  • Syncing problems between devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to scribble or handwrite notes
  • Improve keyboard shortcuts and text editing
  • Implement more advanced charting and data visualization
  • Allow custom node shapes and connection styles
  • Add support for importing/exporting other mind map formats

BigPaper

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

6 purchases

MindSpace

Subscriptions2
  • Subscription Monthly2 variants$0.991 Month
  • Subscription Yearly2 variants$7.991 Year
One-time4
  • 2000 AI Credits$1.49
  • Lifetime Pro2 variants$12.99
  • Lifetime Pro(Original)$12.99
Show 1 more
  • Lifetime Pro$29.99
1 purchases

BigPaper

One-time1
  • BigPaper - Full Version Unlock$8.99

Questions

Is MindSpace free?
MindSpace is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BigPaper free?
BigPaper is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MindSpace or BigPaper?
MindSpace is rated higher. MindSpace averages 4.6 out of 5 from 287 ratings, while BigPaper averages 4.0 from 17 ratings.
Do MindSpace or BigPaper have ads?
Neither MindSpace nor BigPaper shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MindSpace or BigPaper?
MindSpace ships an update every 5 days, and BigPaper every 5 days. Most recently, MindSpace was updated on October 15, 2026 and BigPaper on October 15, 2026.

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