Trout vs Thortspace
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Trout
This app helps you organize thoughts and ideas non-linearly using words and images. You can categorize concepts with color and shape, and enhance your maps with sketches and photos. Share your organized ideas as images or PDFs, or export them in OPML or markdown formats.
- Associate words and images
- Organize ideas non-linearly
- Categorize by color and shape
- Add sketches and photos
- Share as image or PDF
- Export OPML or markdown
- Freeform or automatic layout
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Trout is a mind mapping application that allows you to rapidly associate words and images, and help you organise your ideas in a non-linear way. It could assist you with organising an event, writing a document or solving a problem. Your ideas can be categorised by color and shape and you can add sketches and photos to your map. Features •Share your map as an image, PDF. •Export OPML or markdown •Freeform or automatic layout. •Basic sketching for quick visual capture
Thortspace
Visualize and organize your thoughts in a 3D space. This tool allows for collaborative brainstorming, problem-solving, and educational exploration with unique sphere-based mapping and linking structures. Create presentations and share your ideas easily.
- 3D sphere-based associative structures
- Multi-level linking and association
- Real-time collaboration
- Web publishing
- Content embedding (images, URLs)
- Presentation 'Journeys'
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Thortspace turns tangled thinking into clarity. Lay out everything you know about a difficult problem - every idea, every conflict, every loose end - then move it, group it and connect it until the shape of the answer appears. On your own, or with your team in real time. This is 3D mind mapping built around the way thinking actually works. Instead of a flat tree on a page, your ideas live on the surfaces of spheres you can turn, dive into and rearrange - so you are never forced to commit to a hierarchy before you understand the problem. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT * Ideas (called "thorts") sit on the surfaces of one or more spheres, presented in 3D * Group by proximity as well as by explicit connection - position carries meaning * Paths connect anything to anything: thort to thort, thort to group, group to group, sphere to sphere * Store several alternative arrangements of the same ideas and move between them * "Journeys" record a sequence of viewpoints, turning a finished map into a presentation * Real-time collaboration - think together, from anywhere, on the same sphere FEATURES * Works online and offline * Real-time collaborative editing * The same interface and the same data across every major platform and device * Thorts can hold images and links, and be colour-coded across several categorisations at once * Share by email, by private link, or publish to the web in one click * A newsfeed tracking your own and other people's contributions across shared spheres WHAT PEOPLE USE IT FOR Brainstorming, problem solving, concept mapping, research, study and revision, writing and outlining, strategy and planning, team sense-making, retrospectives - and thinking any difficult thing through to the end. Thortspace is built for experimental, multi-perspective reflection; for making chunks of thinking you can reuse as building blocks; for synthesis as much as analysis; and for the journey, not only the destination. Thortspace is protected by copyright © Gooisoft Ltd 2008-2026 and by patents granted in the UK, USA, Canada and Hong Kong: GB2494520, US9684426, CA2847602 and HK1183135. All thinks are possible. #Real_Intelligence
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Trout at 4.8 against Thortspace's 3.5. Thortspace's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 5 months) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.6). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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
Both are free to download. Trout sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per 2 months and Thortspace sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Trout holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 4 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 33% of Trout's written reviews are positive against 40% of Thortspace's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Trout ships an update every 5 months, Thortspace weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Trout | Thortspace |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (4 ratings) — better | 3.5 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews | 40.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 323 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Digital-Dirtbag | Gooisoft Limited |
Customer experience
Trout
Thortspace
In-app purchases
Trout
- 60 Day subscription$2.492 Months
- Free trialFree
- Lifetime Purchase$3.99
Thortspace
- 1 Month Subscription$14.99







