Mindscope 2 vs Structured Outliner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Mindscope 2
Capture and organize your thoughts visually with a fluid mind-mapper and outliner. Create nested entries, link ideas, and export your work in various formats. Syncs across Apple devices and offers offline access.
- Free-form visual boards
- Instant outlining and nesting
- Multiple boards per project
- Rich entry types (text, links, todos, notes)
- Line and arrow connections
- Smart Undo/Redo
- Multiple export formats (OPML, PDF, PNG, HTML)
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Mindscope 2 is the fastest way to capture your thoughts and keep them organized. A fluid, visual mind-mapper and outliner in one, built entirely with SwiftUI and running on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even Apple Watch. Create entries to capture your thoughts anywhere on a simple and elegant free-form text canvas, drag them around, and tap to zoom into an entry to enter its own space to add sub-entries, for as many levels as you want. Use the "breadcrumb bar", or a quick pinch gesture to jump up a level. Some highlights: • Free-form visual boards with smooth, speefy navigation. • Instant outlining. Drag your entries to reorder, nest, and shape ideas. • Multiple boards for different projects. Entries saved where you want them. • Entry types: text, links (including deep links to other apps!), todos, and long-form notes. • Drag open a selection rectangle for moving and styling multiple entries at once. Long-press for context menus. • Draw lines and arrows between entries. Customize arrowheads. • Smart Undo/Redo of your changes. • Set bookmarks for quick access to key entries. • Lock entries you don’t want to move or enter into. • Rich styling: fonts, colors, backgrounds, rotations. Preserved in exports. • Reminders on any entry: one-time or repeating. Notifications will then pop up which take you straight to the item. • Multi-window support on iPad and Mac. Full keyboard shortcuts and native menus. • iCloud (CloudKit) sync. Work offline and catch up later. • Intelligent paste with local Apple Intelligence: automatically summarize pasted text into tidy, titled bullet hierarchies. • Instant global search across all your entries. • Gorgeous liquid glass UI. Exporting makes sure you retain complete control of your data: • Mindscope archive (.mindscope2) • OPML (supported by most mind-mapping apps) • Bullet-list text • PDF (multi-page optional) • PNG (per board) • Interactive single-file HTML export that mirrors the real app, complete with navigation, styling, lines, and todos, and works offline in any browser. Importing works too. Open .mindscope2 files into new top-level boards, or bring in OPML with formatting, positions, metadata, and line connections preserved. Mindscope 2 is completely free to use with all the way up to 200 entries and 2 boards. All features, all export options, all syncing included. When you get close to the limits, you’ll see gentle upgrade prompts to get the Pro version either as a subscription or a one-time purchase. Mindscope Pro unlocks unlimited boards and entries and there is a 14-day trial as well for the monthly/yearly plans. Early adopters get the low prices locked in. Apple Watch app included for a synced, streamlined list view on the wrist. I made Mindscope 2 for my own usage, with my primary focus being speed and focus, for getting thoughts out of my head, organized, and easily accessible later. Try it for free and see if your brain doesn't feel just a bit lighter after using it a bit. (EULA: http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula)
Structured Outliner
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Keep your entire outline in a single portable file you control. No account, no server, no lock-in, future-proof. ORGANIZE IN UNLIMITED DEPTH Build trees as deep as you need. Expand, collapse, and reorder topics with just a few taps. Every topic can have its own notes. Write as much or as little as you like. SEARCH EVERYTHING Search titles or note content at once. The tree expands automatically to show every match in context, so you always know where a result lives in your outline. CROSS-LINK TOPICS Link any note to another topic using the outlook: link format. Tap to jump directly there. Tap the back arrow to return where you came from. OPEN FILES AND URLS Tap any file path or URL inside a note to open it. Connect your outline to existing documents in the folder: PDFs, photos, or anything else you reference. COLOR LABELS Assign a background color to any topic: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, or Purple. The color flows down to all child topics that don't have their own. Use it to visually separate sections at a glance. AUTOMATIC BACKUPS The app writes a .bak backup before every save. Restore at any time from the menu. SYNC YOUR WAY Store your file in iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or any Files-compatible provider. Open it from there on each device. No special sync setup required. MEMPAD COMPATIBLE Structured Outliner uses the same .lst format as MemPad for Windows, a portable outliner that has been around since the early 2000s. Open existing MemPad files directly, no conversion needed. FREE VERSION Structured Outliner is free to use. Development is supported by a small banner ad shown at the bottom of the screen. PRO VERSION Upgrade to Pro to remove the banner ad, unlock Color Labels and Topic + Note Search and future planned features. One-time purchase. Restore on any device from the menu.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Mindscope 2 at none against Structured Outliner's shown. Mindscope 2 also leads on device support (4 vs 2). Structured Outliner's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 5 weeks). On price, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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. Mindscope 2 sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Structured Outliner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Mindscope 2 ships an update every 5 weeks, Structured Outliner every 9 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Mindscope 2 | Structured Outliner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | John Goering | Felipe Carraro |
In-app purchases
Mindscope 2
- Mindscope Pro Monthly14 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Mindscope Pro Yearly14 Days trial$17.991 Year
- Mindscope Pro Lifetime$29.99
Structured Outliner
- Pro Version$7.99









