Comparison

Papyrus vs Mind Map

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

Head to head
About

Papyrus

This app is a native research workspace designed for reading, annotating, organizing, and citing PDFs across iPad, iPhone, and Mac. It allows users to mark up documents, take notes, manage collections, and prepare manuscripts with integrated citation tools.

Highlights
  • Read and annotate PDFs
  • Write on pages with Apple Pencil
  • Take Markdown notes beside source
  • Organize papers with folders and tags
  • Search titles, authors, notes, and full text
  • Group papers into projects for manuscript writing
  • Import PDFs and BibTeX/RIS files
Features
Read full description

Papyrus is a native research workspace for reading, annotating, organizing, and citing PDFs — built for iPad, iPhone, and Mac. READ AND ANNOTATE Open a paper in a fast built-in reader. Highlight, underline, and mark up pages, and every highlight stays searchable and linked back to its source. Bookmark a page as you go, and pick the paper up later from a Reading card that remembers where you stopped. On iPad, a References tab looks up the open paper's reference list and related work, so you can follow a citation trail and add what matters to your library without leaving the page. WRITE ON THE PAGE WITH APPLE PENCIL Mark up a PDF directly on iPad — annotate a proof, sketch beside a figure, work a derivation out in the margin. Your ink belongs to the paper and travels with it, encrypted, to your other devices. NOTES BESIDE THE SOURCE Keep Markdown notes next to each paper: headings, tables, code blocks, LaTeX math, and [[note]] cross-references. Notes stay with the paper and export as PDF when you need to share them. NOTEBOOKS Gather notes from across your library onto themed shelves — a topic, a chapter you're drafting, a reading group. Filing a note copies nothing and moves nothing: it still belongs to its paper, still says which paper that is, and one tap takes you there and back. A note can sit on several shelves at once. Fill a new shelf from what you've already written, search it by a note's text or by the paper behind it, order it four ways — including oldest paper first, which reads your own notes forward through the literature — and export a whole shelf as one Markdown document. All Notes lists everything you've written in one place, filed or not. ORGANIZE THE WAY YOU THINK Folders — a paper can live in several — plus tags, star ratings, and seven colored flags you can name yourself, each with its own shape so they stay tellable apart at a glance. Smart Collections keep themselves current from rules you set, including flag rules. Review Duplicates finds look-alike papers and merges each set after you confirm, combining tags, folders, projects, notes, and highlights. FIND ANYTHING Search titles, authors, notes, and highlights — or the full text inside your PDFs. TURN READING INTO WRITING Projects are where a reading pile becomes a manuscript. Group the papers behind a chapter or article, give each one a role, and capture evidence — claims, quotes, and your own interpretation — tied back to the source paper and page. Write the project note from a template (related work, method comparison, experiment plan, thesis chapter, reviewer response), keep its revision history, and run a preflight that catches missing citation keys and metadata gaps before you export. Export a bundle with Markdown, a BibTeX bibliography, and the PDFs. IMPORT AND CITE Bring in PDFs, whole folders, or BibTeX and RIS files — including libraries exported from Mendeley and Zotero. Papyrus looks up metadata by DOI or arXiv ID and fills in the details. Save papers straight from Safari with the included extension. Copy citations in the style you write in, and export BibTeX or RIS whenever you need them. READ ANYWHERE Paste an arXiv link, a DOI, or a PDF URL and Papyrus imports it, looks up the details, and fetches the PDF. Add a paper to Read Later and its PDF downloads ahead of time, so a flight or a commute doesn't need a signal. Ask Siri, or search from the Home Screen, to pick up the paper you were last reading on the page you left it. YOUR LIBRARY, YOUR DEVICES Your library syncs over iCloud across iPad, iPhone, and Mac. No account to create, no tracking, no ads. Free to download and use — every feature included, no in-app purchases, no subscription.

About

Mind Map

Visually organize your thoughts and plans with a variety of professional diagram styles. This tool offers templates and a blank canvas for brainstorming, project planning, and note-taking, all without needing an account. Your work is stored locally for privacy and offline access.

Highlights
  • Eight diagram types
  • Template library
  • My Maps hub
  • Offline-first functionality
  • Clean interface
  • No account required
Features
Read full description

Turn scattered ideas into clear visual maps in seconds. Mind Map helps you brainstorm, plan projects, take study notes, and organize workflows with eight professional diagram styles—no account required. Whether you are prepping for exams, mapping a product launch, or breaking down a complex problem, start from ready-made templates or a blank canvas. Radial, tree, process, network, fishbone, concept, circle, and timeline layouts cover everyday thinking tasks. • Eight diagram types for brainstorming, planning, and learning • Template library to start fast on common use cases • My Maps hub to browse and reopen your work • Statistics view to track activity over time • Offline-first: your maps stay on your device • Clean interface designed for phone and tablet Perfect for students, teachers, creators, and professionals who want a simple, private mind mapping tool.

Screenshots

Papyrus4 screens
Mind Map4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Papyrus at Free against Mind Map's $1.99. Papyrus also leads on update cadence (weekly vs monthly). Mind Map's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

Papyrus is free to download; Mind Map costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Papyrus ships an update weekly, Mind Map monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Papyrus versus Mind Map: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPapyrusMind Map
PriceFree — better$1.99
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews—0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperZhenda FuXiamen City Fanyou Network Technology Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

Papyrus

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Mind Map

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

None

Papyrus

No in-app purchases

None

Mind Map

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Papyrus free?
Papyrus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Mind Map free?
Mind Map costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Papyrus or Mind Map have ads?
Neither Papyrus nor Mind Map shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Papyrus or Mind Map?
Papyrus ships an update weekly, and Mind Map monthly. Most recently, Papyrus was updated on November 9, 2026 and Mind Map on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons