Real-time collaborative mind mapping — free
Invite your team. Edit the same mind map at the same time. See live cursors and avatars on the canvas. No merge conflicts, no "who saved last", no waiting for sync. Free on every plan.
How it works
- 1Create or open a board. Generate from text, URL, or file — or start with a blank canvas.
- 2Share a link or invite by email. Pick view-only or edit permissions per collaborator.
- 3Edit together. Changes appear in milliseconds. Live cursors show who is where on the canvas.
How real-time sync works
SpawnGraph uses Yjs, a conflict-free replicated data type (CRDT). In plain English: when two people edit the same map at the same time, both edits merge automatically into a consistent result — no overwrite, no "last save wins", no manual merge prompt. This is the same data model Google Docs uses for concurrent typing. Edits sync over a WebSocket connection in tens of milliseconds, so the experience feels instant. SpawnGraph uses client-side NLP — you can verify zero external network calls beyond the sync channel by opening DevTools → Network.
Live cursors and presence
Every collaborator has a named, color-coded cursor. You can see exactly where each teammate is on the canvas, which node they are editing, and follow them around if you want to look at the same part of the board. Avatars list everyone currently connected. When someone joins or leaves, you see it immediately. The experience is closer to Figma than to traditional mind mapping tools, which usually force you to refresh to see a collaborator's changes.
Free real-time collaboration — no per-seat pricing
Many mind mapping tools either omit real-time collaboration entirely, restrict it to paid plans, or charge per seat. Miro charges $10+ per user per month. MindMeister puts collab on a paid tier. Mapify is single-user only. SpawnGraph includes real-time collaboration on the free plan with no seat cap — the architecture is designed so collab does not cost more to run than single-user use, so it does not need to be priced that way.
Security and data handling in collab mode
Collaboration requires syncing CRDT state between participants, which is necessarily server-mediated. Edits are transmitted over WebSocket over TLS, and the CRDT state is persisted in SpawnGraph's database so the board survives a page refresh. Only invited collaborators (by link or email) can join a private board. The initial NLP generation step that produced the map is still client-side — only the resulting edits travel over the wire.
In short: SpawnGraph offers real-time, multi-user mind mapping with live cursors and CRDT-based conflict-free sync — free on every plan, no per-seat pricing.
SpawnGraph's collaboration exists because of one specific frustration. My research partner and I were mapping the same target over several days, and every tool forced a bad trade: either it was single-player, or it was an enterprise whiteboard that charged per seat and assumed a 50-person org with SSO.
We were two people who needed to open the same map and pick up exactly where the other left off — without re-explaining context every session. So real-time editing, named cursors, and per-person permissions are free here, and they'll stay free. It's the feature I needed first, built for small teams, not billed by the head.