Ayoa Review: Is It Worth It?

Ayoa is a useful team management and brainstorming tool. If you’re in charge of teams or want to get more organized, our Ayoa review explains more.

It can be challenging to keep everything straight when working on larger projects, especially when multiple people are involved. Luckily, there are tons of project management tools on the market to help you keep everything straight. These can help you mind map quickly and even brainstorm too.

Ayoa is one such tool. It functions as an all-in-one board where you can brainstorm ideas and put everything together. In addition, this tool features a unique line of features, like mind mapping and team collaboration. 

But is Ayoa really worth the price? How better is it than traditional team management? Below, we’ll take a look at Ayoa’s range of features and tools. 

Review Methodology

Ayoa review

Ayoa has a wide range of tools. You don’t necessarily have to use all of them for it to make a difference in your business. However, for the sake of this review, I did use all of their tools for a variety of purposes. 

With that said, Ayoa is highly customizable, so it is nearly impossible to test out all potential uses and layouts. However, by extensively testing all their different tools, I did get a pretty good idea of what the software is capable of. 

What Is Ayoa?

Ayoa is a mind-mapping tool, first-and-foremost. Most people who use this tool do so primarily because of the mind-mapping capabilities. However, it also has a range of other features and collaboration software that may be useful. 

Ayoa is owned by Opengenius and was initially referred to as iMindMap. However, it has extended its offerings beyond just mind maps, which prompted a name change. 

This software was created to replace other task management tools on the market. Ayoa is a solely online tool, which allows for collaboration between different team members. 

There are tons of different tools on this platform, allowing you to manage your team in a variety of different ways. For example, you can use it to plan a project or conduct meetings, while the mind-maps can be shared easily, allowing for more collaboration. 

Compared to other team management tools, Ayoa strives to be innovative and easy to use. While it does have many tools, the software tries hard not to make the tools overwhelming. 

Ayoa also has a level of beauty to it. Compared to other software, this company tries to make the user interface beautiful and easy to manage. While a nice-looking interface isn’t essential, it does make the interface a bit nicer to use!

This software also includes apps, allowing you to work from your phone. The apps are available for both Android and iOS.

Miro, Trello, and Clickup are all popular competitors. 

Pricing

Ayoa does offer some free tools. However, if you want to use their most powerful features, you’ll need to pay. They do offer a free trial to help you decide if their software is right for you, though. 

Currently, subscriptions cost about $12 a month of the lowest-paid option. However, they offer many different “tiers” for you to choose from, which slowly get more expensive. 

Key Features

Compared to other software on the market, Ayoa has a lot of features – and they keep adding more all the time. However, I’d guess that most users don’t use all of the features. 

However, the variety of features does allow you to pick and choose which parts you need easily. 

Radial Maps

Perhaps the most popular and important feature Ayoa features are its mind-mapping software. This tool is Ayoa’s primary feature. 

There are tons of different mind-mapping options and tools. You can basically do whatever you want with these mind maps. 

The radial maps are particularly special, though. These allow you to structure your ideas a bit like a pie-chart. 

When it comes to brainstorming and sharing ideas, this sort of visualization can be beneficial. It provides a structure to the task and helps you stay oriented towards your main goal. 

You can adjust each segment as necessary. 

Mind Maps

Ayoa is a mind-mapping tool first and foremost. Most users are going to utilize their mind-mapping tools. (If they aren’t, I’d seriously question why they’re using Ayoa in the first place.)

This software allows its users to create new ideas and share feedback with others on their team quickly and efficiently. In addition, there are tons of individual features on their mind-mapping tool, making it one of the most comprehensive available. 

These maps can be highly intuitive and organic. You can easily change the branches and colors. You can even add images as necessary. 

As you might expect, the mind mapping tool is pretty fast and easy to use. 

You can also present the map to other users one branch at a time. You may use this during presentations or when trying to encourage focus on a specific area. It can also prevent things from getting overwhelming, which can often happen with a huge mind map. 

Read our guide to the best mind mapping software.

Video Chat

Ayoa offers integrated video chat. However, it is only available for the Ultimate plan, which is quite expensive. If your team works remotely, this feature may be necessary for connectivity. 

It has built-in Zoom integration for meetings that involve brainstorming. Your team can meet and communicate without ever leaving the app!

However, how helpful you find this may vary. I already used Zoom, and it wasn’t difficult for me to switch apps to use Zoom while brainstorming. Ayoa is a bit more convenient, but you’re paying quite a high price for it. 

With that said, the video chat is well put together and feature-rich. It works just as well as some of the other video chat features – but you’re going to pay more for it. 

Collaborative Whiteboard

Ayoa Review: Collaborative whiteboard
You can start with a completely blank canvas or use a template

Ayoa’s whiteboard is entirely online. Therefore, it allows you to plan projects with remote team members very easily. You can even hold online meetings through the software using the available features.

You can start with a completely blank canvas or use a template. For the first few times, using a template may be very helpful. 

They’re quite helpful, unlike templates from other companies. You can get started right away with the use of a template.

However, there are some downsides to this. Because everything is online, working offline isn’t very helpful. You need to be connected to the internet to make use of most of the features.

If you tend to work offline a lot, you may need to re-think using this tool. As someone who works offline occasionally, this was a considerable setback for me. 

Public Mind Map Sharing

You have the option to share your mind map with many other people. This is called “public” sharing and can be incredibly useful if you need to share your mind map with lots of other people. 

I found this feature to be super helpful when you have lots of team members or run events. Quickly giving everyone access to the map is far easier than gathering and updating things for every individual person. 

Setting the map to public is extremely easy as well. You just have to change one setting. You can then share it with many people at once – even if they don’t have an Ayoa account! 

When the map is shared in this way, all the information and pictures are provided. You can provide everything from documents for people to download to comments. Whatever information you’re sharing, it’s fast and easy to access. 

In this sort of setting, you can also change settings for voting, commenting, and more. This feature allows you to choose precisely who you want to collaborate with. 

Flowcharts

Who doesn’t love flowcharts? They help you stay organized and keep everyone on the same page. 

Ayoa has a flowchart template that you can apply to projects and workflows. The format is easy to use and very visual, making it a unique option in this regard. 

The template itself is exceptionally straightforward and traditional. There aren’t many surprises here. However, you can customize the template as you see fit, allowing you to account for unique situations. 

Organic Mind Mapping

Ayoa Review: Organic mind mapping
They may also provide some inspiration for those already familiar with the concept of mind mapping

Out of all the features of Ayoa, the organic maps are probably my favorite. They provide you with a step-by-step guide to creating a mind map for your project. 

For those who don’t know where to get started, these maps make the process straightforward. They may also provide some inspiration for those already familiar with the concept of mind mapping.

We highly recommend utilizing this intuitive feature for those looking at mind mapping as a new collaborative tool. 

Team View

Ayoa is firstly about managing teams. Therefore, a review wouldn’t be complete unless we mentioned the team view. This feature provides tons of features, including chats, task assignments, and comments. It also allows you to see what everyone is working on quickly. 

If you have a larger team, this feature can be essential. Plus, it also allows you to keep more processes inside the same piece of software, which can significantly limit the complexity of your project. 

To-Do Lists

I, for one, love to-do lists. Ayoa allows you to create your personal to-do lists straight on their platform. It enables you to create a daily checklist, allowing you to plan out your whole week without much of a problem!

The template is designed with boxes for each day of the week, so you can quickly see what is coming up. Of course, you can change the template as you see fit. 

Miscellaneous notes can also be added to the extra boxes. It’s worth noting you can add as many extra boxes as you want!

Task Boards

Ayoa review: Task boards
These taskboards allow you to set deadlines and add goals

The task boards are potentially a powerful feature Ayoa offers. However, they can be a bit confusing when you first start using them. It took me a bit of playing around with the tool to realize what exactly was going on. 

With that said, once you do figure them out, they help you organize just about everything. You can use them for whole projects, as well as individual tasks. 

These taskboards allow you to set deadlines and add goals. You can also delegate tasks to other people or invite others to view them. 

Gantt Timeline View

As the name suggests, this timeline allows you to see upcoming deadlines and manage tasks with ease. In addition, it provides a visual component to the deadline that you wouldn’t be able to access otherwise. 

However, this feature is only available for Pro and Unlimited Plans. This timeline is integrated with the task board, so you can switch between them as you wish. The timeline is more visual and flexible, though it performs a similar function to the task board. 

You can easily drag and drop tasks around the flowchart, allowing you to re-arrange them as necessary. We all know that the first schedule hardly ever survives to the end. 

The date is automatically updated when you move a task in the timeline. As you’d expect, everything is integrated. 

This timeline also has a feature called “milestones.” You can set due dates for everyone to work towards, making this an excellent option for things like project deadlines and the like. 

Furthermore, you can also schedule currently unscheduled tasks as necessary. Thus, you won’t be caught off guard by random tasks that pop up in your workload. With this feature, you can seamlessly add new tasks and move them where they need to go. 

Why You Can Trust Me

I utilized Ayoa for a variety of different purposes, thoroughly exploring their templates and features. As a freelance writer, managing tasks for clients is an essential part of my business. Plus, sometimes, it can be hard to keep up with all the different deadlines. 

Management is key to staying on task with so many clients – and Ayoa is a suitable solution. Furthermore, I’ve also used management alternatives to Ayoa, including software and traditional pen-and-paper options. 

Testing Criteria

Ayoa is being updated all the time, adding new features and cleaning up old ones. For this reason, we will ensure to update our review to take this into account. 

We also attempted to look at the software from multiple perspectives. As someone who likes to travel, being unable to work offline is a huge deal to me. It effectively cuts down on the places I can work. 

However, I understand that not everyone cares about working offline. Some people always work at the same location with internet access. 

Ayoa is commonly utilized with students and teachers since it allows for fast information sharing. Therefore, we tried to approach the feature from that angle as well. 

Is Ayoa Worth It?

You can’t do better than the plethora of features Ayoa provides. It features tons of different tools for brainstorming and team management. 

Free version. There is a restricted but free version that you can utilize. Many of the features mentioned in this review were on the free version of the platform. 

Visually appealing. Ayoa is very visually appealing, no matter what tool you’re using. While visuals aren’t necessarily required, they made it easy to use this software. 

Easy to use. The whole software is designed to be extremely easy to use. It is versatile but straightforward – a tricky balance to achieve. 

Lots of integrations. Ayoa is designed to provide nearly all the team management features you need so that you never have to leave the app. Plus, the system integrates with Google Calendar, Google Drive, and similar technologies. 

Communication tools. Ayoa allows you to utilize instant messaging and other tools to speak to team members quickly.

Subscription model. You do have to pay monthly for this product. It is not a one-and-done proposal. For this reason, it is a bit difficult for students and educators to utilize. I personally would rather pay once to use the software forever. 

Online only. Because it is cloud-based, you can only use this system online. If you like to work offline, this tool is probably not for you!

Somewhat buggy. Many users have reported coming into contact with at least one bug of some sort. Sometimes, tasks are deleted or changed. Unfortunately, there isn’t a strong backup feature to account for this, either.

Author

  • Kristin is a freelance writer who enjoys testing and reviewing the latest software for freelancers and bloggers. She's also an avid coffee drinker.

Ayoa Review
  • Ease of Use
  • Cost-Effectiveness
  • Features
  • Overall
3.88

Ayoa Review: The Bottom Line

Ayoa is an excellent software for those who like to stay on top of their teams and time management. If you’re having difficulty controlling deadlines, brainstorming, and communicating, this software features many different tools to help you out. It may also be helpful for writers and researchers. It allows you to mind map books and articles, providing a unique visual planning option that is hard to find elsewhere. I love the huge volume of tools Ayoa offers. Of course, most people won’t use all of them, but there is something for every user.

Some tools may only be helpful for some projects and not for others. Luckily, because you get access to so many, there is typically something useful for you to use. With that said, the service is subscription-based. Therefore, you have to pay for access each month. For students and educators, this can quickly get quite expensive. However, I also found the subscription quite expensive for what the system provides. It is wonderful for large teams, but others may find it less useful than it’s worth. So it mostly depends on what you plan to use it for!

Pros

  • Free trial available
  • Powerful mind mapping features
  • Visually appealing
  • Huge variety of tools
  • Team sharing and communication features

Cons

  • Only available online
  • Subscription can get expensive
  • A learning curve