milanote.com

One-line introduction

milanote.com is a creative project management tool from New Zealand, developed by the company of the same name. Its core pitch is “organize information like Notion, but with a stronger focus on visual presentation.” It brings together boards, kanban, notes, inspiration collection, and related features in a visual interface, allowing creative teams and independent creators to manage projects like building an inspiration wall. People often choose it because they are tired of the tables and lists in traditional project management tools and want something more intuitive and better aligned with design thinking for organizing creative workflows.

Business overview

Milanote was founded around 2015 and is headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand. It is a SaaS company focused on tools for creative industries. Its core positioning is a “visual organization tool for creative projects,” mainly serving industries that rely heavily on visual assets and idea exploration, such as advertising, design, film and video, gaming, and publishing. In terms of market position, Milanote does not aim to be as universal as Notion; instead, it focuses deeply on the creative vertical. As a result, it has built a certain reputation in advertising and design communities, where it is often used for moodboards, user journey maps, storyboards, and similar work. Its customer base mainly consists of small and mid-sized creative teams, freelance designers, and illustrators, with some larger advertising agencies also using it as an internal collaboration tool. Its core logic is simple: replace traditional documents with an infinite canvas, and replace fixed tables with drag-and-drop layouts, so creative thinking can flow more naturally.

Who it is best for

Milanote is best suited to three types of users. The first is independent creators, such as illustrators, photographers, and writers, who need to collect inspiration, organize reference images, and plan creative workflows. The second is small and mid-sized creative teams, such as design studios, advertising agencies, and game planning teams, who need collaborative moodboards, competitor analysis, and project boards. The third is education and training, such as design courses where it can be used for case collection and project presentation. It is less suitable for purely technical or development teams, as it lacks code integrations and API support; complex projects that require strict Gantt charts and resource management, since its functionality is relatively lightweight; and users who prefer text- or table-based management, because its operating logic is more visual than structured. Overall, it performs strongly in “inspiration collection” and “creative workflow visualization,” but it is not as rigorous as traditional tools for “task execution” and formal project management.

Key features and highlights

• Infinite canvas and visual layout: Its core feature is a drag-and-drop infinite board, where users can freely arrange images, text, links, videos, and other elements. It feels like pinning notes to a physical wall, making it very suitable for moodboards, storyboards, and user journey maps.
• Browser extension for inspiration collection: Milanote offers Chrome and Safari extensions that let users save webpage screenshots, text snippets, or full-page content directly to a chosen Milanote board with one click. This is an efficient way for designers to collect reference material.
• Collaboration and real-time comments: Multiple team members can edit a board at the same time, add comments to any element, and mark specific positions. This makes team feedback and iteration easier. The commenting experience is more intuitive than Notion because comments are pinned directly on the board.
• Template library: It includes many built-in templates for creative workflows, such as brand style guides, competitor analysis, project briefs, and meeting agendas. These cover the main stages from inspiration to delivery and reduce the learning curve.
• Mobile support: Milanote provides iOS and Android apps, supporting photo capture, voice notes, and quick idea capture. However, the mobile apps are more limited than the web version and are mainly for quick collection rather than deep editing.
• Integrations: It connects with common tools such as Slack, Trello, Dropbox, and Google Drive, though the integration depth is average and mainly supports file import and notification syncing.

Pricing analysis

Milanote’s pricing sits in the mid-to-high range among similar tools. The official website currently does not publicly display specific monthly or annual fees upfront. Based on past information, the personal plan was around USD 12-15/month, while team plans were billed per seat at around USD 20-30/month. Users should log in to the official website to check the latest pricing. Compared with Notion, which has a free personal plan and team pricing around USD 10/month, Milanote is clearly more expensive. Compared with dedicated moodboard or visual collaboration tools such as Mural, at around USD 12-20/month, or FigJam, whose free plan is often sufficient, Milanote is in a similar price range. In terms of value for money, the price is reasonable if a team heavily depends on visual collaboration. If you only make moodboards occasionally, the free plan, which usually limits the number of boards and storage, may be enough. Note that Milanote does not have a clearly stated refund policy, so it is recommended to fully test the free version before paying. There are no hidden fees, but team plans may be charged per user, so costs can rise quickly as the team grows.

How users in China can use it

Milanote is “basically usable” in mainland China, but the experience is not perfect. In terms of connectivity, direct access to the official website and web app can occasionally be laggy or slow to load, especially when opening boards with many images. A stable international network acceleration tool, commonly referred to in China as a “ladder,” is recommended for a smoother experience. The mobile app can be downloaded from the China-region App Store, but it also requires a suitable network environment. For payments, Milanote mainly accepts international credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard, as well as PayPal. It does not support Alipay or WeChat Pay, and it does not provide mainland China invoices, only international electronic receipts. This can be inconvenient for domestic teams that need reimbursement. Local alternatives include ProcessOn, which supports mind maps and flowcharts but is weaker visually; 石墨文档, which has strong collaboration but is not a canvas tool; and Figma FigJam, which is free and has similar functionality but also requires a suitable network environment. If a team cannot solve payment and network issues, domestic alternatives are worth considering first.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• ✅ Excellent visual experience, with highly flexible board layouts that suit inspiration-driven creative work
• ✅ Browser extension makes inspiration collection very convenient, with one-click webpage saving
• ✅ Collaboration comments are intuitive, pinned directly to elements for efficient feedback
• ✅ Template library is well targeted, covering creative workflows such as branding, design, and film/video
• ✅ Mobile apps support photos and voice notes, useful for capturing ideas anytime

Cons:

• ❌ Relatively expensive, with no clear refund policy, making paid adoption somewhat risky
• ❌ Strong network dependency; mainland China users may need extra tools for smooth access
• ❌ No support for domestic Chinese payment methods, and no mainland China invoices, making team reimbursement inconvenient
• ❌ Relatively narrow feature set, lacking advanced capabilities such as databases, automation, and APIs
• ❌ Mobile features are simplified and only suitable for viewing and quick capture, not deep editing

Comparison with similar products

• Notion: The most direct competitor. It also supports notes, boards, and databases, but Milanote focuses more on visual layouts, while Notion focuses more on structured information management. Notion is cheaper and more feature-rich overall, but its visual experience is not as intuitive as Milanote’s.
• Mural / Miro: These are professional online whiteboard and collaborative canvas tools. They are more feature-rich than Milanote, supporting mind maps, sticky notes, timers, and more, but they are positioned more as “collaborative whiteboards” than “creative project management” tools, and their pricing is also relatively high. Milanote’s interface is more polished and better suited to moodboards.
• Figma FigJam: Figma’s free whiteboard tool integrates seamlessly with its design ecosystem and overlaps heavily with Milanote in functionality. Its free plan is often enough. However, FigJam is more oriented toward UI/UX design workflows, while Milanote covers a broader range of creative fields, such as film/video and writing. For teams already using Figma, FigJam is the more cost-effective alternative.

Recommendation

Milanote is best suited for creative teams or independent creators who frequently need visual inspiration collection, moodboard creation, and early-stage project planning, and whose team members are comfortable using international tools and can handle payment and network access. It is best to register for the free plan first, try the board experience and browser extension, and only consider paying once you confirm that it fits your workflow. It is not suitable for projects that require strict task management and Gantt charts, teams that cannot resolve network and payment issues, or users with tight budgets who are highly price-sensitive. For users in China, if network access and payment are hard barriers, FigJam, which is free and functionally similar, or ProcessOn, which is better localized, may be better choices. Overall, Milanote is an excellent vertical tool, but its practical value in mainland China is reduced by regional access and payment limitations.