Kumu

Kumu is a relationship-mapping tool for organizations making sense of connected people, systems, and ideas. It suits teams that need to analyze networks and share them as interactive maps, rather than simply draw diagrams. Its analytic and presentation tools are compelling, but private work quickly brings project-based costs into view.

Overview

Kumu supports stakeholder, systems, social network, community asset, and concept mapping. Teams can build maps by hand or import spreadsheet data, including live data from Google Sheets. That combination accommodates both exploratory mapping and work based on information already kept in tables.

Beyond visualization, Kumu offers network metrics and automated clustering, then lets teams present maps or embed them on websites. The free tier is useful for public-facing work, but its projects are visible to everyone and indexed by search engines. It is not a safe fit for confidential maps.

Key features

Build and examine networks

Closeness, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality provide ways to assess how elements relate within a network; automated community detection and clustering can help identify groupings. These capabilities make Kumu more suitable for organizations studying relationships and systems than a tool limited to drawing. They also matter most when a team has a clear reason to examine network structure; users seeking only a simple diagram may not need this depth.

Present and share maps

A presentation builder and interactive website embeds help teams take a map beyond its authors, whether for an audience to follow a prepared narrative or explore the map in context. That is a useful complement to analysis, though teams should consider whether public visibility fits the material before using the free tier.

Security and enterprise deployment

Browser traffic uses HTTPS, projects have separate CouchDB databases, and backups are retained for at least 30 days. Enterprise adds encryption at rest and SAML 2.0 single sign-on. Customers can self-host or choose Kumu-managed AWS hosting with a selected geographic location; the managed option places each customer on a separate Amazon EC2 instance. This makes Enterprise the relevant tier for organizations with deployment or identity requirements, while priority support and a 99.95% uptime SLA add operational assurances.

Pricing

Kumu has a free plan, paid plans, and a two-week trial of private projects. The main pricing distinction is not the number of collaborators or maps, which are unlimited on the listed Basic options, but whether work can remain private and which workspace features are needed.

Basic workspace / public projects: free, billed Free. It includes unlimited public projects, collaborators, maps, and views. It fits public initiatives, but search-engine indexing and universal visibility rule it out for sensitive work.

Basic workspace / private project: $9 a month, billed $9/month per project. It includes private projects and unlimited collaborators, maps, and views. This is the lower-cost choice when a team needs privacy for a project without the listed Pro workspace features; costs apply per project, so multiple private projects can add up.

Pro workspace: $10 a month, billed $10/month per workspace, with unlimited public projects. Private projects cost $20/month per project. Pro adds view-only access, custom branding, and hourly backups. It suits teams that need those workspace capabilities, but the private-project charge remains separate.

Kumu Enterprise: custom pricing, billed by annual invoices and charged per user. It includes self-hosted or managed cloud deployment, SAML single sign-on, priority support, and a 99.95% uptime SLA. It is aimed at organizations that need enterprise security or deployment options rather than the lower tiers.

The two-week private-project trial lets teams evaluate confidential mapping before paying. Kumu directs users to help resources and a support email; Enterprise includes priority support.

Platforms

Kumu runs on the web and can be self-hosted. The deployment choice matters most for organizations weighing managed AWS hosting against running the service themselves; no other platform is indicated.

Who it's for

Kumu is a strong fit for organizations working with complex relationships, including social-sector leaders seeking to create impact. Teams can move from spreadsheet-based relationship data to analysis and audience-facing maps in one product. It is a poorer fit for confidential work on the free tier or for users who need only basic diagramming without network analysis.

Pros and cons

Pro: Manual mapping and spreadsheet imports, including live Google Sheets data, support both hand-built maps and maps grounded in existing tabular information.

Pro: Centrality metrics, community detection, and clustering give teams tools to investigate network structure rather than relying on appearance alone.

Pro: Presentations and interactive embeds make maps usable beyond the people who build them.

Con: Free projects are public and searchable, so private work requires payment or an eligible student discount.

Con: Private projects cost per project on both listed paid workspace options, which can make a multi-project setup more expensive than the base monthly amount suggests.

Alternatives

For a wider set of relationship-focused products, see Relationship Intelligence Software.

Connect The Dots is a freemium option with Android, iOS, API, and web platforms; its free plan is capped across contact searches, ghost emails, lists, and summaries. Choose it when those contact-oriented limits and platforms suit the job better than Kumu’s relationship maps and network metrics.

Polinode is a web-based freemium alternative with a free plan for one user, five public networks, and six basic metrics, plus a $40 a month Lite plan. It may suit a solo user who wants to start with a defined public-network allowance.

The Swarm offers a free plan with 10 connectors, no API access, and features including a combined network and enriched profiles; it runs on web, API, and extension platforms. Consider it when connector-based relationship work is a closer fit than Kumu’s mapping approach.

Relationship Science (RelSci) is a paid product available on Android, iOS, API, and web, with pricing by demo. Choose it if those platforms and a demo-led buying process better match your needs.

ExecAtlas is an Equilar product. It is another option to consider.

Happenstance has a free plan with usage-limited chat, unlimited connected accounts, friends, and groups, and no credit card requirement; it supports API, iOS, and web. It may fit users looking for that account-and-group model instead of mapping systems and concepts.

Introd offers extension and web access, with separate Google and Microsoft add-ons at $15 a month each. Consider it when syncing those ecosystems is the priority.

4Degrees is a paid option on Android, iOS, API, extension, and web, with per-user monthly pricing by request. It may suit teams comparing relationship tools on those platforms.

Verdict

Choose Kumu if your organization needs to map complex relationships, analyze network structure, and turn results into presentations or interactive embeds. Its combination of mapping, metrics, and sharing is the case for choosing it; the main reason to look elsewhere is the cost of keeping multiple projects private, especially if you do not need its analysis tools.