Kumu

Kumu is a relationship-mapping platform for people, systems, and concepts. It suits organizations that need to understand complex networks and then present them interactively. Its combination of imports, network metrics, and sharing is compelling, while confidential projects require a paid plan or eligible student discount.

Overview

Kumu supports stakeholder, systems, social network, community asset, and concept mapping. Teams can draw maps manually or import spreadsheet data, including live data from Google Sheets. That makes it practical for both exploratory mapping and projects whose source information already lives in tables.

The product goes beyond visual diagrams by measuring network structure and identifying communities. Its presentation builder and interactive embeds also help turn analysis into something an audience can navigate. The important boundary is privacy: free projects are public, visible to everyone, and indexed by search engines.

Key features

Build and analyze maps

Closeness, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality provide distinct views of where elements sit in a network. Automated community detection and clustering can reveal groups in a map that is too complex to interpret by sight alone. These capabilities fit organizations examining interconnected people or systems; they are more than a casual diagram-maker needs.

Import live data

Manual creation keeps one-off or specially structured maps flexible, while spreadsheet imports reduce re-entry when relationship data already exists. Live Google Sheets data is particularly useful for maps that need to reflect an evolving source rather than a one-time snapshot.

Present and embed

The presentation builder gives teams a way to guide viewers through a map, and website embeds let audiences explore interactive results in context. Those sharing tools strengthen Kumu as a communication platform, not only an analysis workspace.

Security and support

Browser traffic uses HTTPS, each project has its own CouchDB database, and backups are retained for at least 30 days. Enterprise adds encryption at rest, SAML 2.0 single sign-on, and priority support. Its managed option runs each customer on a separate Amazon EC2 instance, while deployment can be self-hosted or managed in AWS with a customer-selected geographic location.

Pricing

Free and Basic workspace

Basic workspace / public projects costs nothing, billed Free. It includes unlimited public projects, collaborators, maps, and views. That is generous for open work, education, and demonstrations, but search-indexed visibility rules it out for sensitive material.

Basic workspace / private project costs $9 a month, billed $9/month per project. It keeps unlimited collaborators, maps, and views while adding private projects. Because the charge is per project, organizations with several confidential maps should budget accordingly.

Pro workspace

Pro workspace costs $10 a month, billed $10/month per workspace. It includes unlimited public projects, view-only access, custom branding, and hourly backups; private projects cost $20/month per project. This is the better fit for a workspace that needs controlled viewing, branded presentation, or more frequent backup coverage, but private-project charges are higher than the Basic private-project rate.

Enterprise

Kumu Enterprise uses annual invoices and charges per user, with custom pricing. It adds self-hosted or managed cloud deployment, SAML single sign-on, priority support, and a 99.95% uptime SLA. Organizations with identity, hosting-location, or contractual uptime requirements have a clear reason to move up; smaller teams should start with a project or workspace plan.

Kumu offers a two-week free trial of private projects. The trial is the sensible way to evaluate confidential workflows before committing to a recurring project or workspace charge.

Platforms

Kumu is available on the web and as self-hosted software. Self-hosting and managed AWS deployment give Enterprise customers more control over infrastructure and geographic placement than a web-only service.

Who it's for

Kumu is aimed at organizations working with complex relationships and systems, including social-sector leaders seeking to create impact. It is a strong choice for stakeholder analysis, network research, community mapping, and projects that need both quantitative network measures and an explorable presentation.

It is not the right free option for confidential planning, because free projects are public and searchable. Teams that only need a simple static diagram may also find its analytical and publishing focus unnecessary.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Analysis is built in: centrality metrics, community detection, and clustering help explain a network rather than merely display it.
• Flexible data entry: manual mapping, spreadsheet imports, and live Google Sheets data cover both bespoke and continuously updated projects.
• Strong sharing workflow: presentations and interactive embeds make results usable outside the creator's workspace.
• Enterprise controls: encryption at rest, SAML, separate managed instances, deployment choice, and a 99.95% uptime SLA address demanding environments.
• Generous public tier: the free plan allows unlimited public projects, collaborators, maps, and views.

Cons

• Free privacy limitation: public projects are visible to everyone and indexed by search engines.
• Private work adds recurring cost: Basic charges $9/month per private project, while Pro charges $20/month per private project.
• Enterprise pricing is custom: annual, per-user billing makes straightforward cost comparison difficult.

Alternatives

Connect The Dots is a better fit for contact-focused relationship intelligence across Android, iOS, web, and an API, with a free tier capped at 10 AI contact searches per month and two lists.

Happenstance suits users who want chat-based relationship discovery on iOS, web, and an API; its free plan includes unlimited connected accounts, friends, and groups, with usage limits.

Introd is the more direct choice for syncing Outlook or Google contacts and calendars, with each Microsoft or Google add-on priced at $15 a month.

Draftboard is preferable when network mapping is free and the priority is purchasing individual quality paths, starting with 50 included on its free plan.

Polinode is an alternative web-based network-analysis service with a free plan for one user, five public networks, and six basic metrics.

The Swarm fits connector-based relationship work, offering 10 connectors and no API access on its free plan.

Relationship Science (RelSci) is a paid platform for organizations seeking a demo-led relationship-intelligence service.

Village is aimed at AI-assisted relationship searches, with a free forever plan providing 100 credits per month, limited connections, and 10 results per search.

For a broader category view, see Relationship Intelligence Software.

Verdict

Choose Kumu if your organization needs to map complicated relationships, quantify network structure, and publish interactive results from the same workspace. Its public tier is unusually open, and Enterprise covers serious security and deployment requirements. Look elsewhere if private projects must be inexpensive at scale or if your need is limited to contact lookup, calendar syncing, or a simple diagram.