Top 25 Wireframing and Prototyping Tools for Web

A wireframe is an idea or concept turned into a blueprint.

Whether you go the old pen-and-paper route, or create some super stylish high fidelity mockups using Photoshop: It’s difficult (but absolutely necessary of course) to communicate with clients.

We have come a long way from hand drawing mockups (not to say it isn’t effective though, I personally get my best ideas while working on paper). But with the prototyping tools available today, you give your project a great (and reasonably flexible) starting point, and impress clients with clear(er) communication.

Basically: do more with less… which is probably the driving principle behind following prototyping and Wireframing tools.

Take a look:

1. Frame Box

Price: Free

Frame Box (by 42 Coffee Cups) is a simple online tool that lets you sketch, save, and share basic single-page wireframes. Available are some common web UI elements you can use without hassle.

Frame Box
Frame Box is easy to use and free to boot

2. Style Tiles

Price: Free

Style Tiles own Samantha Warren describes it as a simple tool which is always “a catalyst for discussions of client’s goal and preferences”

 

style tiles
Sample Template is easily customizable using Photoshop

3. Balsamiq

Price: $89 for single user license (one time purchase)

Balsamiq is a huge popular among the designers: The Rapid prototyping tool is easy to use and lets you work collaboratively with ease. It’s loaded with UI elements. The demo-version prototype ‘self-destructs’ in an hour, but Balsamiq is absolutely worth the money.

The UI elements look ‘sketched’ to ‘encourage brainstorming’ and can be cleaned up.

4. UXPin

Price: Plans start with $19/month per user

The one tool that could possibly make the most far-fetched designer a devout UCD (User-centered design) champ is UXPin. It’s easy to grasp (not a steep learning curve for a novice), has brilliant elements, and knows how to add states to those elements.

It will make that wireframe’s interface ‘interactive’. Here’s a salut to tangible design and the tools that help us make it so.

UXPin is easy and awesome.

5. Pidoco

Price: Plans starting with $12/month (for 2 active projects)

Pidoco is simple and elegant, works with interactions, fast, and collaborative. The tool’s own interface is clean and easy to use. That’s all we need for max productivity.

Pidoco is a return-to-basics tool with a flair for interactive elements.

6. Mockingbird

Price: Plans starting with $9/month (for 2 active projects)

Mockingbird exemplifies beauty in simplicity. The tool is extremely easy to use and the nondescript interface boils your attention down to three things: idea, information, and interaction.

Simple is beautiful and efficient with Mockingbird

7. Wireframe.cc

Price: Plans starting with $15/month

Wireframe.cc is minimalistic, amazingly simple to use, complements state-changes, and makes responsive wireframes a dream to make.

An open and easy to use interface makes for a clutter free Wireframing tool

8. Axure

Price: Starting with $289 for Standard license, $589 for Pro

A learning curve aside, Axure is one powerful tool. Flexible fidelity, advanced interactions, adaptive prototypes, and other features make it an impressive interactive wireframing tool.

A screencap from Axure’s ‘sample’ wireframe (shows changes in state, effects and more)

9. iPlotz

Price: Unlimited projects allowed in plans starting with $15/month

iPlotz is easy to use, sharp in appearance, and efficient at work. It does everything you ask and more.

iPlotz lets you create interactive wireframes

10. Protoshare

Price: Standard plan starting with $29/month per editor

Protoshare has a clean interface, accommodates changing states, and lets you work with interactive elements while collaborating with stakeholders and team members. Basically: It works well for all types of wireframes for website or mobile app development.

Pop-up in a sample ProtoShare wireframe

11. Pencil

Price: Free

Pencil is a return-to-basics, simple tool for creating mockups. It’s available as a downloadable (software) tool for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, and as a Firefox browser extension.

Pencil as Firefox extension

12. Gliffy

Price: Starting with $9.95/month for 1 user

Gliffy is a lovely online tool for creating wireframes, UML diagrams, sitemaps, flowcharts, and more. It integrates with Google Drive and lets you import documents from Visio. The built-in color templates give a jumpstart (and a polished feel) to any project.

Gliffy has more than a few options to give your wireframe a polished look.

13. Flairbuilder

Price: $99 for a single user license

Flairbuilder is more powerful than it looks at first glance. It works on Mac and Windows. It lets you choose between high and low fidelity wireframes (export as HTML file or share online), and can create prototypes for mobile apps.

Easy and efficient: We like

14. JustinMind

Price: $99 for a single user perpetual license. $19-29/month for subscription plan

JustInMind can make amazingly interactive prototypes and sketch-style wireframes for websites and apps and lets you test them with a built-in emulator. It has a pretty comprehensive library of GUI elements and widgets and gives you complete control over customization and styling. It includes great features for review and collaboration.

Slightly difficult to get hold of, but one powerful Wireframing beast once you do.

15. HotGloo

Price: Starting with $14/month (for 2 projects, 10 collaborators)

HotGloo lets you create interactive wireframes with ease. It has powerful UX elements and states, nicely sized library of UI elements, and makes collaboration and review easy. I also give it bonus points for a chuckle-worthy name.

HotGloo is pretty fun and easy to use

16. Weld

Price: Free, with $9/month for use without watermark and $1/month for unlimited screens

Weld looks nice and is pretty nifty, with enough elements and features for responsive, interactive, collaborative, and easy prototyping. It has a well stocked library of UI elements, object states customization, and built-in templates to jumpstart prototyping.

Weld’s built-in ‘personal’ template (slightly edited)

17. Google Drawing

Price: Free with a Google account

Anything goes when you’re strapped for cash, mi amigo. Take, for example, Google Drawing, a nice and safe haven for real-time collaboration on basic mockup creation everywhere.

Even Google loves designers

18. Moqups

Price: Starting with $9/month for 10 projects and unlimited users

Moqups is a neat online tool for creating basic mockups. It’s easy to use and learn, has real-time collaboration, and works on all major browsers (except IE due to SVG issues).

Prototyping with Moqups is fast and easy

19. OmniGraffle

Price: Mac – $99-199 and iOS – $49-$99.98

 OmniGraffle is a powerful tool that makes prototyping magic. It has optional shape recognition to switch to your preference of fidelity, great library of built-in and downloadable stencils, blending modes for polishing designs and elements, auto-layout, and more. Once you master the advanced features, you’ll practically become a wireframe wizard.

OmniGraffle is outstanding and comprehensive for website and app prototypes

20. Proto.io

Price: Starting with $29/month for single user and 5 projects

Proto.io is sleek online Wireframing tool for websites and apps. It contains UI element libraries from Mac, iOS, and Windows, comprehensive selection of tap and click interactions, customizable animations and loops, testing features (for iOS and Android via app), and more. It’s one agile tool for collaborative, responsive prototyping for modern web.

A clean and sleek interface makes Proto.io a dream to work with.

21. Fore UI

Price: Starting with $150 for single user license

Fore UI  lets you create flexible-fidelity wireframes using UI elements you can download as required. It’s available for Mac OSX, Linux, and Windows and lets you test your project’s HTML5 using web simulation.

A Wireframing and front-end development tool that comes with testing/debugging features

22. Lovely Charts

Price: €59 for desktop app, € 3.99 for iPad (app), or € 29/year subscription plan for web app,

Lovelycharts by Jérôme Cordiez (UX Architect) has been out there for a while. The desktop app features built-in libraries lets you import more at will. It’s also capable of automatically generating diagrams from text-based lists and has quite lovely font-and-design customization features. The three products have very different features, so be sure to check out the feature list before you pay for one.

A neat Wireframing tool that lends focus to the style customizations.

23. Power Mockup

Price: Starting with $59.99 for single user license

Power Mockup is an extension for PowerPoint. Like the others, it works using a drag-and-drop interface. You can import UI libraries as required. It beautifully builds up from PowerPoint’s own storyboard-style features and makes it an awesome collaborative Wireframing tool.

Bootstrap UI kit for Power Mockup

24. Cacoo

Price: Starting with $18/month subscription plan

Cacoo makes simple mockup creation fast, easy, and fun. It has the UI elements you need, with options to create your own, revision control, security features, and real-time collaboration. It’s loaded with built-in templates for a quick boost-up to mockup creation process.

Less Work, More Play: Cacoo makes mockups fun and easy.

25. Indigo Studio by Infragistics

Price: Starting with $18/month subscription plan

Indigo Studio is a complete toolkit for app or website UX development. It focuses on easy interactions, animations, and storyboards, has a sweet UI-elements library, and lets you collaborate and share your work in real-time.

Less Work, More Play: Cacoo makes mockups fun and easy.

Bottom Line

So those were this year’s most popular Wireframing tools. Are you using them? Let us know in the comments below.

For those looking to shake things up a bit with a new prototyping tool, keep in mind that what works for others may not be the right fit for you. So think of your…

  • Time (for learning curves and difficult-interface related problems)
  • Resources (for cost of tool), and
  • Ease and Familiarity (for platform that you are most comfortable working with),

…before getting a Wireframing tool.

Happy Wireframing!

Author The Author:

Lucy Barret is associated with HireWPGeeks and provide WordPress development services. She is also a blogger and loves to write on various topics. You can also follow her company, HireWPGeeks on Facebook and Google+.

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