24 Best Prototyping Tools & Software

Balsamiq Wireframes is a rapid low-fidelity UI wireframing tool that reproduces the experience of sketching on a notepad or whiteboard but using a computer. Users will also have access to hundreds of built-in and community-generated UI controls and icons.

There are plenty of things to love about Balsamiq Wireframes, like its ease of use, easy linking between pages, and the ability to download pre-made components from a central database in order to keep all designers on the same page.

Balsamiq is very usable, keeping things simple with the visuals, but as you can see from the screenshot accompanying this overview the interface isn’t anything to inspire awe. Being bland and clunky compared to others on this list lost them some marks in the UX review.

Balsamiq starts at $9/month and has a free 30-day trial.

Preview your prototypes with Origami Live, available for Android and iOS; connect a device to interact with your prototype and see changes in real-time; and use your device’s camera, microphone, accelerometer, and haptics in your prototypes.

As a free-to-use tool, Origami obviously scores highly in the Value for Cost segment of the evaluation criteria. However, this favorable score also comes from the feature-rich nature of the tool, making it an obvious choice for small businesses.

Constraint users may stumble across is that out-of-the-box features may not be sufficient for some teams and working with the developer or IT team to customize might be required.

Origami is free to use.

Pull components from production, or create your own from design or code. Get every animation and micro-interaction just right. Create custom UI for every component, and reuse across multiple projects. Access live maps, media players, and multi-platform UI kits.

Per the evaluation requirement, Framer does well in the Features – Collaborative Potential; for collaboration initiatives, they offer a secure and collective home for brand assets, design files, and even production components.

A con of this software is that the interface and workflow can be a bit overly complicated, requiring developers/designers to put in a hefty time commitment to learn their way around.

Framer starts at $12/month and has a free 14-day trial.

Figma is an end-to-end, web-based design and prototyping tool. Users can create prototypes easily by simply ordering frames on your screen or linking objects with connectors. Comments added to prototypes are captured with the design files, so you always have the full context.

Something Figma does well to organize collaboration for the design work through easy remote sharing and universal assets that every team member can access. This made it so they scored highly in the Features – Collaborative Potential segment of the review criteria.

A few cons are that the dashboard can feel a bit disorganized at times and, additionally, a broader selection of mark-up tools would be welcome.

Figma starts at $12/user/month and has a freemium version of the tool.

Sketch lets users design, create, test, and iterate on their application or website with pixel-perfect icons and scalable vector graphics. Lay the foundations for your product’s design system with reusable, responsive components that automatically scale to fit their content.

This prototyping tool is incredibly intuitive to pick up and the free trial is ample time to learn the ropes before making a decision with your team. The straightforwardness earned them a favorable score in the Usability review consideration.

Sketch is for Mac and iOS only, which is the major con of this software. If you use other operating systems, this is (obviously) not the tool for you.

Sketch starts at $9/user/month and has a free 30-day trial.

Get 10,000+ royalty-free vector user interface components and 200+ icons, designed from scratch in Keynote and PowerPoint, and fully editable and customizable without needing additional tools.

If Apple does one thing well, it’s the user interface experience. This app is sleek, easy to navigate, and beautifully designed. Thus, Keynotopia scored highly in the UI section of the evaluation criteria.

One con to note is that collaboration features could be stronger, as this doesn’t offer the same range of team-unifying functions as some of the other items on this list.

Apple Keynote is free to download with Keynotopia costing $97, with add-ons for different platforms starting at $39.

Create design elements to reuse throughout your designs or across multiple documents from a design system and share designs with your team, clients, and stakeholders so they can experience your vision firsthand and provide feedback.

One highlight of Adobe XD is that this program can handle very large projects; even if your item has over 100 pages, it will still run and function normally.

Like many Adobe tools, Adobe XD comes with a steep learning curve. You and your team can expect to dedicate some serious man-hours to training and development if this becomes your prototype tool of choice. Because of this, XD loses a few points in the review for Usability.

Adobe XD starts at $9.99/month and has a free trial.

Webflow lets users bring their design vision to life in clean, semantic HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. Build completely custom databases for dynamic content types, including online stores, and create immersive interactions and animations.

Webflow has an excellent Value for Cost, scoring them well in that arena, as they not only have a free-to-use plan but they also offer customizability that allows users to pay for additional features and functions as needed.

One major con of this software is that the tutorials and training documents could use some updates and expand. For example, some mention outdated software versions.

Webflow is free to use with optional upgrades for purchase.

Principle lets you choose a device preset or enter a custom artboard size to design for your favorite platform. Hover events and mouse wheel scrolling make it easy to make web and desktop prototypes that feel like the real thing.

As the most expensive item on this list (by quite a margin), Principle lost a few marks in the Value for Cost segment of the review criteria. Luckily, the 14-day trial will help users try before they buy.

The biggest con for Principle is that it was built by an ex-Apple designer and, therefore, is only Mac/iOS compatible. Additionally, they don’t have 3D transformations.

Principle starts at $129 and has a free 14-day trial.

Easily share Axure RP prototypes and artboards from Adobe XD and Sketch and gather feedback on top of your screens; inspect layout, get CSS snippets, and download assets; and turn static images into interactive prototypes in Axure Cloud.

Axure RP does a few things really well: 1) the use of their dynamic panels and variables better realize any prototype design, and 2) their wide range of interactions, animations, and transitions.

The user interface is a bit busy with many icons and menus cluttering menus across the top and side of the screen. For example, most of the buttons aren’t intuitively segmented. Thus, this application lost a few points in the UX segment of the evaluation.

Axure starts at $29/user/month and has a free 30-day.