10 Best UI/UX Design Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 22 tools reviewed.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
With so many UI/UX design software options available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to build intuitive products, streamline your design workflow, and collaborate seamlessly with other stakeholders, but need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you covered! In this post, I simplify the decision-making process for you by sharing my vetted list of the very best UI/UX design tools.
10 Best UI/UX Design Software: Quick Comparison Chart
This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top UI/UX software selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best software for your budget and business needs.
Tool | Best For | Trial Info | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Best for visual ideation and mapping user flows | 30-day free trial + free plan available | From $8/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
2 | Best for online design collaboration | Free plan available | From $15/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
3 | Best prototyping tool for collaborative UX design | Free plan available | From $24.99/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
4 | Best for low-fidelity wireframing | 30-day free trial | From $9/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
5 | Best for a wealth of building blocks for rapid prototyping | 15-day free trial + free demo available | From $29/user/month | Website | |
6 | Best for designing websites with a visual canvas | Free plan available | From $14/month (billed annually) | Website | |
7 | Best for no-code web app product design | Not available | From $25/user/month | Website | |
8 | Best for creating highly-realistic UI/UX designs | 7-day free trial | From $9.99/user/month | Website | |
9 | Best for a fully-collaborative design process | 30-day free trial | From $9/user/month | Website | |
10 | Best for creating realistic prototypes that include interactions | Free plan available | From $79/user/month | Website |
Detailed Overviews of the 10 Best UI/UX Design Software Solutions
Here are brief descriptions of my top 10 UI/UX design platforms that showcase each tool’s best use case and noteworthy features. Plus, I’ve included a screenshot for each system to give you a snapshot of their user interface. I’ve also included some additional bonus options below if you’d like more choices to consider.
Miro is a versatile online collaborative whiteboard platform designed to enhance teamwork and the design process. Renowned for its intuitive interface and extensive range of tools, Miro helps teams visualize, brainstorm, and develop ideas.
Miro offers an infinite canvas, allowing users to create expansive workspaces that can accommodate complex projects and detailed designs. This flexibility is crucial for UI/UX designers who need to visualize entire user flows and interactions without constraints.
Additionally, Miro has pre-built templates for various design tasks, such as wireframing and mind mapping. It even offers an array of widgets and integrations that simplify the creation of interactive prototypes and mockups.
Integrations include Zoom, Figma, Asana, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Slack, Monday.com, Confluence, Google Drive, Box, Airtable, Notion, Azure, and Webex.
Based in the cloud, Figma is a popular UI/UX design platform that's well-suited to building interactive prototype designs, defining interactions, and creating design transitions.
The software includes features such as content management, team libraries, audio conversations, overlays, and version history. Figma supports AB user testing and includes a pen tool for generating arc designs.
Another popular feature is FigJam, an online whiteboard designed to make collaboration easy. You can also add notes, pin files, track contributors, and work with other team members in real-time.
Integrations include Axure, Bubble, Confluence, Flinto, Maze, Microsoft Teams, Pendo, Principle, ProtoPie, Sprig, and Zeplin.
Mockplus offers a comprehensive solution for UX designers to quickly create sketches, wireframes, or high-fidelity prototypes. This web-based software is equipped with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that makes it easy to create even complex designs.
What makes it shine is that its collaborative feature allows each of your UX design team members to work together and build things faster. Plus, designers can easily get feedback from teammates, stakeholders, clients, and even real users via a single link. To further collaborate with your team, just simply sync your design to the cloud for instant review, comments, and developer handoff.
You can use Mockplus to create user interface designs for various platforms, including iOS, Android, or the web.
Integrations include Adobe XD, Axure, Confluence, Figma, Jira, Lark, Photoshop, Sketch, and Slack.
Balsamiq helps a designer create advanced wireframes rapidly. It offers the simple clarity of paper sketches, combined with the more sophisticated features that software can offer.
Ideal for creating sketch-style mockups, Balsamiq includes collaboration tools for gathering feedback from other team members. You can drag and drop graphic design elements, as well as resize or rearrange them.
Balsamiq allows teams to work on up to 200 active projects at one time, and is available for both Windows and MacOS.
Features include revision history, software prototyping, survey tools, presentation tools, and data linking. The software is available in both desktop and cloud-based versions.
This UI tool integrates with major software platforms such as Confluence, Jira, Shift, Trello, and Google Drive.
Proto.io is a prototyping solution designed to get rapid results. Using the intuitive drag-and-drop interface, anyone can create a design quickly and easily.
Proto.io includes an extensive range of pre-built components to accelerate design prototyping, including over 1,000 templates and a number of interface libraries. Proto.io also offers over 6,000 digital assets, including stock images, icons, and sound effects. You can add different levels of interactivity according to the needs of your project.
This tool integrates with design and business applications such as Adobe XD, Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, and Figma.
Webflow is a web development platform that helps you design, build, and launch custom websites without writing code. Instead, it allows you to design using HTML5, CSS#, and JavaScript in a fully-visual canvas. Webflow automatically translates your design into code that’s ready to publish on the web. Webflow enables web design without the need for domain setup, cPanel, or FTP.
Using the design module, you can work with cascading style sheets (CSS) and make styling changes from existing elements. Webflow also supports reusable components, which is an extremely handy feature if you plan to create a series of websites under a common parent brand.
Other features include editing tools that leverage custom templates to create original designs, and scroll-based animations that help you breathe life into static websites to keep your users more engaged.
Integrations are available with many business apps, including Shopify, Google Analytics, Ideta, MailChimp, MightForms, Monto, Pixie, SendPulse, SoundCloud, and Zapier.
Bubble is a no-code platform for creating digital products. By eliminating time-consuming coding, it allows you to cut development time down from months to hours. Bubble empowers anyone on the team to make changes, even if they have no design experience.
Using Bubble, you can create interactive, multi-user apps for desktop and mobile web browsers. Anyone using the software can create polished products without knowledge of HTML or CSS. Deployment and hosting are handled within the platform for unlimited users.
This tool integrates with popular services such as ActiveCampaign, Google Contacts, Quickbooks, Shopify, and SurveyMonkey.
Worth noting, Bubble offers discounts for user groups of 100+ and requires a one-time deployment fee.
Adobe XD is a powerful UI design tool for high-end development work. The software allows you to build original designs, configure layouts and add special effects. Created assets are saved in a cloud repository, from where they can be shared with other stakeholders. Other features include navigation menus, animations, audio, user flows, and custom passwords.
A range of input devices can be used in prototypes, from keyboards to game controllers. You can preview designs on both iOS and Android devices. Adobe XD also makes it easy to draw lines, shapes, and paths.
This tool integrates with popular design and business tools such as Zeplin, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, as well as all other applications within Adobe's Creative Cloud Suite.
Sketch is a popular UI/UX design tool. Using this software, you can design vector graphics, share designs with other team members, and manage your designs within a single platform. It’s easy to get feedback on designs, automate workflows, share prototypes, and conduct user research.
Symbols or layer styles can be stored in a centralized repository for future use. Other features include facilities for data export, project management, and detailed reporting.
Sketch is optimized for MacOS users, with support for P3 color profiles and native font rendering.
This UI UX design tool integrates with many different applications, including Flinto, ProtoPie, Maze, and Abstract.
ProtoPie enables you to create realistic prototypes of apps for mobile, desktop, web, and IoT. By adding interactions to your designs, you can create the look and feel of the final product.
This no-code solution also allows you to reuse components through the Interaction Library. You can invite an unlimited number of people to view prototypes through sharable links.
Plus, you can create interaction specs to reduce misunderstandings with developers during handoff. The dashboard includes a choice of light and dark themes.
This web and mobile app design tool integrates with platforms such as Sketch, Adobe XD, and Figma.
Other Options
Here are a few more worthwhile UI design tools to consider. They didn’t make it into my top 10 list, but they’re still worth checking out:
- Lucidchart
Diagramming tool for design thinking
- UXPin
UI design tool for beginners, with a simple learning curve
- Marvel
For rapid prototyping
- Invision
For a real-time, collaborative design interface
- VisualSitemaps
For auto-generating visual sitemaps
- Framer X
For creating prototypes with micro-interactions
- Wireframe.cc
A simple but effective wireframing and interaction design tool
- Optimal Workshop
The original tree-test design solution
- Flowmapp
An intuitive UX tool for web design and mockup
- KonceptApp
A one-stop solution for prototyping and usability testing
- Adobe Illustrator
Ideal for conventional vector-based design
- Axure
For creating realistic, clickable prototype designs
Benefits of UX/UI Design Software
Think of UX/UI design software as your secret weapon for creating customer experiences that truly delight. These powerful tools help your team craft designs that not only look fantastic but are also a breeze for your customers to use. The best part? You can test and fine-tune everything before it goes live, catching any potential headaches before your customers ever see them.
What makes these tools really special is how they bring your customer's journey to life. With features like journey mapping and real-time team collaboration, you can make sure every design choice puts your customers first. Plus, you can easily incorporate customer feedback along the way, showing them that their voice matters. When customers feel heard and find your product easy to use, they're more likely to stick around and become loyal fans of your brand.
There are several benefits to using good UI/UX design software, including:
- Improved productivity: Good UI/UX design software can streamline the design process, providing designers with tools and features that increase efficiency and productivity.
- Consistency: Design software can help maintain consistency across designs by providing access to templates, libraries of design elements, and reusable assets.
- Collaboration: UI/UX design software can facilitate collaboration between designers, stakeholders, and other team members by enabling real-time feedback and design reviews.
- Improved user experience: By using good UI/UX design software, designers can create user-centered designs that prioritize usability and accessibility, leading to a more positive user experience.
- Cost savings: Using good UI/UX design software can result in cost savings by reducing the need for rework and improving overall design quality.
Using good UI/UX design software can help designers create high-quality, user-centered designs efficiently and effectively, leading to a more positive user experience and a more successful end product.
People Also Ask
Here are some questions I thought of while I was writing this article. I thought they might be helpful for those just getting started or those looking for further resources.
What is the Difference Between UI and UX?
The difference between UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) lies in their focus areas within the design process of digital products. UI is concerned with the visual and interactive elements of a product’s interface, such as layout, colors, typography, and buttons, while UX focuses on the overall experience a user has with the product, encompassing usability, accessibility, and efficiency of completing desired goals.
While UI deals with the specific details of how the product looks and feels, UX addresses how all the elements and interactions fit together to create a seamless, effective user journey. Together, UI and UX work in harmony to create products that are not only beautiful but also functional and user-friendly.
What are the current trends in UI and UX design software?
In the digital era, staying on top of emerging trends in UI and UX design software isn’t just beneficial—it’s imperative. Here are 5 key trends we’ve seen emerging:
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- AI-driven design and personalization: AI-driven design tools are a breakthrough, and can help you automate design processes and enable rapid UI/UX iterations that resonate with human experiences. AI is being used to analyze user behavior and facilitate personalized experiences without extensive manual intervention. This not only accelerates project timelines but also significantly reduces labor costs, maximizing ROI for CX initiatives.
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- Simplification of UX/UI design tools: The trend toward simplification and intuitive usability in design software is seen in simplified, drag-and-drop interfaces and team collaboration features. Tools like Miro, Sketch, and Figma are leading the way, and helping to make UI design tools more accessible and user-friendly for non-technical users. This helps expedite the design process, allowing for agility and innovation in designing customer experiences.
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- Enhanced feedback mechanisms: Emerging UI UX design software now often includes built-in customer feedback loops. These features allow real-time user feedback collection, directly embedded within the design stages. This provides qualitative and quantitative data essential for user-centered design, and integrates user testing into the digital product development process.
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- Demonstrating ROI through integrated analytics: New UI/UX software offer holistic analytics, tracking user interactions comprehensively to correlate design choices with customer behavior metrics. These insights allow professionals to create data-driven reports that not only validate the impact of their UX investments but also guide future strategies, ensuring tangible business outcomes.
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- Focus on employee experience design: Understanding the foundational role of employee experiences in customer satisfaction, there’s an emerging emphasis on internal user interfaces. Designing intuitive, user-friendly platforms for employees—mirrored in software like Monday.com or Slack—enhances operational efficiency and job satisfaction. Happier, more engaged employees are fundamental to delivering stellar customer service, thereby closing the loop on the holistic approach to comprehensive experience management (XM).
These emerging trends in UI/UX design software stand out not just as innovations but as essential components for solving core industry pain points. And I anticipate seeing further innovation and new trends eme
What Other Design & Customer Experience Resources Do I Need?
If you’re thinking about UI/UX design software to build the optimal customer experience, you might also enjoy these resources as a next step:
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Related read: Optimizing The Website Customer Journey