What are your favourite prototype and wireframe tools?

Question

HI All. I'm keen to  find recommendations on something quick and easy to pick up and get going with.   Thanks in advance.

Yara Nevmerzhitskaya · Accepted Answer

Its simple and fast tool allows making prototypes using ready-made blocks and templates.  
+ allows sharing your ideas with team members or clients to collect feedback right on the prototype! All the edits will be displayed online. 
Amazing tool. Love it

Lisa Dziuba · Answer

This can be useful after the prototyping stage 😉

Flawless App can help any design team be sure that developers will deliver pixel-perfect mobile apps in a moment. Simply pass it to your development team :)

Forrest Scofield · Answer

My team started using this recently to create flowcharts for complex software designs. I used to use Google Drawings but switched to Whimsical because it's really simple, well designed and easy to use.

Brennon Denny · Answer

Gives you all the traditional prototyping and wire framing tools in an amazing package plus React

Sten · Answer

I've been loving Balsamiq because it forces you to use a lo-fi design. Thanks to that you can naturally focus on the workflows rather than spending too much time trying to make things look pretty.

I think Figma is a great product too, but it's easy to get sucked into picking colors, fonts and spacing while working on prototypes. My usual workflow is to start in Balsamiq, and then move to Sketch/Figma once we're happy with the user flows.

Suvansh Bansal · Answer

A fine repository of curated tools. You can check out design collaboration, idea management and visual collaboration categories to get to know about some other tools that other folks haven't yet recommended.

Answer

It's an easy and powerful tool for prototyping. Love it.

Armin Nikdel · Answer

Simple to use, easily accessible using a browser.

Justin Mitchell · Answer

A bit of a self plug here, but I'm using VRooms to prototype VR interfaces. It's actually built on top of Figma so I threw an upvote over there as well.

Serge Beresnev · Answer

Great app. I felt in love with it several years ago during big UX-research for new mobile app. And since then each time I need to bring live example — I'm opening Axure and do interactive prototypes.
Many libs, axshare to spread the prototype and many more. Love it, really.

But.. Maybe, if sketch will be a bit more full of features — I'll give him a chance. But right now Axure is definitely the best app for complex interactive prototypes filled with data and full of states.

Samesh Wijeweera · Answer

Tried out many other prototypes, but I prefer this over anything else. Great flexibility although it has a bit of a learning curve. Supports mobile as well. You can even use it for finalized designs as well.

Answer

For the backend side of things, I just launched BackendLab, which lets you create/host a Postgres DB with REST API with user auth/permissions in a matter of minutes, without writing a single line of code. It provides a very quick way of creating a backend for your prototype apps

Dan Edwards · Answer

Great for wireframing! Highly recommend it, and there's a free plan for you to try :)

Kurt Aaron · Answer

Easy to use and quick.

Answer

I've used Balsamiq on several projects. It's very easy to use and produces nice results.

raghu thricovil · Answer

I am biased but do give XD a try. A simple yet powerful end to end tool for design, prototyping and feedback. And its free to start using.

Jesray Garciano · Answer

Sketch is great! but I am mostly using windows, which AdobeXD is a great alternative.

Anthony Thong Do · Answer

Super light, the best option for individual use.

Felipe Molina · Answer

Best option for Windows users.

Answer

Intuitive and simple to use.

Lucas · Answer

I've been a hardcore Sketch fanatic for years. My latest project used Figma. I was adamantly against it at first but did the whole "fine, I guess I'll use it for this."   ... Well, 3 months later I can't see myself going back to the old ways. The only problem is notifying Devs of any changes. If there was a "Here's what changed" feature to give to devs or other designers, it would be perfect.

Josh McCray · Answer

Free, in the browser if you want, and does the work of multiple apps in one (ie Sketch, Invision, Zeplin).

Claire Graybeal · Answer

Just switched from Sketch to Figma & developers seem to appreciate it. Quick protoyping and CSS info right in browser, so you never need to worry about a dev or another designer not having the most updated design file.

Brennon Denny · Answer

Free, easy to learn, and does what you want

j5uh · Answer

Becoming an industry standard.

Jesse Payne · Answer

Easily the best prototyping tool for prototyping apps I've ever used, and I've tried almost everything available. It has a bit of a learning curve but it's not much steeper than learning Flinto or Principle.

Suzanne Barker · Answer

I use Proto - I picked it up and ran with it pretty quickly. I'm really happy with it. They also do web, not just mobile.

SimCam · Answer

I have been using Moqups for website wireframing for long. It is an online tool which allows for easy access everywhere. The website and design elements are all loaded very fast, which is a key feature I love most. I've compared it with other wireframing tools. Moqups seems to be the most affordable for individuals or small businesses.

James Paskett · Answer

Game-changing prototyping with Notion!

Guus Hoeve · Answer

Haiku got updated recently and is quite the underestimated and underrecognized tool for now. from the plathora of animation apps that came out, it is the only tool that pivoted towards true developer hand-off to many frameworks and not just React. It's free, fully open-source, and really fast too

Natalia Diacono · Answer

Its simple and fast as you were drawing it with your hand. I find it useful since I don't like spending too much time drawing wireframes, I prefer seeing the whole picture and how funnels would work out. And that I can visualize with the black and white wireframes and simplicity of the tools.