Wireframing is an important step in the wireframe design process. It is used to help design the look and functionality of your website before you get into the back-end coding. If you are planning to make your own website or if you are on a tight budget, these tools can be very helpful for creating professional looking wireframes.
Wireframe tools are a necessity for UX designers and other professionals who use wireframes as part of their design process. Some design tasks require complex wireframes, while others only need simple diagrams to communicate information cleanly and clearly to stakeholders and customers. No matter what level of complexity you need for your wireframes, the best free Wireframe tools can save you time and stress.
Adobe XD
Adobe XD has skyrocketed into popularity since its initial release date in 2016, and with good reason. This tool is fantastic for wireframing, prototyping, and collaboration.
Price breakdown
- 7-day free trial
- $9.99/month after the trial ends (or $99.99/year)
What’s great about Adobe XD?
As we said, this is an all-in-one when it comes to wireframing and prototyping (at any level of fidelity) and is excellent for collaboration.
Adobe XD includes tools for everything from a quick sketch to a high-fidelity wireframe, with options to create interactions so that you can more closely imitate the user flow! The tool has a auto animation feature, and it’s made things easier with it comes to layering images in 3D (great for showcasing all your hard work!). You can also work with your teammates in real time, and they’ve made it easier to iterate on content without having to practically re-design whole screens. This is helpful for teams seeking more collaboration between content and design.
Adobe products are widely appreciated across the industry, too, so being familiar with it can only help throughout your career.
What’s not so great about Adobe XD?
As many have said, the price point is certainly a factor. It’s only really free for a week, but that’s a week to test it out and see if this high-power tool is well suited for your team. If you’re working solo, it’s still worth considering simply for the high quality output and for it’s possibilities when it comes to collaborating with stakeholders or outside clients.
What other designers have to say about Adobe XD
- “Adobe XD is the best on the market, in my opinion, as far as UI/UX design is concerned. In a really simple way it is possible to create the design of websites or apps and then move on to the prototyping phase, creating the various links, interactive components, buttons, animations. The sharing phase is also excellent, which allows you to export the prototype to encourage the work of the developers, who will have the opportunity to take a look at the generated css code and can download the various assets.”
- “The pricing of this tool is quite high. It has also increased a lot of restrictions on the free plan, and this is not helpful for budding designers.”
Mockplus
Mockplus is a rapid wireframing/prototyping tool for designers to create interactive wireframes for websites and mobile apps, which enables you to share and test design ideas across PCs and mobile devices from an early stage in the design process.
Price breakdown
- Basic: Free
- Pro: 15-day free trial, $16 per month( Billed annually)
Why should you use Mockplus for faster and easier wireframing?
With a large number of ready-to-use components, icons, UIs and templates pre-installed, Mockplus goes beyond simply providing you the tools to create your wireframe and lends you a hand with your designs. A full set of interactions and animations also make it easy to create more realistic wireframes. It’s also a collaborative tool: Your entire team can work on the same project.
What’s not so good about Mockplus?
Mockplus is much suitable for you to create low- and medium-fidelity wireframes, mockups and prototypes. If you are looking for tools to create high-fidelity designs, it may not be a good option.
What users are saying about Mockplus?
- “Mockplus does what it advertises which is a great thing. No learning curve and free plans that you can check all the features for free. Using the team just an invitation away.”
- “What used to be time-consuming can now be done with the speed of thought, everything is a drag-and-drop away and with the number of components Mockplus has to offer, you will never feel the need of creating one.”
Figma
All-in-one design tool
© Figma, Fair Use
Product Type: Browser-based app
Free Tier Limitations: 3 projects & 2 editors
Upgrade: Starts at $12 per editor/month
Figma is one of the most popular design tools in the market. The all-in-one platform allows you to create everything from clickable wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes and supports 30-day version history and unlimited cloud storage – all in the free plan. Figma has both browser-based and desktop applications. You can also mirror and preview your designs on mobile devices in real time. The limit for the free plan is 3 projects and 2 editors. The Professional plan starts at $12 per editor/month and allows you to create team libraries. To implement organization-level design systems and administer plugins, you will need the Organization plan, which starts at $45 per editor/month.
InVision Studio
All-in-one design tool
© InVision, Fair Use
Product Type: Desktop apps for Mac and Windows
Free Tier Limitations: 3 documents, 10 users
Upgrade: Starts at $7.95 per user/month
InVision Studio is a desktop application that you can use to create screens and animations. Originally known for its browser-based prototyping application, the desktop application Studio is not as popular as the other tools listed above, partly because it came after the other tools. With the free version, you can create 3 documents and include a generous 10 active users. The Pro account lets you create unlimited documents but still limits active users to 15.
UXPin
The best wireframe tool overall
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: Web browserFree trial: YesPrice: From $19 per editor per monthTODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Intuitive interface+Reads Sketch and PS files+Top presentation tools
REASONS TO AVOID
-No free version
UXPin is a dedicated wireframing tool with a beautifully intuitive interface. It has clear icons, and a solid library of UI elements you can drag and drop into your wireframes, as well as components for Bootstrap, Foundation, iOS and Android. You can import and export files to Sketch and Photoshop, which gives you the option to develop your wireframes into full prototypes further down the line.
It also offers some great collaboration features for working on your wireframes with others, and top-notch live presentation tools for showing your designs to clients or other stakeholders. Easy to pick up for beginners, and packed with advanced tools for the more experienced, UXPin is our clear choice as the best wireframe tool overall.
Axure RP
The best dedicated wireframe tool for UX pros
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: MacOS, WindowsFree trial : YesPrice: From $25 (pro) per user per monthTODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Build working prototypes +Advanced features
REASONS TO AVOID
-Learning curve -May be overkillAdvertisement
Axure RP allows you to create low-fi wireframes, and high-fidelity wireframes adding extra functionality. You can craft interactive HTML mockups for both websites and apps and view your app design on your phone with a built-in share function.
Used by the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and the BBC, the software includes symbol override features, a developer inspect mode, animation effects, cloud storage and sharing, CSS exporting and documentation. It’s a great choice for experienced UX professionals looking to hand off their designs to developers.
Sketch
A full design tool with a strong focus on UI
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: MacFree trial: YesPrice: $99TODAY’S BEST DEALSCHECK AMAZONVisit Site
REASONS TO BUY
+Strong UI focus +Lightweight +Intuitive interface
REASONS TO AVOID
-Mac-only
Sketch isn’t available for Windows, but if you’re a Mac user it’s definitely worth considering. Since its launch back in 2010, it’s revolutionised the market for wireframing and prototyping tools, and it remains laser focused on UI and icon vector design.
Lightweight and easy to use, Sketch has a wonderfully simple and intuitive interface. It’s a great tool for making basic wireframes, its Symbol feature allowing you to repeat elements automatically across your layout. And if you want to build a full prototype, there are countless third-party UI kits to download. Unlike Adobe’s apps, it’s available for a one-off fee with no subscription.
Conclusion
Wireframing is an essential and integral part of any web or app design process. This skill is one that we either love or hate. However, I don’t think there is a single UX-er who doesn’t do wireframing at least occasionally. You go through this process because it lets you work out the look and feel of the website as well as the user flow (which pages will take users to which other pages). But, all those sketches you put on the napkin aren’t very useful when you give them to developers. You need to hand them something that they can actually use to build your idea into a functional and really good looking product.