I want to share a few of the best free prototyping tools that I’ve discovered over the past decade and at least partially contributed to my success in User Experience (UX) and Information Architect (IA) design. These tools, and others like it, will make your life easier and help you to test out your user experience designs effectively.
So, let’s dive in!
Best Free wireframe tool for realistic, interactive wireframes
Justinmind (macOS, Windows)
Justinmind is not only easy to learn and enjoyable to use; it also maintains a focus on empowering you to create a wireframe that can be tested as a working prototype from the start. It does this by including something that other apps just haven’t bothered to develop: interactive prototype elements (text inputs, radio buttons, dropdowns, and so on). Even at a basic wireframe level, a working dropdown would take three or more screens to set up in a tool like Sketch or Figma. Justinmind allows you to add it to your wireframe with a single click.
In fact, the ease with which you can create and share realistic wireframes can save you hours or days of work on any given project. This makes Justinmind a great tool for anyone who wants to get real, in-depth feedback on designs much earlier in the wireframe stage (with minimal effort).
Apart from the content of the elements themselves, the layout of Justinmind is very easy to figure out: all of your design elements are on the left-hand side; the organization elements (like folders, list of screens, etc.) are on the right. It all just feels very intuitive, which we love.
Justinmind price: Free for the desktop app with wireframe capabilities; from $19/month for the Professional plan, which includes unlimited prototypes and advanced prototyping features.
Best Free wireframe tool for complex projects
Mockplus (Web, macOS, Windows)
At this point, we’ve covered a large variety of really solid wireframe design apps that can make your design tasks much easier. But there’s one area of the design process that most of the apps tend to ignore: all of the admin and organizational tasks that go along with designing a new interface.
Which is exactly why Mockplus impressed us enough to merit a spot on this list.
Not only can you add notes and documentation to each element in your design, but your project area in Mockplus also has room for you to create and save documentation in a text editor, save your style guide (so everyone is on the same page), and even create and assign tasks to your team. Since the tasks can be linked to a project (and even dialed down to an individual design within the project), you can really dial in your review feedback process and feel confident that nothing will fall through the cracks as you polish up your wireframe.
Finally, while there is a desktop app available, Mockplus is similar to Figma in that you can do all of your wireframe designing from your web browser and feel confident that you are always working from the most up-to-date version.
Mockplus price: Free for the Basic loud plan with up to 10 users and 10 projects; from $5.95/user/month for unlimited projects on the cloud plan. Mockplus Classic, a desktop prototyping app, begins at $199/year for the Individual plan.
InVision
InVision is another web app that operates with a focus on architecture. It provides all the materials you need to switch from wireframing to UI design. InVision also comes with helpful methods for easy teamwork integration and prototyping. Similar to some of the apps mentioned above, InVision supports real-time design changes and quick feedback collection from teams while also allowing the designer to organize their workflow.
Axure RP
Axure RP combines SVG import, and Sketch and Adobe XD integrations with prototyping capabilities. You can easily share Axure RP prototypes and artboards from Adobe XD and Draw quickly and collect input at the top of your screens. The interface allows you to inspect the layout, get CSS snippets and download assets while converting static images into dynamic Axure Cloud prototypes. Axure RP also facilitates comprehensive documentation, automated redlines and better handoff to developers without the need for code.
Framer
Framer is best known for its versatility, immersive interface, functional designs and intuitive templates. It extends designer dynamics from the normal drag-and-drop nature because it’s a code-based prototyping platform that uses CoffeeScript to create prototypes.
A downside of this software is that the interface and workflow can be a bit overly complicated, requiring developers and designers to put in a hefty time commitment to learn their way around.
Origami Studio
Origami Studio is a macOS desktop application created and used by Facebook. There’s also a mobile app counterpart, which allows you to view your prototypes on a real device.
Facebook debuted this prototyping tool in 2013. At first, it worked with Quartz Composer but that part of the Xcode environment wasn’t the best prototyping option. So Facebook introduced Origami Studio last year. For all intents and purposes, it’s their previous prototyping tool working inside their own environment. The move has greatly enhanced the platform’s performance but unfortunately, it’s still reserved for Mac users.
Marvel
Marvel calls itself a “design platform for digital products.” While this assertion is not completely true, the software itself is a perfect solution for programmers who want to create prototypes for both mobile and web applications.
Marvel has the resources available to build all manner of mobile and web interfaces, from concepts to templates. It also facilitates gesture interactions for the creation of animated smartphone applications.
JustInMind
Justinmind is a prototyping tool that allows the designer to focus on user experience. It’s ideal for creating wireframes and responsive prototyping so you can adapt to multiple screen resolutions. Designers should make good use of Justinmind’s full set of templates and UI libraries to create high-fidelity prototypes. It also helps designers to work with clever forms and data lists with zero coding skills.
Fluid UI
Fluid UI’s software makes for lightning-fast prototyping. With ready-made libraries for material design, iOs, and Windows, as well as gestures, Fluid UI gives you so much to get started with. And their simple user interface makes it super easy to put these components together.
Best Free Lightweight wireframe tool
Sketch (macOS)
Since its release in 2010, Sketch has maintained a premier spot as a powerful yet lightweight vector design tool for macOS users. By itself, it can be used for anything from wireframes to modern UI and icon vector design (on a pixel-based canvas, no less) and some interaction design. Its interface is far simpler and more intuitive than vector design heavyweights Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator. Thanks to this simplicity, Sketch can be used to create wireframes quickly with a combination of artboards and vector design shapes.
When you download the Sketch app to your Mac, you’ll notice that there are no built-in UI components. While you could certainly design your own components to use as part of your wireframe process, there is a vast online community of designers that have created and shared many free wireframe design kits. A single click to download, and you have a wealth of buttons, icons, and other design elements that can be used inside your Sketch file.
Like most desktop apps, Sketch makes collaboration a bit tricky, as there’s no way to allow multiple designers to work simultaneously within a design file. However, you can sync your design to Sketch Cloud, which allows you to share a link to the most recent version of your design, collect comments and other feedback, without having to waste time with a lengthy export process.
When it’s time for hand-off, you can use the Export option to save your full designs and/or individual elements. Or, take advantage of the large variety of integrations to send your wireframe further down the design process.
Sketch Price: $99/year for individual users (when the year is over, you can continue to use the tool, but you’ll no longer receive software updates), or $9/month for team members utilizing Sketch Cloud.
If you’re a Windows user, you might want to look into InVision Studio, which was created as a Sketch alternative for designers who prefer to stay within the InVision app suite.
Framebox
User-review rating: n/a
Type: Web-based, Freemium
Overview: Framebox is the second completely free wireframing tool on this list. With no paid plans, all the features of Framebox are included directly on their website’s easy to use web app. It’s a complete drag-and-drop tool that allows designers to sketch wireframes using UI elements and allows users to sign in to save progress and have revision history. The tool even allows for UX/UI designers to send their work with a custom link to their entire team or key stakeholders for easy online sharing and feedback.
Mydraft.CC
User-review rating: n/a
Type: Web-based, Open source
Overview: Mydraft.cc is a completely open source and free wireframing tool that is accessible anywhere you can use a browser. It has a clean and easy-to-use wireframing canvas and comes packed with hundreds of free shapes and icons that have a simple to use search bar.
It’s quite a power wireframe editing app that is kept updated by their community of developers, with it being updated recently as two weeks ago as of the publish date of this article.
Wirefy
User-review rating: n/a
Type: Desktop, Open source
Overview: Wirefy is a completely free wireframing software that is open-source and comes available in a desktop download – in this case, downloading a Git repository. For those who have never done this, Wirefy examples how here.
The platform does require some basic HTML and CSS knowledge, but is a robust UX/UI tool with large collection of atomic elements to create advanced and flexible wireframes.
Conclusion
Prototyping Tools are the backbone of any UI/UX designer. They help you to visualize the interface/user-experience of an app before its development. There are many popular prototyping tools offered at no or minimal cost. But choosing the best tool may be daunting for you because of the huge competition in the market.