Wireframe tools are an essential part of the usability testing process. They provide a vehicle for designers to get feedback from clients. Luckily, there are plenty of free wireframe tools on the market. Let’s highlight 5 of the best free wireframe tools for Mac users.
Wireframes are an essential step in the product design process. They help designers and clients collaborate, uphold shared ideas and stay focused on the end goal. Wireframe tools help you get an idea across through images. It’s a great way to start planning and organizing your projects and it also gives you a sense of the user experience before actual coding takes place. These wireframe tools for Mac will help your next project run smoothly.
Wondershare Mockitt
No wireframe tool for Mac beats Wondershare Mockitt.Yes, the program is enriched with numerous powerful features that make it so easy and effective to create a wireframe. Leverage the abundant built-in widgets and icons to design amazing interfaces in no time. Simply open the widget panel, drag the widgets and drop at the canvas, and finally create an elegant interface for your website. With the cloud feature, you will forget everything about installing, uploading, or downloading projects.Try it Free
Simply log in using your browser and access your design project anywhere at any time. Also, collaborate with your team members or clients across various devices and perform real-time coediting. This enables projects to run faster as every relevant personnel is synced. What else can make the design process super-fast more than the rich library of UI assets and templates? Users can build their asset libraries and reuse them anytime they want. Also, use the handoff specs to ensure an accurate and automated process beginning from design to development. Inspect and discuss the design to accelerate its forward trajectory.
Pros
- It allows managers, designers, and developers to collaborate irrespective of team size.
- It supports real-time coediting, which speeds project design.
- Users can collaborate across various devices.
- It houses plenty of UI assets and templates that ease the design process.
- It is easy to use. Thanks to the total no-brainer interface.
- Users can animate and prototype websites with ease.
Cons
- The free trial version is limited.
System Compatibility
MacOS, Windows, Ios, Android, Web, LinuxTry it Free
Mockplus
Mockplus is arguably among the best free wireframe tools for Mac. It is a comprehensive platform that lets you create designs, prototype, and collaborate with ease. Leverage the assortment of components, icons, and interactions to streamline the design process and perform validation without writing even a single code. Bring various personnel onboard ranging from designers to managers to facilitate better product design workflow. Build design systems that are dynamic, re-usable, and consistent to ensure easy management and maintenance. The low fidelity and unique sketch styling is a good match for creating a wireframe.
Pros
- It has more than 200 components and 3000 icons that make designing easy and fast.
- It has a user-friendly interface.
- It offers collaboration features.
- It provides scalable design systems.
Cons
- The premium version has better features, yet it is expensive.
- It needs improvement on its very own UI.
System Compatibility
Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Ios
Justinmind
Another proper free wireframe app mac tool and mobile devices is Justinmind. It is a free wireframe tool for Mac that does not limit the number of wireframes or users. Unleash your creative potentials with Justinmind by creating interactive wireframes and prototypes. You can easily preview them and test to validate the experience in a browser. It means you can have a look at your website in real-time without writing any codes.
The ready-made and frequently furnished UI libraries is an excellent asset for wireframing both web and mobile applications. You can easily drag and drop the UI elements and design clickable prototypes within a few minutes. With these elements, you can easily create wireframes for iOS, Android, and web applications. Also, use device emulators to test your wireframes on mobile and web. You can even mimic gestures like mobile swiping.
Pros
- It supports integration with design tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Sketch.
- It is updated with UI elements frequently.
- It supports advanced web interactions and mobile gestures.
- It supports cloud collaboration.
Cons
- The learning curve is a bit stiff.
- The paid model is expensive.
- No ready-made backgrounds.
System Compatibility
Windows, Mac
Figma
Figma is a powerful free wireframe tool for Mac. This great software helps various teams to create, test, and handoff better designs to developers. The program is equipped with an array of design features and unique inventions that help unlock your ideas. Animate your prototypes and feel like it is indeed real-life. You can team up with your members by sharing links of design to get feedback. Also, perform real-time coediting on the same file irrespective of your location. With this platform, you can create scalable designs that are available and easy to manage.
Pros
- Team members can perform real-time collaboration and coediting irrespective of where they are located.
- Build and reuse designs infinite times.
- It is fast and equipped with powerful unique features.
Cons
- It has limited training resources.
- Tracing specific assets can prove difficult with default settings.
- It’s a heavy application.
System Compatibility
Web, Windows, MacOS, Linux
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle is a good free wireframe tool for Mac hat offers some of the powerful visual communication features. Thanks to the power diagram, design, and prototype. This tool ensures complicated ideas are communicated quickly and precisely. You can create magnificent wireframes and share them using great visualization tools.
Pros
- It supports the creation of wireframes for all types of devices.
- It has powerful tools for creating graphics.
- Support rapid prototyping.
Cons
- The free version is limited, yet the pro version is expensive.
System Compatibility
MacOS, Windows
Miro
Miro is a wildly helpful and popular tool, especially for ideation sessions, interactive presentations, design thinking workshops, and the like. But it’s uses don’t stop there! It’s an extremely versatile tool with wireframing capability!
Price breakdown
- Limited free version for unlimited team members
- Unlimited features, anywhere from $8-16/month for teams and businesses (they also have custom pricing for enterprise-level work)
Why you should use Miro for wireframing
We can’t overstate how versatile this tool is. If you want a free, easy to use tool that’s useful for all kinds of things and has collaboration superpowers, this is a great tool for you to try out. You can drop shapes, draw freeform, type, add digital sticky notes, or insert images and videos (and more) onto the infinite canvas. For teams, there are features for video chats, background music, and “summoning” (so if you need everyone to meet you somewhere on the Miro board, you can bring them to you). And that’s just scratching the surface.
If you don’t want to start from scratch, you can visit the Miroverse, where there are loads of templates (like this mobile app template) that you’ll find useful throughout the UX design process. You can download them or just use them for inspiration.
What’s not so great about Miro
Really, the possibilities are endless here, but if you’re aiming for interactivity (within the wireframe/prototype) or very high fidelity, you may hit some snags and need to find workarounds.
What other designers have to say about Miro
- “It’s intuitive to select and try out several canvas and interact and create relations between them. The design is seamless to understand. It is easy to share globally, and with several team members, of different projects in the free version.”
- “There are still some functionality improvements that can be made but I see that they are introducing new features almost daily. For example, yesterday I found myself trying to make the size of existing shapes to be identical but couldn’t do it so I put a new shape and started from scratch.”
Balsamiq Wireframes
A wireframing tool for creating quick designs, running user testing, and sharing mockups with a design team.
Price breakdown
- Free 30-day trial period
- Pro (single-user license): $89
Why should you use it for wireframing?
One of the many Balsamiq Studios products, Balsamiq Wireframes is a Flash-based wireframing software with an extensive library of UI elements and templates that make wireframing a breeze.
The complexity of the Balsamiq Wireframe library can be a source of great inspiration for designers when producing desktop and mobile wires. Not only does it have many diverse elements, but it’s also easy to learn and use. Most designers describe it as being as simple as dragging, dropping, and arranging elements from the menu onto your canvas until you have the interface you desire.
Balsamiq Wireframes also has built-in presentation tools that make presenting your designs to clients a seamless process.
Where Balsamiq Wireframes falls short
Balsamiq Wireframes is not the best for building larger prototypes and lacks animations or interactive features. Designers wishing to simulate the UX of their software must be able to program interactions themselves and export as an interactive PDF.
This wireframing software is unique in style as the design elements have a hand-drawn appearance to them. This gives your designs a bit of a cartoony feel that may not be desired. Also, it’s important to note that once your free 30-day trial is up, you’ll have to purchase a license to save any of your previous designs.
What other designers are saying
- “Probably the easiest wireframing tool to use. It’s focused feature set is aimed at creating wireframes in the least amount of time possible. Very quick to learn with some depth for power users.”
- “Wireframes can look child-like and unprofessional with some settings.”
Wireframe.CC
User-review rating: 3.8/5
Type: Web-based, Freemium
Overview: Wireframe.cc is a browser-based free wireframing solution for designers on the go. Accessible anywhere through a browser, it’s a simple and cluster free tool with a sleek UI. The free version allows for users to create one simple wireframe at a time and is equipped with tools to customize the grid layout, typography, canvas size, and more.
The next level for premium pricing is $16/mo per user and allows for unlimited projects and revisions, custom branding, and exporting directly into PNG format.
Conclusion
If you are interested in creating Web or Mobile design, then first you need pencil and paper. Before the advent of Smartphone, this was the only effective way to draw out designs on paper. Even today, some designers still use pen and paper before they finalize their design concepts. The question here is, what tools should you use to create wireframes? If you want to create wireframes for your mobile app or website, then maybe these wireframe tools will help.”