Wireframe , or wireframe design is a technique used during the early stages of visual communication design – especially within the context of user interface design. This technique serves to quickly convey the arrangement of elements in web, app interfaces etc.
A wireframe is basically a blueprint of your website. It allows you to test out the way different features of the website will be laid out before going on to the more detailed planning stages. Wireframes also allow you to place source …
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. If you’re collaborating with others (especially remotely), this is a tool to check out. Get a beginner’s introduction to Adobe XD this event recording:
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 
Clique favorite
User-review rating: 4.5/5
Type: Web-based, Freemium
Overview: Figma is an all-in-one design platform for UX/UI pros and offers a robust free offering for creating wireframes. It’s starter package is completely free and is one of the most robust free offerings on this list – 3 active projects, 30 day revision history, 2 editors at any time, and unlimited cloud storage.
The first paid tier (which is free for students with a valid school email address) is $12/mo per editor and includes an upgrade to unlimited active projects and version history, custom permissions, private boards, and team collaboration features.
InDesign
A desktop publishing tool that’s great for making wireframes
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: Windows, MacFree trial: YesPrice: From $19.99 per month as part of Adobe Creative CloudTODAY’S BEST DEALSCreative Cloud InDesign Single AppUS$20.99/mthVISIT SITEat Adobe
REASONS TO BUY
+Design interactive PDFs+Create your own libraries+Creative Cloud integration
REASONS TO AVOID
-Lacks element libraries
Adobe InDesign has been the most popular desktop publishing software around for a long long time, but it’s no longer focused solely on print design. InDesign can also be used to create some pretty zippy interactive PDFs, including animations, video and object states.
While the digital functions of InDesign are mainly used for creating e-books, e-brochures and e-magazines, they’re just as capable of crafting wireframes and mockups. The software also includes the ability to create libraries of page elements, so you can create collections of reusable UI graphics too.
Conclusion
We’ve collected some of the best free wireframe tools, mockup generatorsand prototyping software there is. Whether you’re desiging for an app or website, these wireframing tools will help you to create mockups fast and easy!