Top 10 Prototyping Tools for Designers in 2024
Admin Apr 29, 2024

Product List

Noteey

Figma

Adobe XD

Sketch

Axure RP

Protopie

Proto.io

Balsamiq

Framer

Marvel

Noteey

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Noteey is an all-in-one offline visual suite. As a versatile and efficient prototyping tool, it enables users to create mockups, wireframes, and interactive prototypes.

 

Best Features:

  • Rich visual elements including images, shapes, lines, drawing, and embedded videos.
  • Nested pages for structured organization, ensuring even large projects remain tidy.
  • User-friendly design interface, even for beginners.
  • Intuitive interaction functions, no code is needed to simulate real user interactions.
  • Offline editing and presentation capabilities, enabling users to export files and share them with team members.

 

Limitations:

  • Due to its local-first system design, it is not well suited for real-time collaboration between teams. It is better suited for asynchronous file collaboration.

 

Pricing:

  • Free for personal and educational users, commercial use requires purchasing a license ($50 a year).

 

Availability:

  • Windows, MacOS

 

Information:

 

Figma

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Figma is a well-established prototyping product renowned for its emphasis on team collaboration, supporting real-time collaboration among remote team members.

It effortlessly simulates real interaction processes, quickly obtains user interaction experiences, facilitating better product iteration.

Through its "dev mode," prototypes can be easily converted into code, allowing better collaboration between UI/UX designers and developers.

 

Limitation:

  • Steep learning curve.

 

Pricing:

  • Starter: Free
  • Professional: $12/month per editor, billed annually
  • Organization: $45/month per editor, billed annually
  • Enterprise: $75/month per editor, billed annually

 

Information:

 

Adobe XD

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Adobe XD is a powerful prototyping design software capable of transforming static images into high-fidelity interactive prototypes. It creates truly fluid animations and demonstrates interaction designs in more realistic environments.

Adobe XD seamlessly integrates with Adobe Creative Cloud, making it particularly suitable for designers familiar with other Adobe products.

 

Limitations:

  • More suited for users familiar with Adobe Creative Cloud.
  • Slightly steep learning curve

 

Pricing:

  • Individual: $9.99/month (single user)
  • Single App (XD only): $33.99/month per license
  • Adobe Creative Cloud: $79.99/month per license

 

Information:

 

Sketch

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As a Mac-only application, Sketch is still a mainstream design tool that remains beloved by numerous designers.

Its clean interface and rich design functionalities make it an excellent choice for creating mockups, wireframes, and interactive prototypes. Additionally, Sketch supports a wide range of plugins, and can also create reusable components and styles for teams to improve the efficiency of collaboration.

 

Limitation:

  • Only supports MacOS

 

Pricing:

  • Standard: $10/month per user, billed annually
  • Business: $20/month per user, billed annually
  • Mac-only License: $120 per license

 

Information:

 

Axure RP

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Axure is a powerful prototyping tool widely used for UX and UI design. Axure provides rich interaction elements and actions for creating complex interaction flows and state transitions to validate and demonstrate product functionality.

Axure supports rich customization and logic design to create complex interaction logic, conditional statements, and dynamic content to simulate real user actions and system behaviors.

 

Limitations:

  • Steep learning curve.
  • More suitable for large-scale projects.

 

Pricing:

  • Pro: $25 per month, per user billed annually
  • Team: $42 per month, per user billed annually
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

 

Information:

 

Protopie

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Protopie is perfect for creating high-fidelity interactive prototypes.

Protopie supports plugins for importing files from Figma, Adobe XD, or Sketch.

Protopie supports the realization of complex interactive experiences and can be tested across various devices, including automotive, TVs, smartwatches, and gaming interactions.

 

Limitations:

  • Lack of real-time collaboration.
  • Inability to design from scratch; static assets must be imported first.

 

Pricing:

  • Free
  • Pro: $67/month per editor
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

 

Information:

 

Proto.io

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Proto.io enables rapid prototyping, relying on a large library of standard UI elements. It also supports importing existing wireframes from Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma, and Photoshop.

Proto.io also integrates with user testing tools, facilitating easy feedback collection and design iteration.

Limitations:

  • Inability to preview interactions in real-time.
  • Preview does not display smoothly with heavy interaction.

 

Pricing:

  • Freelancer: $24/month, billed annually
  • Startup: $40/month, billed annually
  • Agency: $80/month, billed annually
  • Corporate: $160/month, billed annually

 

Information:

 

Balsamiq

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Balsamiq is a simple and user-friendly wireframing tool designed to help designers quickly create low-fidelity mockups. Its speed and simplicity make it an ideal choice for rapid prototyping and early design exploration.

Balsamiq focuses more on content and functionality rather than detail and aesthetics, allowing for quick validation of ideas and design iteration, assisting users in capturing every inspiration.

 

Limitations:

  • Not suitable for high-fidelity projects.
  • Limited types of interactions.

 

Pricing:

  • Desktop: $129 per user
  • Cloud: $9/month for a 2-project Space
  • Cloud: $49/month for a 20-project Space
  • Cloud: $199/month for a 200-project Space

 

Information:

 

Framer

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Framer is a web design prototyping tool that makes it easy to convert designs to web publishing without code!

With drag-and-drop interactive components, adaptive layouts, and built-in tools for paging, scrolling, and navigation, designing on Framer feels like using a real application or website. Additionally, there are AI tools available for text rewriting and translation to achieve localization.

 

Limitations:

  • Inability to achieve identical adaptation across different devices.
  • Steep learning curve

Pricing:

  • Free
  • Mini: $5/month, billed annually
  • Basic: $15/month, billed annually
  • Pro: $30/month, billed annually
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

 

Information:

 

Marvel

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Marvel is a cloud-based prototyping tool that helps designers quickly create wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes.

Marvel supports wireframing from scratch as well as integrating with tools like Sketch and Photoshop to seamlessly import designs.

In addition, Marvel enables user testing and feedback, helping to rapidly iterate on products.

 

Limitations:

  • Cannot be used offline
  • Advanced design features are limited

 

Pricing:

  • Free
  • Pro: $12/month, billed annually
  • Team: $42/month, billed annually
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

 

Information:

 

*All data sourced from Semrush.