10 Best Free Wireframe Tools For Designers
Building a wireframe is an essential task for UI/UX designers. Today, there are several tools out on the market to support creating basic wireframes quickly, even for newbies.
Check out this article to know the best wireframe tools for designers in 2022.
Top 10 Best Free Wireframe Tools for UI/UX Designers
Figma
Figma is one of the most widely-used software when it comes to wireframing. This amazing tool has gained popularity for good reasons, as it is robust, efficient, and affordable.
Using Figma is as easy as you want it to be. You can create artboards and add basic shapes to complete your wireframes in no time.
Figma is also the favorite choice of organizations due to its great collaboration features. It allows multiple people to access, comment, and edit the artboards in real-time for effective teamwork.
Another useful feature of Figma is it organizes all designs in one side panel, making it convenient to switch between different pages, artboards, and layers.
Sketch
Launched in 2010, Sketch is a dedicated wireframing tool with a heavy focus on UI and icon vector design. It offers great ease of use with a simple user interface.
One of the most notable features of Sketch is Symbol, which permits you to repeat elements across your design. The software also integrates with many third-party tools and plugins, so it is pretty versatile.
In addition, many exporting options are at hand, including a drag-and-share feature.
The only problem with Sketch is it does not work on the Windows platform.
Adobe XD
Since Adobe XD is a vector-based tool from Adobe, it works well with other Adobe products such as Illustrator, Photoshop, Adobe Stock, etc. If you are an Adobe enthusiast, do not skip this option for your design workflow.
Adobe XD lets users do virtually anything within the same project file, from wireframing to prototyping. It saves lots of hassles as you do not need to integrate any tool or export after each iteration.
This intuitive Adobe design tool comes with a minimalist interface, which makes it easy for beginners to catch up.
More interestingly, free users can try out Adobe XD with one prototype and up to 2GB of storage. Of course, you need a Creative Cloud subscription for a full feature set.
LucidChart
Here comes another popular web-based app wireframes for wireframing and prototyping. LucidChart is trusted by leading brands such as BP, L’Oréal, and BMW.
This free wireframe tool includes a full UI library with all basic elements and an intuitive drag-and-drop feature. With a pool of design templates on the table, newbies will find no difficulty using it at all.
A wonderful set of collaboration tools are also available for effective teamwork. You can create and share your own URL for the entire team, stakeholders, and clients to join in editing your mockups.
To further complement its versatility, LucidChart supports importing data from Google Sheets and presenting via Google Slides.
MockPlus
One of the competitive edges of MockPlus lies in its extensive library. It showcases more than 3,000 pre-built icons, templates, and components to simplify your design process.
Just drag and drop these elements into the canvas, and you can finish your interactive wireframes quickly.
Another feature worth mentioning is how MockPlus lets you test your interaction design in eight ways, including on real devices. No wonder this software is considered the best when it comes to testing UI/UX design.
MockPlus is compatible with all major platforms, namely Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Justinmind
For non-techies, Justinmind should tick their boxes. It is even more newbie-friendly than Figma or Sketch.
Simplicity does not mean a lack of functionality in this case. In fact, Justinmind is packed with many useful features, such as a full library of UI elements, several widgets, custom styling options, and high-fidelity prototypes.
This tool is also ideal for those with a limited budget as it offers a free-forever plan. Still, you may need to upgrade to a Premium version to access more powerful features and unlimited projects.
UXPin
UXPin is a powerful wireframing tool that works primarily on web browsers, macOS, and Windows. It serves many plans for different groups of users, including a free trial.
The best thing about UXPin is its highly intuitive interface, which presents a set of icons and UI elements that you can drag and drop into your wireframes in no time.
Thanks to great collaboration alongside presentation tools, working with your design team in real-time or presenting your designs to clients is a breeze.
UXPin is effortless to use for beginners, while the software does come with advanced features for the professionals in paid plans.
Balsamiq Wireframes
Unlike other options on today’s list, Balsamiq Wireframes is a simple web-based design tool that suits quick and low-fi wireframing best.
As an added perk, Balsamiq is designed with intuitive collaboration and user testing features.
On the negative side, it is difficult to do large-scale interactive prototypes using Balsamiq Wireframes due to the lack of HD animations.
Cacoo
Cacoo is a diagram-centric software that caters to low and mid-fidelity mockups. Besides wireframes, people also use this software for other design tasks such as creating flowcharts and user testing.
Cacoo focuses on improving real-time collaboration with quality editing options and presentation tools. Integration with design tools, such as Slack, AWS, Dropbox, and Microsoft teams for better collaborative work, are accessible.
Also, a good number of templates are meant to speed up the design process. You can pick and place elements from desktop and mobile devices to the wires easily. Even better, this wireframe app accepts unlimited users in the free trial version.
Fluid UI
Fluid UI, different from Cacoo, entered the scene as one of the best wireframe tools for high-fidelity wireframing and prototyping. It provides up to 10 mockup screens and permits transitions between them.
Also of note is the wide variety of design elements and animations that Fluid UI serves. In addition, there are over 2,000 icons, widgets, and components that you can customize and drag and drop onto your interactive wireframes.
A downside of Fluid UI is it does not support uploading multiple images at a time, which is quite frustrating.
