20 Free Wireframe and Mockup Applications
Mockup is the visual appearance of any website whereas the Wireframe deals with the contents and the functionality of the site. One of the easiest steps in building a website is by creating a mockup and of course both the concepts are quite essential for creating an effective website. The wireframes are very important for the layout and organizing the functional aspects of the web pages. The Wireframe software could be easily used to communicate the needs of a website with the developers and the designers. Before building the actual interface of the site, the wireframe assists in planning out the overall structure of the website.
Effective mockup and a wireframe software are quite essential for any web designers and developers to plan out a good visual arrangement of the websites. These software applications also come at heavy prices but there are also numerous free mockup and wireframe software available online for fulfilling the requirements of the web users. Creating a wireframe or a mockup is quite simple and easy which assists greatly in the consistency and the clarity of a website development. It usually uses lines and boxes to define a page and also indicates where the text should be entered in a web page.
The web designers use mockup software to develop a framework of the site and uses wireframe for verifying the right navigation and the branding on each page. While creating any web projects, these mockup and wireframe software help a great deal to avoid hassles of building a site for the prospective clients. Due to such increasing demand of these software applications, there are large collections of wireframe and mockup software available online for free. Since the wireframe is the visual illustration of a website, it helps the designers where each element needs to be placed on a website.
It could be really a challenging task for any web designer to build a site of their own without any tools or resources. The wireframe and the mockup software are especially designed for the designers and the developers to create an effective website. The Mockup helps the web designers to choose the right colors, images and the typography whereas the wireframes focuses on the overall content structure of the project but is created without any contents in it. In simpler words, a mockup denotes the looks of a website and the wireframe denotes the functionality of the site. Thus, both the aspects are quite essential for any web designers and developers to create an effective and a successful website.
Free Wireframe and Mockup Applications
UXPin
Justinmind – The ultimate wireframe software to create a website wireframe
iPhone Mockup
Lumzy
Cacoo – Create diagrams online Real time collaboration
fluidIA
Serena Prototype Composer
MockFlow – Online Wireframe Tool
Website wireframes – Mockingbird
DUB – DENIM
Future of Wireframing – HotGloo
Pencil Project
Mockup Builder – Free online web prototyping tools, software
Tiggr Mobile Apps Builder
Frame Box
Mockabilly – App for creating mockups on iPhone
Online UI Mockups and Wireframes


























Ewa
January 5, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Hey guys!
Great to see more and more people are interested in wireframing :)
There is an app missing in your list :) You should take a look at JustProto (http://justproto.com) our Great Users can’t be wrong :) it’s webbased, easy to use a great in-between balsamiq and axure. Realtime collaboration is the thing we put at the top of our priority list. Built-in libraries for iPhone, iPad and Android are one more argument to use it.
Check it out and give it a spin. In case of any questions – we do have an incredibly friendly and competent support :)
Adrian
January 5, 2012 at 2:37 pm
Hi, thanks for suggestion, your tool look nice, but you provide free or trial version?
Ewa
January 5, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Adrian;
Yes, we do have a free trial and no credit card is required upon signup :)
Nora Reed
January 12, 2012 at 10:42 am
That’s great Ewa!! I will defiantly try, thanks for sharing this amazing tool :)
Naïa
January 5, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Thanks for that article. It was really useful for me. I think I’ll try some of those mockup applications and I’ll tell you what I think about them.
(PS : Sorry for my English, that’s not my mother tongue).
komsija
January 5, 2012 at 3:16 pm
No OmniGraffle? probably most used wireframing/prototyping tool on OSX
ooops, its only free tools, sorry :)
Andrew
January 5, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Hi you’ve missed another one of the list, UXToolbox from softandGUI (http://www.softandgui.co.uk). It’s quite new to the market but we already have a number of users that really love it and think its the best thing since sliced bread.
It’s very easy to use and packed full of features including; support for any device type, toggling between simplistic/sketchy and high-res wireframes, generating interactive working prototypes, allows easy annotation and markup, printouts and generates specs/documentation (including control coordinates and layout) and exports to Word, XML and HTML.
Comes with a 30 day trial so anybody can give it a go
Cristian
January 6, 2012 at 3:14 am
You forgot flairbuilder.com and wireframesketcher.com :)
Cheers!
Paul
January 6, 2012 at 11:57 am
Hi I use Balsamiq for wireframes it does the job for me.
Marcin
January 6, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Nice summary! There’s actually only one system for documenting design created by ‘design insiders’. It’s highly collaborative and able to auto-convert paper prototypes into digital, full editable wireframes.
Check it! http://uxpin.com
Short video demonstrating power of UXPin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hwaUyRdhhI
Steven
January 12, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Great share, its gonna really help me on my projects! thank you so much :)
Caroline
January 24, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Nice list! When you’re ready to turn the wireframes into high fidelity/pixel perfect, you may want to try out Keynotopia. (They offer wireframes too) and you can turn a wireframe into a ready-to-be developed interactive design with just a few clicks! :)