Best option for free software to mockup a web application (UI, design elements, user flow, etc)?

Vinay Ph.D. Director of Licensing at Wake Forest Innovations

October 4th, 2014

Hello Friends - I have a prototype web application under development. To expedite R&D and have a visual representation to share with investors, I'm looking for free software to mockup the app in terms of user interface, preferably with built-in design elements and user flow. Any recommendations on software to do this? I've seen several options online for wireframing websites and apps, just not sure which is best.

Eric Sullivan CEO at FoundationLab

October 4th, 2014

Balsamiq would be an easy to use tool

Shawn H. Yang

October 4th, 2014

Try POP - Prototype on Paper. it takes your drawings and turns them into mockups.

Rohit Paliwal COO @ Uvaca, Inc.

October 6th, 2014

Since you asked for "free", a pretty good option that I've used is Pencil: http://pencil.evolus.vn/
It's open source, cross-platform and rather full-featured.

Gal Bracha CTO & Co-Founder @blinQ.me (500 Startups B11)

October 4th, 2014

Balsamiq for the testing followed by Proto.IO

Proto.IO has evolved since launch and offers Variables and real user interactions.

Many people (Most of which techies) who used our first version couldn't tell that it was a proto.io mockup.

Bharathi Masilamani Software Development Manager at Amazon

October 6th, 2014

moqups.com is also another free, HTML5 app that i have been using for a while now and find it suuper useful and and easy to use as well..

Paul Echols CEO / Creative Director at Square 205

October 7th, 2014

Our agency uses Mockflow. It has really easy to use drag and drop elements, great page and linking functionality, a collaborative environment, and powerful export abilities. We used the free version for a long time as it has pretty much everything you'd need.

app.mockflow.com

Michael Gre Partner @ SWARM

October 8th, 2014

Before you jump into wires be sure to build out the information architecture / user flows for each and every interaction in your webapp, this will save you a lot of headache down the line. As for tools Powerpoint / Keynote on the quick and dirty side of things, moqups.com is ok as well. Internally we use Illustrator for our IA and Wireframing and typically do high fidelity ones.

Ping me if you want to see how we build web/apps happy to share our process. jacek at swarmnyc.com

Amar Ruparelia Real Estate

October 4th, 2014

I would try invisionapp.com

The user interface follows smoothly and gives investors a good idea of your web application.

Lokesh Kumar Cofounder & VP of Tech at Urgent.ly

October 4th, 2014

I have used successfully -

1. Pen and Paper

2. Keynote from Apple with Keynotopia

This is about as low tech / cheap you can get.

Brahm Singh Eng Head - Deep Search at Quixey

October 4th, 2014

mockingbird.com is another option - i like it for collaboration. My designer friends recommend invisionapp for high def prototyping. You cannot collaborate though. Not sure if they have user flow though. Otherwise, you can use the good ol paper with the app called 'pop'.