Wireframe and Mockup Tools

Pencil

Open source and Free, the Pencil Project is a great tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use. It runs as either a Firefox plugin or in a standalone XUL runner. It works on Linux, Windows and Mac and has a Firefox Extension

http://pencil.evolus.vn/

HotGloo

The Online Wireframe Application

http://www.hotgloo.com/

MockingBird

Is an online tool that makes it easy for you to create, link together, preview, and share mockups of your website or application.

http://gomockingbird.com/

Balsamiq Mockups

Using Balsamiq Mockups feels like you are drawing, but it's digital, so you can tweak and rearrange controls easily, and the end result is much cleaner.

http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups

Moqups

Moqups is a nifty HTML5 App used to create wireframes, mockups or UI concepts, prototypes depending on how you like to call them.

https://moqups.com/

Cacoo

Online Real time collaboration

• Cacoo is a user friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams such as site maps, wire frames, UML and network charts.
• Cacoo can be used free of charge.

http://cacoo.com/

Mockup by Lextech

Mockup is an iPhone app prototyping tool that makes it incredibly easy to:

• Think through design/usability concepts before you start coding,
• Brainstorm with future and existing customers, and
• Share your ideas and collaborate with the app development community.

http://lextech.com/mockup

Mockery

Mockery enables you to create great UI mockups, quickly and easily.

• Design great interfaces for the web or desktop.
• Review your designs with Windows and Mac themes.
• Annotate your mockups with detailed information.
• Share your mockups with others.

http://getmockery.com/

ForeUI

ForeUI is a handy UI prototyping tool. It can rapidly create static or interactive, skinnable UI prototypes of your website or software. You can use ForeUI to:

• Create mockup for the GUI in your mind and make others understand quickly.
• Make working prototype of website or software to collect feedback from potential users.
• Perform usability testing before releasing the beta version.
• Generate the schematics that can be inserted in the design documents.

http://www.foreui.com/

Naview by Volkside

Naview is a navigation preview tool for rapid information architecture prototyping from Volkside.

• Design and visualise an IA or website navigation structure
• Build prototypes quickly and get a feel for the navigation
• Test your IA with users and iterate on the fly
• Import your IA easily from a spreadsheet
• No need for coding to simulate real website menu behaviour

http://www.volkside.com/go/naview/

C-Inspector

A tool for information architecture testing C–Inspector is a web–based application that helps you to test the information architecture of your website. By analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data collected through the remote test, you can gain insight into the users' mental models and identify possible issues with labelling or grouping

http://www.c-inspector.com/index.php

FlairBuilder

A cross-platform prototyping tool that helps you create interactive wireframes & prototypes faster, easier and with better results. We put a strong emphase in interactivity as this is the best way to show your clients something closer to the real product.

http://www.flairbuilder.com/

MockApp

What can I use MockApp for?

• Brainstorm and refine a new app idea
• Show what the app should do so that it’s easy for a developer to code it just right
• Show-off your brilliant app ideas to your boss, potential business partners, investors, etc. (again, way more effective tan finger puppets!)

http://mockapp.com/

Creately

Creately is an easy to use and collaborative diagramming application that runs in your browser. With a powerful and intuitive interface, Creately is great for teams that need to work on designs together

http://creately.com/

MockFlow

Design, collaborate (in real-time) user interface mockups for your software and websites.

http://www.mockflow.com/

Pidoco

A GUI Design Software for clickable Wireframes. Fast and easy like rapid paper prototyping, but completely web-based and with many more features.

https://pidoco.com/

JustProto

The first tool to create the prototypes of network and desktop applications!

http://www.justproto.com/en/

JumpChart

Start with a strong foundation. Make planning architecture easier with Jumpchart. By creating pages, and subpages you can quickly sketch out the hierarchy of your site.

https://www.jumpchart.com/

iPlotz

iPlotz allows you to rapidly create clickable, navigable mockups and wireframes for prototyping websites and software applications.

http://iplotz.com/

ProtoShare

Historically, web-based applications haven't been able to match the speed and complexity of desktop apps—until now.

http://www.protoshare.com/

CogTool

CogTool is a general purpose UI prototyping tool with a difference - it automatically evaluates your design with a predictive human performance model (a "cognitive crash dummy").

http://cogtool.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/

There is another tool, completely free and very promising, built on the Gecko engine (read: Mozilla): Pencil ^[1].

UPDATE 3 There is an awesome online prototyping apps comparison chart ^[2] to help find the right tool for your case.

UPDATE 2 A new tool is available, both mac and windows, and is free (but requires user registration so expect some additional newsletters °-)): indigoStudio ^[3]

UPDATE 1 Also: Lumzy ^[4], which is completely free and boasts a nice list of features.

There is mockingbird ^[1]:

Mockingbird is an online tool that makes it easy for you to create, link together, preview, and share mockups of your website or application.

We use Mockup Screens ^[1] at work ("Quick and Easy Screen Prototypes").

Mockupscreens is not free but really not expensive, as the pricing page ^[2] shows. It's not 0-20 but $79 for a single user at the moment (01-10-2008; dd-mm-yyyy) and only $319 for a whole company.

Yahoo!'s design stencil kit ^[1] is free and pretty solid, especially for building Web UIs in OmniGraffle, Illustrator, Visio, etc. There's even iPhone UI elements. Doesn't have Balsamiq's workflow, of course, but a nice way to work with tools you may already be comfortable with.

WireframeSketcher ^[1] is a tool that helps quickly create wireframes, mockups and prototypes for desktop, web and mobile applications. It comes both as a standalone version and as a plug-in for Eclipse IDEs. It has some distinctive features like storyboards, components, linking and vector PDF export. Among supported IDEs are are Aptana, Flash Builder, Zend Studio and Rational Application Developer.

Sample WireframeSketcher mockup http://wireframesketcher.com/samples/Website.png ^[2]

Have a look at Serena Prototype Composer ^[1]. It's very powerful and free.

As mentioned above, you could use Visio with the stencils for wireframing (http://nickfinck.com/stencils/).

I would also recommend Denim (http://dub.washington.edu:2007/denim/) which is best used with a tablet PC or a Wacom Tablet ^[1].

You can try ForeUI ^[1], it's my favorite mockup tool.

Try Tiggr - http://gotiggr.com . Tiggr is a rapid prototyping tool where you can create, share, preview (HTML) web and mobile prototypes. (Note: I work for the company behind Tiggr).

• Generates an Android project or an APK which can be installed on the device
• Supports Apple platform too
• Provides generalized UI components
• Has no special Android or Apple stencils
• Export for interactive presentation / clickable dummy
• Allows creating and storing of custom templates
• Allows to switch the theme of a UI element

The online demo of balsamiq is quite usable for small tasks.

Mockup Screens ^[1] seems to be the one, with there new improved version i think it is worth trial

Im using JustProto and I must admitt that this tool suites me the most!it's reliable, fast and easy to learn- perfect for "non-tech" clients. It helps to create fully clickable and interactive wireframes working like a real site!

You can check it here: www.justproto.com

Try iPlotz ^[1] :

iPlotz allows you to rapidly create clickable, navigable mockups and wireframes 
for prototyping websites and software applications.

Create a project, add wireframe pages with design components and discuss 
your creations with others.

There is a free online demo use of 1 project, limited to 5 wireframe pages.

Wireframing tools - a roundup of list posts related to 'wireframe' and 'wireframing'

1. http://mashable.com/2010/07/15/wireframing-tools/

2. http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/15-desktop-online-wireframing-tools/

3. http://www.developersnippets.com/2010/03/16/free-online-wireframe-tools-to-create-and-share-mockups-of-your-website-or-applications/

There is more or less complete list of both free and commercial prototyping tools here: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GuiPrototypingTools

IMHO no serious help with free tools yet, but I'm probably not the most objective person here because I'm the author of Mockup www.MockupScreens.com :-)

If you need the tool for something non-commercial, drop me an e-mail.

You can also check out Lucid Chart ^[1] for wireframing.

They recently added a state/hotspot type system to make wireframes interactive although they do count this as a premium feature so it requires a paid subscription (which are quite reasonable I might add).

Microsoft Visio does the work very nicely. Get an Enterprise Architect version for more software-related stencils

If you fall within their set of specific categories you might be able to get balasamiq free or reduced price.

It's pretty ace to be fair.

I've reviewed all of these. I think Pencil although a bit rough is very good for a free product. I don't understand the high price tag. $20 is a no brainer. But $80 is really getting up there, because all we're talking about is mockups. So, I support the Pencil and suggest balsamiq reduce their price I am sure they would have a much larger market at that price point as $80 to save something is quite steep.

Edraw MAX 5 ^[1] is also a good candidate. Checkout few mockups i made with it.

http://www.mixedwaves.com/2010/03/wireframe-samples-for-poll

You can try MockupTiger for free at http://www.mockuptiger.com

PS: I am also the developer of this application.