Prototyping
Early Wireframing
Balsamiq
Quick, rough sketches of your pages that let us agree on layout before any design work begins.
- Category
- Prototyping
- Stack role
- Design
- Tool type
- SaaS
- Best suited for
- Early Page Layout Sketching
- Hosting model
- Hybrid
- Software price
- $12 - $18 / month
- Made by
- Balsamiq
- First released
- 2008
Our rating, from hands-on experience building client projects. Not a public review average.
What is Balsamiq?
Balsamiq, in plain English.
Balsamiq is a wireframing tool. A wireframe is a simple black and white sketch of a page that shows where things go, like the headline, the form and the buttons, without colors or photos.
Balsamiq deliberately makes its sketches look hand-drawn. That keeps the conversation on what the page needs to do, not on whether the blue is the right blue. It's quick to use, so we can mock up a few options in a single meeting and change them on the spot.
The company behind it was founded in 2008, and Balsamiq is available both as a desktop app and in the cloud. It sits at the very start of a project, before the polished design stage, which is where changes are cheapest to make.
In our stack
Why we use Balsamiq.
We use Balsamiq at the start of a project to sketch page structure and user flow with you. Settling the layout in rough form first means the designed version goes more smoothly, and you aren't asked to judge details too early.
Fast Layout Decisions
We can try several page layouts in a single meeting.
Focus on Function
Rough sketches keep feedback on what a page does, not how it looks.
Cheap to Change
Moving a section in a sketch costs minutes, not design time.
Related tools
Works well with Balsamiq.
Build with us