# Balsamiq Reviews **Vendor:** Balsamiq **Category:** [Wireframing Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/wireframing) **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 500 ## About Balsamiq Balsamiq is the wireframing tool that helps lean product teams turn early ideas into clear, actionable direction—fast. And you don't need to be a designer to use it. Tens of thousands of product managers, founders, and engineers worldwide rely on Balsamiq to share concepts quickly, reduce rework, and build better products. Watch this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CibKG2nZzOw We're a bootstrapped, fully remote team, working across the US and Europe to serve tens of thousands of users in dozens of countries. Since 2008, we've been helping teams get unstuck, move faster, and make better products together. Please consider that we don’t reply to G2Crowd requests for contact. Here’s how and where you can find us: https://balsamiq.com/support/#send-us-a-message-and-well-get-back-to-you ## Balsamiq Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **ease of use** in Balsamiq, citing its intuitive interface and quick setup for wireframes. (9 reviews) - Users love the **easy drag-and-drop functionality** of Balsamiq, making wireframing quick and intuitive. (5 reviews) - Users love the **variety of shapes** in Balsamiq, enabling quick and efficient wireframe creation for diverse projects. (5 reviews) - Users love the **easy creation** feature of Balsamiq, allowing quick and intuitive wireframe design for applications. (4 reviews) - Users love the **clean and intuitive user interface** of Balsamiq, enhancing efficiency and collaboration in wireframing. (4 reviews) - Users value the **excellent user interface** of Balsamiq, appreciating its seamless learning curve and efficient wireframing capabilities. (3 reviews) - Simple (3 reviews) - Users find the **ease of learning** with Balsamiq to be rapid and seamless, enhancing adoption rates effectively. (2 reviews) - Intuitive (2 reviews) - Templates (2 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users note Balsamiq's **limited capabilities** for high-fidelity designs, which may hinder more intricate project requirements. (3 reviews) - Users find the **learning curve challenging** , making initial usage and understanding of Balsamiq more difficult. (2 reviews) - Users find the **limited free access** to features restrictive, impacting usability and customization options significantly. (2 reviews) - Users find Balsamiq's interface **slightly complex and outdated** , making it challenging for first-time users to navigate. (1 reviews) - Users find the absence of **freehand drawing tools** limits creativity and functionality in Balsamiq. (1 reviews) - Users find the **export functionality lacking** , hindering integration and efficiency for the developer community. (1 reviews) - Lack of Guidance (1 reviews) - Limited Customization (1 reviews) - Limited Functionality (1 reviews) - Limited Templates (1 reviews) ## Balsamiq Reviews ### 1. Fun and easy way to create mockups **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Construction | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I enjoy using Balsamiq. With very little effort I am able to create mockups that convey my ideas and look consistent. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I don't like the presentation view and the giant blue arrow. Makes my presentations feel childish. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** The comic style may take a while to get used to, but after sharing a few mockups people will focus less on the style and more on the information/idea being conveyed. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Balsamiq to communicate my ideas in a visual way without involving designers. ### 2. Quick wire framing tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 07, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** It is user-friendly, does not need a lot of expertise to start using it. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I do not think there is anything I dislike about it. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** It is one of the best tools out there for wire framing. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am constantly using it for wire framing the new features so that I can provide them to my design team. ### 3. So easy to use! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I love that my company lets me use Balsamiq to make quick mockups. It's really easy to get started and my coworkers who don't have any technical experience can easily use it as well. It really helps me to illustrate my ideas. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I think that the mockups are a little smaller than I'd like. I want everything to come together seamlessly instead of having different mockups for every piece of the same project. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am trying to save time by using Balsamiq to create quick mockups. It definitely saves time, but i also think that some features take longer than it would had I done so by hand. ### 4. Balsamiq Wireframing tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** The simplicity and ease of use. All tools I need are right there in the scroll bar **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** To be honest, I understand that this is supposed to be lo-fi and look like someone sketched something up, but let's change the font. Yikes **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Take the time to create wireframes in Balsamiq before jumping into mockups. Some employers want to see exactly what they want in a high fidelity version but Balsamiq makes it easy for you to create something fast and get the point across. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Narrowing down design choices before committing time to Sketch with high fidelity mockups. ### 5. We use Balsamiq for wire framing our websites we design. **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I love the easy to use interface. Also, the ability to create symbols and grouped items makes creating complex wireframes simple! **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I really do not like the lack of height available on the mockups. With long scrolling pages being "in" right now, we have to split the design which is confusing to the clients. That or we cut items and content out which in turn confuses them even more. I also do not see any merit in the sketch looking option that they have. It looks very unprofessional and I would never give me client a wireframe using that setting. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Don't try to over design the wireframes. Balsamiq is great for that and when you think in a different way the program is much easier to use. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are solving efficiencies while creating wireframes. With the premade items, it saves time and stops us from over designing our wireframes. ### 6. An easy to use wireframing tool **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I really enjoy the cloud connectivity and the live collaboration feature **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** It could have better third party add on support **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Prototyping for UX ### 7. Easy to use, quick wireframe tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Doug S. | Director of Application Development, Graphic Design, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 24, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** The PDF generator that makes the mockup an interactive PDF. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I would like to see more controls or options with the datagrid. And possibly adding more visual controls like HTML cards, etc. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use this to quickly mockup user design changes. Very easy to use, specially with the combination of Jing or Snag It where you can take screenshots in memory, paste it on Balasmiq and stretch out the image to cover part of the screen. ### 8. Good in places, but could be better **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Machinery | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Ability to produce an Excel report that can then be customised to your requirements. The Service Opportunities module is quite good along with vacation planning. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** The invoicing and scheduling suck. This needs serious attention. Also, the support we have received has not been the greatest. When problems are reported, they take a very long time to get resolved, if at all in some cases. For the scheduling, the display is not very user friendly and you cannot display all technicians without having to scroll down the screen. When you invoice, it is very difficult to remove multiple entries if you need to make changes. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Look at other solutions. I am sure there are better options in the marketplace **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have moved away from paper worksheets and our technicians now enter all information via iPad. This means the customer receives an electronic copy of the worksheet once completed. Previously we had an administrator entering the information manually, so this task has now been eliminated allowing them to concentrate on other tasks. ### 9. Balsamiq is neat! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ami P. | Administrative Intern, Hospital & Health Care, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 03, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I like the amount of features it has. Everything from different pre-set buttons to layouts. I also like that you can add any image from your laptop to the mockups. The preset iphones and tablets also help with being able to visual a mockup advertisement or app. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I dislike that you have to edit it a lot in order to make it look clean. A lot of little adjustments need to be made for perfection. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Balsamiq is a great, easy to use, mock up tool! I think it can be a asset to any business or individual. Also a neat tool that should be taught to students in any business major. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps with mock up marketing adds. Helps audience visualize an idea. ### 10. Graphic tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ekaterina C. | Business Analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** The software allows you to sketch any prototypes and mockups of web pages in very simple and fun way. It is very easy to use and has everything you need to sketch future web pages. This is an excellent tool for your team collaboration, meetings and discussions. It has a nice selection of various various buttons, forms, icons, basically, any graphics you can think of when you sketch a website layout. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** You cannot really copy and paste your work from the software to, for example, Power point. This is the only thing I did not like about the software but the tool offers an export feature that allows you keeping the projects in readable formats. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed to develop mockups of future website for the team to review and agree on design and features. The software really helped me to draw everything much faster and effortlessly. ### 11. The perfect tool for mocking up UI designs **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 17, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I love that Balsamiq is a design tool that lets me keep my hands on my keyboard. When I'm racing to get a quick concept onto the screen, it's so easy to use the built in keyboard accellerators to get things done without the distractions of a mouse. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** When working with larger design files, Balsamiq can be unstable at times. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Balsamiq comes in a few different versions. Consider how you deliver and discuss your design artifacts before you decide on a particular package. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use Balsamiq to mock up software UI designs for discussion within the product and development teams. ### 12. Great, but needs a few more tweaks **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rob S. | Founder & Principal, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** The ability to not worry about UI is glorious! You build better concepts without concerning yourself with bells, whistles and other distractions. Support is top-notch! **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Inability to easily have pop-ups and it really needs more interactive capability (i.e. menus with sub-menus!). **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Fantastic customer support! **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mockups for software development. ### 13. graphical user interface mockup and website wireframe builder **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Ability to create wireframes using a really rough “sketch” style which conveys the unfinished nature of a design. Intuitive interface making it incredibly easy to get up and running with the tool. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Hard to scroll through the drag and drop library of UI elements. Limited sitemap creation **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** text customization of complex elements like radio button and checkbox groups, navigation bars, data tables, and tag clouds ### 14. Easy to learn but with some limits **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** It is really easy to learn this tool, functions good understandable. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I can just creat sketches but you can’t really design Visual Design. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Complex UX design problems ### 15. Great for wireframes **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 03, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Easy to use. I picked it up quickly without instruction. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** It can be confusing, at times, but still a very cool product. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am new to product management and I was very impressed with ease of use. ### 16. Great for wireframes! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ashima L. | Senior Consultant, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Its very easy to use. The best part is its not very artsy and hence it helps keep the user very design neutral and unbiased. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** There is no option to show the mockup closer to the real page. It should be possible to change fonts. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating user stories and pages as a Business Analyst. Its beneficial to help the stakeholders and beginners understand the pictorial presentations. **Official Response from Support at Balsamiq:** > Hi Ashima! Not sure which one of our products you are using but Fonts can be changed from the Project Info panel, as detailed here: https://docs.balsamiq.com/desktop/projectinfo/ In case you are using our web product, Balsamiq Cloud, the only difference is that you will find fewer options due to compatibility issues. Hope this helps! :) -Virgin ### 17. Using Balsamiq for design prototyping **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 11, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** It is very light weight. That's probably the best thing about it. As a result, for quick brainstorming etc. it is very handy. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** It is very very primitive and basic. It lacks the features that one would need for a good design prototype. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** I'd recommend, beginner users to give it a shot but do not get hooked to it because it is very easy to use. Remember that as you move on in the career, you will need more and better prototyping tools, and Balsamiq will get more and more difficult to use in such situations. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brainstorming with clients and team mates during design exercises ### 18. Wireframing Fun **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Health, Wellness and Fitness | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 12, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Balsamiq is a light wireframe markup tool that can be used to create simple effective cutups that can communicate the ideas you want to designers or developers. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Balsamiq is a little feature light and can be rather cumbersome at times. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Great easy to user Wireframe tool that can be leveraged by basically anyone. Easy to use, and easy to learn. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** We needed a tool that could be leveraged to communicate ideas to designers and developers in a clear easy to understand manner. ### 19. Excellent product **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Steve P. | UX Designer, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** The ease with which you can create wireframes quickly - making adding elements possible without touching the mouse speeds up the process immensely. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Needs more icon choices besides just FontAwesome (although that's a great start) **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Wireframing & specing out interfaces to hand over to R&D team for development. It's aided us in terms of actually having designers design the product instead of the developers. ### 20. Easy to use, basic for wireframing **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** The pre-made icons, wireframe tools, etc. It's very easy to use. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Sometimes it's missing a button/icon that you want, and you have to find another way to make it or show it. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Just creating basic wireframes for websites primarily ### 21. Best Wire-Framing Tool for Product Marketers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sean Z. | VP of Product Marketing, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Balsamiq is a super user-friendly tool that is not just for UX and Product Managers. Any Product Marketer should feel comfortable opening up the program and instantly build a wire-frame for a website, app, etc. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** With the web being so dynamic it would be great to get some more animated features. It also would be a lot easier if the canvas were standardized for webpages. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creative briefs, wire-framing, web design, product design. Balsamiq makes it incredibly easy to build quick mockups to communicate an idea clearly to both designers and business professionals. ### 22. Possibly the easiest software in existence **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 03, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I like how easy it is to use. I love how people can add designs for people to use and I love how the mockups are created. Eliminating any risk a client thinks it’s a finished design **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I would like a few more standard assets. But overall most of what you would want is there. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** If you are looking for a tool to make quick mockups than this product is for you. It is not for final high fidelity mockups. It’s a great tool for creating talking points and drafting design concepts. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating fast mockups to help generate ideas for clients. ### 23. Really awesome for wireframes **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shaival C. | Product Manager, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 03, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** A huge collection of multiple components to build wireframes and mockups. Extremely efficient and easy to use. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Lack of flexibility in the pre-designed mockups for various components. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Really helps in building and developing complex software before they are actually made. ### 24. It will work in a pinch **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Melissa P. | UX Designer, Banking, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I like that it's drag and drop and only has basic options to choose from **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I don't like that it looks cheesy and outdated **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** I would definitely try it for wireframing- but there are other options like keynote. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** UX wireframing, I have realized that it's easy to change things because it doesn't look to high level UI **Official Response from Support at Balsamiq:** > Thanks for your review, Melissa! We just wanted to let you know that the skin of a project can be changed if needed: https://docs.balsamiq.com/desktop/skins/ Hope this helps! :) - Virgin ### 25. very intuitive mockup tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 21, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I find Balsamiq extremely intuitive to use and has all of the UI elements that I need for our business software designs. I can very easily create alternative mockups. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I use Balsamiq in Google Drive, and sometimes it's hard to find a mockup that I want to re-use for a new mockup, but that could be my fault for not being more organized in naming conventions. It also takes a bit to load a mockup but usually this is not a big deal. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm a Product Manager, and I use it as part of early specifications for a new feature or product enhancement that we're planning. Typically the mockups I create act more of a demonstration to developers and also help me think through some workflows visually. For actual designs, I don't show our designs mockups, since it might persuade them to use a certain layout instead of creating their own. ### 26. Balsamiq for lo-fi mockups **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 06, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Easy to use to for workflow proof of concepts and for creating interactive mockups. It is really nice because it allows us to step back and think about the big picture when we're designing rather than get hung up on each detail (that part comes later). **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I can't think of anything I really dislike about this product. For what I am using it for, it works great! I suppose if you were trying to build sleek, hi-fi prototypes, this tool would fall short. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** If you're looking to create lo-fidelity mockups, Balsamiq allows you to do so easily - and you can customize pretty easily by importing images/icons as well as the background image. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use it to prototype workflows and visual styling before building the actual product. ### 27. Creating websites with a drag and drop asset library **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 06, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Balsamiq makes creating wire frames and prototypes simple. They allow you to draw using the tools, or use pre built design assets to rapid fire designs quickly. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Balsamiq has an overall style that is similar to that of a child. Comic strip style line work has the tendency to look sloppy in a professional environment. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Balsamiq is a truly excellent rapid prototyping tool. There are tons of better options on the market, but since you get an excellent 30 day trial, you can get familiar with the software immediately before deciding to purchase. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Balsamiq helps anyone create wireframes or mockups that can easily be understood by anyone. Anyone can also start using it in minutes and create something excellent. We use it to explain a concept where there are multiple pages or a complex flow to explain, often useful to show developers an idea visually. ### 28. Easily follow your next track **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rubén M. | Customer Project Manager, Plastics, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 28, 2016 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Is so customisable but not everybody knows how, you will need program skills and Database knowledge. About the interface, is clear and clean, to final users there is not hard to find the buttons. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Sometimes is necessary be notified of the activities you should do and EXACT SYNERGY for himself don't have the ability to send emails. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Evaluate the installation before starts. Put special attention to the database, grows so fast. Depending the number of users the LAN can be saturated. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Exact Synergy let you know exactly in what part of the administrative process the procedure is, what should be done and how is the responsable. It pull the information to fluid all over the Company. ### 29. Balsamiq rocks **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nicole L. | Web Developer, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 05, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I love the ease at which I can create wireframes and the feature where I can make it look like a pen. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I do not like the limited options to include. Other mockup/wireframing tools have more items to choose from. Balsamiq is at times limited. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Balsamiq is an awesome tool for the first run at design to get an idea in front of your product owners and developers. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm creating wireframes/mock ups for web applications to be designed off of. ### 30. Great drawer **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Program Development | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** It's good for making drafts and mockups before getting to the design, so the client can have an idea of the general looking.. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** It's quite simple. It can have more specific tools. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** It's a good tool, very easy to use. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Doing sketches of future works. ### 31. Easy, free, user friendly. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brittany G. | Senior Product Designer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Ease of use. As a UX Designer, I expect amazing user experience from products built to help the ux designer. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Some of the pre-built items look a little cheap, but they still get the job done! **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** rapid wireframing/prototyping ### 32. Affordable wire-framing tool to get things done **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Siddharth S. | Product Management Intern, Consumer Goods, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 08, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Built-in library of objects Low memory footprint & file size Quick start-up time **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** The effort I put in is comparable to a full fledged design software. There should be some way to take the wire-frames into illustrator or sketch, for the design team to use. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Wire-framing tool, to propose product functionality, and describe user story. I'm able to build crisp mockups at a rapid pace. Its way faster than Photoshop/Sketch/Illustrator. The built in library has me covered 90% of the time. Works well for both desktop and mobile mock ups. ### 33. Good for the really quick static wifeframe **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 29, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** There are so many components in their UI library that are really easy to move onto the board to create a wireframe as quickly as possible. They are well organized and easy to use. The Sketch skin is terrific for brainstorming activities with users and with the ease of switching to the Wireframe skin, I can switch something to a more polish look very quickly. The integration with FontAwesome is very helpful as well as the feature to save versions of a single Mockup as desired. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** The interaction features are limited to a clickable PDF, so don't even think about showing animations or states of a page without mocking them all up individually and linking them together. This turns the quick and easy mockup into a beast to maintain. Exporting features are also very limited, just to PDF and PNG. It is also very difficult to add notes for the developers to specific parts of the wireframe; you can either add a sticky note to the wireframe and add numbers to visually link them or add comments to the PDF (and add them again, every time you update and export again). This is not a tool for two or more designers working on the same product as there are no sharing features. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** This is a great tool for beginners, learning about user experience design for web/mobile applications or websites. The more complex the application though, the more frustrating this tool will become as its tool set is fairly limited. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is relatively inexpensive and helpful for creating a first draft design to start discussions with users and developers. ### 34. Easy to use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lauren V. | User Interface Designer, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Love how quickly I can mock something up and make changes. I also love the price. It's easy to recommend to new ui designers because they wont have to break the bank to be able to afford the product. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I'd like the option to make it higher fidelity if i wanted to. I understand it's meant to be for quick prototyping, but it'd be nice to do more with it. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** It's a great affordable tool for those who are just starting out as ui or ux designers. It's also great for quick rapid protyping. The interface is intuitive and easy to use. I can normally bang out a nice design in less than 30 minutes. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** user interface changes for our software design. I'm not sure what benefits i've realized. That's kind of a confusing question. Benefits about the software? Those I've listed above. ### 35. New User and In Love **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jill K. | Graphic Design Contractor, Hospital & Health Care, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I love how quick and easy it is to throw together wireframes with their quick-grab assets. As a designer, this is also a great way to communicate with a developer how to execute something with an already established style without getting hung up on being pixel-perfect. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Honestly I haven't found much to dislike. Would be great if it had workflow features or a more robust sitemap feature, though. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Balsamiq for wireframe mockups on web pages or mobile screens that need to be added within a pre-designed environment. It's a great solution for communicating layout without getting hung up on pixel-perfect design. ### 36. Quickly create interactive wireframes **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Frank G. | Principal Consultant and Founder, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 29, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** The key to wireframes is simulating the experience and behavior of the system, more than just showing the layout of elements within the interface. Balsamiq provides ability to create templates helps to keep multiple wireframes updated. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I've been using the Balsamiq Mockups desktop client for over 6 years, and it keeps getting better. One minor dislike is when exporting to a PDF the clickable items turn a light-red color; our clients have asked if that was the intended color of the interface item. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** This provide doesn't provide code for your application. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quickly create interactive prototypes for clients. It provides the ability to export both PNGs and PDFs. ### 37. Easy to use wireframe software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sarah K. | Design and Research Lead, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** The library of components makes things easy to use, it's exportable to PDF which retains page titles which is useful. I like the sketchy nature of it because it lets me create something quickly without worrying about exact pixels, and also reinforces the fact to the client that the artifact is an idea in progress. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Wish there was something akin to a layer structure or master sheets, or there were pre-made templates for web, mobile, etc. The color attributes of a shape are also hard to figure out (i.e. it's not very clear how to get a transparent border with a solid fill) **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** It's really good for creating quick mock ups - the component library is especially useful. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quickly getting an idea to a client before investing effort into into visual design. Huge time savings. ### 38. A simple and functional app for Wireframes **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rupesh M. | Managing Director, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Its simplicity! Easy to use and uncluttered. just the tools you need. no nonesense. Creates the proto types that get teh sites signed off. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** there is not much i dislike. I wish you could export out better. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** underwtand your developers requirements before you use it. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quicker prototypes, mean faster sign off. ### 39. Quick & Easy **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 08, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Super easy. Drag and drop method to create low fidelity mock ups and wireframes. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Although its not is intend to be fully interactive but the library of interactions is very limited. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can quickly create a layout for a software interface, review with users and make adjustments on the go. Allow users to have a high level idea of the software layout and functionality without investing too much time. Maybe because of its 'unfinished' look people are more comfortable providing feedback. ### 40. Create quick and beautiful wireframes **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 15, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I love how quick and easy I can mock-up a wireframe for a client. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I would like there to be more updates on the pre-loaded designs. Sometimes I am looking for a design element that doesn't exist so I have to add my own asset. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Balsamiq is a great piece of software that saves you time and money. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Balsamiq allows me to create quick mockups visualizing my ideas to my clients. It saves me time and money by allowing me to use saved templates rather than always design from scratch. It also allows me to work on the flow of a website before design and coding begin. ### 41. Good mocking tool **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** That it is available through the browser is nice. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** It can have some downsides that it relies on the browser to be used. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick wireframeing ### 42. Balsamiq for Wireframing **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** balsamiq makes it so easy to create wireframes. It has different contributed libraries and even google apps integration **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Price point when using it on the cloud is a bit expensive. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** creating mock-ups and/or wireframes for developers to create applications **Official Response from Support at Balsamiq:** > Hi there and sorry to show up uninvited! :) We just wanted to let you know about the Auto-Hibernation feature in case it could fit your needs better: https://support.balsamiq.com/sales/cloudsubscriptions/#auto-hibernation Any questions, we're here (support@balsamiq.com)! :) - Virgin ### 43. Balsamiq is pretty sweet **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Robert A. | UI/UX Designer, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Simplicity, ease of use, logical organization, and solid array of graphical elements. The ability to save object groups is stellar. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I haven't found anything to dislike about it yet. It is well worth the price. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Hop on for a free trial. You'll be hooked. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Balsamiq allows for extremely fast and easy design testing. Now and then I still use a pen and paper when brainstorming with clients, but with Balsamiq it is almost faster to do it online, and then we have digital versions of our favorites for later prototyping. ### 44. Excellent Mock up tool, a must have tool for any Business Analyst/Product Manager **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** The tool have full suite of components/icons to choose from. It also support hyperlink driven scenarios. Easily to branch out different option for presentation. Highly recommended for all business users. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** The User Interface menu looks too busy. Need to simplify it. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** The tool allow me to mock up different solution/design approach to present to stakeholder to gather their feedback and choose the optimal option ### 45. Love this app **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Victor H. | AngularJS / Ruby on Rails developer, Warehousing, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 02, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I always use it for showing clients how their apps are gonna look like, and it is so easy to use that anybody can use it. I use it for my personal projects too and its amazing how you easily can organize your ideas. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** It will be nice to have a cheaper licence, the current one is really expensive. Also will be nice to have more of this UI library element but it is not critical. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** I can only say that using it is extremely simple, you do not need to know nothing about mockups or design. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mockups for my client requirements. ### 46. Great wireframing tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Guy S. | Information Architect, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 24, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Easy to pick up, very flexible, good support documentation. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** This may be a learning thing, but the symbols functionality made it hard to re-use the symbols. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Not for super complex prototyping, but great for quick wireframes. I've made some complex wireframes in the tool though. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Great to quickly get a concept in front of a client and collaborate on an idea. ### 47. I love Balsamiq for it simplicity! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food Production | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 12, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** I love Balsamiq for it simplicity! I think even a child can make a mockup with this tool =) It is so comprehensive and fast. Once I created first mockup with it, I didn't switch to any other one. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** I wish it could be free to use )) Also it is not convenient to pay via credit card. Payment via PayPal would suit me better. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Create website mockups, landing pages mockups, app interfaces, etc.. ### 48. Balsamiq: Incredibly Straightforward! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Arts and Crafts | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 02, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** With just a couple clicks, it was so easy getting together the framework for my project! The interface is very simple, but not to the point of pandering/seeming as if it's talking down to its users. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Admittedly, I was a little confused when I realized that the example pieces were drag-and-drop.Otherwise, everything worked beautifully! **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Give the 30-day free trial a chance before taking the plunge into the full version! **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's very easy to make my sitemaps! A definite benefit to using Balsamiq is that it's very affordable and honestly fun to use! ### 49. Beginners friend **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 21, 2018 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** It’s very intuitive and simple. Beginners can easily work with it. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** There isn’t much I dislike. As I mentioned it has a very good UI. Even non designers can use it for the first time without being overwhelmed. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy and intuitive to use. ### 50. Great for project management and creating mockup designs quickly **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gavin B. | Web Developer, Sports, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 28, 2017 **What do you like best about Balsamiq?** Simple to use and it's cloud based so can be accessed from anywhere also having the ability to collaborate. **What do you dislike about Balsamiq?** Not enough basic templates to use, the cost is quite pricey as there are freeware versions around. **Recommendations to others considering Balsamiq:** Great for working on web projects that require groups of people that are not necessarily together to collaborate on. **What problems is Balsamiq solving and how is that benefiting you?** Digital and development teams can collaborate together on projects by adding comments adding to files/markup ## Balsamiq Discussions - [What is balsamiq software?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-balsamiq-software) - 2 comments - [Is it possible to create a prototype out of the mock-up, I mean, is it possible to a clickable version of the mock-up that allows me to go from one view to another?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/28907-is-it-possible-to-create-a-prototype-out-of-the-mock-up-i-mean-is-it-possible-to-a-clickable-version-of-the-mock-up-that-allows-me-to-go-from-one-view-to-another) - 1 comment - [View Balsamiq pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/balsamiq/reviews?page=7§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-22+22%3A02%3A30+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=0c66f170-239e-43d4-bfdc-b7fa6a7e26e3&secure%5Btoken%5D=dae767948bc5d7c18b4af9d9ed0c397cfa3d2d6aa20d188a3f4a71ceb1677413&format=llm_user) ## Balsamiq Features **Platform Basics** - Modeling Tools - Feedback and Communication - Framework Libraries - Editing Tools **Platform Basics** - Importing Abilities - Content Design Tools - Framework Libraries - Outlining Tools - Mockup Creations **Platform Basics** - Mockup Creations - Outlining Tools - Import Graphic Design Tools - Feedback Communication - Content Libraries - Export Wireframes and Prototypes **Platform Basics - Software Design Platforms** - User Interface Testing - Presentation Integrations - Error Documentation - Sharing Components **Platform Additional Functionality** - Sharing Components - Error Documentation - User Interface Testing - Presentation Integrations **Platform Additional Functionality** - Collaboration Software Integration - Feedback Communication - Exporting Capabilities **Platform Additional Functionality** - Design and Editing Tools - Collaboration Capabilities - Diagramming and Collaborative Whiteboard Integrations - Documenting Trial Errors **Platform Additional Functionality - Software Design Platforms** - Editing Tools - Framework Libraries - Feedback and Communication - Modeling Tools **Agentic AI - Prototyping** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance ## Top Balsamiq Alternatives - [Figma](https://www.g2.com/products/figma/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (1,515 reviews) - [Sketch](https://www.g2.com/products/sketch/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,209 reviews) - [InVision](https://www.g2.com/products/invision/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (678 reviews)