Top Mobile App Prototyping Tools for Entrepreneurs
In this post I am going to go over what I consider the top tools for prototyping mobile apps, with a focus on entrepreneurs and what features would be important to them. Before we get into the details of the prototyping tools, I wanted to first talk about the mobile app market, and show some interesting statistics on its growth and revenue. There are lots of factors to consider when making development decisions, and a better understanding of the the mobile app market could help entrepreneurs decide on what project and tools to go forward with.
The mobile app market continues to rapidly expand around the globe with almost 2.5 billion smartphone users who can download apps, with this number continuing to grow. When the Apple App Store first went online in 2008 there were 552 apps available to download, now there are more than 2 million available for iOS and 2.5 million available for Android on the Google Play Store. The competition is undoubtedly heavy, but there are a lot of opportunities that savvy entrepreneurs can take advantage of.
This graph shows that spending is expected to pass $120 billion in 2019. Source
In many market segments, revenue from the mobile sector is overtaking other categories. Revenue from mobile games passed 50% in 2018. Source
Entertainment is another area that is seeing a lot of growth, with revenue for just entertainment apps expected to pass 7 billion in 2019. Source
With that being said, there are a lot of opportunities in many areas of the app market that smart entrepreneurs can take advantage of. As I mentioned earlier there are now millions of apps, so in order for one to stand out, it not only needs to work, but look and feel great as well. Prototyping tools allow you to quickly produce high quality results that can accurately model what the final product can look like . There are a range of prototyping tools that offer everything from basic wire framing to complex scenes with interaction and animation. These tools can be used for getting ideas down, creating mockups of apps, and can be simple or complicated depending on the tool and the amount of time you put into them.
Some Good Reasons to Prototype:
- Easy to learn basic design skills that can be improved on to a professional level
- Prototype designs can be use later to model actual implementation
- Important to have an app that looks good
- The fastest way to create an app that can get feedback from users
- Impress investors with proof of concept
- Help you figure out if you have the right app idea before you invest time in coding
- Rapidly iterate though different ideas
- Move from abstract idea to functional prototype that can be examined and tested
- See problems that you might not have thought of when it was just a concept
Mobile App Prototyping Tools
Summary:
Balsamic is a simple web-based wireframe and mockup creation tool that is great for getting rough ideas down. Its basic interface and large selection of assets allows anyone with very little skill to quickly get the basic concept of an app down. While not a fully fledged prototyping platform, it is a good supplementary tool entrepreneurs may want to use for prototyping in the moment.
Highlighted Features:
- Fast low-fidelity prototyping
- Very simple interface with few options
- Built-in selection of Android and iOS assets
- Minimal colors allow the user to focus on the structure of the app
- Basic interactive prototyping
Platform: Web-based, MacOS, Windows
Pricing:
- 30 day free trial
- $9 per month for 2 projects
- $49 per month for 20 projects
- $89 for desktop version
Summary:
Adobe XD is a popular UI design and prototyping tool available for free for both MacOS and Windows. It has a simple interface that is easy to learn and people with previous experience with adobe products will be able to pick it up even more quickly. Despite being relatively new, it has quickly grown a community around it.
Highlighted Features:
- Auto animations in Adobe XD do the all work for you to make the transition between app scenes look realistic
- Voice prototyping allows voice triggers and speech playback to be used within a prototype
- Easy to learn for people with experience with other Adobe products
- Can vary in complexity, but there are options to make fully interactive prototypes
- Updated regularly with new features
- Mobile app available for real-time testing and feedback
Disadvantages:
- Relatively new tool, so there are features that have yet to be implemented
Platform: MacOS, Windows
Pricing:
- Free, with limited active shared prototypes
- $52.99 for all creative cloud apps
Summary:
Sketch is a MacOS only app prototyping tool that is popular with many UI/UX designers. It has a clean interface and predefined artboards that can help you visualize your design quickly without a lot of work. The prototype animations are not as advanced as in Adobe XD, but the uncluttered interface and the large community to support it makes it a strong contender.
Highlighted Features:
- A large selection of extensions and templates make it easy to quickly create good looking prototypes
- Simple to make static screens into clickable prototypes
- Share and collaborate with other developers on projects
- Contains powerful image editing tools
- Great for passing wireframes to third-party apps
Disadvantages:
- MacOS only
Platforms: MacOS
Pricing:
- 30-day free trial
- 99 per year
Summary:
Figma is a primarily web-based interface design tool with a large array of built-in tools that make prototyping mobile app designs easy. Its advanced real-time collaboration features make it simple to share and work on designs with others.
Highlighted Features:
- Advanced collaboration features
- Ability to import Sketch designs
- Live device preview on iOS and Android
Disadvantages:
- Payed version is pricey compared to competitors
- Fewer third party plugins
Platforms: Web-based, MacOS, Windows
Pricing:
- Free version with most features
- $12 per editor per month for the professional version
Summary:
Proto.io is a web-based platform that provides a wide range of tools for creating highly interactive prototypes with a large range of advanced features to develop high-fidelity apps that look and feel like what your final product should be.
Highlighted Features:
- Large feature set for many different users
- Integration with third party apps
- Allows designs from Sketch or Photoshop to be imported
- Ability to demo apps on a large range of devices without having to download the app
- Integration with third-party apps that allows for user interaction to be recorded during demos
- Virtual Reality Prototyping
Disadvantages:
- Lots of features that could overwhelm new users
Platforms: Web-based
Pricing:
- Limited Free Version
- 15-day full version trial,
- $24 for 1 user,
- $40 for 2 users,
- $80 for 5 users
Summary: UXPin is an advanced platform that offers much more complex options for designs such as conditional interactions, states, and variables which differentiates it from other platforms. Its features for generated documentation and style guides are also powerful and make it easy to transition from prototype into development.
Highlighted Features:
- Drag-in drop style design tool
- Time saving features like filling scenes with data
- Design systems to a provide sets of design rules and patterns for a project
- Advanced team management tools
Disadvantages:
- Taking advantage of all the collaboration features of the platform requires a monthly fee
Platforms: Web-based, MacOS, Windows
Pricing:
- Free for 1 user, prototype, and component library
- $20 per month for 1 user and unlimited prototypes and component libraries
- $79 per month for 5 users, unlimited prototypes and component libraries, and 1 design system
Feature Comparison Table
In conclusion there are a lot of great options to choose from and there is no ‘best’ option that works for everyone, with many of these tools working well together. All of the tools and platforms I reviewed have active communities that are regularly contributing to improve the platform. Each entrepreneur will have to decide based on the specific needs of their project what prototyping tools work well for them, and hopefully this article provides a good starting point for discovering some of the best prototyping tools available.
Note on Coding-Free Mobile App Development Platforms
I wanted to also discuss the non-coding options available for creating fully functioning apps such as Good Barber, Buildfire, and Appypie, however after some more research I believe the current options available are not a good fit for entrepreneurs. While these platforms allow users to create apps without any coding required, they are usually expensive, with large recurring fees that would continue for the duration of the app’s life. The functionality can be quite extensive, but users won’t have access to the latest features from iOS and Android which is something many entrepreneurs will want to take advantage of. While I believe these platforms can be useful for some people, such as small business owners, for entrepreneurs who are wanting to build something scalable these are not the best options.
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