Axure RP vs. Balsamiq

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Axure RP
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Axure RP is a software prototyping tool used by UX designers, from Axure Software Solutions in San Diego.N/A
Balsamiq
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Balsamiq is a wireframing tool that allows users to sketch out user interfaces for websites and web and and mobile apps.N/A
Pricing
Axure RPBalsamiq
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Axure RPBalsamiq
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Axure RPBalsamiq
Considered Both Products
Axure RP
Chose Axure RP
Axure RP has its place among the competitors. Every product has its pros and cons. Axure works well for larger and less visual design projects or deliverables. In some cases we might use Axure along with another tool, such as Sketch or Photoshop, to create different …
Chose Axure RP
Axure stacks up pretty nicely against other tools, in terms of available functionality and support for users. It’s probably the best tool I have used to create the most realistic and complex prototypes for sales purposes. However, its interface is outdated compared to other …
Chose Axure RP
As I stated, I find myself reaching for Axure less. Though it is certainly more powerful than an other tools I've used, it is also the slowest and least simple to build out a prototype. For quick turnaround for a client, I'll always reach for one of the other programs. For a …
Chose Axure RP
More tools; and a more professional interface. Balsamic is great for casual projects and simple designs. Axure better suited for mid-level projects. I would like to see features improve in regards to large-scale projects. Bottom line Axure is the best and only mid to high-level …
Chose Axure RP
It's better than iRise, Mockplus, UXPin etc for high fidelity prototypes. But for more visual UI and vectors I would recommend Sketch if you are a Mac user.
Chose Axure RP
We also use some other prototyping tools like InVision, but Axure works great on projects where you start from low-fidelity wireframes (so just boxes and dummy text), creating simple animations, testing out the concepts with users and stakeholders - then translating the same …
Chose Axure RP
InVision and Marvel are hotspot-based applications, so you are limited to the types of interactions that you can create. You can create any interaction in Axure by building it yourself with a combination of adding cases to dynamic panels with clauses. Learning how to do a …
Chose Axure RP
I've used Balsamiq and Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is not helpful for wireframes because it's basically the same as a sketch with straighter lines. Balsamic is helpful but it doesn't have as much functionality built in, so you can only communicate so much. Its also hard for …
Chose Axure RP
Neither of tools around are a complete solution. Axure is the most complete tool in the market at this moment. In my perspective and daily use, the strongest feature of Axure is prototyping for mobile and tablet devices. Axshare is very helpful, but still I wish to have the …
Chose Axure RP
Axure's masters put in an entirely different space from any other tool I've tested. They allow a degree of systemic design that I have yet to see in another piece of software. Sketch (by Bohemian Coding) gets close with its inclusion of symbols. However, until the symbols have …
Balsamiq
Chose Balsamiq
While I love these other tools for many different reasons, Balsamiq is the tool I use for low-fidelity wireframing every time. It’s the most simple and easy-to-use out of the bunch, and it gets the job done without a ton of effort and time required. In the early stages of …
Chose Balsamiq
Creating digital wireframes in Photoshop is a nightmare. Photoshop was not really designed for this purpose. It doesn't have good collaboration options and it doesn't allow pattern libraries, which are essential for consistency and efficiency. We use UXPin and Axure for some …
Chose Balsamiq
  • It is very much user-friendly.
  • It reproduces the experience of sketching on a whiteboard but using a computer.
  • The handwritten design is unique which lets designer focus on the design.
Chose Balsamiq
Balsamiq is a quite simple tool; but does exactly what was designed for, it helps with creating mockups, wireframes, and flows. Its simplicity works great for people who are not designers but need to visually represent their ideas. Low-fidelity wireframes work really well in …
Chose Balsamiq
Axure vs Balsamiq. I would pick Axure over Balsamiq. The only con is there could be a learning curve to Axure.
Sketch gives more interactivity over Balsamiq but is limited to Mac users.
UXPin has easier palettes to move around than Balsamiq but Balsamiq is easier to use than UXPi…
Chose Balsamiq
I think the learning curve for all of the other tools is much greater than that of Balsamiq. PhotoShop, I think, is a poor tool for UX, but is often used by members of my team for its overall prevalence in their past education (many graphics folks). I have found that …
Chose Balsamiq
Axure is basically a direct copy of Balsamiq for 4x the price.
Moqups is painful to use and it's a monthly subscription.
Although I have not used Adobe Comp, the learning curve is so high, it cannot even come close to the ease of Balsamiq. And Illustrator and Photoshop for …
Chose Balsamiq
I also leverage PowerPoint for more detailed, high fidelity. Balsamiq has its purpose for the initial planning phases of design. Where PowerPoint allows for much more detail, being able to add in own images seamlessly, ability to update library of stock template tools, etc. I …
Top Pros
Top Cons
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Axure RPBalsamiq
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User Ratings
Axure RPBalsamiq
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(25 ratings)
8.5
(31 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(3 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.3
(2 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Axure RPBalsamiq
Likelihood to Recommend
Axure Software Solutions
Still the best IMHO for dynamic prototyping. Sometimes you need to wireframe novel on-page widgets, such as draggable search areas (in the context of map-based search), or interactive annotations on diagrams. And sometimes real data values are necessary for test participants to give good feedback. However, this is something of a niche scenario. The majority of uxers prefer xd or Figma and find that static prototypes (screen1->click->screen2) is sufficient.
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Balsamiq
Balsamiq is a great tool for quickly getting ideas into visual form. At first it seems like there are not that many UI assets, but this constraint actually adds to the speed. There are less things for you to fuss over, you can focus on getting your ideas down. This is a tool for lofi rough drawings not a tool for building beautiful prototypes for developers to code to. It is fantastic for ideation because you mostly just drag and drop components onto the canvas and move things around. It's great in a live workshop setting for that reason.
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Pros
Axure Software Solutions
  • Adaptive views enable us to create truly responsive designs, even when they are very complex.
  • The platform’s many available templates and ability to create a library of reusable designs enables us to prototype faster and more efficiently than creating every single design from the ground up.
  • The company provides a lot of support options, from training videos to online forums. This is a pretty complex tool, so knowing that we can always look up or ask a question and get a quick answer has helped us immensely.
  • Axure’s comprehensive suite of tools to portray interactivity in prototypes has truly helped us show stakeholders and clients what an end product will look like, which has really helped us gain necessary internal and external buy-in.
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Balsamiq
  • Easy to use
  • Produces good quality mock ups and prototypes
  • Mock ups are obviously only just mock ups (this is important as if users see mock-ups in HTML, for example, they tend to think the system is ready to use or not far off)
  • Has a good selection of standard shapes that mock real world fields / controls
  • Allows not for profit organisations use it for free
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Cons
Axure Software Solutions
  • The user interface is somewhat old and not always the most intuitive.
  • I've been using Axure RP for 5 years and often forget that it has a steep learning curve, which makes it harder to onboard new employees.
  • The "teams" functionality, as far as working and sharing the same files, has some room for performance improvements.
  • Results of the Preview function varies per browser (although it works best on Chrome).
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Balsamiq
  • The sketch-like style can be off-putting to some stakeholders, and it’s not initially very clear that there is the option to turn this “off.” While I do think there is benefit to the default style, knowing from the start that this flexibility existed would have helped us be able to use this tool more often in the past and in different situations.
  • There are very limited collaborative functionalities. When it’s early in the design process, it’s often really helpful to have a number of people in the design to offer in-app feedback so the designer doesn’t have the burden of collecting feedback from many disparate sources in order to incorporate the feedback.
  • There are limited UI elements. As design evolves, there are more and more UI elements to consider, and many to stop using. Our Balsamiq wireframes would be a lot more effective in communicating design ideas to stakeholders if there was a wider range of UI elements to choose from.
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Likelihood to Renew
Axure Software Solutions
No answers on this topic
Balsamiq
I'm not sure how else we would be able to complete our work without Balsamiq or another similar tool. All of my experience with Balsamiq has been positive and they continue to develop new features so that my job gets easier. I would be very surprised if we didn't renew Balsamiq
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Usability
Axure Software Solutions
Axure feels like a tool that started with a simple interface that wasn't redesigned over time. Simple tasks sometimes require clicking through multiple layers. Crucial pieces of functionality are hidden under text links, or just flatly aren't discoverable. Much of the quirks of the interface only come from having screwed up numerous times, and knowing that certain things are just difficult to accomplish.
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Balsamiq
Very intuitive and easy to understand. It only takes minutes to get the hang of it and get back to work. For new analysts (like, brand new, fresh out of school) it's not difficult and they need minimal to no hand-holding. The training content that is embedded is easy to find and use.
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Support Rating
Axure Software Solutions
I've never used the support for Axure but they do have an online community that can be helpful when you're unsure how to accomplish a specific bit of interactivity. Overall the community for Axure is a great benefit for the software. There are also a lot of shared library assets which can help reduce the time you spend on projects.
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Balsamiq
We haven't had to use the support feature yet
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Online Training
Axure Software Solutions
I think that the online training videos cover all product features and are a great resource to point people to. The newsletter is also frequent and passes on a range of tips and techniques for users that are eager to learn more, or just want to keep themselves up to date
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Balsamiq
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Axure Software Solutions
Since Axure RP is a desktop software that can work without a cloud connection, it is easy to have approved within a highly restricted corporate environment for a low cost with a small team. iRise is a solution that requires greater amounts of management, best service a group of designers in a corporate environment. InVision is cloud-based and, although not impossible, would require a long-term agreement to be made between the corporate and InVision. These could take years. Origami is free and desktop based and has great control of the transitions and data - but is so granular that additional time commitments may have to be made to make a prototype of this fidelity
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Balsamiq
Creating digital wireframes in Photoshop is a nightmare. Photoshop was not really designed for this purpose. It doesn't have good collaboration options and it doesn't allow pattern libraries, which are essential for consistency and efficiency. We use UXPin and Axure for some time, but found that these platforms were a bit bloated. Balsamiq is much simpler than any of these options. It's a perfect wireframing platform for non-designers or for designers that want to focus on content and element-placement prior to design
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Return on Investment
Axure Software Solutions
  • Axure allows for us to quickly get the entire sales team trained on a specific narrative and gives them a fool proof click path for them to use in the demo.
  • Axure is relatively inexpensive and allows for purchasing the software without having to pay a monthly subscription (although they do have that option).
  • The Sketch integration has allowed for a 10 fold increase in productivity by taking designs already created in another program and quickly adding them to Axure.
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Balsamiq
  • The product works very well for showing product owners and developers design ideas for purposes of discussion, debate and refinement.
  • The products also works very well for specifying new designs for developers. This is best done in a series of screens that show various screen states and user interactions.
  • I also use the products to document bugs in software products and websites we have developed. This includes outlining and documenting bugs and changes to user interactions and refinements to the usability of completed interfaces and user experiences.
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ScreenShots