93 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.6 out of 100
Based on 93 reviews and ratings
21 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 6.6 out of 100
Based on 21 reviews and ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Balsamiq is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
Balsamiq
99%
29 Ratings
6.5
Marvel
65%
7 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
Balsamiq
100%
1 Rating
Marvel
N/A
0 Ratings
Usability
8.0
Balsamiq
80%
1 Rating
Marvel
N/A
0 Ratings
Support Rating
5.0
Balsamiq
50%
2 Ratings
Marvel
N/A
0 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Balsamiq
Balsamiq is very well suited for mocking up / prototyping UIs for systems or apps. The really good thing about it is that the wireframes it produces do not look like real screens but all the same do look nice, neat and tidy. This allows you to express and design how your interface will looks and even work, but it also expresses that these are just wireframes. I have had problems throughout my career when I have mocked up UIs with HTML, often users and stakeholders think that the system is ready to be used or not far off, they can't seem to grasp that there is nothing behind it. Balsamiq helps here because the wireframes are in a hand drawn style, so they can't be confused with a near-ready or working system.

Verified User
Professional in Corporate
Research Company, 501-1000 employeesMarvel
Marvel is a very strong tool in scenarios where designers seek to quickly create simple prototypes on their desktops using a simple, intuitive interface. It offers “just enough” functionality to create somewhat realistic designs to present to stakeholders and other designers. However, there’s a limit to how “realistic” those designs can be, given that Marvel has somewhat limited functionality around animations. Marvel is not a strong option for those who want to create very complex prototypes with many animations, or for those who want to edit prototypes on their tablet or phone. Marvel is a jewel for simplicity but starts to be difficult to use when creating complicated designs. For creating more complicated prototypes, I would recommend a more robust tool, such as Axure.

Verified User
Professional in Research & Development
Education Management Company, 51-200 employeesPros
Balsamiq
- Low-fidelity wireframing—Balsamiq offers tools to create lo-fi wireframes without the messiness and confusion that often comes along with other types of lo-fi wireframing (e.g. hand-drawn wireframes). This helps us avoid the need to heavily “translate” our designs to the people we’re showing them to.
- Easy-to-use interface—We have never had to spend time training anyone on how to use Balsamiq. Drag, drop, arrange—that’s it! This is helpful in getting non-designers and less experienced designers to communicate their ideas of what the finished design should sort-of look like without asking them to spend a lot of time learning a new tool.
- Ability to convert a design to a PDF—This is definitely a plus! Whereas other design tools require stakeholders to log into a design tool account or view designs on a web page, Balsamiq makes it really easy to just download a design as a PDF and hand/email it to a stakeholder. Lots of our stakeholders don’t want to deal with visiting a website or logging into something. However, they’re typically happy to receive a PDF and not have to ask questions such as, “How do I access that?” and “What’s the password again?"

Verified User
Professional in Research & Development
Education Management Company, 51-200 employeesMarvel
- Easy to use with a fast learning curve
- The handoff option allows developers to extract CSS code to copy design styles
Desarrollador AngularJs - Front-End Developer
Global Consulting FactoryComputer Software, 51-200 employees
Cons
Balsamiq
- Although it's not meant for sketching processes, it could be improved a bit for doing this (a bit more support for some more arrows or diagrams).
- Sometimes it's possible to get a bit lost in different propositions. It's interesting that it's only propositions, but the offline desktop version works faster for me (lot of coping attributes and screenshots into my sketches).
- It's using flash or something like that in their offline version, it keeps asking for updates.

Verified User
Administrative Assistant in Information Technology
Computer Software Company, 11-50 employeesMarvel
- I really miss being able to duplicate, make a copy of the prototype I'm working on. Sometimes, I want to make a comparison with detail changes and without being able to duplicate it is difficult.
- Compared to other similar services, I feel the animations could be more fluid and smoother.
- It could have more free sophisticated icons and images.

Verified User
Analyst in Corporate
Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employeesPricing Details
Balsamiq
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Marvel
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
Balsamiq
Balsamiq 10.0
Based on 1 answer
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
Product Owner
Hansen TechnologiesTelecommunications, 501-1000 employees
Marvel
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Usability
Balsamiq
Balsamiq 8.0
Based on 1 answer
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.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 501-1000 employeesMarvel
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Balsamiq
Balsamiq 5.0
Based on 2 answers
We haven't had to use the support feature yet
Consultant
HMS Cornerstone SolutionsInformation Technology & Services, 11-50 employees
Marvel
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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
Senior Business Analyst
Lucid AgencyMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Marvel
Ultimately, InVision was just a better fit for our company's needs. It's probably faster to create prototypes using Marvel, but InVision's collaboration features (comments, notes, etc.) are much more robust, which was helpful for our large team spread across multiple continents. InVision also offers more advanced features, and Marvel felt a little too limited for our overall business needs.

Verified User
Strategist in Product Management
Computer Software Company, 201-500 employeesReturn on Investment
Balsamiq
- It has definitely saved time when negotiating interface changes with a large variety of stakeholders
- Building a new layout is very quick and saves a lot of time when prototyping any clean basic interface
- All of this eventually leads to better functionality for less money, which while hard to quantify is very useful
- The only potential negative impact is that the design features are limited so may discourage the use of custom features which would have been particularly useful.

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Environmental Services Company, 1-10 employeesMarvel
- It helped me improve my productivity. It took me lot of time to manually design mockups earlier when I used Adobe Photoshop to do it.
- Because of quickly creating mockups, now I provide my clients with more than 4-5 options which is welcomed by clients and make them happy.
- Definitely the ROI and improved, because of time saved and happy clients.

Verified User
Professional in Engineering
Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employees