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Axure RP

Axure RP

Overview

What is Axure RP?

Axure RP is a software prototyping tool used by UX designers, from Axure Software Solutions in San Diego.

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Recent Reviews

Still top for dynamic wireframes

9 out of 10
January 04, 2024
We use Axure RP for wireframing human-computer interfaces and particularly for dynamic prototyping i.e. creating mid-fi designs which need …
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TrustRadius Insights

Axure is a versatile tool that is widely used in the software development industry by various professionals to bridge the gap between …
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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is Axure RP?

Axure RP is a software prototyping tool used by UX designers, from Axure Software Solutions in San Diego.

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  • No setup fee

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  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Alternatives Pricing

What is Adobe XD?

Adobe XD is a prototyping and UX/UI option for website and mobile application design, featuring a range of UI tools and and templates, a versatile artboard and contextual layer panels, and deep integration with Adobe's creative suite of products for fast import of objects from these applications.

What is iRise?

iRise offers a prototyping and design platform for software development.

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Product Demos

[YCPM] Demo Website hướng nghiệp

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Axure 7.0 Pro Demo

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TV Guide for iPhone (Axure RP Prototype )

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Product Details

What is Axure RP?

Axure RP is a software prototyping tool used by UX designers to plan, prototype and hand off projects to developers, all without code.

Axure RP Features

  • Supported: Powerfull Prototyping
  • Supported: Developer Handoff
  • Supported: Visual Specifications

Axure RP Competitors

Axure RP Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Mac
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android

Frequently Asked Questions

Axure RP is a software prototyping tool used by UX designers, from Axure Software Solutions in San Diego.

InVision, Marvel, and Figma are common alternatives for Axure RP.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.

The most common users of Axure RP are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(102)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Axure is a versatile tool that is widely used in the software development industry by various professionals to bridge the gap between design and production. UX designers, business analysts, and interaction designers rely on Axure to create low-fidelity and high-fidelity wireframes. This enables them to visualize and communicate their design concepts effectively within software development teams. Additionally, the product positioning team finds Axure invaluable for building controlled static demos that replicate live sites for sales demonstrations. This allows for a quick and efficient showcase of the software solution, facilitating effective communication with potential clients.

Marketing departments also benefit from Axure's capabilities as it provides more tools compared to other prototyping software like Balsamic. It allows marketers to quickly create mocks and wireframes for department pages, aiding in the visual communication of marketing strategies. Moreover, Axure has become the industry standard for prototyping, making it an essential tool for creating high-fidelity, interactive prototypes used in sales demos and collaboration with external designers. The tool is also extensively utilized for concepting and prototyping new products and features, as well as enhancing existing ones. This enables early usability testing and analysis, ensuring that user needs are met before investing time and resources into full-scale development.

Axure is particularly useful in user experience design projects where interactive prototypes are required to showcase concept animations and fully functional pages. The tool's capabilities have been successfully demonstrated in projects such as simulating wireframes for new importation portals, impressing business clients with its ability to bring design concepts to life. Additionally, users have found Axure to be a valuable asset in defining functional requirements and visualizing screen designs for their organizations. Overall, Axure's versatility, ease of use, and wide range of functionalities make it an indispensable tool in various domains within the software development industry.

Valuable for creating interactive prototypes: Many users have found Axure to be a valuable tool for creating interactive prototypes that closely resemble the finished product. They appreciate how easy it is to demonstrate their ideas to clients using Axure's features, such as pasting images and turning them into buttons.

Effective for prototyping mobile and tablet applications: Several reviewers have highlighted Axure's effectiveness in prototyping mobile and tablet applications. They find the platform useful for creating responsive design prototypes with interactive, clickable features and multi-state situations.

Great for organizing requirements: Users have praised Axure for its ability to organize requirements in detail. They find the feature of adding footnotes particularly useful for describing actions of each field and adding interactions. This helps them create clear and comprehensive prototypes while ensuring all necessary details are included.

Outdated User Interface: Many users have expressed their dissatisfaction with Axure's outdated and clunky user interface, finding it difficult to navigate and not very intuitive. This has led to a slower design process and increased frustration among users.

Steep Learning Curve: Several reviewers have mentioned the steep learning curve of Axure, especially for those without experience in Javascript or Actionscript. This has made it challenging for new users to get up to speed quickly and efficiently use the software.

Lack of Collaboration Features: Users have found that Axure lacks robust collaboration and version control features, making it difficult for multiple people to work on the same design file and manage design changes. This has hindered effective teamwork and coordination among designers using Axure.

Users commonly recommend the following:

  • Take advantage of the Axure community and resources. Many users suggest utilizing the rich plugins and solutions available in the Axure community. They also recommend watching helpful videos on the Axure forum and tutorials on YouTube to learn how to use the tool effectively. Additionally, users suggest taking advantage of the free training offered by Axure to ease the learning curve.

  • Invest time in learning Axure. Users advise taking time to thoroughly learn Axure as it is a comprehensive and robust prototyping tool. While they acknowledge that it can be complicated initially, they believe that investing time in learning the software can yield great benefits. Users recommend starting with a free trial and doing research before using Axure.

  • Use Axure for wireframing and prototyping. Many users think that Axure is a great tool for wireframing and prototyping designs quickly. They recommend using Axure for products with a lot of functionality or for usability testing. However, users suggest keeping interactions simple and minimum viable, without focusing too much on the visual aspects. They also think that Axure is worth using for educational purposes and web development, as it helps expedite the product development process.

Note: These recommendations are based on user reviews and opinions, and may not necessarily reflect the views of all users.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-11 of 11)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Axure RP for wireframing human-computer interfaces and particularly for dynamic prototyping i.e. creating mid-fi designs which need variables and/or short scripts to simulate 'customised' on-page interactions behaviours (behaviours that are not pre-programmed into library widgets). This is quite a specialised use case, as staff and students alike find more 'static' prototypes (screen1 - click - screen2) produced with xd and/or Figma suffices for most kinds of User Experience teaching and practice. However, for my teaching and research projects, which might involve designing new interactive widgets for map-based search, or novel interactive diagrams, I find Axure RP to be the more powerful tool
  • case or switch statements based on variables
  • simulations of drag and drop
  • writing structured scripts
  • repeaters (widgets that load data values from spreadsheets) could be more intuitive
  • responsive design - could go further to simulate responsive widgets
  • 3D immersive interactions - 2D only currently. 3D immersive is a big ask, but there is a need for it.
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.
December 27, 2023

Axure can do everything!

Dan Clarke | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Axure to create interactive prototypes of hardware and software products, which are then taken to usability tests with representative users. We then test the prototypes to measure the impact of the design and find areas of improvement. Axure allows us to create complex prototypes that other prototyping tools simply don't offer.
  • Logic-based prototyping
  • Prototype hosting
  • Animations
  • Integrations
  • Integration of audio playback
  • Automated layout tools for different platforms (mobile, desktop)
  • Live collaboration
Axure is great for creating complex prototypes that require logic. It takes a bit of learning compared to other tools like Adobe XD, but offers so much more control and customization to make a truly legitimate prototype to test. If you are a UX Design beginner looking to mock up basic websites, then other tools such as Figma may be more appropriate.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We tried Axure RP in our Marketing department. The goal was to find a tool that we could design and prototype digital experiences, collect feedback, and deliver a head start for development with exported code. Axure has been the industry standard for over a decade, so we decided to give it a whirl.
  • Robust prototyping. It will do anything; the more complex the better.
  • Extensive training and a very active online community for asking questions... and we had quite a few.
  • Being able to add notes on the design BEFORE the review process is a nice touch.
  • Steep learning curve, especially compared to the competition (Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch, etc.).
  • No plugin support to speak of (not a dealbreaker).
  • Looking forward to the visual interface changes in version 9. The current UI is quite clunky and outdated.
If you are doing intricate prototypes with live data and extensive functionality, this is the software of choice by far. If all you need is something to visually show a concept to stakeholders and collect feedback, there are many other options that are easier to learn and use. It all depends on what you plan to accomplish.
Josh Peichoto | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Axure RP to quickly create interactive web and application prototypes. This allows us to test ideas, features, and interactivity without a sizable investment in time from our design and technical teams. Once finalized we use these Axure outputs as a guide and blueprint for our development teams for execution.
  • Create highly interactive deliverables.
  • Quickly test ideas.
  • Some of the interface is clunky.
  • Learning curve can be steep for some.
Axure RP is a solid choice for creating complex and highly interactive prototypes. This product leans more toward offering high interactivity, where other products lean toward high design. Axure prototypes can be published online through AX Share which is a great way to circulate prototypes in a large organization with many stakeholders.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
A subset of our design team is working with Axure to create high-fidelity, interactive prototypes for our sales team to demo for clients around the world in order to sell products in production before release. By providing our sales reps with clickable, realistic, and accurate prototypes to share and use with existing and potential clients, we’re often able to secure contracts well before a product is released (and after, for that matter!). It’s also nice to get feedback from these organizations that might inform changes we might want to make in a current or future iteration of a design.
Also, because Axure is considered to be the “industry standard” for prototyping, we also use the tool to collaborate with external designers, as they often already have the platform in their arsenals.
  • 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.
  • There’s a pretty steep learning curve to this tool. Even though everyone on my “sub-team” is pretty well versed in a wide array of prototyping tools, we’re still having some trouble figuring out some of Axure’s more complicated features, like repeater tables. This is a large reason why we are not using this tool beyond this small group of designers.
  • The interface is outdated and much less impressive than many other tools on the market, like InVision.
  • It’s pretty expensive. Even if we wanted to expand the use of Axure to the entire design team, we’d have a pretty tough time selling it to the higher-ups when there are plenty of comparable tools (a number of which we already have access to) that are much cheaper per user.
Axure is a robust tool for teams who seek a reliable, proven, and powerful prototyping tool (and have the budget for it!). Because it has been around for a longer time than some similar products, it includes a ton of features to make incredibly realistic and interactive prototypes. Teams who use Axure will likely benefit from how the tool enables users to create master designs that designers can share and reuse, saving time that may otherwise have been spent building a design from the ground up. However, this tool can be very difficult for new users to learn, so it’s not a great solution for teams who don’t have a lot of wiggle room between adopting the tool and using it to create designs on a deadline. Also, the tool is less intuitive than some of its other competitors, which can make it more time-consuming to whip up a design. For teams who often need to iterate on prototypes quickly, Axure is likely not to be the most efficient solution.
Kevin J. Hauger | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Axure RP is used by the UX designers within many of the different software development teams. Axure RP is primarily used to create Low-Fidelity and High-Fidelity wireframes. Wireframes are then handed off to the UI developers with additional requirements and documentation. The wireframes are essentially a layout reference that ensures the development team builds out the designer's vision. Axure RP primarily helps us bridge the gap between the designer's vision (design solution) and production (working) software.
  • Axure RP allows you to use adaptive views which is great for responsive design and development.
  • Axure RP is a very robust prototyping tool that has the ability to add realistic interactions.
  • There are numerous templates and formats available for wires, user flows, etc.
  • Master styles make it easy to update design features across numerous project pages, taking out the monotonous work.
  • 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).
Axure RP is a great user experience design toolkit that gives UX designers the ability to create user flows, Low-Fidelity, and High-Fidelity mockups all within the same tool. Overall, it works well with teams of designers looking to collaborate on the same project(s). Axure RP allows you to set up masters and components, giving you and your team the ability to share and re-use styled objects. This not only cuts down on the time allotted for wireframing, but it also means design styles are upheld and the overall software becomes more consistent. I would not recommend Axure for High-Fidelity visual design mockups (use Sketch App instead), as Axure is limited in it's the ability to style components.
Stephanie Martin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Axure is used to create very robust, hi-fi interactive UX/UI prototypes, more so that can be achieved with competitive software. I primarily use it when demonstrating design concepts to other designers, since there is no straightforward sharing functionality, though it seems to be considered industry-standard by some when it comes to prototyping.
  • Useful for creating UI prototypes with hi-fidelity screens.
  • Can edit screen elements in the program, as well as importing from other software.
  • Detailed interaction design.
  • VERY steep learning curve, the interface is not very intuitive.
  • Difficult to make even small changes to interactions, especially elements such as dynamic panels.
  • No straightforward keyboard shortcuts, which slows down design process.
  • Tends to crash more than other software, as it's so large, but not so frequently that it's a great annoyance.
  • The interface generally feels outdated.
I find myself rarely reaching for Axure anymore. While it's great for very detailed, realistic prototypes, the unintuitive and clunky interfaces slows down my design process greatly. It's also quite a bit more software than I need for simply sending a mockup to a client for them to get a feel for how a user would interact with their product. The one time where it really is a step above other software is when I am not the one building the website, and need to send a prototype directly to a developer.
Deionna Adams | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Axure is currently only used in the marketing department. It allows the development team to put together mocks and wireframes much faster for department pages within the college. This type of organizational design was previously done in Balsamic, however, Axure has more tools. Axure does have a higher learning curve.

Axure is also useful for higher fidelity prototyping. I would like to see the tools for prototyping expanded however right now this is the best program outside of Sketch (Sketch is only available on Mac).
  • Wireframing
  • Ability to layout the UI
  • Basic prototyping
  • Prototyping
  • Artboard management stepping through the process in an organized view for the designer
  • Micro-interactions are hard to show
Axure is great if you are looking for a more than basic wireframing/prototyping tool. This is, in my opinion, the best current option for Windows users. If you are looking to create wireframes for websites of a simple mobile application this software will be great for you. If you are looking to design HI-FI prototypes of complex systems look for Adobe XD to leave beta soon.
Pooja Sawant | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Axure for making wireframes, low and high-fidelity prototypes for mobile, tablet and websites. We use Axure for creating UI screens as well, and when we want to integrate vector elements.
  • Gives better interactivity than other tools for complex websites
  • Easier to share HTML code with developers
  • Axure community and support
  • Easy to share and give demos to clients
  • Create your own UI library for future uses
  • You might have go through tutorials and has a learning curve
  • Importing svg could be better
  • License is expensive
I think for now Axure is one of the best prototyping tools available. This is best suited for creating complex web/mobile prototypes with interactivity. If you are just creating wireframes and/or towards importing ai/psd to prototypes, then this fine but there are different tools that are easier to use.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I learned Axure at school and used it in my last 3 companies. I am still using Axure every day, and I strongly believe after all these years and with so many new prototyping tools around, Axure is still the best of all. Every single company that I been with, purchased Axure after seeing my first prototype. The learning curve of application is a little deep, and always I was the solo prototyper in the organization.
  • Mobile and tablet application Prototyping
  • Responsive Design Prototyping
  • Hi-Fidelity Prototyping
  • Interactive, Clickable prototypes with multi-states situation
  • Wireframing
  • Flow charts
  • Some more micro-interactions in different commands. Recently flip added to ver8, but still some more features are missing such as bouncing and pixelating.
  • Switching states at the time of dragging or scrolling.
  • Now there is and option for drag in X or Y axis. I couldn't find any solution to drag diagonally or in a specific path or curve.
  • There are some techniques to removing a browser status bar at the time of presenting a prototype on Android smartphones, but these techniques are not very convenient and you should have to use third party applications. I wish to have a solution from Axure.
  • Running Prototype offline on mobile device. Again, now there are some solutions for this issue but all are third party applications. I wish to see something from Axure.
Axure is well suited to prototyping for desktop applications, websites, web application, apps for smartphones and tablets, but I would like to have some options to do prototyping for smartwatches, wearables and streaming devices such as Apple TV as well.
Also, I wish to have stronger features and functionality for better flow charting and retire my OmniGraffle.
Lucas Roe | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are currently using Axure for quick proofs of concept. The biggest benefits we find from it are that it is easily shared with a link, so we can validate ideas quickly with our team. While the prototypes that we create in it don't produce usable code for our application, that freedom allows us to test things that may otherwise not be possible or easily implemented in the full product. Axure is currently only used by 2 members of our organization, but the two of us are the UX experts in the organization.
  • Quick and simple clickthrough mockups. Axure hits a fidelity sweet spot that's somewhere between a basic sketch and a full working prototype that allows you to communicate the meat of an experience without getting too hung up on the minutiae
  • Axure's masters system allows you to create highly inherited design patterns. Working inside of a design system like a pattern library, this inheritance helps insure that you aren't reinventing the wheel for each new interface, and instead are relying more heavily on your systemic design.
  • Axure's publishing system, Axure Share, is a fantastic way to send the prototypes to others. It's tightly integrated with the desktop application, making sharing a specific page or an enormous prototype both simple and fast. It also allows extensibility, letting you write your own HTML/CSS/JS to extend the prototype in some way.
  • The output of Axure is some bizarre hybrid of a web page and something else. Although it lives in a browser and technically uses HTML, its method of building the pages is highly inflexible and violates the DOM standards of browsers. This makes the prototypes very rigid, and greatly limits the space of what they're useful for.
  • Axure can have a steep learning curve. If you don't have experience with Javascript or Actionscript, you may find the method of adding interactivity to be very arcane and confusing. There are some other bizarre bugs that only come about through a lot of experience.
  • Axure currently only allows very basic design and structuring, as well as an extraordinarily limited outputs. Consequentially, it isn't suited for visual design or highly polished designs.
Axure is best suited when you are working in a distributed environment on cross platform tools. There are other tools that are more appropriate for mobile specific work. If you already have a robust process with a different graphics program (like Photoshop or Sketch) it may be more appropriate for you to find a prototyping tool that is better equipped to work with that existing process (For instance, a Hotspotting tool like Marvel or InVision)
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