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Excellent prototyping app  — and it's free!
Updated June 30, 2021

Excellent prototyping app  — and it's free!

Michael Prewitt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe XD

Adobe XD is used for mocking up prototypes of websites and applications at our company. It is currently used across two departments, both for design proposals and as a reference system for production. Adobe XD allows us to quickly create interactive prototypes that demonstrate design goals, without requiring tedious coding by our designers.
  • Website and app prototypes are easy to create.
  • Users can easily apply a range of basic animation and transition effects.
  • Adobe XD supports plugins, but does not have as many as its competitor, Sketch.
  • The app does not support timeline animation, so its animation capability is elementary.
  • The app is free, so ROI is hard to estimate. The workflow is similar to what you would expect from other apps in this space, so it is definitely worth trying to see if it is a good fit.
  • We also own a license to its main competitor, Sketch, and use both apps. Compared to the value of the apps themselves, all of the main prototyping apps in our toolset are cheap.
Compared to Sketch, Adobe XD is perfectly capable for most prototyping needs that we have. And it's free! I am less familiar with Figma, but can only say that it was a cost-prohibitive choice at the time we were evaluating. I do believe that Figma has become more sophisticated in some ways since we last used it, and perhaps we will consider it again.
Many of the features I have requested have been implemented. Also, there is an active and supportive user community. The app's features are well documented. I have never had to contact support for help with any issue.

Do you think Adobe XD delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe XD's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe XD live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Adobe XD go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Adobe XD again?

Yes

Adobe XD is a robust prototyping app with an aggressive development cycle. Adobe updates the app regularly, often once a month or more. On top of that, it is free, even to users who don't have a Creative Cloud subscription. However, users with a Creative Cloud subscription will benefit from its compatibility with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Adobe XD is a good choice for creating websites and app mockups. Improvements to its responsive design capabilities make it a good choice for modern web and app development. Plugins, most of them free, greatly expand the app's functionality. You can also create shared libraries to sync resources between files and ensure consistency between users. Cloud publishing lets you share prototypes with stakeholders and developers.
The biggest frustration users may face is developer handoff. There is currently not a design-to-code export built into this app. Developers will need to code the design functions manually, although they can get sizes, colors, and other specs from the shared files. If creating animation prototypes is your thing, you may also be frustrated, as XD's capabilities are quite limited. However, it does sync full-circle with another app named ProtoPie which is capable of very advanced animations.