10 Best Wireframing Tools for UX Teams (2026)
From Figma's AI prototyping to Balsamiq's deliberate simplicity, here are the best wireframing tools for UX teams in 2026 with verified pricing.
10 Best Wireframing Tools for UX Teams (2026)
Wireframing tools have split into two camps. On one side, AI-powered tools that generate layouts from text prompts. On the other, deliberate tools that force you to think through structure before worrying about pixels. Both approaches work -- it depends on where you are in your design process.
InVision shut down at the end of 2024. Adobe XD was discontinued in 2023. Balsamiq is sunsetting its desktop app. The market is consolidating fast, and the tools that remain are better than ever.
Here's what I found after testing each of these for real wireframing projects.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Free plan | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Figma | Full design workflow | 3 files | $16/mo (annual) |
| Balsamiq | Low-fidelity wireframes | 14-day trial | $12/mo (2 projects) |
| Whimsical | Quick wireframes + flowcharts | 3 boards | $10/editor/mo |
| Miro | Workshop & brainstorming | 3 boards | $8/member/mo |
| Excalidraw | Hand-drawn sketches | Full editor free | $7/user/mo (Plus) |
| Sketch | Mac-native design | 30-day trial | $12/editor/mo |
| UXPin | Code-based prototyping | 2 prototypes | $29/user/mo (annual) |
| Axure | Complex interaction logic | Free trial | $29/user/mo |
| Moqups | Wireframes + diagrams | 2 projects | $8/mo (annual) |
| Penpot | Open-source design | Unlimited | $7/editor/mo (cloud) |
1. Figma
Figma dominates the design tool market for a reason: real-time collaboration, a massive plugin ecosystem, and a free tier that's genuinely useful. For wireframing specifically, community wireframe kits and the built-in auto layout system make it fast to build structured layouts.
Config 2025 added Figma Make (prompt-to-prototype), Figma Sites (publish directly to web), and 150 free AI credits per day. The March 2025 pricing overhaul introduced seat types -- Full ($16/mo annual), Dev ($12/mo), and Collab ($3/mo) -- simplifying billing but raising the base price from $12 to $16/month.
Free tier: 3 design files (3 pages each), 2 editors, 30-day version history, unlimited drafts and viewers. No Dev Mode or team libraries.
The wireframing case for Figma: If your wireframes evolve into high-fidelity designs, staying in Figma avoids the export-and-rebuild step. You wireframe, iterate, and polish all in one place. The downside is that Figma's power can be distracting when you should be thinking about structure, not visuals.
2. Balsamiq
Balsamiq does one thing and does it well: low-fidelity wireframes that look intentionally sketchy. The hand-drawn aesthetic isn't a limitation -- it's a feature. Stakeholders focus on layout and flow instead of debating font choices and colors.
Pricing is per-project, not per-seat. A 2-project plan runs $12/month, scaling up to $139/month for 100 projects. Every plan includes unlimited users, which makes it surprisingly affordable for larger teams.
Important: Balsamiq Desktop sales end December 31, 2026, with support ending December 31, 2027. The company is moving everyone to Balsamiq Cloud.
Free tier: 14-day trial only. No permanent free plan.
Best for: Early-stage wireframing, stakeholder feedback sessions, and teams where the hand-drawn look prevents premature focus on visual design. Not suitable for interactive prototyping or design handoff.
3. Whimsical
Whimsical combines wireframes, flowcharts, mind maps, docs, and sticky notes in one clean interface. It's built for speed -- you can go from idea to wireframe in minutes. The wireframing component has pre-built UI elements that snap together intelligently.
Pricing: Free (3 boards, 100 total AI actions), Pro ($10/editor/month, 500 AI actions/month), Business ($15/editor/month, 1,000 AI actions/month). The free tier's 3-board limit is restrictive but works for solo projects.
AI integration: Whimsical's AI generates wireframes, flowcharts, and mind maps from text descriptions. The credit system means you'll burn through the free tier's 100 total AI actions quickly if you're experimenting.
Best for: Product teams who think visually and need to move between wireframes, flows, and documentation without switching tools. The interface is cleaner than Miro but less powerful than Figma.
Explore Whimsical on Toolradar
4. Miro
Miro isn't a dedicated wireframing tool -- it's a collaborative whiteboard that happens to have solid wireframing capabilities. With 5,000+ templates and 160+ integrations (Jira, Azure DevOps, Asana), it fits into existing workflows without friction.
The 2025-2026 story is Miro AI Canvas: Sidekicks (specialized AI agents on canvas) and Flows (visual multi-step AI workflows). These are in beta and free during the preview period.
Pricing: Free (3 editable boards, 10 AI credits/team/month), Starter ($8/member/month), Business ($20/member/month). The free tier is enough for occasional use.
Best for: Design workshops, collaborative brainstorming, and teams that already use Miro for other purposes. If wireframing is your primary need, a dedicated tool like Whimsical or Balsamiq will feel more focused.
5. Excalidraw
Excalidraw has become the developer's favorite sketching tool. The hand-drawn aesthetic, infinite canvas, and zero-friction interface (open the site and start drawing) make it perfect for quick wireframes and architecture diagrams.
The core editor is free, open-source, and runs locally in your browser. Excalidraw+ ($7/month or $6/month annual) adds cloud storage, unlimited scenes, voice hangouts, screen sharing, and extended AI features including wireframe-to-code conversion.
A community library with 60+ pre-built UI wireframing elements speeds up structured wireframing. Real-time collaboration works on both free and paid versions.
Best for: Developers who want to sketch ideas quickly, architecture discussions, and teams that value simplicity over feature depth. Not ideal for detailed interaction design or design handoff.
Explore Excalidraw on Toolradar
6. Sketch
Sketch remains relevant for teams committed to the Mac ecosystem. The Copenhagen release (2025) was the biggest UI overhaul since 2020 -- new Inspector, wrap for stacks, one-click image background removal, and a macOS Tahoe redesign.
A notable 2026 addition: Sketch now has an MCP server that connects to Claude, Codex, or other AI tools. The AI can inspect your designs, answer questions about them, and generate code -- all running locally.
Pricing: $12/editor/month (Standard), $24/editor/month (Business with SSO). A Mac-only perpetual license is available for $120 one-time (1 year of updates) if you don't need collaboration features.
Limitations: Mac + browser only. No Windows or Linux native app. The community and plugin ecosystem has shrunk compared to Figma's. But native Mac performance is genuinely faster than browser-based alternatives.
7. UXPin
UXPin's differentiator is Merge Technology: you prototype with real production components from MUI, Bootstrap, Tailwind, Ant Design, or shadcn/ui. Prototypes use actual code, not visual approximations. This means what you test in the prototype is what gets built.
Merge AI 2.0 (December 2025) generates layouts using production-ready components from your design system. It supports Claude Opus 4.5, Sonnet 4.5, GPT-4.1, and GPT-5 models.
Pricing: Free (2 prototypes, 50 AI credits), Core ($29/user/month annual), Growth ($40/user/month annual). The 40% annual discount makes a big difference here.
Best for: Product teams with established design systems who want prototype-to-production accuracy. The learning curve is steeper than Figma or Whimsical, and the price reflects its enterprise positioning.
8. Axure RP
Axure is the tool for complex interaction prototyping. Conditional logic, variables, expressions, math functions, data-driven repeaters -- you can simulate almost any application behavior without writing code. Enterprise UX teams use it for detailed specifications that developers can inspect.
Pricing: Pro ($29/user/month), Team ($49/user/month with co-authoring and revision history). Free for qualified students and educators (Team edition). No permanent free tier.
The 2025 "Ready for Dev" feature adds a clear handoff point -- designers mark work as approved, creating a shared understanding of what's final.
Best for: Enterprise UX teams building complex, specification-heavy prototypes. Overkill for quick wireframes. If you're just sketching page layouts, use something simpler.
9. Moqups
Moqups bundles wireframing, diagramming, whiteboarding, and prototyping in a single web app. It's less flashy than Figma but more focused than Miro, with strong Jira/Confluence integration on the Business tier.
Pricing: Free (1 seat, 2 projects, 400 objects per project), Starter ($8/month annual), Business ($21/month annual for 3 seats). The free tier's 400-object limit per project is the real constraint -- complex wireframes hit it fast.
Best for: Teams using Jira/Confluence who want wireframing integrated into their existing Atlassian workflow. Good middle ground between Balsamiq's simplicity and Figma's complexity.
10. Penpot
The open-source alternative to Figma, with native CSS Grid Layout (the first design tool to support it), W3C-standard design tokens, and HTML/CSS code generation. Self-hosting is completely free and unlimited.
Penpot 2.10 added component Variants and expanded design token support. The cloud plans (launched in 2025) start at $7/editor/month, capped at $175/month regardless of team size. Enterprise is a flat $950/month with unlimited everything.
Best for: Teams that need open-source, self-hostable design tools with no vendor lock-in. The community is growing but still smaller than Figma's, and performance can lag on complex projects.
Tools that shut down
InVision shut down at the end of 2024. Miro acquired its Freehand product. Adobe XD was discontinued in 2023 with no replacement. Balsamiq Desktop will end sales in December 2026 and support in December 2027 (use Balsamiq Cloud instead).
How to choose
You need an all-in-one design tool: Figma. Wireframe, design, prototype, and hand off to developers in one place.
You want stakeholders to focus on structure, not pixels: Balsamiq or Excalidraw. The hand-drawn aesthetic prevents premature visual feedback.
You need wireframes plus flowcharts and docs: Whimsical. Clean, fast, and combines multiple visual thinking formats.
You prototype with real code components: UXPin. Merge Technology bridges design and development like nothing else.
You need open-source and self-hosting: Penpot. The only serious open-source design tool with collaborative wireframing.
FAQ
What happened to InVision?
InVision shut down at the end of 2024. Its Freehand whiteboard product was acquired by Miro. If you were an InVision user, Figma is the most direct replacement.
Is Figma still the best wireframing tool?
Figma is the most capable, but not always the best for wireframing specifically. Its richness can slow you down when you should be thinking about structure. For pure wireframing speed, Whimsical or Balsamiq are faster.
Can AI generate wireframes now?
Yes. Figma Make, MockFlow, Whimsical, UXPin Merge AI, and several newer tools (Visily, Uizard, Relume) all generate wireframes from text prompts. The quality is improving fast, but you'll still need to refine the output.
Which tool is best for developer handoff?
Figma has the widest Dev Mode adoption. UXPin gets closest to production code. Penpot generates CSS that matches its native grid system.
Looking for more design tools? Browse all wireframing and prototyping tools on Toolradar.