What are the best high-fidelity website design tools?

Question

21

Options
Considered

185

User
Recs.

Jan 16, 2020

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

17 Options Considered

Best high-fidelity website design tools	Price	Platforms	License
-- Figma	Free or $15/mo	-	-
74 Sketch	-	Mac	-
-- GRAVIT	FREE or $99/yr	Linux, Windows, macOS, Web	GPLv3+ or Commercial license
-- Pencil Project	-	Windows Linux Mac	-
-- Webflow	-	-	-

See Full List

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score 21 · Answer 1

Figma

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Top Con

No plugins or similar functionalities so far

ElatedTiddalik's Experience

intuitive See More

Top Pro

Can import Sketch files

You can use a large library resources from Sketch. See More

Top Con

Inefficient workflow

PleasantLeibOlmai's Experience

Fast, User-Friendly, And a Web-Based. I have never had issues with the browser-based software and I have been able to edit my designs from any computer. Easy transition from sketch. See More

Top Pro

Powerful collaborative functions

You can share you designs via link, set access level (read/edit). You can work on one design collaborative in real time. See More

Ilya Litmanovich's Experience

Using it for a couple of months. This tool just changes my entire design workflow. Awesome! See More

Top Pro

Free for single designers

ExceptionalKotys's Experience

Just great See More

Top Pro

Has all the core functionality you'd expect from something like Sketch

Top Pro

Works in the browser

Top Pro

Provides a free version

Does not require a paid subscription for use. Can be used freely with a lot of features. The free use allows very limited collaboration. See More

Top Pro

Allows for real time collaboration

Top Pro

Live previews for mobile

Mirrors your designs to your phone in realtime. See More

Top Pro

Exports to Zeplin

You can export to the Zeplin format. See More

Top Pro

Integrates with Slack

Provides integration with Slack. See More

Top Pro

Integration with Principle

You can easily import your Figma files on Principle to create great prototype animations. See More

See All

score 37 · Answer 2

Sketch

Top Con

No Linux version

Sketch is currently only available on Mac, which can make it hard to collaborate if you have teammates using Linux. See More

Top Pro

Active community with a lot of resources

Sketch is hugely popular among designers so there are a lot of well maintained community resources for everything from iPhone frames to iOS/Android UI elements & icons. See More

Rashaad's Experience

It has everything you need to design websites nowadays. I used to design websites using photoshop, illustrator, and fireworks, but after Sketch came out, I've never gone back. See More

Specs

Platforms:Mac

Top Con

License based payment model

Sketch has recently decided to cease development of major version (2.0, 3.0, 4.0) with free updates in between, and has switched to a license based subscription model. A yearly license costs $99 and includes the latest version of the Sketch software, plus a year of free updates. After this license expires, you can renew for another year of updates - or continue to use the current software without updates. See More

Top Pro

"Artboards" are great for working on multiple views simultaneously

Artboards let you easily work on multiple views side by side. Great for having a separate artboard on each page for the various responsive sizes. See More

Top Con

No Windows support

Top Pro

Vector based yet pixel aware

You can rescale assets without quality loss, easily export x2 assets for retina designs and design high quality icons & artwork. Being pixel aware lets you set a grid and snap objects to it as well as round to the nearest pixel edge to clean up your layers. See More

Top Con

Buggy releases and lack of quality assurance

The fast rate of change means new releases often break files and cause havoc. Duplicate symbols are really bad in the latest releases so you have to keep updating. See More

Top Pro

Designed specifically for web and mobile UI design & workflows

Sketch is essentially a version of Photoshop built from the ground up to suit the workflow of web designers. See More

Top Con

Very feeble raster tools

You have to go elsewhere if you want something more complex than basic vector masking of raster images. See More

Top Pro

Makes it easy to export assets

Sketch has a built in exporter that supports PDF, JPG and PNG. See More

Top Con

Limited compatibility with Photoshop and Illustrator

Although it is possible to export certain Adobe file types in Sketch, compatibility is mostly hit and miss. For example, some elements seem a little offset in Adobe products. See More

Top Pro

Clean UI

Reactive panels keep the UI for Sketch clean from the sort of clutter the panel system in Photoshop suffers from. The panels in Sketch change based on the object in question, saving you from having to have a multiple separate panels. See More

Top Pro

Built-in grid system

You can set the square grid to whatever dimensions you like as well as set thicker lines every x blocks. You can also configure the color of the lines to make them as obvious or subtle as you wish and toggle the grid with a keyboard shortcut (crtl+g). See More

Top Pro

Symbols and shared styles

Sketch lets you re-use the same design in multiple places, with changes synced throughout the various places it is used. You can also create text styles to sync typography changes. See More

Top Pro

"Mirror" makes it really easy to test designs on multiple devices

Mirror lets you connect your iPhone to sketch and see how your current artboard looks on mobile. It's really useful as you can live check changes which lets you rapidly iterate mobile design. See More

Top Pro

Easily align layers with smart guides

Holding down alt will show the smart guides that show the distances between any layer you hover over to nearby layers or the edges of the artboard. Very useful for checking your spacing or aligning layers. See More

See All

score 17 · Answer 3

GRAVIT

Top Pro

Free

Gravit has a free version, but there is paid version with more features. See More

Top Con

Paid version

Expensive paid version that has many features you can find in free or cheaper applications. See More

ProductiveDercetius's Experience

Freaking installed it only to find our that its hostage ware. No thanks. See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux, Windows, macOS, Web

License:GPLv3+ or Commercial license

Unoffical download location:https://github.com/OliBridgman/gravit

Available as:Snap, AppImage, WebApp

Top Pro

Multi platform

Works on Windows, Mac and Linux. See More

Top Con

This does not appear to be a Web-design tool

Gravit appears to be a vector-art tool, and nothing more. Their homepage doesn't even mention Web design as far as I can see. See More

Top Pro

Actively developed

Top Con

Changing rapidly

The fast rate of growth/change for Gravit can be a pro in that in means plenty of new features. However, it also makes the product fairly unpredictable. For example: In the past year, Gravit was open sourced, then closed sourced again. See More

Top Pro

Easy to export all assets

Gravit has a built in exporter to PDF, JPG, PNG and SVG. See More

Top Pro

Clean and helpful UI

The panels in Gravit adjust to contain the information needed based on the type of element selected, preventing the clutter that Photoshop often experiences. See More

Top Pro

Symbols and libraries

With Gravit you can re-use the same design for buttons, inputs, etc, in multiple places, with changes synced every where the element is used. It's also possible to set text to a shared style to sync text changes throughout the app. See More

Top Pro

Easy to design multiple pages

The ability to assign layers to specific pages, and view single or multiple pages at once makes it easy to design an entire website without getting lost in thousands of layers. Easy to view multiple pages at one time. See More

Top Pro

Able to open Sketch files

The ability to open Sketch files makes it easier for Linux/Windows users to collaborate with people who use Sketch, which is macOS specific. See More

See All

score 5 · Answer 4

Pencil Project

Top Pro

Multiplatform

Available on Windows, Linux, and Mac. See More

Top Con

crashes and data loss

I've used Pencil in the past but I've had problems with crashes that lead to data loss. Newer versions may be better but once bitten, twice shy... four time bitten... See More

Jeremy Thibodeau's Experience

Easy tool to use that is completely portable. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows Linux Mac

Top Pro

Free

This is free and open-source GUI prototyping tool. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 5

Webflow

Top Pro

Responsive web design with Bootstrap

Because it's based on Bootstrap, it works across all modern browsers & devices. See More

Top Con

Fixed media queries

Webflow has four fixed breakpoints (desktop, laptop, mobile landscape & mobile portrait). The inability to set your own media queries can be limiting. If your layout breaks outside of these four options, you have to export the code and write them yourself. See More

RealisticNidaba's Experience

Awesome tool, fast, versatile, can do whatever you need with this. See More

Top Pro

W3C-compliant HTML5/CSS3

Webflow generates W3C-compliant markup and stylesheets. See More

Top Pro

Collaborative development support

Webflow allows workload to be shared among multiple users. See More

See All

score 5 · Answer 6

Froont

Top Con

Browser-Based

Froont is a web app that runs in your browser - not a full desktop application. While the developer touts this as a 'feature', web apps cannot be as full-featured - nor as stable - as desktop apps (specially when dealing with projects that might be large, or complex). See More

Top Pro

Free for public websites

Froont is free for anyone with a public website. This means you agree to your project being shared on the Froont website, where other Froont users may use the design. See More

Top Con

Buggy auto-save

Froont does not provide users with a way to save work, instead making you rely on the auto-save feature that saves every minute. However it's been known to be buggy and not save progress. See More

Top Pro

Allows creating responsive pages

Froont allows you to set media queries for creating responsive websites. It provides other features for making responsive sites easily, such as an easily adjustable grid. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 7

Adobe XD

Top Pro

Easy to use interface

It's easy to be productive immediately with XD but it also includes a demo so that you can learn about some of the more powerful features. See More

Top Con

Only good for mockups

XD is not a multi-purpose tool like Sketch. It is not a good tool for logos, icons, or other design assets. See More

Top Pro

Share online and gather feedback

Allows mockups to be pushed to the web where collaborators can try the mockup and leave feedback. See More

Top Con

No tools for animation

It is possible to create transitions, but this feature is very limited. See More

Top Pro

Repeat grid is a timesaver

Creating a list of items is simple with "repeat grid." Just create one and use repeat grid to duplicate that item vertically or horizontally. Then drag and drop text or images to create unique entries for each repeated item. See More

Top Con

Windows version does not have a menu yet

Top Pro

UI Kits are available for iOS, Material Design, and more

Includes: iOS Google Material Design Windows UWP Wireframes See More

Top Pro

Interactive mockups

XD allows you to wire any object to any destination page so that clicking a button asset will take you to a page that you specify. Mockups can also simulate a scrolling page or window. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

It's available on both macOS and Windows. See More

See All

score 14 · Answer 8

Affinity Designer

Top Pro

One-time purchase

Rather than a monthly subscription based model, Affinity Designer instead has a one-time fee ($49.99). See More

Top Con

No plug-in architecture, so can't be tailored to specific purposes

Some applications (e.g. Sketch) have an open plug-in framework, by which the software can be extended by independent/third-party developers according to popular trends. See More

Dr Kanukie's Experience

Have been using it for a year across Mac & Windows for print and app design. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, MacOS, IOS

Export image formats:PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PSD, PDF, SVG, EPS, EPS, EXR, HDR

Top Pro

Intuitive user interface

The user interface of many graphic editing software programs can often be discouraging for beginners. Affinity Designer, however, has a very well laid out and intuitive user interface with a small learning curve. See More

Top Con

Treats all objects as filled

You can't select objects on the canvas by clicking on them, if they're surrounded by another object (like a rectangle or a frame). Designer treats all objects as filled, so if you've drawn a frame or outline or an object with a hole in it, you can't select objects within that hole directly. You have to laboriously iterate through all objects in a list until you get to the one you want. This is an extremely common situation, which cripples the entire product. Very surprising and unfortunate defect. See More

Top Pro

Powerful artistic tools

Extensively tweakable brush types, color options... See More

Top Pro

Sketch Alternative (Great for Mixed OS Teams)

For those working in mixed environments that aren't 100% MacOS, you'll find devoting yourself to Sketch.app brings with it...pain. If this fits the bill for what you need feature-wise and you're in a mixed OS environment, it's a very capable replacement for Sketch.app. Note that it doesn't have all the same features, but then again it doesn't need all the same features. Short of organization differences inside the document you're working on, there shouldn't be anything you can't do with Affinity Designer that you could have with Sketch. See More

Top Pro

Extended slicing and export possibilities

An object can easily be transformed into a slice that can then be exported in various sizes end formats in 1 go. E.g. Export slice A as PNG 1x, 2x and 3x AND GIF 1x AND SVG. See More

Top Pro

Powerful symbol managemment

Symbols can get individual property changes (color, shape, layer effects, fonts text...) while the other properties stay linked with the base symbol. See More

Top Pro

SVG Support

In the era of "retina" displays, 4k UHD, 5k, and even 8k, Scalar Vector Graphics - independent vector images that can scale to any resolution without any display quality loss - are more important now than ever. And this tool is quite capable of rendering true SVG output suitable for consumption at any display resolution (not a big bunch of rasterized bits in the document, actual paths, points, etc.). See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

Available on both Windows and MacOS See More

Top Pro

Focused vector graphics tool

Unlike some design tools, Affinity Designer isn't trying to be all things to all people. It's focused on its main area of expertise: vector graphics. That's not to say you can't use a raster image (think a photo in *.jpeg format for example), but it's not built to do much with that other than using it somewhere amidst the layers and that's about it. See More

Top Pro

Integrates well with Affinity Photo

These are companion apps & switching between them is built in - Photo is a very powerful raster tool with a feature set close/better to Photoshop, it will also use some Photoshop plugins. This allows you to add-on powerful raster capabilities if you want them - put doesn't force you to. See More

Top Pro

Excellent Photoshop/Illustrator import & export

Best I have seen in a non Adobe app, you can use most of the Photoshop mock-ups and templates easily. Opens most Adobe files to a level to be able to effectively use the content. Allows cross team collaboration across tool-chains. See More

Top Pro

Powerful

The new version 1.5 has a very powerful feature set such as support for symbols and asset windows, as well as constraints controls and improved export options. This all adds up to an interesting alternative to Adobe Illustrator. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 9

Mockplus

Top Pro

Includes a variety of components and icons

Free version of Mockplus provides 200 pre-built components, and paid version adds over 3,000 icons. See More

Top Con

Requires paid subscription to export design

If you want to export the HTML, you have to subscribe to a Pro account ($6.50/month). See More

Grace-120's Experience

Easy and fast to create an interactive prototype within minutes. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, Web

Top Pro

Code-free drag and drop interface

The drag and drop interface allows you to create interactive prototypes without writing any code. See More

Top Pro

Fast

Top Pro

Suitable for mobile, web and desktop apps

See All

score 8 · Answer 10

Adobe Fireworks

Top Con

Was phased out by Adobe

Adobe abandoned this product with no single suitable replacement. Unfortunately, a common story with Adobe products. -- Very disappointing. See More

Top Pro

Layer Sharing

Features such as 'Layer Sharing' allows you to quickly update shared components such as headers across multiple pages. Other mockup tools such as Mockingbird will require you to manually propagate changes across all the pages. See More

Added Value Web Services's Experience

As a web designer (and not a graphic artist) Fireworks was my go-to tool for vector (and raster) editing. See More

Top Con

Crashes every once in a while

It is prone to unexpected crashes. Frequent saves are recommended. -- AGREED! See More

Top Pro

Can be used for the entire life-cycle of the design

From lo-fidelity wireframe, into clickable prototype and then assemble the images for the final hi-fi build as well. See More

MSchleger's Experience

Best combined pixel AND vector program. Too sad that it is phased out. See More

Top Con

Proprietary PNG format

If you created files with their proprietary PNG format and you no longer have Fireworks (they phased it out) then you're out of luck since nothing else will read those files and preserve the layers and other features that Fireworks offered. See More

Top Pro

Combined Pixel AND Vector editor

Best integration in a graphics editor. See More

Top Pro

JPG compression preview

Offers a side by side comparison of different JPG compressions in real time with magnifier. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 11

Avocode

Top Pro

Supports CSS preprocessors

Avocode translates styles into CSS, and also supports CSS preprocessors (Sass, Less, and Stylus). See More

Top Con

Uploading projects can be a hassle

Sketch files must be synced using a Sketch plugin, which means you are required to have the software (or have to ask another to sync the project for you). See More

Top Pro

Syncs designs from Photoshop and Sketch

Photoshop and Sketch plugins can be used to get designs into Avocode. Alternatively, cloud storage services can be used to synchronize designs making it easy to share files amongst teams. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Runs on Mac, PC, and Linux. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 12

Fluid UI

Top Pro

Simple drag and drop interface and codefree

With dedicated widget libraries, it's really easy to drag and drop components onto pages. See More

Top Pro

Lets you test on a smartphone as well as in the browser

You can preview your designs live in the browser as well as send them to a mobile device to better simulate the UX. See More

Top Pro

Supports realistic gestures & transitions

You can simulate all the typical iOS gestures such as tap, double tap, swipe & long hold. These gestures then can trigger animated transitions such as sliding, fading, pop in, & flip. This enables you to create very realistic interactable demos of your app. Checkout the demo page for some examples. See More

Top Pro

Makes it easy to plan out the app workflow

Fluid isn't just about wireframing static screens. You can plan out all the user flows and then define the transitions between them. This is really handy for planning out the entire user workflow. See More

Top Pro

Awesome version control

Every action you or your team takes automatically creates a revision you can easily revert to. See More

Top Pro

Real time collaboration tools

The ability to video chat while designing/editing with your team is really useful, for remote teams in particular. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 13

ONE Membership

Top Pro

Unlimited Websites

Build as many websites as you need. See More

Lana Miro's Experience

Comfortable cabinet, where I can find any product I need for website design. See More

Top Pro

Unlimited Downloads

8500+ Products in one package. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 14

Vectr

Top Pro

Intuitive

Vectr is simpler than other web design or vector graphics design tools, and has all the features needed to make your designs beautiful. See More

Top Con

Requires an Internet connection to work

Must be tethered to an Internet connection at all times, so forget working on planes or other places where you're not online. See More

Specs

Platforms:ALL(Browser) , Unix, MacOS, Windows

Price:Free

Top Pro

WordPress plugin

Embedded editor in your WordPress is perfect for editing / creating: annotated images, watermarks, banners, image-collages, infographics, logotypes. See More

Top Pro

Grid and snapping

The grid and snap lines in your workspace serve as a visual aid and guideline for the composition and alignment of your designs. See More

Top Pro

Supports importing various image formats

You may import your previous designs or downloaded graphics and edit them in Vectr as you like. See More

Top Pro

Supports collaboration

You can send the unique URL to your Vectr project to your friends and colleagues for collaboration. See More

Top Pro

Low learning curve

Vectr has a very low learning curve and would be perfect for beginners. However, it’s absolutely easy to use no matter what your background is. Professional designers will also find a great number of useful tools which may change their designs completely. See More

Top Pro

Designing offline

Vectr's desktop app works offline for up to 100 edits, and then once you get online it automatically synchronizes all of the projects with your online account. So you can work whenever you want without fearing for your projects. See More

Top Pro

Free

The app is going to remain free forever. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

You may download Vectr for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chromebook. See More

See All

Answer 15

Novi HTML Visual Editing Tool

LikableEnten's Experience

Novi Builder is a pretty useful visual editor that can make any developer’s life so much easier. The tool is easy in use and makes coding rather delightful. Besides, there are lots of fancy HTML templates included in the membership. See More

score 5 · Answer 16

Pidoco

Top Pro

Makes collaboration easy

Pidoco has a focus on collaboration and provides plenty of features to make this easier to do. Pidoco is browser-based, making it easy to share designs with clients and colleagues. You have control over who can edit, and who can only view the design, and you can collaborate with others real-time. See More

Top Con

Expensive

Compared to its competitors, Pidoco is a fairly expensive option. Start is $12/month, standard $25/month, premium $55/month and platinum is $175/month. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Pidoco doesn't require any coding. It uses a drag and drop builder to create the prototypes and is beginner-friendly. See More

Top Pro

Lots of UI elements & icons

Large selection of pre-made UI elements and icons that's easily accessible via a search function. See More

Top Pro

Unlimited users on all plans

All plans allow for adding an unlimited amount of user who can collaborate on projects in real-time. Projects have to be shared manually. See More

Top Pro

Extendable library

Can upload images to expand the library. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 17

Google Web Designer

Top Con

It is not a tool for website design

It's only for animations, banners and so on. See More

Top Pro

Multi platform

Google Web Designer supports Mac, Windows and Linux. See More

DignifiedGelos's Experience

Many bugs and it works too slowly. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

Top Con

Currently in Beta

Google Web Designer was launched in 2013, and still remains in beta. See More

See All

17 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Figma

My Recommendation for Figma

Cross-platform

No plugins or similar functionalities so far

Can import Sketch files

Inefficient workflow

Powerful collaborative functions

Free for single designers

Has all the core functionality you'd expect from something like Sketch

Works in the browser

Provides a free version

Allows for real time collaboration

Live previews for mobile

Exports to Zeplin

Integrates with Slack

Integration with Principle

My Recommendation for Sketch

My Recommendation for Sketch

No Linux version

Active community with a lot of resources

License based payment model

"Artboards" are great for working on multiple views simultaneously

No Windows support

Vector based yet pixel aware

Buggy releases and lack of quality assurance

Designed specifically for web and mobile UI design & workflows

Very feeble raster tools

Makes it easy to export assets

Limited compatibility with Photoshop and Illustrator

Clean UI

Built-in grid system

Symbols and shared styles

"Mirror" makes it really easy to test designs on multiple devices

Easily align layers with smart guides

My Recommendation for GRAVIT

My Recommendation for GRAVIT

Free

Paid version

Multi platform

This does not appear to be a Web-design tool

Actively developed

Changing rapidly

Easy to export all assets

Clean and helpful UI

Symbols and libraries

Easy to design multiple pages

Able to open Sketch files

My Recommendation for Pencil Project

My Recommendation for Pencil Project

Multiplatform

crashes and data loss

Free

My Recommendation for Webflow

My Recommendation for Webflow

Responsive web design with Bootstrap

Fixed media queries

W3C-compliant HTML5/CSS3

Collaborative development support

My Recommendation for Froont

My Recommendation for Froont

Browser-Based

Free for public websites

Buggy auto-save

Allows creating responsive pages

My Recommendation for Adobe XD

My Recommendation for Adobe XD

Easy to use interface

Only good for mockups

Share online and gather feedback

No tools for animation

Repeat grid is a timesaver

Windows version does not have a menu yet

UI Kits are available for iOS, Material Design, and more

Interactive mockups

Cross platform

My Recommendation for Affinity Designer

My Recommendation for Affinity Designer

One-time purchase

No plug-in architecture, so can't be tailored to specific purposes