When comparing ProtoPie vs Balsamiq, the Slant community recommends Balsamiq for most people. In the question“What are the best mockup and wireframing tools for websites?” Balsamiq is ranked 2nd while ProtoPie is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose Balsamiq is:
All the Balsamiq UI elements are drawn by hand and have a really nice low-fidelity design.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Smooth and gradual learning curve
As the interface is very clean and simple, it enables you to create interactions by combining objects, triggers and responses just like that. No need for wireframing or shitty mockups, just get to hi-fi prototyping right away.
Pro Native prototyping
Deploy prototypes on any device right away. What's the point of prototyping mobile apps if you cannot deploy it on your mobile devices easily?
Pro IoT, Interactions across devices
Create prototypes e.g. chat platforms, payment apps etc. and deploy them on multiple devices and have them communicate with each other.
Pro Utilizes sensors very easily
Easily control the sensors of smart devices in your prototype, such as tilt, sound, compass, proximity sensor, vibration motor and 3D Touch sensors.
Pro Runs on Mac and Windows
It offers the same features on both MacOS and Windows. Plus, you can switch machines as long as you are logged in to ProtoPie Studio.
Pro Fast and easy sharing
Sharing is very easy via the cloud. Open the prototype in desktop or mobile browser, or deploy the prototype on the ProtoPie Player app. All is possible.
Pro Code Free
No coding needed to do interactions for your prototypes. You just choose the objects and link them with the triggers and responses you want to based on your preferred interactions.
Pro Low-fidelity UI elements
All the Balsamiq UI elements are drawn by hand and have a really nice low-fidelity design.
Pro Clean and easy to use interface
Balsamiq has a very easy to use drag and drop interface that lets you quickly build and adjust your mockups. The UI is centered around low-fidelity wireframes that help focus the reviews on the core layout and functionality instead of getting hung-up on visual design.
Pro Large & extensible UI element library
Balsamiq has a built in library of over 75 built-in user interface components and 187 icons, as well as community generated plug-ins.
Pro Awesome team collaboration features
myBalsamiq has been built with teams in mind and has a variety of featured to support collaborating on the mockups:
Notifications - Real-time notifications to enable you to keep track of team member actions
Revision Control - All mockups have a revision history to enable reverting to previous versions and keeping track of design decisions.
Skype Integration - Easy to use Skype integration to host design reviews.
Access Control - Access controls allow sharing projects with team members as well as allowing external reviewers to leave comments on the designs.
Pro Usability testing features
You can link together pages to create shareable user demos
Pro 30-day trial available
Pro Keyboard shortcuts
You can use common keyboard shortcuts like Shift to select multiple elements or to resize while maintaing proportions, F2 for renaming labels etc.
Cons
Con Stifling innovation
Doing anything that is not directly supported by Balsamiq's conservative component library is next to impossible. User is forced to think within the corset of yesterday's standards.