When comparing Principle vs Origami, the Slant community recommends Origami for most people. In the question“What are the best tools for prototyping mobile interactions/animations?” Origami is ranked 3rd while Principle is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose Origami is:
Origami is offered to the public completely free, no monthly plans, no upfront cost whatsoever.
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Pros
Pro Comprehensive help & examples
You can find videos for the Principle app course here.
Pro Simple Sketch import
Import Sketch layers easily to animate your designs.
Pro Build iOS transitions & animations easily
All the iOS easing info is built-in.
Pro Completely free
Origami is offered to the public completely free, no monthly plans, no upfront cost whatsoever.
Pro Powerful animations and interactions
Origami was actually built to help Facebook designers work on Paper, one of Facebook's latest apps. Every animation that is coded into Origami was first made for Paper. It uses powerful 3D effects and some of the most advanced features for scrolling, tapping and swiping to create a faithful and interactive prototype.
Pro Native testing
Developers can develop their prototypes with origami through their desktops, but the testing itself is done on the native devices.
Pro No code required
Origami is built by designers for designers. As such, it allows for quick prototyping without writing a single line of code.
Pro Open source
Origami is free and open source and it is hosted on GitHub.
Pro Like only-Mac-integration! Great app! Thank you.
Cons
Con Mac only
Sadly iOS centric.
Con Steep learning curve
Origami is a toolkit for Quartz Composer, and unfortunately the learning curve for it is quite steep. Especially for beginners.
Con Mac only
Since Origami is not an app in and on itself, but a plugin for Quartz Composer, which is built by Apple. Therefore, Origami is only available for Mac and for a developer to download and use it, they need to register as an Apple Developer.
Con Mouse driven interactions
There's no way to directly test the tactile interface.