When comparing Framer Studio vs Proto, the Slant community recommends Framer Studio for most people. In the question“What are the best tools for prototyping mobile interactions/animations?” Framer Studio is ranked 1st while Proto is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Framer Studio is:
Framer uses coffeescript for defining animations. CoffeeScript has a low learning curve and as such it can be learned easily even by non-programmers.
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Pros
Pro CoffeeScript integration to define animations
Framer uses coffeescript for defining animations. CoffeeScript has a low learning curve and as such it can be learned easily even by non-programmers.
Pro Multiple device support
Framer supports animation and interaction prototyping for multiple devices, ranging from desktop apps to web apps and mobile platforms. There are already 8 pre-installed devices to choose from, or developers can create their own setup quickly.
Pro Photoshop & Sketch integration
Framer is integrated with Framer Generator, which allows developers to import layers directly from Adobe Photoshop and/or Sketch.
Pro Instant visual feedback
Framer Studio offers and instant preview of the animation that is currently being made.
Pro It allows you to use JSON animations (such as Lottie)
That's awesome.
Pro Has one of the largest gestural support libraries in the market
Proto supports one of the (if not the) largest gestural support libraries out of all the prototyping tools. With gestures such as:
- Pinchin/out
- Swipes
- Double tap
- Tap
- Hold
- Release
and more...
Pro Native prototype testing
Developers can build prototypes through the browser with Proto, but the testing itself is done on the devices. Proto has released native apps for both iOS and Android that developers to test their designs right on the native device itself.
Pro Easy to use with it's intuitive drag-and-drop interface
Proto is very easy to use even for beginners, or programmers who are not well-versed in Photoshop or Sketch or any other drawing application. With it's easy drag-and-drop interface and with a wide library of commonly used UI elements for Android and iOS, prototyping with Proto is very simple.
Pro Design and prototype all in one tool
Better UX to not switch between multiple tools.
Pro Preview prototypes on the device (e.g. iPhone, Android phone)
Pro User testing / screen recording capabilities
Cons
Con Coding required
Framer Studio uses CoffeeScript for prototyping the UI of an app. This can be a problem for designers who don't know CoffeeScript since they would be forced to learn a new programming language in order to use Framer.
Con Mac only
Framer Studio is only supported for Mac. There is no version for Windows or Linux.
Con The mobile app for previews doesn't look as good as the preview on the browser
That can be very disappointing. Once you have everything perfect the design becomes different when you open it on your mobile app.
Con Since it opens on browser, it can get very laggy
Once you start using lots of images, vectors and animations you can go into deep trouble.
Con Only a free trial
Other prototyping tools offer free plans to trial as long as one wants, but Proto only offers a trial that while has full functionality has a 15 day time limit.
Con Prototyping can be relatively slow
Proto's animations and interactions are very detailed. As far as prototyping goes Proto is probably the best tool to get as close to the actual app as possible. But this brings the downside that prototyping with Proto becomes quite slow and can take several hours to finish to get everything to work perfectly.