When comparing Fireworks vs Invision, the Slant community recommends Fireworks for most people. In the question“What are the best mockup and wireframing tools for websites?” Fireworks is ranked 4th while Invision is ranked 19th. The most important reason people chose Fireworks is:
From lo-fidelity wireframe, into clickable prototype and then assemble the images for the final hi-fi build as well.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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.
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.
Pro PSD compatible
Open PSD files
Pro Awesome Symbol Libraries
A significant advantage over web-app style mockup tools are the symbol libraries for Fireworks.
From boagworld:
Both symbols, styles and vector shapes can be saved for re-use and collected into useful library resources. In addition Fireworks ships with a common library of useful objects including buttons, browser and application elements for both Mac and Windows look and feel.
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Pro Free plan
Invision offers a free plan to anyone that is limited to one project. While the free plan is a bit limited it does allow the user to trial the software for as long as they like to decide on its merits and whether it is worth paying for the more robust options.
Pro Presents designs in a way that mimics an actual web browsing experience
Once uploaded on Invision, the screen will be presented in a way that will behave as an actual web page. This is especially easy for showing the work to clients, more so if compared to just showing them a .PDF, which may make it look like the page is "too crowded".
Pro Supports gestures, transitions & animations for web, iOS & Android
Hotspot links can be created for every page, and once it's done, for each one of them gestures and transitions can be registered.
Invision supports various gesture types: swiping, double tapping, sliding, etc...
Pro Real-time collaboration and VOIP chat
Live Share allows you to collaborate in real-time using an in-browser screen share. Each collaborator gets their own mouse, so you can easily point and see what someone is talking about. You can also sketch, and chat right inside the Live Share interface.
Invision's Live Share gives team members the ability to collaborate in real-time through a screen share inside their browser. Each collaborator has their cursor which they can use and edit or add notes in real-time. On top of that, Invision also has a VOIP chat which works inside the browser.
Pro Design files are automatically synced and their version history tracked
Invision uses Invision Sync or Dropbox to automatically save design files on the cloud. Furthermore, it has version control built in. This is especially helpful if a team is going through different versions for a specific design and they want to return again and again to previous designs.
Pro Great built-in feedback features
Invision allows clients, stakeholders or any team members to leave comments and feedback inside the design which will be displayed as a point on the page itself. These paints can be discussed or even be turned into tasks. This makes it easy for designers to go through what they need to work on, and once it's done, the task can be checked off.
Cons
Con Is being phased out
Adobe is ditching Fireworks. So those nasty bugs will never get fixed.
Con While Invision acts as an all-in-one environment for design, it may become a nuisance
These times, teams are not using just a single app or tool for everything. It's not unheard of for teams to be using up to a dozen different tools for their work. Invision works as an all-in-one environment for product design and unfortunately it does not integrate with other tools. This may be a nuisance for teams that want to integrate different tools in their workflow.
Con Expensive for just a hosting platform
Invision is a tool for building click through prototypes and getting feedback on them, you need to design everything in another app and upload them, it isn't a design tool.