When comparing Axure vs FluidUI, the Slant community recommends FluidUI for most people. In the question“What are the best mockup and wireframing tools for websites?” FluidUI is ranked 12th while Axure is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose FluidUI is:
The learning curve is relatively low compared to other software that supports animations/transitions. Both building the wireframes and designing the interactions is all drop and drag.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports web and mobile prototyping
Allows creation of interactive HTML mock-ups which is accessible for both websites and mobile applications.
Pro Lots of options for sharing your work
Great web options, but you can also save your wire frames out to Word and convert the notes to annotations.
Pro Resuable components
You can create a component (widget) that you can use over and over again.
Pro Cross-platform
Available for use on Windows and Mac.
Pro Collaboration tools
You can set up a project with SVN-like check-in/out system to work with others.
Pro Offers resources to help you get proficient with the software
There is a wealth of online training including videos for getting the basics down, a great community to mine, and support team to help assist with more technical details.
Pro User friendly
The learning curve is relatively low compared to other software that supports animations/transitions. Both building the wireframes and designing the interactions is all drop and drag.
Pro Tools for team collaboration
Work with your team on a design. Connect on live video calls and chat or add comments.
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.
Pro Awesome version control
Every action you or your team takes automatically creates a revision you can easily revert to.
Pro Provides UI assets from all the versions of iOS
The UI library is huge and very high quality. All the UI required to design iO7 apps is included as well as iOS 6 and basic wireframing elements. For example in iOS7 it provides:
- Backgrounds
- Navigation & status bars
- Layouts (list pickers, maps, keyboards, scroll etc)
- Controls
- Typography
- Icons
Pro Fast
Using the app is feels very snappy.
Pro Free forever for a single project & 10 screens
They have a very reasonable free tier with the paid versions starting at $12/month.
Pro Lets you test on an iPhone 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.
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.
Cons
Con Moderate learning curve
Con Expensive [$289-$589]
There is a free trial to work with Axure, but there is a hefty price for the standard edition at $289. Even more so, the Pro edition will cost $589.