A successful mobile application is more than coding. To strike it big, your application should combine a solid tech foundation with an attractive mobile app design informed by real user needs. Since aesthetic appeal and usability are among the top priorities for mobile app developers, designers work hard to deliver a one-of-a-kind user experience.
To succeed, designers need a like-minded, loyal sidekick — an application design tool. Like in any relationship, the companions have to click; otherwise, long-term, efficient collaboration is not likely.
One can't choose the right mobile app design software if they have no clue about what the market has to offer. Since there are many app prototyping tools out there, we decided to make the designers' job easier and review the 25 best app design tools for mobile app development. Let's take a closer look at them.
Adobe After Effects
One of the best mobile app design tools, Adobe After Effects, is a visual effects powerhouse that helps design and development teams navigate the dynamic world of motion design and animations. The tool allows you to animate your mobile app design and work with video as well. What is really nice about the product is that you can use presets. Moreover, there are tons of effects to make your graphic design memorable.
Lately, Adobe After Effects has expanded its 3D capabilities to create a unified 3D environment to relieve users of the hassle of flitting between separate applications. After Adobe unveiled its new AI engine, Firefly, Adobe After Effects, along with other Adobe products, has got an AI makeover. The tool is now supplemented with AI-driven features, such as the Enhance Speech feature, filler word detection, and removal in text-based editing, to automate erstwhile time-intensive tasks for designs.
What we love about this app design tool at Orangesoft is its LottieFiles plugin. Not only does the plugin allow you to create one-of-a-kind vector animations, but you can also easily test them “without writing a single line of code,” as the LottieFiles itself states.
Platforms: macOS, Windows.
Pricing: $22.99/month.
Free trial: 7 days.
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is an industry-standard vector graphics editor and design software that enables designers to craft complex illustrations, drawings, designs, and layouts. The tool is renowned for an impressive selection of precision drawing tools, color management features, and seamless integrations with other Adobe products.
Like other Adobe tools, Adobe Illustrator has recently incorporated AI-powered features to make things easier for designers. Relying on the combination of traditional and generative AI, the tool allows users to turn a text prompt into a fully editable vector graphic, transform the tone of the artwork in a few clicks, and automatically identify fonts.
Platforms: macOS, Windows, iPadOS.
Pricing: $22.99/month.
Free trial: 7 days.
Adobe XD
Yet another product from the Adobe suite, Adobe XD, is a vector-based design tool for creating mobile user interfaces (UI) and user experiences (UX). The tool is a must-have for designers as it allows them to streamline the design process from initial wireframing to interactive prototyping.
Adobe XD boasts 3D transforms that allow designers to create realistic looks in 3D in a matter of seconds, automatically adjust the height of text, and change components within other elements.
Despite its former popularity, it seems like the halcyon days are over for Adobe XD. The tool has entered a maintenance phase as Adobe has no plans for shipping new features within the product and is focused on supporting existing customers by addressing bugs and security needs.
Platforms: macOS, Windows.
Pricing: Part of the Creative Cloud All Apps plan.
Free trial: Not available.
Affinity Designer
Trusted by over 3 million users, Affinity Designer is the go-to tool for creating everything from complex multi-layered graphics to logos and mockups. As a vector graphic editor, Affinity Designer boasts a wide variety of useful functionalities that help to create mind-blowing graphics.
There are three reasons it's the best alternative to Adobe Illustrator for those who don't favor Adobe Cloud:
- It's faster,
- It requires less space on your device, and
- No additional packages are needed.
Over the years, the tool has been consistently updated with new features to elevate user experience and productivity. The ability to use variable fonts, the Stroke Width Tool, the new QR Code Tool, and other additions support the tool’s commitment to making design an easy lift.
Affinity has also become the first creative suite to be fully optimized for Windows PCs with the very latest Snapdragon X Elite chip. In 2024, Affinity Designer became a part of Canva and its suite of visual communication tools.
Platforms: macOS, iPadOS, Windows.
Pricing: One-off price: $9.29 for iPadOS, $34.99 for PC.
Free trial: 6 months.
Axure RP
Axure RP is a powerful tool for creating highly functional, rich prototypes and specifications for mobile apps. Backed up by Salesforce, Amazon, and other leading companies, Axure RP has cemented its place in the market as a feature-rich tool that puts the power of wireframing and prototyping into the hands of UX designers.
Axure RP is known for its vast library of widgets and components, collaboration features, and wide integration capabilities. For rapid prototyping, Axure RP offers a raft of tools and techniques to enable user experience designers to visualize the end goal. Its latest version, Axure RP 10, brings forth dynamic panels on display, a new all-states view for efficient dynamic panel management.
The tool now taps into Microsoft .Net Core and Apple Metal to add more flexibility in making advanced UX prototypes.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
Pricing: Plans start at $25 per user/month.
Free trial: 30 days.
Figma
This mobile app collaborative interface design tool accelerates the design process by enabling real-time teamwork. Figma's real-time collaboration is a game-changer, which is why Orangesoft’s team relies heavily on it to streamline the design process and enhance teamwork.
One can't mention Figma without talking about the Figma Community. It is the GitHub for professional designers, where specialists can share their works, explore market trends, or merely seek inspiration. Since its advent in 2020, Figma has become more than just a useful tool for designing graphics—it has become a thriving community of professionals.
In 2024, Figma unveiled quite a significant number of both major and minor updates — from AI features and a redesigned UI to Figma Slides and a new view into Dev Mode.
Platforms: Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android.
Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $15 per editor/month.
Flinto
Flinto is a Mac app used by top designers to create high-fidelity prototypes on Mac. The tool is primarily known for its ability to create prototypes that are highly realistic and interactive. Besides adjusting the layout, you can design a screen with layers, add links and gestures, work with transitions, and much more.
With a bunch of built-in animations, Flinto enables designers to power smooth transitions between screens. Flinto users can also design micro-interactions using Flinto’s Behavior Designer, create incredible animations, add UI sound effects, and send their recordings directly to Dribbble.
Platforms: macOS, iOS.
Pricing: One-year license for $99.
Free trial: 14 days.
FluidUI
FluidUI is a mobile and web design tool for prototyping. With this prototyping tool, you can create web and mobile prototypes for Android, iOS, web, and desktop quickly and easily, choosing from over 2,000 built-in components. Along with robust prototyping features, FluidUI boasts an intuitive linking system.
Mobile designers can also benefit from its collaborative feature, which enables the whole team to contribute in real time. Moreover, interactive previews make the process even faster.
Platforms: Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS.
Pricing: Plans start at $8.25/month.
Free trial: Not available, but they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
HotGloo
This UX prototyping and wireframing app offers everything a mobile app designer needs. With more than 2,000 elements, UI widgets, and icons, you can easily show the prototypes to clients and stakeholders.
HotGloo also helps modern app designers test prototypes across devices and send mobile projects right to mobile devices. Users can also invite co-workers to the account and collaborate in real time.
Platforms: Web.
Pricing: Plans start at $11/month.
Free trial: 7 days.
IconJar
IconJar is an icon organizer for macOS. The tool allows you to make your icons perfect and export them in any size and file type. What is really useful, however, are the presets that are available not only for Apple products but also for Android-powered devices.
Platforms: macOS.
Pricing: Annual license for €25, lifetime license for €65.
Free trial: 14 days.
Related: How to create an amazing app icon
Icons8
Icons8 is a design kit for creatives and developers with over 50,000 icons, illustrations, photos, music, and AI-powered tools. The tool enables users to recolor icons within seconds, add overlays, work out fonts, and much more. The platform also supports designers with plugins for popular design software like Adobe XD, Sketch, and Microsoft Office, allowing users to build Icons8 assets into the fabric of workflow tools.
Platforms: Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $15/month.
InVision
Billed as an all-in-one collaborative tool, InVision is a cloud-based design software that allows you to share designs and collaborate with your colleagues. InVision offers many functional features for enhanced animation and is one of the best app prototyping tools.
The app is mainly known for its collaborative whiteboard, Freehand, which helps design teams set up a centralized hub for projects. Lately, Freehand has been augmented with the Intelligent Canvas, a game-changing set of smart capabilities that add intelligence and automation to each step. Freehand was acquired by Miro, while the rest of InVision’s services, including prototypes, specs, boards, and DSM, will be discontinued at the end of 2024.
Platforms: Web, macOS, Windows, iOS.
Pricing: Free.
Justinmind
If you want to use an app prototyping tool for free, Justinmind can be your best option. The tool allows for creating fully interactive prototypes from scratch, UI assets, and simulations — without typing a single line of code. Overall, the functionality is quite rich, allowing you to create outstanding mobile gestures and web interactions.
Justinmind’s developers constantly work on updates to make the tool speedier and easier to use. For this very reason, new prototyping tools, collaboration options, and UX/UI add-ons are being constantly added to the ecosystem.
Platforms: macOS, Windows.
Pricing: Free. Pro plans start at $9 per user/month.
Marvel
Marvel is a one-stop shop for designers that provides hundreds of utilities for rapid prototyping, testing, and handoff. With this app, designers can create stunning wireframes in minutes, test the compatibility of user interfaces, and share the outcome with all stakeholders.
The tool easily integrates with Sketch, JIRA, Slack, and similar tools. For custom integrations, users can leverage Marvel’s powerful GraphQL API.
Platforms: Web, macOS, Android, iOS, Windows.
Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $12/month.
Mockplus
Mockplus and its suite of products guide designers along their merry way to create outstanding visuals. The platform comprises a free UI design tool and a standalone prototyping tool. Mockplus has a vast collection of UI/UX widget libraries with UI icons, component libraries, and templates for iOS, macOS, Android, Web, and Material Design.
Unlike Axure, Mockplus offers a more simplified prototyping workflow driven by drag-and-drop interactions. Mockplus also allows users to import Axure files for instant editing, reviewing, inspecting, and handoff.
Platforms: Web, macOS, iOS, Android, Windows.
Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $14.95 per user/month.
Moqups
If you're looking for a one-stop-shop UI design tool, Moqups is the right choice. This comprehensive web app includes a full ecosystem of design tools to help you streamline your mobile app development process and collaborate in real time on wireframes, mockups, diagrams, and prototypes.
Moqups' simple drag-and-drop user interface allows you to create a prototype design in no time, while its built-in library with thousands of popular icon sets supercharges your creativity and accelerates the time to release.
Platforms: Web.
Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at €9 per user/month.
OmniGraffle
With OmniGraffle, you can create precise diagrams, exceptional prototypes, and professional-grade vector graphics. But despite its formidable set of utilities, OmniGraffle has a straightforward and user-friendly interface, allowing you to drag and drop predefined objects onto the diagrams.
What’s unique about OmniGraffle is that it has stencils for virtually any kind of diagram, including AWS diagrams, site mapping, and more.
Some people use OmniGraffle not only as a feature-rich prototyping tool but as a versatile, all-purpose design asset. For example, a chief technologist for VMWare, Frank Denneman, says that the tool helps him communicate visual ideas in their simplest forms.
Platforms: macOS, iOS, iPadOS.
Pricing: Subscription starts at $12.49 per month, and a one-off license starts at $149.99.
Free trial: 14 days.
Origami Studio
Origami Studio is a free design hub created by Meta that allows users to design, animate, and prototype interactive interfaces — all in one place. Origami Studio offers a flexible canvas for users to craft their interactive designs. The canvas allows for freeform drawing, text editing, and the creation of dynamic visual components.
Moreover, the tool enables designers to tap into native hardware APIs to enrich their prototypes with hardware-specific capabilities such as GPS and audio recording. Origami Studio has a companion app, Origami Live, that allows users to take prototypes on the go.
Platforms: macOS.
Pricing: Free.
Principle
With Principle, you can easily create animated and interactive user interfaces. What's more, the tool also allows designers to create a 100% unique interaction, even for a multiple-screen app. If you prefer to use another app but want to add animation in Principle, you can easily import the files and start working.
The latest tool version, Principle 6, is now also available on the web, allowing design pros to create unique visuals for mobile, web, and desktop in an offline mode.
Platforms: macOS.
Pricing: License for $129 a year.
Free trial: 14 days.
ProtoPie
ProtoPie is an advanced prototyping tool used to create multimodal interactions. The tool allows designers to prototype interactions across devices and give them a test drive right then and there. With ProtoPie, design teams can also validate designs for wearable technology, smart TVs, and web experiences.
ProtoPie integrates with Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD, allowing users to import their designs directly into the tool. ProtoPie also lets users create prototypes that can interact with each other across multiple devices.
Platforms: macOS, Windows.
Pricing: Free. Paid plans start from $25/month.
Proto.io
Proto.io is an outstanding specimen of a prototyping tool. This no-code designing co-pilot brings hundreds of fully interactive and customizable native UI items to the table, including those from iOS, Material Design, Windows, watchOS, and more. From ready-to-go sound effects to advanced animation to version control, Proto.io has everything one needs to build low- or high-fidelity prototypes.
Proto.io is not limited to app prototypes only. You can design graphics for literally any gadget with a screen. Since version 6.0, the user interface has been revamped, making the core functionalities and tools even easier to access and use.
Platforms: Web.
Pricing: Plans start at $24/month.
Free trial: 15 days.
SF Symbols
SF Symbols is a useful tool crafted by Apple that provides designers with symbols to implement in various mobile apps. The latest version, SF Symbols 6, has more than 6,000 highly configurable symbols along with new and enhanced animations and updated annotation tools. Apple constantly ships new updates to this iconography library, including localized symbol versions, variable colors, and more.
Platforms: macOS.
Pricing: Free.
Sketch
Over a million designers choose Sketch as their loyal companion in mobile app design. Sketch aims to engage a new generation of designers and offers discounts to academic institutions and students.
You can add animation and data to designs; all this is pretty easy, as one of the tool's key features is simplicity. It also supports shared libraries, which allow for collaborative work.
Sketch has recently debuted its new prototyping feature, Overlay, which assists designers in creating rich and interactive experiences in all shapes and sizes. The tool has also been updated with better prototype sharing and two new workflow-boosting tools. Users can also make anything in their prototype scroll in any direction, enjoying more flexibility during the prototyping process.
Platforms: Web, macOS, iOS.
Pricing: Plans start at $10 per user/month.
Free trial: 30 days.
UXPin
This mobile app prototyping tool saves a lot of time on repetitive moves by allowing you to update all components at once. With this tool, interactive mobile app prototypes and wireframes are no longer hard to create. UXPin allows users to put design on autopilot by auto-generating tables, forms, and other components with the help of ChatGPT. The tool also offers built-in React libraries, advanced interactions, and rich integration capabilities.
Platforms: Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android.
Pricing: Plans start at $6 per editor/month.
Free trial: 14 days.
Zeplin
Zeplin is a design delivery platform for product teams that facilitates collaboration between engineers and designers. By blending granular design documentation with powerful project organization, the tool accelerates the design process and reduces the back-and-forth within the team.
Zeplin can automatically create style guides based on imported designs, do a side-by-side design comparison, link components to the codebase directly in the design, and provide accurate dimensions and specifications for developers. Zeplin also makes engineers' lives easier by integrating with popular developer tools such as Jira, VS Code, Sketch, and others.
Platforms: Web, macOS, Windows.
Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $8 per seat/month.
Related: How to design a mobile app: Step-by-step guide to the app design process
Conclusion
There is no need to limit your choice to a single mobile app design tool. You can reap the benefits of the best features of several tools. After all, success is a cumulative notion that highly depends on synergy. In UI/UX design, it is about the synergy of talent and powerful design tools.
