App Mockup Tools Reviews Part 2: Briefs, OmniGraffle, and Balsamiq

Best Value On Mac For More than Just Wireframing

If you’re looking for a general purpose app for mockups, brainstorming, charting, and more, I’d recommend OmniGraffle. There’s a lot you can do with OmniGraffle, and app mockups is just one part!

One small drawback is that OmniGraffle is only for Mac. As far as cost goes, the basic version is yours after a one-time purchase at $99.99. You can update to Pro later on, which makes it less expensive alternative to Photoshop.

Best Overall On Mac For Those With Plenty of Time and Money

If money and time to make the mockups is not a concern, I advise you to choose Photoshop, which was featured in part 1 of this series, because it is much more than a wireframing tool and almost an indispensable part of an app developer’s toolbox.

Photoshop is not cheap – Photoshop Creative Cloud costs $19.99 per month, and that adds up quick. It also is quite time consuming – it has a large learning curve, and making mockups in Photoshop is probably slower than any of the other options (although third party tools like DevRocket make this more appealing).

However, the benefit is that your mockups will look pixel-perfect, and there’s literally nothing you can’t do. Moreover, Photoshop is widely adapted, so collaborating and sharing files is usually simple.

Best Overall On iPad

I really loved AppCooker! It makes it possible to work up detailed mockups quickly and is even fun to use. AppTaster completes the package because it provides great add-on to this outstanding app. However, I want to note that I did not get to try OmniGraffle for iPad.

Although Blueprint is also a great tool, I had a better overall experience with AppCooker. The fact that it takes only a few minutes to create an app icon, a business plan, and take notes about ideas is why you might find a lot of value in AppCooker.

Best Looking Mockups

AppCooker also wins the best looking mockups category. In my opinion, their mockups were the most orderly, customizable and cleanest of all the tools that I tested.

Easiest and Fastest For Quick Mockups

I found Balsamiq Mockups to be the easiest and quickest tool to use. It’s simple, clean and straight to the point. The fact that it is cross-platform and offers a web application makes the tool even more appealing. It took me only ten minutes; compare that to an average of about 25 minutes with the other tools.

Best Companion App

I’ve found Briefscase as the most intuitive companion app. Although you have the possibility to pass files through dropbox, the synchronization happened automatically thanks to the software. In addition, it’s easy to use and features a gorgeous and intuitive UI.

Where To Go From Here?

And to end this article, we have some good news – a few lucky readers will win a free mockup tool! The developers of the following apps have been kind enough do donate a few promo codes for some lucky readers:

• Blueprint: 5 copies
• AppCooker: 5 copies

To enter, all you have to do is comment on this post – in 24 hours, we will randomly select the winners.

Also, if you have any questions or comments on your favorite mockup tools, feel free to join the discussion in the forums below. Happy mocking!