Web design tools are one of the most important elements in building a website. They help you create a website that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. A good web design tool should be easy to use, and it should have all of the features you need to create your site’s design. The best ones are also affordable and easy to learn, so you can get started right away. Here are some of our favorites:
Table of Contents
Simple Web Design Tools
1. Trello
Trello’s platform makes it simple and manageable to create spreadsheets, emails, and do tasks that involve major teamwork and collaboration.
Projects, tasks, and assignments are all transparent – all team members can see what everyone else is doing, as well as what tasks are pending by accessing the relevant board and cards. This makes for excellent productivity.
2. Slack
Slack is a single workspace that helps teams communicate in an organized way. For instance, communication between different teams in the digital agency and the client. Its multiple bots and app integrations help set up alerts and notifications when tasks are complete.
Slack also has some neat features for developers, such as the ability to share code snippets directly in the app, as well as notifications on change requests from customers and new bugs
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Web Design Tools for Wireframing/Mockups
This is the second phase of the designing process is where the initial sketch and outline of the project are created. This helps structure the work and explain the user journey from the beginning to the desired actions.
Here, after the wireframing, mockups help create a visualization of how the end product will look so the client can see how close the end product is to the expected outcome according to the brief.
Let’s have a look at some of the best web design tools that help in creating clear and simple wireframes/mockups.
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1. Figma
This flexible design platform helps demonstrate designs over the web. Designers and developers working independently or in a digital agency should consider adding Figma to their web design tools inventory for easy collaboration and real-time feedback from their clients.
With Figma, there is no need for other third-party tools to enable the exchange of mockups or updates. What’s more, its in-app commenting feature eases design review feedback without the need for making constant design updates.
Figma vs. Sketch: The Best Collaborative Design Tool for Web Design Agencies
2. Wireframe.cc
Wireframe.cc is a freemium web design tool that helps create simple wireframes for websites and mobile applications. Its minimalist design interface clearly demonstrates website elements, while removing distractions and clutter. Once the wireframe is complete, you can easily save the URL to show the client.
3. MockFlow
An online wireframing and website layout tool, this helps create initial sketches for software and websites. MockFlow’s inventory of buttons, tabs, and graphics explains the flow between screens in an intuitive, easy-to-understand way. There are a variety of templates to choose from so designers and developers don’t have to start from scratch for every project. You can use this for creating a fantastic web development proposal for your clients.
4. Balsamiq
Balsamiq is a rapid wireframing software that helps explain mockups using a simple paper sketching style. This web designing tool simplifies the mockups, following a minimalist design principle that reduces any other distractions for clients and stakeholders.
5. Canva
One of the more popular and accessible design tools, Canva helps you create quick images with the help of predefined, optimized templates. These customizable templates allow you to play with images and colors and easily create visuals, social media graphics, presentations, and posters. Further simplifying the process is the tool’s drag and drop interface and a premium library of graphical content.
6. GIMP
A Graphical Image Manipulation Program like GIMP, that’s light on the computer’s RAM, is a popular freemium tool to add to the inventory of web design tools. While it may not be as technically sophisticated as Photoshop, it’s a nifty little tool when it comes to explaining an idea in a presentation or retouching an image before uploading it on a blog post.
7. Pixel Dropr
Pixel Dropr is a Photoshop plugin among the popular web design tools created by UI Parade. The concept behind the Pixel Dropr is to ease out the web design process by grouping all commonly-used UI elements in one plugin.
By using this plugin, web designers can create a group of buttons, icons, vectors, and other web elements. These web elements can be dropped and dragged into any PSD file directly from Photoshop.
8. Niice
Niice is sort of a search engine for designers. It gathers results from Behance, Designspiration, and Dribble. If you’re looking for creative inspiration, just dig here and you won’t be disappointed. I recommend that you try searching for responsive web designs.
9. Intuitive Color Picker
Intuitive Color Picker online color picker tool. When it loads, the whole browser gets filled with color. You can move your mouse left to right to change the hue and up and down to adjust the brightness and change the saturation with scroll. You can choose a color theme and click on the screen to save that color and continue with the second color. You can create a whole collection of colors. Here’s a screenshot that shows how it works.
10. Google Fonts
Among many web design tools, Google Fonts is a popular option that helps you to enable a font type on your website with a simple one-line code. It contains a huge collection of fonts best optimized for the web. Follow these 3 simple steps:
- Choose
- Review
- Use
free web design tools
- CMS Hub: Best All-in-One Web Design Software for Beginners
Free Trial
OS: Any (web-based)
CMS Hub web design softwareCMS Hub is a website builder and content management system that includes a visual drag-and-drop editor, a collection of templates, and an SSL certificate. Because it requires zero coding and includes everything you need to launch a website, it comes out on top as the best all-in-one design software for beginners.
CMS Hub is also integrated with all other products in the HubSpot platform, including our CRM, marketing software, sales software, and service software.
CMS Hub Core Functionalities
Web Design
Collaboration
Wireframing
Content Management
Website Structure
URL Mapping
Analytics Reporting
Security
CMS Hub Pros
Comprehensive content management system
No coding required with an easy drag-and-drop page builder
Healthy selection of templates
Seamless integration with the rest of the HubSpot CRM platform
Hosting is include
CMS Hub Cons
Free trial only
Plans are priced higher than other options listed that offer paid plans (though this includes hosting costs)
Rich functionality may be under-utilized by beginner website owners
- WordPress: Best Free Blog Design Software for Beginners
Free
OS: Any (web-based)
free web design tool wordpress and block editor
WordPress is an open-source content management system that makes it easy to set up a website in minutes. There are thousands of free plugins available to download and install so that you can extend the functionality of your site. This simplifies the entire customization process and means you don’t need coding skills to design your site.
It’s important to note that WordPress is free to use, but there are other costs associated with building and running a site on the platform. We break down the cost of building and launching a website here.
WordPress Core Functionalities
Content Management
Blog Design
Website Structure
WordPress Pros
Most popular CMS on the web
Highly customizable and configurable thanks to its open-source build
Thousands of themes and plugins to customize and optimize your site
WordPress Cons
The WordPress CMS is free, but you’ll still have to pay for good hosting
Can feel too hands-on for those who want a more streamlined site-building experience
WordPress has known security vulnerabilities that leave your site at risk if not addressed
- Figma: Best Free Collaborative Wireframing Tool for Beginners
Free
OS: Any (web-based)
Figma web design softwareBest defined as an interface design tool, Figma enables multiple designers to collaborate in real time. As such, it’s ideal if you have various project stakeholders involved in the design process. Figma is a web application, so you won’t need to download a tool to your desktop.
The free version includes unlimited drafts, unlimited commenters, and unlimited editors. You can have up to 1 team project, so if you’re all working together on one website only, this is a great choice for your team. The one limitation is that it only includes up to 30 days of historical changes.
If you upgrade to the Professional tier, you’ll get unlimited projects and unlimited history, while the Organization tier gives you access to advanced security and analytics.
Figma Core Functionalities
User Interface Design
Collaboration
Wireframing
Prototyping
Figma Pros
An excellent piece of web design freeware for wireframing, mockups, and prototyping
Unlimited drafts, commenters, and editors allowed on the free version (however, projects are limited)
Real-time collaboration with team members
Figma Cons
Free version is limited in collaboration features
Only tracks 30 days of changes
Can experience performance issues, especially over weaker connections
- Sketch: Best User Interface Design Tool for Mac Users
Free Trial
OS: macOS
free web design tool sketch editor with comments overlaidSketch is one of the most (if not the most) well-known and used tools for web designing. It comes with an advanced vector tool, which aids in a collaborative development of interfaces and prototypes. This tool was built particularly for making websites and web apps.
Its prominence among the designer community is at least partially due to its clean interface and high performance; however, it only works on Mac. Since many designers work on Windows, you might be better off with a web-based option such as CMS Hub or a Windows-based option such as Lunacy.
Sketch Core Functionalities
User Interface Design
Collaboration
Wireframing
Prototyping
Sketch Pros
Intuitive, easy-to-use, and popular design tool
Clean, simple displays for users who hate page clutter
Handles all phases of the design process from wireframes to prototypes and developer handoff
Sketch Cons
Free trial only
macOS only
Weaker collaboration features than other options on this list
- Lunacy: Best Free User Interface Design Tool for Windows Users
Free
OS: Windows, macOS, Linux
Free web design tool Lunacy editor
Launched as a free alternative to Sketch for Windows, Lunacy is now a fully functional graphic design software that’s rich in features. A couple of years ago, all it could do was open Sketch files on Windows. Today, it offers all the standard features of a UI and screen design tool and a library of free, high-quality graphic assets.
It includes full support for Sketch files, so if you ever switch from Windows to Mac or vice versa, you can edit your Sketch design without a problem.
Lunacy Core Functionalities
User Interface Design
Collaboration
Wireframing
Prototyping
Lunacy Pros
Built-in graphic assets to quickly add content to your screens
Compatible with Sketch files, letting you edit them on a Windows device
Allows for offline editing, unlike web-based competitors
Lunacy Cons
Still a relatively new product with some minor bugs being resolved
Performance issues have been reported, especially dealing with large files
Lacks prototyping features
- Adobe XD: Best Prototyping Software for Adobe CC Users
Free Trial
OS: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android (web version also available)
Free web design tool Adobe XD editor
Though it’s one of the newer tools on this list, Adobe XD quickly became the go-to tool for many in the web design community. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Illustrator hold the first three spots in the graphics software market share. For that reason, Adobe XD became the natural choice for graphic and web designers.
Even if you’re not familiar with Adobe’s products, Adobe XD is a top-of-the-line web design tool worth trying. The tool offers a repeat grids feature, which allows you to easily create grids and populate them with images, text, and other one-of-a-kind content. It’s also handy for creating and testing variations in the spacing between UI elements.
Adobe XD Core Functionalities
User Interface Design
Collaboration
Wireframing
Prototyping
Adobe XD Pros
Great reputation as an end-to-end UX design tools
Seamless integration with other products in the Adobe suite like Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop
Good performance when handling large files
Handy UI kits from top tech brands to build out interfaces more quickly
Adobe XD Cons
Free trial only
Lacks real-time collaboration ability
While there is an extensions library, it is not as rich as some competitors’
- Origami: Best Free Web Design Tool for Animations
Free
OS: macOS
Origami web design softwareOrigami is an interface design tool created by the designers of Facebook. It’s everything you wish that Sketch had when it comes to making high-fidelity UIs and prototypes. It’s tailored to building mobile prototypes, which support all popular mobile interactions and gestures.
Origami truly shines in terms of adding screen interactivity. Most UI design tools offer limited micro-interactions settings, but this tool enables you to fine-tune spacing, timings, triggers, animation types, and more.
The best part is that it allows you to use it in conjunction with Figma and Sketch, so if you’re using those web design tools, you can switch back and forth without losing your work.
Origami Core Functionalities
User Interface Design
Animation
Wireframing
Prototyping
Origami Pros
Easy prototyping, animations, and micro-interactions
Specializes in mobile prototyping
Compatibility with Sketch and Figma
Origami Cons
Lacking in collaboration features
More difficult to learn than other options
Less support and community if you run into problems using the tool
- InVision Studio: Best Free Mobile Responsive Prototyping Software
Free
OS: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android (web version also available)
Free web design tool invision studio editor
Offering versions that work on PC and Mac desktops, InVision Studio offers an advanced mobile responsive feature that allows you to design for different screen sizes. Since its very first release, this tool has focused on providing a collaborative design experience. Moreover, it’s now on par with AdobeXD in terms of built-in functionality.
You can further extend its functionality by downloading apps from its AppStore. Many of these offer the same functionality as AdobeXD’s repeat grids feature. There are also UI Kits you can download and use to build screens immediately. The extensions and UI kits are all free.
InVision Studio Core Functionalities
User Interface Design
Animation
Wireframing
Responsive Prototyping
InVision Studio Pros
One of the best high-fidelity mockup and prototyping tools available
Advanced collaboration capabilities
Intuitive animation controls for more realistic prototypes
Many free extensions and UI kits
InVision Studio Cons
Collaboration tools exist but are not as convenient as competitors’
Users have experienced response issues with support
Occasional issues with tracking changes and saving files
Simple Free Web Design Software
- FluidUI: Best Simple Web Design Tool for Prototyping
Free
OS: Any (web-based)
FluidUI web design softwareFluidUI is a free online tool that is ideal for prototyping and building UIs quickly. This tool, combined with the library of standard Apple and Google material assets, enables direct editing in your browser. You can also share prototypes via email and share links so that others can review and leave comments on the page.
FluidUI Core Functionalities
Quick Prototyping
User Interface Design
Wireframing
FluidUI Pros
Quick, easy web design freeware for prototypes and wireframing
Accommodates both high-fidelity and low-fidelity prototyping
Real-time collaboration and easy sharing
FluidUI Cons
Free version is limited — you’re allowed one project with 10 pages and one user
Less ideal for higher-fidelity designs, as it’s meant for fast iterative prototypes
Paid plans are more expensive than other options here, but necessary for collaborative projects
- Vectr: Best Simple Web Design Tool for Vector Drawing
Free
OS: Any (web-based)
Free web design tool vector editor
A cloud-based, free illustration tool with similar features to Adobe Illustrator and Sketch. Vector offers everything you need to get started building complex illustrations, or designing a site or mobile application.
Learning how to use the drag-and-drop editor is easy, and because it’s cloud-based, sharing designs is exceedingly simple. That means your team will be able to collaborate and gather feedback without the headache.
Vectr Core Functionalities
Vector Drawing
Prototyping
Wireframing
Vectr Pros
A solid Adobe Illustrator/Sketch alternative for vector graphics
Easy cloud-based collaboration
Simple, intuitive interface and features
Vectr Cons
Requires an internet connection to use
Importing and exporting have been reported as occasionally difficult
The tool displays ads
Conclusion
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