10 Best Mockup Tools for Product Managers in 2023
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Best Mockup Tools Shortlist
Here’s the shortlist of the best mockup tools that I’ll cover in this article, with detailed summaries below:
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1.
Marvel
— Best mockup tool for streamlining design feedback processes
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2.
UXPin
— Best mockup tool for generating mockups based on existing websites or applications
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3.
MockFlow
— Best mockup tool for mobile application focussed product managers
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4.
Justinmind
— Best mockup tool for designing responsive website mockups
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5.
Mockplus
— Best mockup tool for effective collaboration amongst product & technical stakeholders
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6.
Visme
— Best mockup tool for generating packaging and print designs
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7.
Axure
— Best mockup tool for implementing interaction events and conditional logic
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8.
Moqups
— Best mockup tool for UX research & mind mapping
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9.
Smartmockups
— Best mockup tool for packaging and apparel mockups
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10.
Mockuuups Studio
— Best mockup tool for generating Android and iOS mockups
Mockup tools can help save enormous amounts of time. As a former product manager, I recall having several brainstorming or product ideation meetings. Preparing product mockups before these meetings helped me add concrete depth to my ideas. Additionally, product mockups help garner valuable feedback from various stakeholders before the development process begins.
Irrespective of the type of product you manage, be it a website, mobile application, or something physical like apparel, a mockup helps nail your expectations for the final version of your product.
I’m going to help you level up your game and rock your next product ideation meeting. There are many mockup tools out there, and it can get overwhelming to choose one. As a result, I created this list of the ten best mockup tools for product managers. Stay tuned as I dive into each tool and assist you in picking the right one.
If you have general questions about how mockup tools work, glance at my People Also Ask section below. Or, if you’d like to know how I developed this list, see How I Selected the Best Mockup Tools below instead.
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Overview of the 10 Best Mockup Tools
Here’s a brief description of each mockup tool showcasing its best use case, noteworthy features, and pros & cons. I’ve also appended screenshots to give you a glimpse of their user interface.
1
Marvel
Best mockup tool for streamlining design feedback processes
Marvel started as a side hustle in 2013 and quickly rose to prominence in the mockup and wireframe designing industry. Marvel’s powerful collaborative platform helps reduce friction from multiple iterations with stakeholders to attain sign-offs on product ideas.
Why I picked Marvel: In my books, Marvel is an absolute marvel mainly because of the supreme collaboration and handoff features. As a product manager, getting sign-offs on ideas to start development takes time and effort. With Marvel, you can promote effective cross-company collaboration and reduce the GTM (go-to-market) time for a new feature or product.
With shared folders and real-time activity notifications, all relevant stakeholders are constantly in the loop to close open points and march towards sign-offs. Additionally, maintaining team libraries on Marvel helps you elevate brand consistency in your company.
Marvel Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a drag-and-drop design interface, editing Sketch designs, team libraries, a huge repository of pre-made images & assets, and effective design handoff tools.
Integrations include 5+ tools, such as Ballpark, Dropbox Paper, Jira, Sketch, Slack, Userflows, and others.
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4
220
7-day free trial + free plan available
From $16/user/month
Visit Website
Pros
- Easily shareable links to prototypes
- Clean and simple UI
- Nifty slack integration
Cons
- Animations are not very fluid
- Assets could be more comprehensive
Visit Website
2
UXPin
Best mockup tool for generating mockups based on existing websites or applications
UXPin has been around in the prototyping and wireframing industry for over a decade. Founded in 2010 in Poland, the company was acquired by Xenon Partners in 2020. UXPin offers a revolutionary technology called Merge that allows you to import and maintain in-sync ReactJS elements.
UXPin promotes component-driven design. This means you can build upon your existing UI components and design mockups with these exact elements.
Why I picked UXPin: UXPin made my cut because of the emphasis the tool places on design customizations. You can design inclusive mockups aligning with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards. Features like color blindness simulator and contrast checker help test your prototypes. UXPin enables you to build a tailored UI anatomy focusing on color usage, content layout and typography.
Component-driven design is a significant feature that enables you to create mockups in line with your brand style guidelines easily. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; leverage existing designs using UXPin’s prototyping tool.
UXPin Standout Features and Integrations
Features include user journeys, usability testing, user research, animation, remote collaboration, and logic-based prototyping with variable definitions and conditional interactions. Heat Mapping is a nifty feature that allows you to visualize where users click or scroll and how far users scroll.
Integrations include 10+ tools, such as Asana, Google Sheets, Microsoft Dynamics 365, NPM, Salesforce, Storybook, Zendesk, and others.
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2
116
14-day free trial + free plan available
From $24/user/month
Visit Website
Pros
- Password protected prototypes
- Custom fonts upload
- Rapid prototyping
Cons
- Lots of marketing spam emails
- Poor customer service
Visit Website
3
MockFlow
Best mockup tool for mobile application focussed product managers
MockFlow helps product and development folks achieve flow in their work. MockFlow has several wireframing and product design tools to help you quickly nail low-fidelity designs and business processes.
If you’re a product manager handling a mobile application launch, MockFlow is your ally! Using MockFlow, you can draw UI for many mobile devices. The tool provides several UI wireframe libraries to design a visually stunning low-fidelity wireframe quickly.
Why I picked MockFlow: As a product manager, you often get bombarded with several ideas. Being able to translate these ideas into something presentable quickly is crucial. MockFlow offers valuable tools to visualize the UI for a mobile app or website effortlessly.
Mockflow also has direct CSS support that helps add an extra layer of customization to your wireframes and mockups. The annotation feature is quite helpful in dropping insights and suggestions.
MockFlow Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a comprehensive UI change log, UX design documentation, a proposal creator, file management, a UI heat mapper, a time-tracker, and video feedback. The whiteboard feature helps you effectively present UI designs during meetings.
Integrations include 10+ tools, such as Adobe Photoshop, Azure, Confluence, Google Drive, GSuite, Jira, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, Okta, Slack, Trello, and others.
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2
80
Free plan available
From $14/user/month
Visit Website
Pros
- Frequent product updates
- Easy to learn
- Lots of pre-built UI templates
Cons
- Requires an Adobe flash plugin to operate
- Difficult to use for non-English users
Visit Website
4
Justinmind
Best mockup tool for designing responsive website mockups
Justinmind is a prototyping software company based out of San Francisco, California. The company has been specializing in software simulations and wireframe tools since 2005.
Justinmind helps product managers create a highly responsive website mockup in minutes. Even if you don’t know basic HTML commands, Justinmind enables you to create aesthetic and interactive mockups.
Why I picked Justinmind: I was impressed with the liquid layouts that Justinmind offers. You can use liquid layouts to create interactive prototypes that dynamically adapt to several screen resolutions. Justinmind takes the sting out of complicated web-design concepts like pinning elements on a specific position and auto-resizing elements. If you’re dealing with a mobile application, Justinmind has fantastic app transitions like a pop, flip, fade or slide to improve engagement.
The testing functionality is also quite handy. Using Justinmind, you can quickly test a mockup and ensure smooth flow with minimal friction. The tool allows you to simulate applications and websites on various devices. Justinmind also allows you to import multiple file formats from applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Sketch to add them as layers or images to your mockups.
Although some responsive features typically come under prototyping, Justinmind blurs the line (in a good way) between mockups and prototyping – enabling you to collaborate better with technical teams.
Justinmind Standout Features and Integrations
Features include 4,000+ elements in a library of UI kits, smart templates, responsive and adaptive web design, Adobe and Sketch plugins, mobile gestures, animations, and data-driven variables. You can also set conditions and rules for a given interaction (for example, you can define how the app must react to a mouse-over).
Integrations include 10+ tools, such as Azure, Confluence, Figma, Hotjar, Illustrator, JIRA, Photoshop, Sketch, UserZoom, XD, and others.
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4
51
Free plan available
From $19/user/month
Visit Website
Pros
- The free app is quite extensive
- Responsive prototyping
- Mobile app available
Cons
- Lack of comprehensive tutorials
- Occasional app freezes
Visit Website
5
Mockplus
Best mockup tool for effective collaboration amongst product & technical stakeholders
Mockplus has over ten years of experience in the mockup software industry. Mockplus specializes in prototyping software and effective collaboration. Some of the biggest brands, including IBM, Microsoft, and Huawei, vouch for Mockplus.
Mockplus features three products called Mockplus Cloud (focussed on collaboration), Mockplus RP (for prototype designing) and Mockplus DS (for fine tuning design nuances). The Mockplus Cloud offering allows product managers to brainstorm and review changes to wireframes, prototypes and mockups. What’s also noteworthy is that Mockplus supports several design tools like Photoshop, and Adobe XD, etc., meaning designers can import assets from various software into Mockplus Cloud.
Why I picked Mockplus: As a former product manager, I always strive for effective team collaboration, and Mockplus helps achieve that. With Mockplus, product managers can involve developers and designers early in the ideation process. As a result, all key stakeholders are on the same page from day 1.
Mockplus has all the firepower developers need regarding code compatibility and versatility in downloading assets. Also, tracking “user stories” or development progress is critical for product managers. Using Mockplus, you can visually prioritize and track progress.
Mockplus Standout Features and Integrations
Features include vector UI designing, drag-and-drop designing, remote collaboration, streamlined design handoff, custom codes, rapid prototyping, prototype user testing, and version control.
Integrations include 10+ tools, such as Adobe XD, Axure, Confluence, Figma, Jira, Lark, Photoshop, Sketch, Slack, Symbol, and others.
Free plan available
From $12.95/user/month
Visit Website
Pros
- Easy drag-and-drop functionality
- Streamlines design workflow
- Great plugins for design handovers
Cons
- Design uploading requires Adobe Flash plugins
- A slightly steep learning curve
Visit Website
6
Visme
Best mockup tool for generating packaging and print designs
Visme offers tools to make professional presentations, social media advertisements, and several different kinds of mockups. You can also use Visme to create infographic templates, logos, charts, and other graphics for blogs and social media.
Why I picked Visme: I picked Visme because of the sheer simplicity the tool offers. If you want to create some product mockups of a physical object, Visme intelligently transposes your assets (brand logo, text, etc.) onto the object. You can also prepare design mockups to showcase your brand’s packaging on a paper bag or box.
Moreover, from a personal brand perspective, Visme helps you create customized brochures, flyers, and business cards. Visme also supports mockups for apparel like T-shirts, hoodies, and polo shirts.
Visme Standout Features and Integrations
Features include elegant mockup templates, a drag-and-drop designer, device templates, customizable design capabilities, and easy resizing.
Integrations include 10+ tools, like GIPHY, Google Drive, HubSpot, Jotform, Loom, One Drive, Salesforce, Vimeo, Wistia, YouTube, Zapier, and others.
Free plan available
Plans start at $29/user/month
Visit Website
Pros
- Impactful business presentation templates
- Good customer service
- Easy to use
Cons
- No support for guest collaborators
- Formatting and layout bugs
Visit Website
7
Axure
Best mockup tool for implementing interaction events and conditional logic
Axure is a powerful design software packed with rich web mockup features. As product managers, you ideally want to minimize time spent tinkering with the technicalities and focus more on the value or customer pain points. Axure helps you quickly translate brilliant ideas into unique and interactive mockups.
Axure does it all: diagrams, wireframes, customer journeys, and prototypes. Additionally, the level of prototyping detail is awe-inspiring. You can create tailored responses to user events like OnMouseOver or OnClick.
Why I picked Axure: I picked Axure because of the sheer firepower this tool offers. With minimal coding knowledge, you can apply complex conditional if-then-else logic to your mockups. Moreover, you can create dynamic content for a more immersive end-user experience.
As a product manager, you want to impart a certain level of uniqueness to your customers. With Axure, you can easily customize interface behaviors, like displaying an element when a user scrolls.
Axure Standout Features and Integrations
Features include conditional logic, interaction events, dynamic content, drag-and-drop working forms (droplists, radio buttons, text fields, etc.), adaptive views, remote collaboration, flow diagrams, and many others.
Integrations include 5+ tools like Adobe XD, Confluence, Figma, Jira, Microsoft Teams, Sketch, Slack, and others.
30-day free trial
From $29/user/month
Visit Website
Pros
- Varying fidelity levels
- Developer handoff
- Rapid prototyping
Cons
- Buggy tables
- Sometimes requires steep technical knowledge
Visit Website
8
Moqups
Best mockup tool for UX research & mind mapping
Moqups is an excellent visual collaboration tool that allows you to create several assets like wireframes, diagram maps, mockups, and prototypes.
The pre-built template library thatMoqups offers is simply stunning. Several valuable templates exist for wireframing, diagramming, UX research and even project management. Additionally, there is an excellent level of detail in each template category. For instance, the UX research category features templates for user personas, empathy mapping, and story mapping.
Why I picked Moqups: I picked Moqups because of the wide range of templates. Sometimes, as product managers, you may need more artistic or technical inspiration to draw or design stuff. Consequently, the pre-defined templates and UI elements are a practical starting point. You can look at some templates and start populating them with details relevant to your product.
Moqups is great for several use cases: if you’re early on looking to create a low-fidelity wireframe or a more high-fi mockup. Also, with Moqups’ library of popular icon sets, you can quickly create a comprehensive mockup for a website design.
Moqups Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a library of icon sets, pre-defined templates, an extensive font range, intuitive object editing, powerful page management, and a drag-and-drop image upload. The collaboration capabilities allow stakeholders to collaborate remotely on a wireframe or mockup easily.
Integrations include 10+ tools such as Box, Confluence Cloud, Dropbox, Google Chrome, Google Drive, Jira, Mattermost, Microsoft Azure AD, Mozilla Firefox, Okta, Slack, and others.
Free version with up to 2 projects
From $13/user/month
Visit Website
Pros
- Snappy Chrome extension
- A vast range of templates
- Intuitive UI
Cons
- No renewal notifications after the trial period
- Choppy customer service at times
Visit Website
9
Smartmockups
Best mockup tool for packaging and apparel mockups
Smartmockups helps businesses generate engaging product mockups. If your product is garment apparel like T-shirts or merch like coffee mugs, Smartmockups can help you quickly create stunning mockups. If you’re an ecommerce product manager, you’re in for a real treat.
Why I picked Smartmockups: Back in the day, I had an idea of starting a T-shirt dropshipping company. I’d spend hours learning Photoshop and eventually procrastinating. I love Smartmockups because of the simplicity and versatility in design selection.
You can design mockups for T-shirts, smartphones, magazines, books, and even face masks. Smartmockups also offers excellent export quality for your social media and prints. With Smartmockups, you can effortlessly incorporate your brand logo or watermark into the product mockup. Lastly, you can upload assets in various formats, including PDF, JPG, and PNG.
Smartmockups Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a growing mockup library, 5K resolution exports, crop presets, transparent background, and an advanced color picker.
Integrations include Canva, Dropbox and Unsplash.
7-day free trial
From $14/month
Visit Website
Pros
- New mockups get added every week
- Export unlimited projects and mockups
- Free version is quite effective
Cons
- The main use case is for physical products and not tangibles like websites or mobile applications
- Web design mockups are limited
Visit Website
10
Mockuuups Studio
Best mockup tool for generating Android and iOS mockups
Mockuuups Studio is a mockup tool that doesn’t require any design skills. Their mockup generator offers several pre-built mockups for several different device types including smartphone, laptops, smart watches, tablets, and even smart TVs.
Mockuuups Studio has a downloadable application for Windows and macOS.
Why I picked Mockuuups Studio: I’m not the most creative person. I’ll be honest — most of my presentations start off with me “stealing” slides from my boss. Mockuuups Studio helps you gain some much needed initial momentum by providing you with tons of templates to create amazing mockups. Also, if you are not well-versed in color scheming, fonts, and the visual aspects of designing, Mockuuups Studio simplifies it all.
The tool has a great repository of (Original Equipment Manufacturers) OEMs devices including Samsung, iPhone, OnePlus and others. You can select royalty-free images for your mockup background and even customize the model’s hand position on your mockup. Also, with photorealistic effects, you can apply great-looking gradient backgrounds to your mockups and leave a long-lasting first impression.
Mockuuups Studio Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a drag-and-drop interface, a growing library of mockups, and a great degree of customization options for your hand mockups.
Integrations include Figma and Sketch. The tool also offers an API to integrate their services into your application or website.
Free trial available
From $12/month
Visit Website
Pros
- Sharp exports
- Exhaustive library of mockups
- Very easy to use
Cons
- Rare app crashes
- Occasional alignment bugs
Visit Website
Other Options
Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best mockup tools list:
- Wondershare Mockitt
Best mockup tool for preparing visual flowcharts and mind maps
- Lucidchart
Best mockup tool for defining product roadmaps and customer buying journey
- Balsamiq
Best mockup tool for building B2B wireframes
- Fluid UI
Best mockup tool for building link-connected prototypes
- Adobe XD
Best mockup tool for content-aware design layout feature
- Framer
Best mockup tool for creating interactive designs
- Flinto
Best mockup tool for vector curve animation
- Mediamodifier
Best mockup tool for business card and postcard designs
- MockupsJar
Best mockup tool for wall poster mockup designs
- Figma
Best mockup tool for intelligent asset transformation features
How I Selected the Best Mockup Tools
While compiling my top 10 list, I evaluated and compared mockup tools with positive user ratings. After building an initial shortlist, I further honed the list by weighing each tool against my selection criteria.
I also applied my product management knowledge to determine which tools and features would have helped me during my stint as a senior product manager at a B2B telecom firm.
Selection Criteria
Here’s a summary of the primary selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best mockup tools:
Ease of Use
With mockup tools, you expect a boost to your ideation process – not a hindrance. As a result, I’ve assessed the ease of use and the initial learning curve for the following tools while compiling my top 10 list. The best mockup tools are user-friendly and allow beginners to start exporting mockups in minutes.
Stakeholder Collaboration
As a product manager, seeking and assessing inputs from your cross-functional team members is critical. Creating mockups on one tool and then exporting them to email is pretty time-consuming. The best mockup tools have robust collaboration features that allow you to tag, comment, and assign tasks to streamline the ideation and sign-off processes.
Template Collection
Tools with a rich library of relevant mockup templates can help you get started quickly. When you feel stuck in the “designer’s block,” you can scroll through some templates and edit the placeholders.
Software Integrations
Mockup tools that offer software integrations can help elevate your company’s overall efficiency. For instance, if a mockup tool integrates with a design tool like Sketch, you can pull your design files, libraries, and assets directly from Sketch, streamlining the entire user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design process. Similarly, some mockup tools have integrations with Jira, which can help with user-story tracking while implementing Agile methodologies.
Pricing
Finally, pricing is a significant factor before you fixate on a mockup tool. It’s crucial to pick the right tool with the best return on investment. That’s why I’ve included the pricing for each tool and whether or not it offers a free plan.
People Also Ask
Here are some frequently asked questions that often arise on mockup tools:
What is a mockup tool?
First, I’ll explain what a mockup is. A mockup is a conceptual device to create an early draft of an application or website. Mockups help convert ideas into concrete designs. A mockup tool helps generate these high-fidelity mockup designs with ease. Most mockup tools also come with wireframing and prototyping features that serve both the product and technical folks.
What’s the difference between a mockup, wireframe, and prototype?
It’s all a matter of what and when. A wireframe is relevant right at the start of a project. Wireframes are low-fidelity designs because they usually only depict the bare bones of a product with no functionality. A mockup builds upon a wireframe and resembles the final app or website. Mockups bring in color, content and contrast. However, again mockups are static designs with no functionality. Finally, a prototype is a simulation of your product. A prototype is functional and would have conditional logic like certain actions to take place upon a trigger (like a scroll or click).
Other Resources
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