Which tool should I use for UI/UX design and prototyping?
Figma, for almost every founder and designer: the free Starter plan gives unlimited drafts and 150 AI credits a day, enough to try Figma Make, which turns a prompt into a clickable prototype, and a Professional full seat is $16 a month, with $12 Dev and $3 Collab seats for the rest of the team. Penpot is the free, open-source alternative with no feature limits that you can host yourself. Sketch suits an all-Mac team at $12 per editor a month billed yearly, or a $120 Mac licence with no subscription. ProtoPie is for prototypes that must behave like the real app (free for 2, Basic $25 a month). For a quick AI first draft, Claude Design is included even on Claude's Free plan, and Framer (free, Basic $10 a month) when the prototype is a website you will publish. Rule: design in Figma unless cost or self-hosting pushes you to Penpot.
Figma's plans: the free Starter plan with unlimited drafts and 150 AI credits a day (up to 500 a month), then Professional at $16 a month for a full seat, $12 for a Dev seat and $3 for a Collab seat.
This turns a written description of your flow into an interactive prototype you can click through and refine. For a founder who wants a clickable picture fast without learning the full editor, it is a genuine shortcut. Use it to get a rough version in front of a user or developer in minutes, then tweak.
Penpot is the open-source design and prototyping tool, free and fully featured in the cloud or on your own server. Unlimited is $7 an editor a month, capped at $175 a month whatever the team size.
Sketch is the Mac-native design tool. Standard is $12 per editor a month billed yearly with real-time collaboration and free viewers, or a Mac-only licence at $120 a seat with a year of updates and no subscription.
ProtoPie builds high-fidelity interactive prototypes that behave like the real app, with sensors, inputs and logic. Free covers 2 prototypes; Basic is $25 a month and Pro $47 an editor a month.
Framer is a designer's website builder with AI that writes and lays out pages. The pricing page lists a free plan on a Framer subdomain with 500 AI credits, Basic at $10 a month and Pro at $30 a month billed yearly, with your own domain on paid plans.
Zapier's May 2026 comparison of Figma, Whimsical, Balsamiq, UXPin, Axure RP and Visily for wireframes and prototypes, with what each is best for and its price.
When you need people to feel the flow, not just read a pitch, a clickable Figma prototype gets you there without code. This official guide covers linking screens into a tappable demo you can share by link and watch someone use. Use it to test whether a flow makes sense before you pay to have it built.
