TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Balsamiq

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/ABalsamiq is a wireframing tool that helps lean product teams turn early ideas into clear, actionable direction. The tool helps product managers, founders, and engineers worldwide share concepts, reduce rework, and build better products.

    $12

    per month (up to 2 projects)

    HotGloo

    Score8 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    HotGloo is an online wireframing and prototyping tool. This solution has been designed for all those engaged in the concept, design and development of web or app projects: project managers, information architects, usability experts, freelancers, concept people, digital agencies, web companies, publishers, web designers, web developers and many more. The vendor’s value proposition is that this solution makes it easy to wireframe web and mobile sites and to collaborate with others due to the…

    $13

    up to 4 users, 2 active projects, unlimited reviewers

    Pricing
    BalsamiqHotGloo
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Group
    $13
    up to 4 users, 2 active projects, unlimited reviewers
    Team
    $27
    up to 10 users / 6 active projects / unlimited reviewers
    Agency
    $54
    up to 20 users / 15 active projects / unlimited reviewers
    Enterprise
    150 +
    More users and projects, priority support. Get in touch for an individual quote.
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BalsamiqHotGloo
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPay per project, not per userThe billing period starts on the day you upgrade from the free trial to a paying plan. If you pay by credit card the service is billed in advance on a monthly basis and is non-refundable. There will be no refunds or credits for partial months of service, upgrade/downgrade refunds, or refunds for months unused with an open account. If you do choose to cancel your account in the future, you will never be charged again, but you are responsible for charges already incurred up until your cancellation. For monthly recurring payments we accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express through our online payment system. You can also prepay any account for 12 months with credit card. In certain cases we also take money transfers – please contact us beforehand if you want to use this option.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BalsamiqHotGloo
    Considered Both Products
    Balsamiq
    No answer on this topic
    HotGloo
    Chose HotGloo
    Being able to export the finished wireframe to HTML was a huge time saver for me and my team. Getting to that next step quickly and seamlessly was a massive help. Not only that, but other tools that do this, we have not as much luck. HotGloo's functionality was a step above the …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    BalsamiqHotGloo
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Balsamiq
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Balsamiq
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Balsamiq
    Score7.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BalsamiqHotGloo
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (31 ratings)
    7.8
    (3 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BalsamiqHotGloo
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Balsamiq
    Balsamiq is a great tool for quickly getting ideas into visual form. At first it seems like there are not that many UI assets, but this constraint actually adds to the speed. There are less things for you to fuss over, you can focus on getting your ideas down. This is a tool for lofi rough drawings not a tool for building beautiful prototypes for developers to code to. It is fantastic for ideation because you mostly just drag and drop components onto the canvas and move things around. It's great in a live workshop setting for that reason.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HotGloo
    Overall, I am happy with HotGloo. It supports and fits well into my workflow. Here, I use HotGloo mainly during the prototyping scale. More preciously for wireframing. Eventhough, there are other tools - which I also use in subsequent steps - that would support wireframing as well, I like HotGloo and will keep using it during this stage. This is mainly because I think the elements and symbol library has just the right depth and detail for wireframing. It is important in wireframing to not include to much detail yet. Otherwise, testers get distracted by design aspects. Therefore, I like HotGloo and us it for different Product and Service design projects.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Balsamiq
    • Easy to use
    • Produces good quality mock ups and prototypes
    • Mock ups are obviously only just mock ups (this is important as if users see mock-ups in HTML, for example, they tend to think the system is ready to use or not far off)
    • Has a good selection of standard shapes that mock real world fields / controls
    • Allows not for profit organisations use it for free
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HotGloo
    • Prototyping.
    • Collaboration.
    • Widget library.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Balsamiq
    • The sketch-like style can be off-putting to some stakeholders, and it’s not initially very clear that there is the option to turn this “off.” While I do think there is benefit to the default style, knowing from the start that this flexibility existed would have helped us be able to use this tool more often in the past and in different situations.
    • There are very limited collaborative functionalities. When it’s early in the design process, it’s often really helpful to have a number of people in the design to offer in-app feedback so the designer doesn’t have the burden of collecting feedback from many disparate sources in order to incorporate the feedback.
    • There are limited UI elements. As design evolves, there are more and more UI elements to consider, and many to stop using. Our Balsamiq wireframes would be a lot more effective in communicating design ideas to stakeholders if there was a wider range of UI elements to choose from.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HotGloo
    • logical structure of interface objects
    • preview view does not scale frame on small screens
    • Tool ribbon
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Balsamiq
    I'm not sure how else we would be able to complete our work without Balsamiq or another similar tool. All of my experience with Balsamiq has been positive and they continue to develop new features so that my job gets easier. I would be very surprised if we didn't renew Balsamiq
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HotGloo
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Balsamiq
    Very intuitive and easy to understand. It only takes minutes to get the hang of it and get back to work. For new analysts (like, brand new, fresh out of school) it's not difficult and they need minimal to no hand-holding. The training content that is embedded is easy to find and use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HotGloo
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Balsamiq
    We haven't had to use the support feature yet
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HotGloo
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Balsamiq
    Creating digital wireframes in Photoshop is a nightmare. Photoshop was not really designed for this purpose. It doesn't have good collaboration options and it doesn't allow pattern libraries, which are essential for consistency and efficiency. We use UXPin and Axure for some time, but found that these platforms were a bit bloated. Balsamiq is much simpler than any of these options. It's a perfect wireframing platform for non-designers or for designers that want to focus on content and element-placement prior to design
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HotGloo
    Being able to export the finished wireframe to HTML was a huge time saver for me and my team. Getting to that next step quickly and seamlessly was a massive help. Not only that, but other tools that do this, we have not as much luck. HotGloo's functionality was a step above the others.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Balsamiq
    • The product works very well for showing product owners and developers design ideas for purposes of discussion, debate and refinement.
    • The products also works very well for specifying new designs for developers. This is best done in a series of screens that show various screen states and user interactions.
    • I also use the products to document bugs in software products and websites we have developed. This includes outlining and documenting bugs and changes to user interactions and refinements to the usability of completed interfaces and user experiences.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HotGloo
    • Quicker lead time in testing interactions with latest designs.
    • Shorter build time through use of standard branding.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Balsamiq Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Balsamiq user interfaceScreenshot of the commenting feature, which supports collaborationScreenshot of where to export wireframes to PDF and PNGScreenshot of where to add wireframes to Confluence pages to clarify ideas, make specs visual, and align teamsScreenshot of where to add wireframes to Jira issues to clarify specs, reduce rework, and help teams build the right thing

    HotGloo Screenshots

    Screenshot of HotGloo 24/7 run & test anywhere.Screenshot of Responsive wireframing with different viewports.Screenshot of Create mobile app wireframesScreenshot of From desktop over tablet to mobile.