8 Best Alternatives to Design Cuts - Remote Work Products

Balsamiq Wireframes is a rapid low-fidelity UI wireframing tool that reproduces the experience of sketching on a notepad or whiteboard, but using a computer. It allows users to focus on structure and content, avoiding lengthy discussions about colors and details that should come later in the process.

• Free version available
• Pricing starts at $89.00 as a one-time payment.

A wireframing tool to showcase something or discuss the initial layout

It is used by remote designers to create wireframes

A prototyping tool that can not do basic math or conditional logic is not an efficient prototyping tool. With Axure, I don't have to explain the user journey, it works like a real website or app and my clients can move and share the link as well as check the same prototype on multiple devices. The best part for this is the great community that will help you learn and handle the tool.

• $495 individual licence or $895 per user for Team version.
• Complete Pricing

complex prototyping

The prototype is stored in the cloud, easy to share, has a great comment feature.

Zeplin allows product teams consisting of designers, developers and product owners to iterate and collaborate efficiently along the design journey. Upon finalization, designs are translated into code automatically for the developers to use.

• Free version available and can be used for one project by small teams
• Complete Pricing

• See Customer Stories

When you need pixel-perfect designs implemented perfectly by the dev team, as Zeplin makes handoff extremely smooth.

- Powered by a highly enthusiastic team that rolls out new features on a regular basis to improve the user experience.
- Recently released Zeplin 2.0 allowing better collaboration with version control options and giving component level code to developers.

• Easy to use and flexible
• Easy to share screens within a team
• Available across platforms - web, iOS & Android
• Readymade code snippets are available

• No way to download complete screens
• Cumbersome to slice and export assets

Figma is a web-based design tool with real-time collaboration. An all-in-one tool that improves workflows no ends as all things design can be done using Figma with developer handoff and project management being great add-ons.

• Free version available but can be used for 30 days only for versioning.
• Complete Pricing

• See Customer Stories

When real-time collaboration 

None

• Iterate faster and collaborate real-time
• Web-based tool that functions seamlessly
• Versioning is straight-forward and does not require use of an app

• Power users sometimes find it difficult to use it as it is only web-based

Marvel is holistic platform that enables designers to transform ideas into digital products by providing them with an environment to create, test, iterate as well as gather feedback. Upon finalization, designs can be turned into code, specs and assets.

• Free version available and can be used for two projects by one user
• Complete Pricing

• See Customer Stories

When quick prototyping and designing rather than smooth handoff is the need of the hour

- Envisioned to be an all-in-one design tool, Marvel can be the central space for your design and product teams with its all encompassing feature set allowing for end-to-end design work - right from wireframing to prototyping to handoff
- Free version with all features is available for small teams enabling early stage product teams to leverage the product and build

• All-in-one platform for end-to-end use by designers
• Integrable with a huge number of tools such as Jira, Drive, Dropbox, etc.
• Allows prototyping in a user friendly and lightening fast manner

• Only web based - cannot work without internet connection
• Not integrable with design tools other than Sketch
• Primarily a prototyping tool and not a collaboration tool

PixelCraft is a Progressive Web App (PWA) with offline compatibility. It is mobile-friendly and is very easy to use

• Free

It can be used to create pixel art and animation

Remote teams can use it to create pixel art and animation

UX research platform providing: - unmoderated usability testing - tree testing - card sorting - prototype testing - session recordings with advanced filters, activity tracking, and on-demand Click, Scroll, Move, and Tap heatmaps Test real-life scenarios and find user’s pain points to improve the usability of your websites

• Free-forever plan
• 5 days free access to the Professional plan
• Complete Pricing

• See Customer Stories

Improving the usability of web sites and apps, from prototypes to production

UXtweak is an online tool for remote teams

Avocode is a cross-platform desktop application that helps designers and developers collaborate by enabling easy handoff of designs. Its neat UI with high focus on design output makes inspection easy.

• Free version available with all features accessible for 14 days
• Complete Pricing

When multiple design iterations are expected and there is a need for design & dev teams to work closely while remaining productive.

- A highly proactive team has launched version 3.0 within 5 years and is constantly on the lookout for user feedback to better the product.
- Avocode 3.0 was released in June 2018, and allowed designers to revise designs on the platform itself without going back to source design files.

• Allows revisions and posting comments on the revisions
• Available across platforms - web, iOS & Android
• Is a powerful inspecting tool

• Is still evolving, a lot of features are in the testing phase