UXPin is a flexible tool designed for prototyping web and mobile applications, striving to be an all-in-one solution that competes alongside Figma and Sketch. Its advanced functionalities such as code components, logic states, and design systems offer designers a convenient method for tailoring their design and prototypes .

ProtoPie stands out as an intuitive and advanced feature-rich option, captivating designers who are keen on immersing themselves in advanced prototyping without the need of code. Its innovative approach grants designers access to an array of intricate functionalities, including seamless hardware and software integration, voice prototyping, dynamic animations, and the exploitation of native sensors within smart devices.

Both ProtoPie and UXPin are excellent tools but to determine which tool is better for you, we will give you a short overview of some of their features. Continue reading to see the differences and determine which tool may be better suited for you and your team.

Our comparison will dive into the following:

The ability to preview prototypes seamlessly

Which prototyping tool should you choose?

 coins UXPin as a web-based design and collaborative wireframing and prototyping tool for UI/UX. It is an all-in-one platform that allows designers, product managers, and developers to collaborate and create interactive wireframes, prototypes, and design mockups for web and mobile applications. UXPin offers many design features allowing users to make the UI designs they have in mind.

ProtoPie is a powerful and intuitive prototyping tool used for creating interactive and high-fidelity prototypes for mobile, web, and IoT experiences. It empowers designers to transform their static designs into interactive and realistic prototypes such as social media-like apps, streaming apps, augmented reality and more, without needing to write any code. Because of this, the 

 ranked ProtoPie as the top choice for advanced prototyping amongst UI/UX designers. 

Aside from its design and prototyping functionalities, 

 integrates with various other design tools and platforms like 

. This integration enables users to import their existing designs into UXPin or export them from UXPin for further refinement and development in other tools, return and pick up where you left off.

 offers integrations with several popular design and prototyping tools to streamline the design workflow and enhance collaboration. ProtoPie has plugins readily available to seamlessly bring designs from 

. ProtoPie also allows you to reimport your designs while leaving the already created interactions intact, allowing users to be able to go back-and-forth.

 is a tool that allows designers to create interactive prototypes with advanced logic and animations. With Expressions, designers can define conditional interactions based on user input, time-based events, or other triggering actions. This allows for creating complex interactions and transitions that intuitively respond to user behavior.

, such as showing and hiding elements, changing styles, or triggering animations, to simulate realistic user experiences. 

 is a similar game-changer for designers seeking to build interactive and realistic prototypes. With this feature, designers can create and utilize variables to store and control dynamic data throughout their prototypes, similar to the example above. In other words. the above interaction is also achievable in ProtoPie.

By leveraging variables, designers can design more adaptive and responsive prototypes that respond to user inputs and simulate real-world scenarios. Furthermore, Formulas in ProtoPie allows designers to define custom interactions and behaviors using conditional statements and mathematical operations, giving them control over their prototypes' behavior and functionality.

 feature is a valuable asset to preview and test prototypes instantly on real devices. With Mirror, designers can seamlessly synchronize their UXPin prototypes with the corresponding mobile app, enabling them to view and interact with their designs in real time on various devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Using the Mirror feature, designers can gather valuable feedback, make on-the-spot adjustments, and ensure that user experiences translate effectively to the target platforms.

 is a crucial component of the ProtoPie ecosystem, offering a seamless interaction with and experience of interactive prototypes on actual devices. The ProtoPie Player lets users preview and test their prototypes in real time on smartphones, tablets, or other supported devices.

By simply connecting the ProtoPie Player to ProtoPie Studio, designers can instantly preview and interact with their prototypes as if they were fully functioning applications. This capability enables designers to gain valuable insights into the user experience, identify potential design flaws, and make necessary refinements before the final product development stage, ensuring a seamless and user-friendly experience for their target audience.

 offers collaboration and feedback features that enhance team communication and streamline the design iteration. Multiple team members can work simultaneously on a project. The platform lets team members leave comments directly on specific design elements, enabling clear and contextual feedback.

Designers can easily share prototypes with stakeholders and clients, who can view and interact with the designs without needing a UXPin account. This simplifies the feedback-gathering process and ensures all stakeholders are on the same page.

 features provide designers and teams a centralized and seamless way to manage and share their interactive prototypes. By storing prototypes in the cloud, designers can access their projects from any device with an internet connection, facilitating flexibility and collaboration.

The cloud platform enables team collaboration, allowing multiple team members to collaborate on the same project, saving different versions of their prototypes, leaving comments, etc. With version control and automatic saving, designers can rest assured that their progress is always preserved and can be reverted if needed.

ProtoPie's Cloud features also enable easy sharing of prototypes with stakeholders and clients, granting them access to view and interact with the designs without requiring them to install any software. With security features, such as role-based access controls and data encryption, designers can confidently store and share their valuable design assets in the cloud.

, designers can create design components using familiar design tools, maintaining the visual integrity of their designs. UXPin Merge is a technology that syncs code components from a repository to UXPin's design editor.

Organizations can use Merge with open-source libraries or import their product's design system. Designers use these code components like building blocks, dragging and dropping to build user interfaces. Once the components are ready, they can be exported to development environments in a format that can be easily utilized by developers.

 revolutionizes the prototyping landscape with its innovative code-free approach. It not only eliminates the requirement for coding to craft interactions but also avoids generating any code during the export process.

However, ProtoPie doesn't merely stop at the prototyping phase; it also addresses the critical handoff process. Through its 

 feature, previously known as Interaction Recordings, designers have a powerful feature to seamlessly communicate their envisioned interactions effectively. This feature goes beyond static design representations, enabling designers to record their prototypes' functional intricacies.

By recording the dynamic behavior of their prototypes, designers can capture elements used and detailed specs such as interactions duration, delays, easing, etc.

ProtoPie stands out as a prototyping tool that empowers you to achieve the following:

Unlock advanced interaction features, animations, and sensors

ProtoPie truly shines at offering support for multi-finger gestures, animations, and transitions with triggers and responses.

In addition to that, ProtoPie provides easy control of the sensors of smart devices in your prototype, such as tilt, sound, compass, proximity sensor, vibration motor, and 3D Touch sensors.

Maximize the potential of your device’s built in camera

By utilizing a device's actual camera, you can simulate real-world interactions and movements, making the user experience feel authentic and natural. This opens up a world of possibilities for designing prototypes that respond to device orientation, location, and physical movements, enabling designers to craft interactive experiences that closely mirror the behavior of a fully developed application. 

 and barcode scanner feature in ProtoPie is a functionality that allows users to add a QR code and barcode scanner directly within their prototypes.

With this feature, designers can design and test interactions where scanning QR codes or barcodes is a common user interaction. This includes access to additional information, opening specific links, or triggering specific actions in the prototype – such as e-commerce, inventory management, event registration, or product authentication.

Add voice interactions to your prototypes

 feature lets designers create prototypes that respond to voice commands, revolutionizing how users interact with digital products. By integrating voice interactions, designers can simulate real-world scenarios where users can give verbal instructions, triggering specific actions and responses within the prototype.

Whether navigating through a mobile app, 

, the Voice prototyping feature allows designers to craft intuitive and immersive voice-based experiences.

 to provide designers with a comprehensive toolset to create prototypes that seamlessly interact with real-world devices and applications.

Here's how hardware and software integration works in ProtoPie:

 ProtoPie supports integrating prototypes with external hardware devices. This can include connecting with physical devices like IoT, smart home appliances, or custom hardware. Through APIs, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi connectivity, designers can create interactions and responses with these hardware devices. 

 ProtoPie also enables integration with software applications and services. By utilizing APIs and web services, designers can create prototypes that interact with external software systems, web services, or cloud platforms. This allows designers to simulate data exchange, login authentication, real-time updates, or other interactions with third-party applications.

Conducting user testing prior to your product launch is essential to ensure its viability in the market. While this may seem intricate and time-intensive, there's a simpler way with ProtoPie. After crafting your prototypes you can test them inside ProtoPie Cloud by simply sharing a link and a password to both internal and external testers and gather feedback without any complexity.

Conclusion: Which prototyping tool should you choose?

The ultimate decision between ProtoPie and UXPin rests on your individual requirements, preferences, and coding knowledge. Both ProtoPie and UXPin hold immense value as proficient tools, yet each brings distinct attributes and capabilities to the table that merit exploration.

UXPin emerges as a versatile ally, lending robust support to design and prototyping endeavors for web and mobile applications, akin to the prowess of Figma and Sketch. Its formidable array of features, including powerful code components, logic states, and design systems, solidify its position as a formidable contender.

ProtoPie takes the spotlight as an intuitive and features-rich prototyping solution, designed especially for those designers eager to embrace the realm of advanced prototyping without the use of code. With functionalities encompassing hardware and software integration, voice prototyping, and the utilization of smart devices' native sensors, along with in-product user testing, ProtoPie empowers the creation of prototypes that look like the final product. Enough reasons why ProtoPie has been ranked as the top choice for prototyping.   

If you haven't yet embarked on your prototyping journey with an code-free advanced tool in hand, consider the transformative capabilities of ProtoPie.

Explore how UXPin compares to ProtoPie, and how each tool can be used for advanced prototyping. 

ProtoPie vs. UXPin : Which Prototyping Tool is Better for You?

We are thrilled to introduce an exciting feature in 

You can now easily connect your prototypes to databases and APIs, bringing real data into your ProtoPie projects and vice versa.

The best part? You don't need to worry about coding. Our API plugin does all the work for you—whether it's sending data to APIs or fetching data from them, and it seamlessly brings it into your prototypes.

The new API plugin is accessible for both Pro and Enterprise plan users. For teams on the 

, there's an extra benefit – you can connect to multiple APIs at the same time.

📣 Join us on Tuesday, September 19th, for an 

, where we'll guide you through the simple process of connecting your prototypes to databases and APIs.

By demonstrating a range of real-world examples, we'll unveil how the API plugin can elevate and energize your design process.

How the API plugin enhances your workflow

The API plugin enables design teams to easily initiate API requests, either 

, and establish two-way connections with any kind of API:

: This encompasses a wide range of popular services, including Spotify, OpenWeatherMap, YouTube,  ChatGPT, live scores, and many more.

: Connect seamlessly with your organization's internal systems and services.

For example, you can now connect your ProtoPie prototypes to any weather API and dynamically display accurate and real-time weather updates based on specific locations.

How to initiate API requests in ProtoPie 

Gone are the days when connecting to APIs was limited to the Enterprise plan and needed code writing and custom plugins in ProtoPie Connect. Now, with the API plugin, initiating API requests is a breeze for anyone on the Pro or Enterprise plan!

To connect to APIs via the API plugin, you need to enter a valid API URL. This URL serves as the gateway to the API's services.

If the API needs more information to handle requests, you can include a Header and Body along with the API URL. Think of these as additional notes you send with your request. 

To find the right API URL and any required parameters, you can refer to your chosen API's online documentation. It will guide you on how to properly set things up for successful communication.

In ProtoPie, API requests are initiated through Send messages that you configure in 

When you open prototypes in ProtoPie Connect, the API plugin automatically detects the messages within them. These messages will be displayed in the menu “Message from Pie”, allowing you to easily select them within the API plugin.

Learn more about setting up Send & Receive messages in ProtoPie Connect through our 

The activated API returns a response that is sent back to the prototype, where it can be used to trigger actions. To utilize the output from an API in your prototypes, you need to use the Receive trigger and assign the value to a 

The information obtained from APIs, stored in 

, can be reused through responses in ProtoPie Studio. The 

, is usually the best way to leverage API outputs, which are very often generated in JSON format. 

 in ProtoPie Connect and set up the API plugin as detailed in its Information section, you'll notice that the prototype triggers an API request to 

 when you select an option using the toggle switch. As a result, the prototype displays the information retrieved from the Useless Facts API on the screen.

 on initiating API requests using the API plugin in ProtoPie Connect.

Overriding parameters with message values

override API URL/Header/Body with message value

” allows you to dynamically override the API’s URL or Header/Body parameters with the value of the message sent from the prototype.

This functionality comes in handy when you need to make multiple calls to the same API but with varying URLs or Header/Body values.

, we used this feature to override the API URL with the value from the message sent in the Pie file. As a result, when you type a city into the search box, you'll see the precise weather information for that city.

Running multiple API requests simultaneously

 have the flexibility to execute multiple API requests simultaneously within the API plugin. This capability allows you to enhance your real data prototyping by connecting your prototype to various APIs at once.

The ProtoPie API Plugin empowers you to infuse your designs with real, dynamic data, taking your prototypes to a whole new level of realism and functionality. Create interactive and data-driven prototypes that showcase your vision in its truest form.

Elevate your designs with ProtoPie’s powerful prototyping capabilities

ProtoPie is the ultimate tool that will propel your prototypes to new heights. Unleash the potential of your designs by incorporating real interactions that will leave stakeholders and viewers in awe.

Experience the cutting-edge features of ProtoPie by trying it for free today.

Connect to databases and APIs. Bring real data into your ProtoPie prototypes!

What’s New? API Plugin in ProtoPie Connect

As customer needs change all the time, product and UI/UX design keep up to meet these new challenges. This is why high-fidelity prototyping tools have become stronger over time.

The numbers speak for themselves. According to a report by the 

, the UX service market soared to an impressive valuation of $19.2 billion in 2022.

This changing landscape intensifies project stakes, placing more responsibilities on designers overseeing intricate digital experiences. As stakeholders pressure design teams to excel in speed and innovation, 

 becomes crucial for maintaining a competitive edge.

Thus, a pressing question emerges: what is the best advanced prototyping tool on the market to meet these demands head-on?

Interestingly, Figma has caught significant attention with the launch of its "advanced prototyping" features at Config 2023. This provides paying users access to 

. We at ProtoPie fully support and warmly commend this development. With tools like Figma and ProtoPie available, designers are empowered to excel in advanced prototyping. We're thrilled to see high-fidelity prototyping and interaction design gaining well-deserved attention from designers, thanks to Figma.

However, this progression raises questions for designers about how Figma and ProtoPie, both esteemed tools in the design space, differ in their approach to advanced prototyping.

Let's delve into an enlightening comparison between 

ProtoPie allows you to create realistic, multimodal, and dynamic prototypes for multi-state scenarios beyond a single device. These are either very hard to do with Figma or impossible with Figma alone, despite its recent “advanced prototyping” features.

ProtoPie offers essential high-fidelity prototyping features (for free, out of the box) that Figma simply doesn’t have. However, the “advanced prototyping” features Figma offers are only accessible to users on the Professional plan and higher.

It’s not an “either/or” choice. For the greatest prototyping impact, use Figma & ProtoPie together to get the most bang for your buck. Why?

Figma & ProtoPie still serve different purposes.

Each tool has its own strong suits that actually complement each other.

Figma is the world’s most popular UI design tool, according to the 

. While it’s not a prototyping tool at heart, it does have prototyping capabilities.

Need to showcase a sequence of basic transitions between static screens? Easily do that in Figma by linking frames together and adding some simple interactions. It is great for simple clickable prototypes with a few states—focusing on a flow, not the actual interactions.

Even with a few states, it can quickly lead to “noodle chaos” whenever you add more. More states lead to more noodles.

In theory, the wiring model of linking frames with each other makes sense. However, when a prototype grows in complexity, it becomes difficult to make sense of, manage, or maintain.

As a response to this, Figma announced its “advanced prototyping” features. This gives its paying users access to variables, expressions & conditionals. Figma started shifting away from purely linear prototyping.

When should you use Figma for prototyping?

Figma is a great tool if your project meets the following specific use cases:

Click-through prototypes with frames that have a few states.

Early-stage prototyping without having to remake interactions.

 comes in. By using ProtoPie instead of or alongside Figma, you will be able to create realistic, dynamic, and multimodal prototypes for one or 

You want to test the actual experience. To prove concepts that are as complex as a phone tilt in a game, or a voice activation in a car display.

Figma alone might not be the right tool to make prototypes with, especially in situations concerning:

sophisticated albeit realistic microinteractions (beyond tapping and clicking),

or connecting prototypes with (custom) hardware, APIs, etc. 

, ProtoPie was ranked as the top choice for designers in the advanced prototyping category. We’d like to position ProtoPie as the easiest high-fidelity prototyping tool to turn your interaction design ideas into realistic prototypes.

Create high-fidelity prototypes for anything digital, anything with a screen or multiple screens:

Design teams and their companies across different industries use ProtoPie daily—next to their UI design tool Figma—for all kinds of high-fidelity prototyping. Some of these leading companies are 

When should you use ProtoPie for prototyping?

If your projects sound more like the list described below, you'd be better off using ProtoPie:

Scenarios with multiple states and dependencies.

Conditional and cause-and-effect interactions triggering other interactions.

Interactions with specific touchscreen triggers but also “non-standard” triggers.

Multimodal interactions, e.g., interactions involving text input, voice, media playback, sensors, etc.

Interactions involving custom hardware, APIs, etc.

Which benefits does ProtoPie provide for prototyping over Figma?

There’s no magic wand in design. Instead, designers must selectively pick the tools that they’re going to work with. Needless to say, these need to have the right benefits and features. ProtoPie offers a range of essential features making it your go-to high-fidelity prototyping tool.

Let’s delve into 9 benefits that ProtoPie has over Figma.

Leverage a wide range of triggers & responses for multimodality

Figma’s list of triggers is limited to mostly standard tap & mouse triggers. This is fine for simple user flows, interactions, and presentations. But here’s the rub: if you want anything more complex, you’ll be waiting for eternity.

ProtoPie is different because it has an immense list of 

For triggers alone, ProtoPie has six different categories: touch, conditional, mouse, key, input, and sensor. The foundational touch triggers include everything from tapping, sliding, and pulling to pinching or rotating your phone. Also, you may combine these. For example, a mouse over interaction that only works when a mouse button is held down.

More powerful are the conditional triggers. You can chain a series of events or detect data inputted—for example, a user’s email address. There are triggers for where the mouse moves—over or out of an element. A trigger set on key presses. Sensory triggers, from voice and sound to phone tilt or compass.

Add drag and scrollable areas to prototypes

You can make drag interactions and scrollable areas in Figma. But, they are limited to specific elements only. Also, they cannot influence other elements or interactions in the same frame.

In ProtoPie, drag interactions and scrollable areas can cause other interactions to happen. For example, dragging a layer to the right or left could decrease or increase the total score. You could prototype these kinds of interactions in a single screen.

Discover how scroll can affect other layers, e.g., 

Advanced prototypes must emulate real-life products. If you are designing a smartphone app, your prototype needs to function like the final product one would use on an actual smartphone.

Imagine you’re prototyping a login page. In ProtoPie, add an 

In Figma, you’d have to create a complex set of wires prototyping the keyboard itself as a workaround. Otherwise, you have to ask people to rely on their imagination about how they’d type. Not only is this more hassle and against the premise of realistic prototyping, it also takes more time.

Play audio, video, and Lottie files in prototypes

Your designs need to be as rich as possible—there might be times when you need to insert media files into your prototypes. Hence, ProtoPie supports 

Figma, on the other hand, offers no way for users to directly embed audio or video. If you’re creating media-rich prototypes then there’s only one option: ProtoPie.

Bring ‘if/then’ conditioning into your prototypes

 are the mainstay of successful prototypes, setting out key “if/then” rules. Imagine you have a reusable toggle button component. For example, toggle to the right to enable airplane mode, and toggle to the left to disable airplane mode. Enabling airplane mode would lead to certain icons appearing and disappearing. At the same time, specific options would get grayed out.

Using interactive components and variants in Figma, you can make your own reusable toggle button. Traditionally, it’s been difficult to make the toggle button affect other layers and interactions uniquely depending on a state. The latest advanced prototyping features—Figma made available to its paying users—allow you to do simple “if/then” conditioning.

On the other hand, this is where ProtoPie gets to shine and show its true colors. The real magic happens when you combine conditional interactions with ProtoPie’s formulas & variables.

Harness the power of dynamic interactions

 are at the heart of dynamic interactions. This is one of the things that set ProtoPie apart from Figma or any other prototyping tool for that matter. By simply adding a formula to an interaction, a prototype instantly becomes dynamic.

Besides literal values, formulas can consist of variables, arithmetic & modulo operations, text appends, layer properties, and 

Worth mentioning is that you can use all properties of objects in formulas. For example, it’s possible to monitor the x-position of an object in motion, and trigger some responses whenever a particular (calculated) value has been reached.

Use formulas for dynamic interactions, for example,

email address validation based on text input,

counting the number of items in a shopping cart

showing a warning when the volume level exceeds a certain threshold,

and, parse an API response that’s in JSON format.

Get the most out of smart device’s built-in hardware

You want your prototypes to interact seamlessly with the hardware they’re designed for. Take smartphones and tablets, for instance. They come jam-packed with a range of hardware capabilities.

ProtoPie gets the most out of your device's built-in hardware, e.g., camera (for taking photos, 

), microphone, gyroscope, and proximity sensor. Prototyping Instagram or TikTok-like apps, voice assistants, dictation apps, mobile games, and augmented reality (AR) apps—it’s all possible with ProtoPie.

Discover how ProtoPie compares to Figma, and understand when to use each tool for advanced prototyping.

ProtoPie vs. Figma: Which Tool is Better for Advanced Prototyping?

We are excited to announce the release of ProtoPie's newest features, designed to enhance your prototyping experience, and empower you to create even more interactive and dynamic prototypes. With the latest update, ProtoPie introduces custom easing presets, barcode scanner, a revamped Learn tab, the ability to record audio in the preview window, and more.

Let's dive into the details of these exciting additions.

ProtoPie understands the importance of consistent font display in prototypes, which is why we're excited to introduce the highly anticipated custom fonts feature. Gone are the days of worrying about stakeholders needing to install specific fonts before reviewing your prototypes.

ProtoPie Enterprise plan users now can share their Pies throughout the entire ProtoPie ecosystem, knowing that fonts will display as expected.

Furthermore, we are thrilled to announce that Google fonts will be available to Pro & Enterprise plan users late 2023.

Personalize your motion: Custom easing presets

ProtoPie is taking easing presets a step further by introducing the possibility to customize them. This allows you to save & reuse custom easing without having to set them from scratch every time.

Also, you can easily export and import customized easing presets, enabling seamless collaboration with your team or ensuring continuity when switching devices.

Select a standard easing option from the provided list.

Click the + icon to create a new easing preset.

Adjust the duration and default values by entering new values or manipulating the control points.

Double-click above the input area to assign a name to your custom easing preset.

The newly created easing preset will be saved in the custom easing list for future use.

Importing and exporting custom easing presets

Once you've created a custom easing preset, you have the option to export it as a .json file. This file would contain all your custom easing presets.

This way, you can share your custom easing presets with others, or retain them for future projects especially if you switch computers.

We expanded the scanner feature, previously limited to QR codes only, to supporting barcodes.

It’s possible to scan both QR codes and barcodes directly within your prototype. Supported barcode subtypes include CODE39, CODE128, EAN13_UPCA, EAN8, and UPCE, in addition to QR codes.

Enhance the interactivity of your prototypes by incorporating barcode-enabled interactions. Thanks to the new barcode scanner in ProtoPie 7.8, you can bring your designs to life with real barcode scanning capabilities. For instance, you can scan a barcode to retrieve a product's full description.

Utilize your smart device's native camera as a layer within your prototype, enabling seamless scanning of QR codes and barcodes.

Activate the QR & Barcode scanner option within either the 

Select "Keep Tracking" from the available options.

By utilizing the "Keep Tracking" option, you can retrieve the values stored within QR codes and barcodes. This includes the ability to store barcode values in predefined variables to be used in dynamic interactions using formulas.

Below is a list of newly supported predefined variables specifically designed for barcode tracking:

For more information, refer to the documentation on 

Product

What’s New? API Plugin in ProtoPie Connect

Latest posts

ProtoPie vs. UXPin : Which Prototyping Tool is Better for You?

ProtoPie vs. Figma: Which Tool is Better for Advanced Prototyping?

What’s New? Custom Easing Presets, Barcode Scanner & Much More

What's New? Introducing Custom Fonts

ProtoPie vs. Code : Which is Better for Hi-Fi Prototyping?

ProtoPie vs. Adobe After Effects : Which is Better For Prototyping?

What’s New? Volume Control for Audio & Video Files

What’s New? QR Code Scanner

What’s New? ProtoPie User Testing

ProtoPie vs. Axure : Which Is Best for Prototyping?

What’s New in ProtoPie? Discover ProtoPie Labs

What’s New in ProtoPie? Prototypes' Expiring Links

What’s New in ProtoPie? Overwriting Cloud Pies from Local Pies and Bitmap Mask Support

ProtoPie vs. Flinto: Which Is the Best Prototyping Tool on the Market?

ProtoPie vs. InVision: Which Is Your Best Ally for High-Fidelity Prototyping?