Training Example: Balsamiq – Review the Data, Give Your Score & Compare to the Real AI Evaluation

Still love Balsamiq for initial, lo-fi user interface designs. Any other app with more bells & whistles would distract me. Happy user since Oct 2008 (yes, just looked it up).

[IMG: Erik van Eykelen]

Erik van Eykelen
Founder

The customer support team at Balsamiq is one of the most helpful I've ever encountered.

[IMG: Nakul Verma]

Nakul Verma
Co-founder

When prototyping a web or mobile application with Balsamiq, my productivity skyrockets. More focus on the core business idea and less focus on margins, colors, fonts, etc.

[IMG: Njogu Amos]

Njogu Amos
Full-stack Developer

I worked on some design assignments last weekend and discovered an application called Balsamiq. In just a few hours, I whipped up low-fidelity wireframes that made me look like a design ninja. ?

[IMG: Anshita Deshmukh]

Anshita Deshmukh
Product Designer

I use Balsamiq to sketch out initial concepts and the team loves my "hand-drawn mockups" :D

[IMG: Tosh Anand]

Tosh Anand
Product Designer

Happy to confirm my hunch: Balsamiq is still the best (and better than all the well-funded competitors).

[IMG: Brian Casel]

Brian Casel
Web Designer

Balsamiq rocks! Best money I've ever spent.

[IMG: Gareth Stephenson]

Gareth Stephenson
Software Engineer

One tool I use a lot and have been using for at least 10 years is Balsamiq. There are much more full-featured and prettier wireframing tools available, but for quickly turning an idea into a shareable vision with other people it's been hard to beat.

[IMG: Pete Sergeant]

Pete Sergeant
Software Engineer

I'd never made a wireframe before but I learned Balsamiq at 10 pm last night and now I'm kind of a groupie.

[IMG: Laura McKieran]

Laura McKieran
Executive Director

May 19, 2026
[H3] May-tainence
Another week under the hood!
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
Quick-Add (search) now does an exact match for elements in additon to the fuzzy matching
Made Community Controls easier to manage (the details are a little technical, but they should be easier to wrangle now)
Opening prototypes shouldn't trigger browser quirks
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
Fixed a crash related to PDF export
Fixed a scenario that would cause the site map element to not connect properly
Fixed a scenario where a component's overriden properperties could be corrupted
Fixed a scenario where BMPR download could fail
There are a bunch of technical under-the-hood fixes included in this release, but there isn't anything user facing...yet :)
May 12, 2026
[H3] Cooldown fixes
It's cooldown week at Balsamiq, so let's fix and improve stuff.
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
Added a toast for deleting unused components (with an undo action)
Icons placed inside a link now inherit the link color
Made the iOS Keyboard easier to search for
Made zooming with the mouse wheel better (it no longer overrides the brower's default zoom amount)
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
Fixed an issue where Balsamiq AI could create wireframes outside of the boundaries of the board in certain situations
Cleaned up non-applicable seat options for users on SAML spaces
Fixed a bunch of naming and rendering consistency issues with the selection toolbar
Fixed an issue with the z-order of canvas cursors
May 7, 2026
[H3] Maintenance, pricing, and more
[IMG: New Balsamiq pricing model for new customers]
Today we are updating our pricing to better accomodate folks who want more Balsamiq AI. We also have your usual collection of enhancements and bug fixes.
[H5] ✨ Features:
New Balsamiq Cloud pricing model for new customers
Pricing is now per-user, rather than per-project
More AI credits for most plans
Legacy users can stay on their legacy plans, or move to a new one
Full details on our pricing page
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
Added a size and position inspector to the bottom right toolbar for easier access
Non-latin characters are now supported by our PDF exporter
Added keyboard shortcut support for non-english/latin based keyboards
Added a visual hint when selecting an item in the context menu so that you can see to what element it applies
You can now convert a data grid to a table by double-clicking on it
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
The left panel now properly respects all boards
The image control can again be overwritten with a placeholder
Fixed icon search
Fixed an issue where importing images from the web could crash the app under specific circumstances
April 28, 2026
[H3] Colorful updates
[IMG: Colorful updates]
Thanks to folks' feedback, we are taking our first step in unifying the color properties of our controls. More to come!
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
We added color properties to more elements, including adding border and background properties to some of them
In addition, text and border color should now be easier to set via the selection toolbar
You can now resize the empty icon element by dragging from the corner
Deleting unused components is now a bulk action
The cursor of your collaborators will now appear on the board when working together
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
Fixed a performance issue with transparent images in Safari
Fixed a crash that can happen during long loads
Fixed a crash that could happen if you tried to add a comment to a project in an expired space
Fixed a crash involving the "Open Project" menu option on public projects
Fixed a crash when controls were forced to be less than 10px
Fixed a silent crash that could happen when quitting the app
April 14, 2026
[H3] April Maintenance Release
[IMG: Project sharing dialog]
Another big enhancement release based on your feedback and requests.
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
We have improved the project sharing dialog and People page from the Space settings
Added new keyboard shortcuts for zooming your board and locking elements:
Zoom actual size: 1
Zoom to fit: 0
Zoom to selection: 8
Zoom to width: 9
Lock: 2
Unlock: 3
You can now navigate the left toolbar with your keyboard's arrow keys
Copy/duplicate boards will now use the same naming pattern as your existing boards
Improved readability of the table element's add column/row indicator
The editor will now try to convert color values in pasted text to markdown
Title and Subtitle elements have returned to the element library
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
Fixed scrolling in the element tile menu
Data Grid element is no longer editable (you'll need to convert it to a table to edit it)
Fixed a bug where pasting a very long string into a table would freeze the editor
Creating a component from the context menu now properly prompts you for a name
Fixed a regression where you couldn't add comments in full screen presentation mode
Fixed an issue with text rendering and bounding boxes
Fixed a crash involving links and multi-link controls
April 1, 2026
[H3] Reading your comments
[IMG: Balsamiq comments]
Our first release of quarter 2 is another big enhancement pass. We have been reading all your comments and feedback about all the recent updates, and this week we are implementing some enhancements based around that feedback. And, of course, a smattering of bug fixes as well. Let's dive in.
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
The comments panel has been completely redesigned based on your feedback:
It now displays all the of the comments in a project, catogorized by board
It is accessible from the left toolbar, next to your boards panel
Clicking on a comment brings you to that board (and comment)
A notification bell in the top bar shows a count of unread comments across the project.
Read more about what has changed in our docs
Using quickdraw should be more intuitive:
Quick pressing the quick draw key drops a standard sized element at your cursor position
Pressing and holding the quick draw key allows you to draw the element to the size you need
When the selection toolbar is focused, you can now press P to open the size/positioning panel
Toolbar popup menus can be navigated with the arrow keys
Sticky notes support autosizing
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
Table content can be copied directly into Excel
Autosize should now behave more consistently when a table has empty rows at the end
Dragging a column/row in a table will keep that column/row selected
Improved targeting with smaller table cells
The text element should handle the icon popup better (when putting an icon inline in the editor)
The support link should no longer fail under certain circumstances
March 24, 2026
[H3] March maintenance
[IMG: Balsamiq march maintenance]
An exciting string of releases sometimes requires a little extra work under the hood. Today's release is all enhancements and bug fixes. :)
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
The selection toolbar will do a better job of not getting in the way
The link inpector list will show board hierarchy
The link inspector will scroll to the currently selected board if no link is currently set
The data grid to table conversion is now triggered by the user (this is a cosmetic change - data grids will need to be converted to be editable).
The header row on converted tables will now convert to the minimum height to help ensure a 1:1 conversion
Table layout is now editable from the context menu
The editor should start much faster
We tweaked the resize algorithm when you have multiple elements selected
Balsamiq AI is out of beta
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
Table cells, rows, and columns should now be easier to select
Fixed icons disappearing when resizing multiple icons
Fixed the cursor going wonky on table corners
Fixed a crash involving tables and quickdraw
Left panel now stays open between sessions
Fixed several animation issues
Fixed several comment issues.
We now prevent very small arrows from crashing the app. You know what they always say "the smaller the arrow, the more poisonous."
March 18, 2026
[H3] Basamiq AI-powered prototyping arrives!

The question we kept coming over the last year to is "AI is helping us build a lot of stuff, but are folks building the right thing?" That is the question that drove the design of our prototyping engine and, ultimately, what brought us here today.
Introducing prototyping by Balsamiq.
[H5] ✨ Features:
Prototyping! Powered by Balsamiq AI, you can now turn your wireframes into clickable prototypes, allowing you to take the design conversation further, and making sure that you're building the right thing
This is the first major step forward for how to think about turning ideas into products with Balsamiq. We hope you love it, and want to hear from you about your experience with it. It's still very new, and we want to make sure it's working as well for you as it is working for us.
Watch Virgin's video for the complete breakdown, and then take a look at hour help center to get started!
Balsamiq's MCP Server is now live. Combine your Balsamiq project with your favorite LLM and build real, usable code.
Fun fact about Stefano's video for the MCP server, this was the video he used to demo the feature to us internally. We liked it so much that we thought it would make a great introduction for you too.
Once you watch it, you can read more about how to get set up in our help center.
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
Tables
Added ability to distribute columns evenly (effectly resetting the cells)
Added ability to clip or wrap test in a cell
Added ability to cut/copy/paste/duplicate columns and rows
Tables can (again) be pasted into Excel or other spreadsheet applications
Improved board reorder UI
Added ability to add a board by double-clicking on empty space in the navigator
Added a "Remove unused images" button to the images panel
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
There were some edge-case data grid to table conversions that are now fixed (those fixes were already live)
Fixed the rounded button icon on the shape element
Improved the experience of reordering multiple boards at once.
Fixed icon in text rendering for the link and selection inspector
Fixed a crash around image elements with broken references
Fixed the board ordering undo stack
Fixed UI elements panel from adding the incorrect element when the vertical or horizontal splitter was selected
March 10, 2026
[H3] Tables and toolbars

[H5] ✨ Features:
Data grids are now tables, a smarter, easier to edit grid element.
Your old data grids should convert cleanly, but please reach out if you see any issues.
The property inspector has been replaced by the selection toolbar, which will appear above a UI element when you click on it. This keeps things out of the way, while putting them exactly where you need them.
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
Select all now works on the navigator board
Improved wireframing experience on mobile devices
Improved icon search
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
Fixed the image assets' thumbnail preview
Fixed a regression in the arrow quickdraw command (straight lines are back!)
February 23, 2026
[H3] Introducing the UI elements panel
Our first major modernization effort of 2026 is finally ready for prime time: The UI elements panel.
Thanks to Balsamiq AI, folks are spending more time with the left toolbar, and we wanted to really optimize for that. So we redesigned the UI library (now the UI elements panel) and made it easily browsable from that toolbar. We also added a couple little treats and requests that came in over the last month.
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
The UI Library is now the Elements Library and now lives in the left toolbar
You can now better manage Alternate boards from the navigator
Add a new zoom option Zoom to Selection
Resizing some controls (like the iPhone and iPad) will maintain the aspect ratio
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
iPhone background is now correctly sized
Text rendering in the shape control has been improved
Dragging and dropping an image onto a board will now add it below the mouse cursor
Fixed a weird bug where the loading screen wouldn't go away until you refreshed
Fixed the uploaded project count in Safari
CMD + E no longer sets the font to monospace when editing text
February 12, 2026
[H3] Expanding into boards
[IMG: Balsamiq Boards]
Normally, this release would have just been a maintenance release, but we made a small change that will better shape how we think and approach wireframing.
Your wireframes are now "boards".
Functionally, this changes nothing. It's more of a mindset thing. The canvas in our app has been home to multiple different types of content for a while now (wireframes, images, etc), and we thought the name should better reflect that. So we are updating that today - that's it :).
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
Boards replace Wireframes in the UI
Nothing beyond the name has changed, everything will function as it did previous to this update. This is just a rethinking of how we approach wireframing.
The Inspector can now be minimized (so it doesn't pop up every time you click on a new element).
Improved the delete comment dialog on small screens.
The programmatic now uses black when black is the selected color (was dark grey).
Improved icon search.
Improved iPad commenting experience.
Sticky notes, icon and label, and curly brace elements now use the modern text editor.
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
Text size is now respected during various operations (copy/past, etc).
The undo stack for copying text and commenting has been fixed.
Shapes now retain bullet points in the modern text editor.
February 2, 2026
[H3] Group work
[IMG: Balsamiq Grouping updated]
Happy February! The first release of the month brings some much needed love to groups. These changes all make grouping, ungrouping, and selection faster.
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancements:
Grouping and selecting keyboard shortcuts have been updated
CTRL/⌘+ click on a UI element in a group will immediately select it
Multi select with CTRL/⌘ has been removed, but you can still use SHIFT+ click
Selecting a locked element (or selecting while in review mode) is now CTRL/⌘+SHIFT+ click
The same set of UI elements can now only be grouped once (to prevent over-grouping).
Removing all the UI elements in a group now removes the group
Changed the color of snap columns for container elements to light grey
The empty icon element can have a size now (this includes Icon + Label as well)
You can now export a wireframe to image from the navigator (Chrome Only)
You can now export an image based on a selection of wireframes from the canvas (Chrome Only)
[H5] ? Bug fixes:
Accents on letters no longer get clipped in text elements
UI elements with corrupted IDs now are healed automatically when something is changed
Fixed adding an image via the image inspector
Dragging a duplicated group no longer leaves a ghost copy on the canvas ?
January 27, 2026
[H3] Bulk actions and bug fixes
[IMG: Balsamiq Bulk actions]
The march of progress via quality-of-life updates continues. Today, in addition to some bug fixes, we bring bulk actions to the All Projects dialog. Beyond that, we made some tweaks to streamline adding comments, and added a fun little loading screen as a treat.
[H5] ⚙️ Enhancemen

[H2] Zero learning curve, power when you need it

[H5] Pre-built UI components, icons, and templates
Skip the busywork with pre-made UI elements, icons, and templates for faster wireframing.

[H5] Drag and drop simplicity
No need for design skills. Just drag and drop UI elements, snap them into place, and go.

[H5] Three ways to share: via link, PDF, or PNG
Share wireframes with stakeholders, testers, or customers.

[H5] Optimized for speed
Keyboard shortcuts, search, and drag-and-drop let you wireframe as fast as you think.

[H5] Re-usable components
Customize reusable UI elements like menus or buttons to save time on repetitive work.

[H5] Interactive prototypes
Link screens together to show stakeholders exactly how things will work.

[H5] Real time collaboration
Leave comments, add reactions, and make live edits—all right inside Balsamiq.

[H5] Docs, tutorials, and human support
Find answers fast, or email us and hear back from a real person who knows their stuff.

[H5] A tool you can trust
Proudly independent since 2008, and focused on what product teams really need.

[H2] Balsamiq AI FAQs

What is Balsamiq AI?

Balsamiq AI is a conversational assistant built into Balsamiq, that turns ideas into editable wireframes. Describe a screen, upload a screenshot, or drop in a sketch — and get a wireframe in seconds. No design experience needed. If you can describe what you want, you can use it.

How does Balsamiq AI use my data?

Your data is never used to train AI models, and is encrypted per our security controls. Learn more in our Privacy Policy.

How is Balsamiq AI different from other AI design tools?

Most AI design tools give you something that looks finished right away. But it's annoying to edit and too easy to debate for the wrong reasons.With Balsamiq AI, you start with intentionally rough wireframes that keep the conversation focused on the right thing: the problem you're solving for your user.

How is Balsamiq AI different from using other AI tools, like ChatGPT or Claude?

Even with skills and connectors, ChatGPT, Claude, Lovable, and other AI tools do much better when you feed them structured visuals.A Balsamiq wireframe is exactly that. When you skip straight to generating artifacts or live code, you get UI components that are hard to manipulate, code your developers may toss out, and collaboration that's more friction than it's worth. Balsamiq AI gives you the structured visual first — something your team can align on, then hand off to whatever tool builds it.

How much does Balsamiq AI cost?

Balsamiq AI is available on all Cloud-based plans, with generous limits included on every plan. Learn more about AI credits.

What can Balsamiq AI help me do?

Balsamiq AI can help you turn ideas into something your whole team can see, react to, and build from — before anyone wastes time going in the wrong direction. Product managers use it to align their team before the sprint, or prep their coding tool. Founders use it to test a concept before spending the budget. IT managers use it to transform internal tools. And consultants use it to turn vague stakeholder requirements into something concrete. You can even use it to visualize an idea in real time, during a meeting.

Why not just vibe code my idea?

No one's stopping you from vibe coding your idea. But fast to build isn't the same as fast to build the right thing. The UX problem you missed in the planning stage doesn't show up until you've already built around it, and now you're behind. A few minutes in Balsamiq AI surfaces those problems early, before changing your mind costs days of rework and expensive vibe coding credits.

Where can I find Balsamiq AI?

You can find Balsamiq AI in the left panel of any Balsamiq Cloud project. Just click the sparkle button to start chatting.If you're using Balsamiq for Jira Cloud or Balsamiq for Confluence Cloud, you can find Balsamiq AI in those projects too.

Looking for more? Check out the Balsamiq AI docs!