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Design

Balsamiq

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Balsamiq Studios, LLC · balsamiq.com

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Balsamiq: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Balsamiq: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Balsamiq at a glance

Vendor
Balsamiq Studios, LLC
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Balsamiq 2.5/5, the mean of 6 judges. Balsamiq is an AI-powered wireframing and prototyping tool for product and IT teams, and the scoring follows that shape. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 3 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 4 Nov 2026. all sources

Balsamiq alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Has read "free for viewers", "commercially safe AI" and "export anytime" on every page in this category. Reads instead for the click that turns a reviewer into a billed editor, the plan the IP indemnity actually covers, and whether the export keeps a single component.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Panel median The Skeptic This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Skeptic
Design, prototyping & design systems 2 of 5 2 of 5
Collaboration, review & developer handoff 3 of 5 3 of 5
Brand assets & governance 0.5 of 5 0.5 of 5
Files, formats & portability 3 of 5 3 of 5
AI features & rights to the work 3 of 5 2 of 5
European sovereignty 2.5 of 5 2 of 5

Design, prototyping & design systems

How this is scored

The making itself: vector and layout tools, interactive prototypes, and the shared components, styles and tokens that keep a company's products and materials consistent — judged on what the feature and help pages document, not on showcase images.

0 — Not a design tool: a file viewer, a stock library or a single-purpose converter in which nothing is laid out or drawn.

3 — A canvas or editor with templates, shapes, text and images; reusable components, shared styles and prototyping are basic or not described.

5 — Reusable components or styles shared across files, responsive or auto layout, and clickable prototypes or presentations linking screens.

8 — A design system managed in the tool: team libraries that update where they are used, variables or tokens for colour, type and spacing with modes or themes, component variants and properties, prototypes with transitions and conditional logic, and library changes published with versions.

10 — The design system is a governed product: library releases versioned and reviewable, token export in a documented format for development, usage analytics per component, and accessibility checks such as contrast built into the editor.

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The Skeptic

The wireframing canvas and clickable prototypes are well documented — buttons, sliders and navigation respond, and AI turns selected screens into an editable interactive prototype in about a minute. But the pages we read never describe reusable components or shared styles across files, variables or tokens, and the mobile/tablet/desktop switching is a viewer convenience rather than auto layout. This is a wireframing tool whose design-system depth is undocumented. 3 10

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Collaboration, review & developer handoff

How this is scored

Working on the same files with colleagues, clients and developers: comments and review, permissions for internal and external people, and the handoff that gives engineering measurements, assets and code rather than screenshots.

0 — A single-user tool: files are worked on alone and passed on as exports.

3 — Files shared by link with comments or real-time co-editing; guest access, permissions and a developer view are basic or not described.

5 — Real-time co-editing, comments with mentions, sharing with view or edit rights per file or project, and an inspect or developer view with measurements and asset export.

8 — Guests and reviewers who comment without a paid seat, version history with restore, branching or review of changes before they reach the main file, a developer mode that links components to code, a documented API and plugins, and named integrations with issue trackers and code tools.

10 — Handoff is a contract between design and code: component properties mapped to code components, token and asset export automated through the API, an audit log of access and sharing, and external access governed by domain, expiry and admin policy.

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The Skeptic

Real-time co-editing, commenting and a six-role permission model with free staff reviewers, free guest reviewers and seat-consuming guest editors are documented in detail, prototypes drop into Notion, Jira and Linear, and an MCP server turns wireframes into user stories, QA plans and production code. What we did not find: version history with restore, branching, an inspect view with measurements, or a documented API — handoff rides on prototype links and AI-generated artifacts rather than a developer mode. 3 5 6 10

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Brand assets & governance

How this is scored

Keeping a brand usable and correct across a company: a central library for logos, images and templates, brand guidelines people can find, locked templates that let non-designers produce material, and rights and expiry metadata on every licensed asset.

0 — No shared assets of any kind; the product has no library, kit or template that a team uses together.

3 — A shared folder, brand kit or template set with logos, colours and fonts; locking, guidelines and asset metadata are basic or not described.

5 — A central brand kit or library with logos, colours and fonts, team templates that non-designers can fill, and the ability to lock brand elements or restrict who edits templates.

8 — Brand guidelines published in the tool, tagging and search across assets, approval workflows for new assets and template output, version control on assets, rights, usage and expiry metadata with warnings on expiry, and access per team, market or partner.

10 — Brand governance is auditable: every asset carries its licence, owner and permitted use, usage of each asset is tracked across files and channels, distribution to external partners is logged, and the whole library with metadata is exportable in a documented format.

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The Skeptic

The only brand assets documented anywhere are Balsamiq's own wordmarks, colours, icons and product screens on a press page with usage restrictions. We found no public information on a customer brand library, team templates that non-designers fill, locked brand elements, or licence and expiry metadata on assets. 7

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Files, formats & portability

How this is scored

Whether the work can leave: open or documented file formats, export that keeps layers, vectors and components, offline or self-hosted options, and what happens to files after a downgrade, a removed seat or a cancelled contract.

0 — Work cannot leave the product: no export or download of designs is offered.

3 — Export of designs as images or PDF per page or frame; export of whole files with structure and access after cancellation are basic or not described.

5 — Export to PNG, PDF and SVG with vectors and text kept, whole files downloadable to a local copy, and files of a downgraded or cancelled account addressed in the help centre or terms.

8 — An open or publicly documented file format, import from and export to other named tools documented, bulk export of a team’s files, an API that reads full file structure, files of removed users transferred to the organisation by policy, and a stated retention and deletion timeline after the contract ends.

10 — Portability is built in: an open-source or openly specified format, self-hosting or a local-first option, round-trip export without loss of components and prototypes, and the customer’s ownership of all files and their export rights written into the terms.

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The Skeptic

Projects export to PDF, PNG, raw HTML and a full BMPR project file from the same dialog, the desktop product keeps files locally with perpetual licences, and the terms spell out life after cancellation: a 30-day export window after a Space closes (none if the owner deletes it) and deletion within 60 days, with backups persisting up to 90. We found no public information on an open or documented format, bulk export of a team's files, or a transfer policy for the files of removed users. 2 3 8 9

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AI features & rights to the work

How this is scored

What the vendor's AI does with the customer's files and what the customer may do with the AI's output: training on customer content and the opt-out, the models and where they run, commercial use of generated images, stock licences and indemnity.

0 — The terms state that customer files train the vendor’s models with no opt-out, or that generated output may not be used commercially.

3 — AI features described on an AI or help page with a general statement on responsible use or data handling; training on customer files, admin controls and output rights are basic or not described.

5 — A statement on whether customer content trains the models (excluded, or with a documented opt-out), AI features that an admin can switch off for the organisation, and commercial use of generated output addressed in the terms or AI page.

8 — Training excluded by default for business plans, model providers and the processing location of AI features stated, generated content labelled or carrying content credentials, stock and template licences stated per asset type, and an IP indemnity for generated output on a named plan.

10 — AI is governed in writing: a per-feature list of models, providers and locations, admin controls per team and feature, a log of AI use, training exclusion and output ownership in the contract terms, and indemnity and licence limits published in full.

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The Skeptic

Two separate pages state that customer data never trains the AI models, AI use is opt-in per interaction, and Google Gemini is the named provider with a published subprocessor list — the exclusion is unambiguous. But the opt-out amounts to "do not use Balsamiq AI features": there is no documented organisation-wide switch an admin can set, and we found no public information on commercial-use rights for generated output, indemnity, or labelling and content credentials. 2 6 10

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity is, where design files, brand assets and AI prompts are stored and processed, and which subprocessors touch them. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline.

0 — Proven non-EU on every dimension the evidence covers: non-EU contracting entity and non-EU hosting, with no EU option stated.

3 — One European element proven: an EU contracting entity or EU representative, EU data residency (even if only on an enterprise plan), or a published DPA, with the rest of the chain unstated.

5 — EU hosting stated for files as standard or selectable and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, with a DPA offered; the subprocessor chain (AI, rendering, support) is unstated or partly non-EU.

8 — EU contracting entity, files, assets and backups stored in the EU on named infrastructure, subprocessor list published with locations and purposes, and the processing location of AI features stated.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, EU entity, every hosting, AI and support subprocessor European or optional, self-hosting or a European cloud offered, and certifications published.

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The Skeptic

The group is anchored in Italy — an Italian parent holding company and Balsamiq S.r.l. as joint controller under GDPR Article 26 — with a published DPA, a subprocessor list stating each provider's purpose and location, and an EU residency choice for Enterprise customers. But the sales and distribution entity is the US LLC in Sacramento, default processing is stated as "US, EU, or other locations", and the AI provider is Google, so the European option is a plan tier rather than the default chain. 2

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the annual cost for their team from public pages alone — which seat types exist and what each may do, how viewers and guests are billed, how seats are added and trued up, AI credits, and the plan where SSO, admin controls and brand features begin.

0 — No public prices at all; every plan is a sales conversation.

3 — A public "from" price or one priced plan, per seat or flat.

5 — Per-seat prices public for the main plans with the billing period stated and the main features per plan listed.

8 — Every plan and seat type priced, free viewers and guests stated with their limits, how and when added seats are billed explained, AI credits and storage priced or included explicitly, the plan that unlocks SSO and admin controls named, and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete cost computability: annual cost derivable for a given mix of editors, viewers and guests, true-up and auto-upgrade rules published, every add-on priced publicly, and contract term, renewal and downgrade conditions stated.

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The Skeptic

Across every page we read there is not one price figure — no per-seat cost, billing period or VAT treatment; the plans named are Teams and Enterprise, and everything starts from a 14-day trial without a card. What is transparent is who pays: six roles with staff reviewers, guest reviewers and billing admins free, guest editors consuming a paid editor seat, AI credits included on every plan with purchasable top-ups, and SAML and EU residency gated to Enterprise. 2 3 6 10

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Balsamiq

Is Balsamiq European?

Not determined: the vendor’s pages as captured do not say where Balsamiq is based.

Where does Balsamiq store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026.

Does Balsamiq have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Balsamiq?

As of 4 Nov 2026, the panel rates Penpot (3.5/5), Sketch (3/5) and Collaboard (3/5) highest among the other 21 Design products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Penpot (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Balsamiq alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

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Sources (10)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor page balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Legal notice — found from the homepage balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Design, prototyping & design systems — found from sitemap balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Design, prototyping & design systems — found from sitemap balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Collaboration, review & developer handoff — found from sitemap balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Collaboration, review & developer handoff — found from sitemap balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Brand assets & governance — found from sitemap balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Files, formats & portability — found from sitemap balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Files, formats & portability — found from sitemap balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  10. 10 AI features & rights to the work — found from sitemap balsamiq.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →