Quick Mockup

A developer sketching an internal tool's login flow does not want that idea sitting in a third-party SaaS account before a single line of code exists. Quick Mockup renders its whole editor from one HTML page, so the sketch never leaves the machine unless someone chooses to save and share the file.

Why Quick Mockup instead of Balsamiq

Both tools solve the same first step: drop a button, a dropdown, a label or a checkbox onto a canvas and arrange them into a rough screen. Quick Mockup covers that core with buttons, sliders, tabs, links, headlines, paragraphs, lists, icons and images, edited by double-clicking the element itself rather than opening a properties panel. Elements combine into groups by dragging one onto another, so a labeled field or an icon-plus-button moves as one unit once assembled.

Past that first screen the tools diverge. Balsamiq ships a larger sketch-style component library and lets separate mockups link into a clickable, multi-screen prototype; Quick Mockup has neither. The bigger difference is where the work lives. Balsamiq's wireframes sync through its cloud or a licensed desktop app; Quick Mockup is a static page with no account, no upload step and no telemetry, so a sketch of an unreleased feature stays wherever the file sits — including the git repository that holds the code it describes.

What it does well

• Ships as a self-contained HTML/JS page: clone the repository, open index.html, and there is nothing to install or sign into.
• A drag-and-drop palette covers what a typical admin screen or internal dashboard needs — buttons, checkboxes, dropdowns, sliders, tabs and text.
• Double-click any element to edit its label in place instead of routing through a properties dialog.
• Grouping by drag-and-drop keeps a composite element, like an icon next to a button, moving as one piece.
• A canvas-size dialog lets you sketch at the target viewport's actual dimensions instead of guessing.
• Small, MIT-licensed jQuery and draw2d codebase that a developer or DevOps engineer can read and patch in an afternoon if a component is missing.
• Open and Save keep mockups as plain files that check into version control alongside the code they describe, rather than a vendor's account.

Limitations

• No layer or z-order management and no multi-element selection — the project's own site states both outright, so restacking overlapping elements means deleting and redrawing.