The best AI prototyping tools in 2026: a buyer's shortlist

The best AI prototyping tools in 2026 are Sleek for mobile app prototypes, Google Stitch as the free pick for clickable prototypes, and Figma Make for teams already in Figma. For a working app instead of screens, Rork builds native iOS and Android apps, and Lovable and v0 build web apps. Pick by what the prototype has to prove.

We make Sleek and rank it first for the job it was built for. Prices and features come from each vendor's own pages, checked on October 14, 2026. Where another tool fits a job better, we say so.

What is an AI prototyping tool, and what is it not?

An AI prototyping tool turns a written description, a sketch or an existing design into a prototype you can show, click through or run, in minutes instead of days. The tools differ mainly in what that prototype is: polished screens, a clickable flow, or a working app with real code behind it.

• Screens show how the app looks. They are enough for an investor deck, a landing page or a first round of user interviews. Sleek and Google Stitch start here.
• Clickable prototypes link screens so a tester can tap through a flow. Google Stitch, Figma Make, Claude Design and Magic Patterns make these; Figma Make's run on real code.
• Working apps run real code, so a tap triggers real logic instead of jumping to the next picture. Lovable, v0, Bolt, Replit and Rork build these.

Demand has moved fast. According to Figma, its 2026 AI report found that 61% of product builders now say they build interactive prototypes, up from 10% a year earlier.

An AI prototype is not an MVP. A prototype answers one question, such as "do people understand this flow?", and you can throw it away. An MVP is the smallest product people can actually use, which is a bigger job: our guide to designing an MVP prototype in one day covers the step in between.

It is also not production code. Nielsen Norman Group put the limit plainly: "AI's limited grasp of design nuances and inconsistent output make it best suited for ideation, concept exploration, and early-phase prototype testing, rather than later stages." Use these tools to learn fast, then build properly.

How we ranked these tools

The order follows one rule. Design and prototyping tools, whose output you show, test and hand off, come first. Then tools that build a working mobile app, then tools that build a working web app. Within each group, tools built only for mobile rank first, then the ones with more handoff paths. Ties go to the tool whose free plan does more. Most founders need to show an idea before they build it, and screens and prototypes are faster and cheaper to change than code.

We measured each tool on five things we could check on the vendor's own pages or in our own runs:

1. Prototype type. Screens, clickable prototype or working app, as the vendor's documentation describes the output. This sets the group.
2. Mobile output. Whether the output is screens built for iOS and Android, an app you can install on a phone, or responsive web that you can preview at phone size.
3. Handoff paths. How many of six ways out the tool offers: Figma, code download, GitHub, sharing, publishing to the web or an app store, and an AI coding agent.
4. Cost to start. What the free plan can do, and the cheapest paid plan per month with its billing period, as listed on October 14, 2026.
5. Evidence. Whether we ran the tool ourselves. We gave Sleek, Google Stitch and Claude Design the same brief in mid-2026; the other seven are ranked on their documentation. Evidence is reported, not scored.

Three groups tie on handoff paths: Google Stitch, Figma Make and Magic Patterns at five, Bolt and Replit at three, and v0 and Lovable at three. The free plan settles each. Google Stitch is free outright, so it ranks above Figma Make. Magic Patterns keeps two of its five paths, GitHub sync and MCP, for paid plans and does not publish its free allowance, while Figma Make documents 150 AI credits a day, so Figma Make ranks higher. Bolt's free plan builds on a token budget, while Replit's is limited to Lite build and one published app that goes down after 30 days. v0's free plan includes code export, GitHub sync and Vercel deploys, while Lovable's cannot download code.

This rule favors Sleek, which only does mobile. If you are prototyping a web feature, the use-case table further down points you to a different tool, and that is the right call.

The best AI prototyping tools in 2026

Here are the ten tools in the order the rule above produces. Each entry covers what the prototype is, how it hands off, what it costs in US dollars as of October 2026, and who it suits. Prices come from each vendor's pricing page.

1. Sleek, best for mobile app prototypes you show investors and users

Sleek is an AI mobile app design tool. You describe your app in plain language, or attach a reference image, and it generates iOS and Android app screens in minutes. It only does mobile, so every screen is designed as an app screen from the start.

The prototype is a set of high-fidelity screens. You page through them in a phone frame, and on Starter and above you can share a public preview link with investors or test users. When you are ready to build, copy screens into Figma as editable layers, or export them as HTML or React with Tailwind. On Pro, AI coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor and Codex can drive Sleek through its agent skill and REST API, so the design step happens inside the coding loop.

What Sleek does not do: link screens into a tap-through flow, or run as a working app. For that, take the screens into Figma Make, or hand the code to a builder or a coding agent.

In our mid-2026 Nestie test, shown above, Sleek generated real imagery and followed the brief's custom palette.

Pricing (October 2026): Free is $0 with 60 one-time credits, about 3 screens and 1 project, and you can export the screens it unlocks to Figma or code. Starter is $29/month, or $20/month billed yearly ($240/year), for about 100 screens a month. Pro is $69/month, or $30/month billed yearly ($360/year), for about 650 screens a month plus the API and agent skill. See all plans.

Best suited for: Founders who need a mobile app to look real before a pitch or a user test, and developers who want designed screens to hand to a coding agent. Pick another tool if your prototype is a web feature or has to run real logic.

2. Google Stitch, best free AI prototyping tool

Google Stitch is Google's AI design tool for mobile and web app screens. It costs nothing: Stitch's FAQ says it is free, with a daily credit limit, and there is no paid plan.

Stitch now goes past static screens. In March 2026 Google added interactive prototypes, "transforming static designs into interactive prototypes instantly", according to its announcement. The same update added DESIGN.md, a file for importing and exporting your design rules. The May 2026 update added a shareable link through Google AI Studio and publishing to the web with Netlify.

You can export screens to Figma or as static HTML with Tailwind, and Stitch has an MCP server for coding agents. The code is static HTML, a starting point for a developer rather than an app.

In our mid-2026 test, where we gave three tools the same home-finding app brief, Stitch produced clean screens with real property photos, using the brief's mint and yellow on a light base, with a darker red where the brief asked for coral. Its components, such as the navigation bar, stayed close to Material Design, Google's house style.

Pricing (October 2026): Free, with a daily credit limit. There is no paid plan.

Best suited for: Anyone who wants a free clickable prototype of a mobile or web app before paying for anything. Teams that need app code rather than static HTML, or components that move away from Material Design, will outgrow it.

3. Figma Make, best for teams already working in Figma

Figma Make is Figma's prompt-to-app tool. Its pricing page describes the job as "Generate a functional prototype or web app via prompt." You describe the interface, or start from frames you already drew, and Make builds a working prototype in code, React by default, that you edit in chat or directly in the code.

Because Make lives inside Figma, its handoff paths suit design teams best of any tool here. You can copy the result back into Figma Design as layers, export the code, push it to GitHub, publish it to a URL, or connect it to coding agents through Figma's MCP server. Two limits are worth knowing: the GitHub push is one way, and on the free Starter plan you can publish to the public web only by also publishing to the Figma Community.

For mobile, Figma's AI prototype generator page says Make "supports everything from onboarding flows to dashboards, mobile UIs, signup pages, and more." The output is web code, so there is no native iOS or Android app. Figma's own pages describe the output as a prototype, so under criterion 1 Make sits with the design and prototyping tools.

Pricing (October 2026): Starter is free with 150 AI credits a day, up to 500 a month. A Professional Full seat is $20/seat/month, or $16/seat/month billed annually, with 3,000 AI credits a month.

Best suited for: Design and product teams whose screens already live in Figma and who need a clickable, code-backed version of them. Founders without existing Figma files get less from it, since the copy back into Figma Design and the handoff to a design team are its main advantages.

4. Magic Patterns, best for product teams prototyping web features

Magic Patterns turns a prompt into interactive web prototypes, built for product teams testing features. Its pricing page says it is used by more than 500,000 teams. Designs are responsive, and its Figma plugin docs show how to switch to an iPhone 17 view and export that mobile layout to Figma.

The handoff options are good for a product team. You can paste a design into Figma, download the code, and on Starter and above sync with GitHub, connect coding agents such as Cursor or Claude Code through MCP, and remove the preview watermark. You can also publish a prototype to a custom URL to share with stakeholders.

Credits depend on how much you iterate. Its credits documentation estimates about 70 credits for a single generation and about 950 for a substantial project of 21 to 50 versions, measured on a higher-cost model. Starter adds 1,000 credits a month to the free allowance, and paid plans can keep generating on pay-as-you-go usage after that. The free plan's credit amount is not published.

Pricing (October 2026): Free with monthly credits. Starter is $20/seat/month, or $17/seat/month billed annually, with 1,000 credits a month.

Best suited for: Product managers and designers prototyping a feature for an existing web product. It is a weaker fit for a mobile app, where its phone view is the same responsive web layout at a smaller size.

5. Claude Design, best if you already use Claude

Claude Design is Anthropic's design tool inside Claude. You describe what you want and it produces designs and interactive prototypes in HTML, including mobile screens. Anthropic's help center lists it on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans, so you can try it without paying.

Exports cover a zip, PDF, PowerPoint, Google Slides and standalone HTML. You can send work to Canva, Lovable, Netlify or Vercel, or hand it to Claude Code to build. Figma is not in the export list, and Anthropic notes that Claude Design has no version history yet.

It sits last among the design and prototyping tools because it covers four of the six handoff paths, fewer than Stitch, Figma Make or Magic Patterns: code export, sharing inside Claude, publishing through Netlify or Vercel, and a Claude Code handoff. Figma export is the one missing. Separately, in our mid-2026 test it got the layout and palette right but left striped placeholder blocks where the photos should be. Our Claude Design guide for mobile apps covers where it works and where it breaks.

Pricing (October 2026): Included on Claude Free, with usage limits. Claude Pro is $20/month, or $17/month with the annual discount ($200 billed up front). Max starts at $100/month.

Best suited for: People who already work in Claude and want a quick interactive prototype they can hand to Claude Code. Teams that need Figma files, or screens designed specifically for iOS and Android, should start with Sleek, Stitch or Figma Make.

6. Rork, best for a native app you can install on your phone

Rork is an AI app builder for phones. Its design mode proposes screens, but its point is building the app. According to its docs, it writes native iPhone apps in Swift and SwiftUI and Android apps in Kotlin with Jetpack Compose, then submits builds to TestFlight and the App Store. Rork used to build Expo apps and switched to native code; its FAQ still describes the older setup, so trust the docs and the pricing page.

That makes Rork the strongest pick when the prototype has to run on a real phone. Testers install it through TestFlight rather than looking at screens in a browser. On paid plans you own the generated code and can sync it to GitHub.

The cost is in iteration. Building uses credits, and iOS builds and cloud simulator sessions are charged on top of the message that started them, because they rent real machines. Pro has no credit top-ups, so running out means upgrading or waiting for the monthly reset; Max adds top-ups. The free plan covers design mode only, so building a working app needs Pro.

Pricing (October 2026): Free for design mode only. Pro is $20/month for 100 credits. Max is $200/month for 1,000 credits. No annual option is listed.

Best suited for: Founders who need testers to hold the app on their own phone, built in native code they keep. If you only need to show the idea, screens are cheaper and faster to change.

7. Bolt, best for developers who want web and Expo mobile code

Bolt, from StackBlitz, builds full-stack web apps in the browser across JavaScript frameworks. For mobile, it uses Expo: "When you ask Bolt to create a mobile app, it automatically uses Expo," and Bolt lists TestFlight, the App Store and Google Play as publishing targets.

Decide the platform before you start. Bolt's own docs warn that "projects created for web do not easily switch over to mobile." You can import designs from Figma, download the project as a zip, connect a GitHub repository, and host on a free bolt.host subdomain or on Netlify.

Bolt bills in tokens, and its pricing page notes that "the larger the project, the more tokens used per message," so a prototype that grows into a product costs more per change. The free plan builds too, on its daily token budget, so you can try the Expo flow before paying.

Pricing (October 2026): Free with 300,000 tokens a day, up to 1 million a month, and Bolt branding on sites. Pro is $25/month billed monthly, and yearly billing saves up to 28%. Teams is $30 per member per month.

Best suited for: Developers who want a working React Native prototype through Expo, with the code in GitHub. Non-technical founders may find the token model and project setup harder to manage than a design tool.

8. Replit, best for a working prototype with publishing built in

Replit is a cloud development environment whose Agent builds apps from a prompt. Lenny's Newsletter, in its guide to AI prototyping for product managers, groups it with Bolt, v0 and Lovable as cloud development environments: "full-stack platforms that can build and run your apps in the cloud."

Replit's Agent builds both web apps and mobile apps. Its docs walk through building "a native iOS and Android app with Agent", testing it on your phone with Expo Go, and using Replit's Launch feature to upload it to App Store Connect. You can import a Figma frame as a starting point, download the project as a zip, and connect a GitHub repository, and publishing is available on every plan.

Check the free Starter plan before you start a prototype on it. It gives daily Agent credits up to a monthly cap and includes Lite build, Replit's mode for quick, focused changes. You get one published app, and its link goes down after 30 days. Full build, where Agent works more independently, requires Core or Pro.

Pricing (October 2026): Starter is free with daily credits. Core is $18/month billed annually and lets you invite up to 5 builders.

Best suited for: Non-developers who want one place to build, test on a phone and publish, without setting up hosting. Developers who want the code in their own editor from day one may prefer Bolt or v0.

9. v0, best for developers prototyping in React and Next.js

v0, from Vercel, generates working web apps in Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui, according to its FAQ. For a developer, that is the appeal: the prototype is written in a stack you might ship.

You can paste a Figma link to turn a design into a working app, export the code, keep it in sync with GitHub in both directions, and deploy to Vercel. The free plan already includes GitHub sync and Vercel deploys, so a prototype you make for free can move straight into a real repository.

v0 also has an iOS app for prompting, editing and previewing projects from your phone. The output is still a web app: we found no native mobile output in its documentation.

The trade-off is the platform. v0's FAQ says that for the full experience, with environment variables, deployments and previews, your GitHub repository should be connected to a Vercel project. If you host elsewhere, expect to do that setup yourself.

Pricing (October 2026): Free with 7 messages a day, GitHub sync and Vercel deploys. Plus is $30 per user per month.

Best suited for: Developers who want a web prototype in the same React and Next.js stack they will build on. Founders prototyping a mobile app will get a web page, not an app.

10. Lovable, best for a working web app prototype

Lovable builds working web apps from a prompt and appears on almost every AI prototyping list we read. New projects use TanStack Start, and you can import designs from Figma, sync code with GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket, and publish to a lovable.app address.

Lovable is web only. Its publishing docs say "Lovable does not generate projects in React Native" and that there is no built-in flow to submit to the App Store or Google Play. The suggested path to a phone is a progressive web app or a wrapper.

Check the plan before you start a prototype you plan to keep. On Free you cannot edit or download the code inside Lovable, though Git sync works on every plan, so the code can still move to a repository. On paid monthly plans, unused credits roll over but expire two months after they were issued. Pricing is by credits rather than seats.

Pricing (October 2026): Free with 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month. Pro starts at $25/month, or $21/month billed annually ($250/year).

Best suited for: Product managers and founders who need a working web app to put in front of users. It is the wrong tool if the prototype has to be an iOS or Android app.

Also considered: UX Pilot generates mobile and web screens and clickable React prototypes, and its free plan, 80 credits a day, includes export to Figma and code. We left it off the ten because we could not confirm one current price: on the day we checked, its plans page rendered Pro at $29/month or $19/month billed annually, while the same page's metadata listed other prices.

AI prototyping tools compared

Here is how the ten tools line up on the ranking criteria. Prototype type and mobile output come from each vendor's documentation, and prices are the cheapest paid plan on October 14, 2026.

Which AI prototyping tool fits your use case?

Match the tool to who you are and the question the prototype has to answer. A founder pitching a mobile app needs different output from a product manager testing a web feature, and the cheapest path is the tool that answers your question with the least extra work.

Once the prototype has done its job, the next step is the real app. Our guide on how to build a mobile app without coding covers that design-first path, and our ranking of AI tools for mobile app design goes deeper on the screens-first tools.

What a Sleek prototype looks like

Sleek turned one prompt for Nestie, a playful home-finding app for first-time buyers, into three iOS screens with generated photos of homes and interiors in the brief's warm cream, coral and mint palette. We gave the same brief to Sleek, Google Stitch and Claude Design in mid-2026 to compare them. You can run the exact brief yourself:

Design a playful home-finding app called Nestie for first-time buyers and renters. Include these screens: 1. Home/Search: colorful property cards with illustrated category tags (studio, family home, loft), bright search bar with neighborhood chips 2. Property Detail: full-screen hero photo area, colorful feature chips (2bd, pet-friendly, rooftop), animated save heart button, walkability score 3. Saved Properties: colorful bookmark cards with illustrated price tags and match score badges. Visual style: playful-colorful, warm cream base #FAF7F2 with coral #FF6B6B and mint #4ECDC4 and sunny yellow #FFE66D accents. Typography: rounded friendly sans-serif, large playful headers. Mood: friendly, approachable, fun, first-time-buyer energy. Light mode iOS.

As of October 2026, more than 60,000 people have signed up for Sleek, and by May 2026 they had designed more than 220,000 mobile app screens. Two of those users, in their own words:

"Sleek is really amazing. It just created a production-ready UI design for my app in a single shot."

Mehroz S., indie founder

"I used Sleek to save time on an app project and I loved it. I did not expect the AI to be so spot on in so little time and effort."

Alexia B., marketing

Try Sleek free (no credit card required)

If your prototype is a mobile app, start with the screens. Describe the app in a sentence and Sleek generates iOS and Android screens you can export to Figma or code, and share as a preview link on Starter and up. The free plan needs no credit card.

Start designing your app in Sleek