Show HN: Konty – A Balsamiq-alternative lo-fi wireframe tool for modern apps

olivierduval

Something always bothered me: why using "sketch-like hand-drawn pencil" like style for that kind of tools ?

I understand that "wireframing" is some kind of "brainstorming" tool, so it is used with a pencil and a whiteboard in a meeting room and require to draw/erase fast iteratively... so it's the "right" tool for this job...

But as soon as you use a computer instead of a pencil, why not have a "realistic" and "clean" look instead of this kind of quick-and-dirty sketch-like style? It's an honest question

Is it because designers are most used to this style? Is it because it make more clearly appear the essential points (for example: a list) and avoid discussion like "is this text exactly in this color ?"

juliushuijnk

If you want to do this kind of thing on your phone, you can try my TinyUx: https://www.tinyux.app/

It has a non-standard UX itself, because of the small screen.

steveharman

Would be nice to see a "push to Figma" option - where a lot of high fidelity work will probably be started, based on wireframes.

pabe

Looks nice, like excalidraw fine tuned for wireframes. However, I'm on Linux so I'm not able to use the app.

jksmith

Dig it. I use Balsamiq all the time. Some challenges when using Wine, so I have to open a cringey Klaus Schwab windows machine. Would be great if this app showed Linux some love.

nreece

Looks good!

I wonder if there's a way to combine a simple tool like yours (or Balsamiq, which I've used for many years) with generative AI to create plain HTML/CSS pages from mockups/wireframes. Figma seems bloated, v0 is React/Tailwind only.

pcranaway

I love how I just downloaded this, and had the wireframe of my app's main screen built within 3 minutes of me knowing about this piece of software

8mobile

Hi, Balsamiq is one of my favorite products, I have already downloaded konty and I stress it a lot. Congratulations for the idea and for the product, how did you come up with it? After the beta will it be paid? I will give you some feedback soon. Thanks

TuringNYC

I see the company is based in Asia. I highly recommend considering some branding feedback from westerners. The name of the app will raise eyebrows for many.

dewey

The submitted url links to this, still works but just fyi:

https://konty.app/http://localhost:4321/

patafemma

Well done! Basic functionality feels pretty smooth and polished. One thing that I found myself very quickly missing: being able to snap shapes to each other or to the grid.

wusel

I thought the connecting arrows were bugged at first, then I realized it's a genius implementation. This alone makes me want to use this more than Figjam.

groby_b

"Please download a random binary from a place that doesn't even charge for the binary and seems to be set up yesterday" is... raising my hairs.

I'm sure odds are this actually isn't malware, but - I'd think about how to address that fear.

eashish93

I like it, it's better than other apps. Reason is it present you a list of all components of left sidebar so we don't have to think of creating it from scratch. Just drag and drop and your work is done.

replete

Gomockingbird was the best at this (for my purposes), but they decommissioned and didn't open source it like they said they would.

Balsamiq was next best and I use it still, but has a cumbersome user interface with enough friction that it gets in the way.

I tried using Excalidraw for a while, for my dislike of using Balsamiq, but for wireframing even with libraries it was too fiddly.

Just tried out Konty and it feels like an upgrade to Balsamiq for sure, and is clearly inspired by Excalidraw. Great work

tritiy

Am I the only one having issues (Win 11)? - Drag/dropping from the Shapes panel does not work every time - I can not delete an object on the page - New page (+ character next to Pages) just clears existing page

Can I report this somewhere?

pentagrama

This is great. Let you know that your blog seems that doesn't support RSS. I will like to follow the project there.

https://konty.app/blog/

aosaigh

This is great. I'm a regular Balsamiq user but prefer the look-and-feel and subtle aesthetic differences in Konty. I'd love some sort of commenting or call-out system on drawings. The "stickies" work well in some cases, but I regularly find that I need to draw attention to certain parts of a design and don't want to have to manually create an arrow with a sticky, or an arrow with text etc.

Also, a small frustration, but when deleting items I reach for "del" on the keyboard, which isn't implemented here ("backspace" works though).

the_arun

Looks really cool & easy to use. In Mac, we cannot delete a frame or other objects with "Delete" key after selecting it. We have to right click & select "delete".

JakaJancar

Love it!

I always liked Balsamiq, it really forces you not to obsess about the pixels too much, but it was so slow/bloated/buggy, like something from the Java on desktop era. This is much smoother!

janwillemb

Looks nice! Maybe add some explanation about licensing on the first pages.

And the name sounds like "butty" in Dutch, so that will be hard for me to recommend out loud for my Dutch IT students.

equalsabhi

Is this a free to use tool?

I was thinking about whether the GTM should be a figma plugin vs. a desktop app. Would love to know the founder's thought process on choosing the desktop app route.

tchock23

This is great - thanks for making/sharing it!

I use (and like) Moqups, but the lo-fi nature of Konty is really nice. Seems very easy to use and responsive so far.

chrisvalleybay

Just a question; I'm seeing so many tools pop up with these kinds of advanced whiteboard functionality, all the tools on the top and the tool palettes on the right. Is there a library or something that's being used to implement all of this? They all look the same.

Product looks good, though! Congrats!

probablybetter

no Linux build? (appimage or snap etc? not expecting distro support for proprietary small-shop software)

__bax

Balsamiq still rocks !

steve1977

> Don't spend a lot of time and effort creating low-fidelity wireframes.

Modern software development in a nutshell

trenchgun

Not sure if it would be out of scope to have support for PlantUML etc programmatic generation

monkeydust

This is cool, fan of Balsamiq. What I would really like is some alignment/snap feature similar to what you have in MS power point when you put some shapes together and it overlays some lines to help with spacing and gaps.

thuhien2621

I'm a Business Analyst, so I find your tool quite interesting. I'll definitely give it a try. However, I would like to ask if your product includes sufficient notation to draw according to BPMN standards.

mkarliner

Very nice. I've been looking for a replacement hand drawn tool for ages.

jaylane

This is really great. I just used it to do some whiteboarding on a zoom call and it was event a lot more user friendly than miro.

saagarjha

Psst…you have a typo on one of the images, where it says "Delete from Shopping Card" when it should probably say "Delete from Shopping Cart".

Confirm2754

Skip the endless details, 1px, color anxiety and focus on the overall layout that matters most, this is a very creative and helpful UI design tool.

JTJTJTJTJTJTJT

Opening this up and being greeted with the main interface and not a login window or onboarding hit like a sip of Sprite after a year in the desert

DonnyV

Looking into how this is built. I see they use something called Squirrel.Window for managing installs. I can't believe I've never heard of this until now! https://github.com/Squirrel/Squirrel.Windows.

Fastest loading electron app I've ever seen.

As a long time user of Ballsamiq. This is FANTASTIC!! Everything is super smooth, nice drawing styling, well thought out.

My only problem with Ballsamiq Desktop was the price. I just don't use it enough to pay $150 for 1 license. Something like $60 for desktop would be better.

Good luck with the business. I will definitely be using your app.

P.S. I just noticed it groups things automatically....HOLY SMOKES!

P.S. 2 As a map user. When switching to the pan tool (hand). The scrolling up/down should zoom in/out.

P.S. 3 It definitely needs a pdf export option

hallan

Subscribed. I’ve used Balsamiq quite a lot in the past and enjoy the freedom of Lo-fi design. I look forward to giving this a go.

saurabhchalke

This is very cool and pretty looking. I would love to see support for XR apps like Meta Quest/Vision Pro.

daverobbins1

Looks great. Can we get this on homebrew?

jkob_

This is so nice, thank you very much for creating this! <3

aloisdg

nice! Is it FOSS? Can I contribute to it?

CR-MX

This is great! congratulations

warthog

This looks amazing

ted_dunning

This tool is distressingly delicate.

open text. type something. pop up a triangle. modal deadlock.

wiradikusuma

FYI in Indonesian slang* it means penis.

* which is also a slang for another slang. Inception!

Brajeshwar

For those who love this type of tool, you will also love Kinopio. I've no affiliation. https://kinopio.club/

I've seen the founder, /pketh answer questions here on HN.

Update/Edit: The other open-source alternative to Balsamiq-ish tool is https://excalidraw.com

keyle

What's going on with the url?

          https://konty.app/http://localhost:4321/

Nice app. Loved Balsamiq for years, now I use an outdated version of Sketch.

porl

No Linux support :'(

donatj

Are people still using Balsamiq?!

I haven't heard that name in literally forever. I used to use it and love it like fifteen years ago when I fancied myself a designer and not just a backend dev.

mightyhacker658

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fleaaa

Fantastic job!

EDIT: No linux support :(

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