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Life & fun · August 8, 2011

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Barebones, a minimal wireframe app for iPad, built in 24 hours.

http://www.barebonesapp.com I run a web development company in the UK[1]. Last weekend, we participated in Leedshack[2], and we build Barebones, which is a really simple wireframing tool for the iPad. We spend a lot of time in meetings sketching in our notebooks, and often these sketches are a valuable artefact long before 'traditional' wireframing even enters the process; we wanted to replicated the speed and simplicity of 'back of a napkin' sketching, and combine it with really simple sharing (anything is better than taking a photo of a sketch with my iPhone and emailing it to a client!)…

Barebones, a minimal wireframe app for iPad, built in 24 hours. launched on August 8, 2011 with 14 votes, #59 of 248 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 15 years on.

Visit barebonesapp.com ↗Alternativestop 24% of August 2011

In plain words

Barebones is a minimal wireframing app for iPad that mimics the speed and simplicity of sketching on paper. Built in 24 hours, it uses shape recognition to turn hand-drawn marks into snapped wireframe elements on a 960-pixel grid, making it suitable for designers and developers who want to capture ideas quickly in meetings. The app operates offline without accounts, subscriptions, or ads, and users pay once for permanent access.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Simple software, one price, no subscriptions. No accounts, no ads, no server to shut down. Apps built to just keep working.

Software used to just work after you paid for it once. These apps still do. A lot of hardware used to ship with a simple free app. Then the company got bought, or found religion on "engagement," and the app that used to just show you your own data started asking for an account, a subscription, and a reason to open it every day. Bare Bones apps are the opposite bet. Each one does a small number of things, does them on your device, and asks you to pay for it exactly once. No feed to check. No free trial that quietly becomes a bill. No feature that exists only to justify a renewal. If an idea needs a server, a login, or a monthly charge to make sense, it probably won't end up here. Reads your…from barebonesapp.com

In the maker’s words, at launch

http://www.barebonesapp.com I run a web development company in the UK[1]. Last weekend, we participated in Leedshack[2], and we build Barebones, which is a really simple wireframing tool for the iPad. We spend a lot of time in meetings sketching in our notebooks, and often these sketches are a valuable artefact long…

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