If you are in the UI/UX designing field for few months, you must have heard the terms Figma and Sketch. Both of these do offer rich feature support in effective designing and yet differ in many aspects, starting from collaboration facilities to pricing and functionality.
Whether you are a fresher designer who wants to know what to learn first or an experienced designer looking to switch platforms, this blog will make a proper comparison between Figma vs Sketch for you to decide which one is the right choice for your projects.
Quick Overview
✣ Figma: Figma is a cloud-based design tool, and it's most known for real-time collaboration features. This goes perfect for those teams who would want to work on the same project at the same time.
✣ Sketch: Sketch is a vector-based design tool and it is one of the ones widely used for UI/UX design. A strong plugin system and an offline-first workflow feature got quite a number of Mac users in line waiting for a copy.
Key Differences Between Figma and Sketch
1. Platform and Accessibility: The important difference between Figma and Sketch is accessed differently since one is web-based and the other native.
Figma: Since it is Web-based, it is accessible from anywhere in the globe with an internet connection on Mac, PC, and even Linux for designers although their location.
Sketch: Since Sketch is a Mac-based app, it is natively available only for mac operating system. Again, for a design team hugely invested in Apple, this isn't an issue. However, when cross-platform teams have had to engage Windows or Linux, this simply cannot be done.
Conclusion: Figma's platform-agnostic nature is the better route toward being flexible. Its native app, however makes Sketch experience relatively smoother for Mac users.
2. Collaboration Capabilities: Collaboration is where Figma truly comes into its own:
Figma: This is another function similar to how google docs would work: real-time collaboration. The room can consist of a bunch of members of a team working on the same design, commenting, and then seeing actual changes at the same time. This is a true goldmine for design teams, especially when they are scattered across wide geographies or different time zones.
Sketch: While Sketch is beginning to introduce some features that are related in a kind of way to collaboration, such as Sketch Cloud and version control, the real-time collaborative functionality is a bit different. Teams often opt for third-party tools like InVision or Abstract for real-time collaboration.
Conclusion: If you work in a team or collaborate frequently, no one touches Figma's built-in, real-time collaboration.
3. Prototyping and Design Features: Both Figma and Sketch are chock-full of design tools and prototyping features, though with slight differences:
Figma: Figma has an in-built prototyping feature that allows designers to create links for frames; this makes interactive prototypes quite easy to create with simple animations. Interactive components also mean buttons and elements may retain states like hover or click actions – what results in even more dynamic prototypes.
Sketch: Prototyping is built in, but there are fewer options of animations compared to Figma. On the other hand, Sketch Symbols is a great feature in Sketch since they let you reuse design components throughout your project-well, that's pretty cool time-saver.
Conclusion: If I were to decide between Sketch or Figma for prototyping, I would slightly prefer Figma because it is more interactive, and it is pretty easy to share prototypes.
4. Plugin Ecosystem: Plugins are essentially the lifeline for any design tool intended to extend its functionalities, and both Sketch and Figma possess great plugin ecosystems:
Sketch: Fully mature and robust plugin ecosystem Sketch boasts tens of thousands of plugins and can, for instance, automate tasks like integration with tools like Zeplin and Abstract. Its massive library has been one of the primary reasons for its popularity.
Figma: While it's a younger library of plugins, it's growing fast. Figma has accessibility checks and design systems plugins that manage nearly any other type of plugin.
Figma being web-based means its plugins have a greater chance of natively integrating into workflow via APIs and browser-based integrations.
Conclusion: Sketch boasts a much higher number and diversity of plugins but Figma is rapidly closing the gap.
5. Pricing Structure: One other determinant of which tool will be much more feasible for individuals and teams is pricing.
Figma: It offers a free Starter Team plan to the individual. Its Professional Team plan costs $15 per editor per month, while its Organization plan costs $45 per editor per month. Figma also offers an Enterprise plan for $75 per editor per month. There is flexibility in its pricing structure, along with a free tier.
Sketch: It comes with a Standard Subscription at $10 per editor monthly, if paid yearly; otherwise, at $12 monthly. Sketch also has a Business Subscription at $22 per editor monthly, which is paid yearly. For just Macs, Sketch has a License that sits at $120 per seat. This license includes one year of updates. A free trial of Sketch lasts 30 days. Sketch offers charity discounts.
Please note: This overview provides a general summary of the pricing plans and may not reflect real-time updates. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, always refer to the official websites to avoid confusion.
Figma Pricing ⚡️ Sketch Pricing
6. Offline Access and Cloud Features: All of these tools interact with cloud storage and offline access differently.
Figma: It is a web application, so to open and save files, it requires an internet connection. Figma does give some offline capabilities through the desktop app but they are much less than Sketch.
Sketch: Sketch is a natively Mac app, so it works fully offline. Thus users can work on a file locally and share or sync files among team members using other cloud services provided by the third party, such as Dropbox or Sketch Cloud. This way, users have at least some amount of control over when and how they are accessing the design.
Conclusion: For a person who prefers to design offline or has the motive to have full control over which storage files, then Sketch is the way to go.
Comparison
| Feature | Figma | Sketch |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Availability | ✅ | ❌ |
| Collaboration | ✅ | ❌ |
| Offline Support | ❌ | ✅ |
| Prototyping | ✅ | ✅ |
| Design System | ✅ | ✅ |
| Plugins & Integrations | ✅ | ✅ |
| Learning Curve | ✅ | ✅ |
| Version Control | ✅ | ❌ |
| Performance | ❌ | ✅ |
| Price | ✅ | ❌ |
| Support for Design Files | ✅ | ❌ |
| Target Audience | ✅ | ✅ |
Figma vs Sketch: FAQ's
1. What is Figma, and what is Sketch?
Figma and Sketch are design tools which both tools have the same intention of achieving the goal in creating user interfaces but with a different approach. Figma is a cloud-based application. It can be accessed from various devices. Meanwhile, Sketch is a macOS-based application, thus it can only access it from a Mac.
2. Which one is easier to use for prototyping?
Prototyping capabilities in Figma are very rich, and it can be created with interactive prototypes right inside this tool; this makes the workflow much easier. Prototyping is supported in Sketch but probably using third-party plugins if one needs really advanced functionality.
3. What is the pricing?
Figma is free with very basic features and also offers a paid version for teams. Sketch offers buying options on a one-time basis for the individual and subscribes to versions for teams. There is no free version provided by Sketch.
4. The transition is hard when one moves from Sketch to Figma ?
You can import some Sketch files in Figma, as Figma accepts files from Sketch but you probably need to make some adjustments to get it right and optimized in design, so there's a small learning curve getting used to the interface and features of Figma.
Who Should Use Figma?
Figma should be used by,
✣ Design Teams: Real-time collaboration and cross-platform features are a life-saver for teams working remotely or from different locations.
✣ Freelancers and Agencies: The free plan is large enough to get started with and the paid plans provide enough scalability.
✣ Cross-Platform Designers: Highly flexible for designers who need to have access to it on several devices since it natively runs on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Who Should Use Sketch
Sketch is ideal for,
✣ Mac-Only Designers: As a user in the Apple ecosystem, it'll just work natively.
✣ Plugin Lovers: If you're using third party plugins for most of your day-to-day design work, then Sketch has one of the most mature plugin markets to date.
✣ Off-line workers: For those designers who would want to work in the off-line or somehow need some control over their files, then Sketch is that amazing flexibility.
Final Thoughts: Figma vs. Sketch – Which Should You Choose?
Ultimately, it is a matter of personal preference; Figma and Sketch are quite different, and so whichever one you end up choosing to use depends on your own needs.
Figma is the way to go if you need to work together in real time, want cross-platform access, or perhaps just some built-in prototyping features.
Sketch is the way to go if you happen to be a Mac user, or value working offline or depending on strong plugin ecosystems.
Both are great in its own way, but your pick will finally depend on how you work-by yourself, within a team, online, off line, or with or without collaborative needs.
Your choice tool will finally result in wonderful design.
Top comments (2)
Both are good. Figma is great for collaboration since. Sketch is perfect for Mac users who prefer offline work and love plugins.
Yup, Both tools really have their own strengths! Figma is amazing for real-time collaboration, while Sketch offers fantastic offline support and an extensive plugin library, especially for Mac users.