Sketch vs Figma: Which One is Better for UX Designers?
When it comes to UX design tools, Sketch and Figma are two of the most popular choices. Both offer a range of features to help designers create stunning user interfaces, prototypes, and more. But which one should you choose? In this article, we’ll compare Sketch and Figma across several categories to help you decide which is better for your workflow.
Pricing
One of the biggest differences between Sketch and Figma is their pricing model. Sketch offers a one-time payment of $99 for a personal license, while Figma offers a free account for individuals with a limited feature set and a professional plan starting at $15/user/month billed annually.
Collaboration
Figma was designed with collaboration in mind. With their cloud-based platform, multiple users can work on the same file at the same time, making it an excellent choice for remote teams. Sketch, on the other hand, requires plugins like Abstract to enable collaboration features.
Features
Both Sketch and Figma offer a similar range of features for UX design. Sketch has been around longer, and thus provides a more stable desktop application with a powerful feature set, especially when it comes to working with vector graphics. Figma has the advantage of being cloud-based, which improves its real-time collaboration capabilities and increased accessibility.
Integration
When it comes to integration with other tools, Sketch has an edge. There’s a wide variety of plugins available for Sketch to make it more versatile and to offer additional functionality. Figma’s plugin capabilities also improved as they now have a community with a growing library of user-created plugins.
User Interface
Sketch and Figma provide designers with straightforward, user-friendly interfaces that are easy to navigate. However, Figma's toolbar is a bit more cluttered than Sketch. In addition, Sketch has some keyboard shortcuts that are more intuitive.
Conclusion
Both Sketch and Figma are excellent tools for UX design. While Sketch is the more traditional option with greater feature stability if you already know your workflow and can work around the lack of real-time collaboration. On the other hand, Figma's cloud-based functionality allows multiple people to make adjustments to the design in real-time, making it ideal for remote or distributed teams.
In the end, the choice between Sketch and Figma comes down to personal preference and the needs of your workflow. In terms of design quality, there is no clear better option between the two tools.