A Simple Comparison: Sketch vs. Figma vs. Adobe XD
Creating a website is like showing your business to potential customers, so it has to look good to impress them. To make this happen, you should hire a professional website designer and use the right design techniques and tools.
Lately, there have been big improvements in tools for designing how things look on a screen. People keep debating about whether Figma is better than Sketch or Adobe XD, and the discussion isn’t going away. If you’re stuck in this debate, we have the perfect guide for you. One of the most important things that designers who work on how things look and how they’re used have to do is use different tools and software to make early versions and basic outlines.
So, they always need software that helps them put their ideas into a visual form. But the question is, which software is the best and easiest to use, without stopping the designer’s creativity. Let’s find out.
Sketch
For a while, UX and UI designers mostly preferred using Sketch, although there are many options for good design software. Sketch took the place of Adobe Fireworks, which was the go-to UI design tool for most designers back in 2005. Adobe Fireworks was versatile, easy to use, and could be customized with extensions to fit perfectly into the design process. But Fireworks got discontinued, and that left designers with only Sketch as an alternative. This made Sketch the dominant software for UI/UX designers. As mentioned earlier, Sketch is designed for macOS and comes with a somewhat high price of $99 per year, dropping to $69 per year after the first year.
Advantages of Sketch:
- This design tool is specifically made for modern designs, using vectors and pixel-perfect elements. It has a clear and user-friendly interface with smart layouts that automatically adjust elements within the design.
- Sketch is well-known for its plugins. These plugins and elements help speed up website design projects and enhance the overall design process.
- With a shared cloud workspace, anyone you collaborate with can instantly access your designs. It’s easy to invite clients and external team members to view individual files using Sketch.
- Importing PDFs works seamlessly and makes cleaning up or editing PDF content incredibly easy.
- Sketch can be used offline for documents stored locally or cached.
- Unique features like dark mode, a macOS-like UI design, and Git-like design collaboration set Sketch apart.
Disadvantages of Sketch:
- Sketch is a robust and resource-intensive tool that can significantly slow down certain computers. It’s best suited for Mac desktops to achieve optimal performance.
- While plugins are a strength, Sketch shouldn’t rely too heavily on them, as this can create a somewhat fragmented experience.
- The rigid and inflexible styles can make updates, rebranding, or even setting up styles a challenging and time-consuming process at times.
- Compared to other tools available, prototyping in Sketch might feel somewhat awkward and less intuitive.
Adobe XD
Adobe XD is an all-in-one tool for designing and working together on UX/UI projects. It does everything smoothly. You can create wireframes, add animations, make prototypes, collaborate with others, and more, all with ease. This tool is really strong and helps you turn your ideas into amazing creations in no time. XD comes with lots of tools that make it simple to design websites, apps, voice interfaces, and much more.
Advantages of Adobe XD:
- It’s simpler and cleaner than Photoshop and Illustrator. Perfect for UI designers, it has almost everything needed for designing user-friendly Adobe websites.
- Adobe XD lets you enhance it using reusable design pieces. Create something once and use it across different design projects.
- You can drag a grid, and it will automatically place another grid afterward. This feature is a hit among many web designers.
- The prototyping feature is a huge yes for UI/UX designers. Without coding, you can see how your website’s components will react to different actions.
- Changing text size works just like in Photoshop and Illustrator. Select a text object and resize it like any image or vector object.
Disadvantages of Adobe XD:
- Replicating objects isn’t as smooth as it could be. It feels a bit different from copying things in other similar software.
- Prototyping has a drawback. If you want to see live prototypes on real devices like smartphones, it only works with macOS and not with other systems.
- It allows elegant designs, but there’s no feature in Adobe XD to export CSS from your design.
Figma
Figma is a really advanced design tool that has become super popular in the design world. One big reason is that it’s free to use. Figma is a tool for designing things like websites, apps, CRM systems, and other UX/UI projects.
Simply put, Figma handles all sorts of designs. It’s a design tool that works right in your web browser, and it’s great for creating cool designs, prototypes, and even coding options. It’s got everything that UX/UI designers need, and even some extra features.
Advantages of Figma:
- Figma offers several tools in one place: UI and UX design, prototyping, visual automation, wireframing, and templates.
- It’s a cloud-based tool, making it efficient and accessible for all Figma designers. You can use it on different operating systems and web browsers.
- Figma has useful plugins built right in, like Unsplash and Iconify.
- The Figma Mirror feature helps designers check their work while designing and review it effectively.
- Figma makes website design seamless with shareable prototypes, comments, and more.
Disadvantages of Figma:
- Since it’s cloud-based, Figma needs an internet connection. This can be a problem for designers who prefer working offline.
- Colors are important in web design, but Figma lacks global colors in its module, making customization and file alternation a bit tricky.
- Figma requires a computer with at least 4GB of RAM and a high-quality graphics card, which might not be easily affordable for every web designer.
Comparing Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD:
Platform and System
The big difference among Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD is where they work. If you’re choosing which one to learn, think about what computer you use. Sketch is only for macOS, so if you’re on Windows or Linux, it won’t work.
Figma is mainly on the internet, but it also has programs for both Windows and Mac. Adobe XD is a program on your computer, and it connects with Adobe’s Creative Cloud. These differences in where they work also affect how many people use each tool.
Styles and Effects
One thing about XD is that it doesn’t let you put different effects on one thing. The other tools let you use many effects. XD and Sketch don’t have many options for editing images – you’d need extra software like Photoshop. Figma isn’t as good as Photoshop for this, but it’s better than XD or Sketch.
Each tool has its own way to deal with styles. XD lets you save specific things (like font styles), but not everything together. Sketch lets you do this with Text and Layer styles. Figma uses something called course styles, where you mix and match small sets to style things. It means you save properties separately, not all at once.
Prototyping
Nowadays, there are lots of similar apps, but Adobe XD is changing the game by integrating prototyping directly into the design tool. Keep an eye on this trend.
- Sketch: Yes, but adding animations and showing small interactions takes extra steps. Sketch makes it easier with plugins that add this animated mockup feature.
- Adobe XD: Yes, you can create prototypes right within the app. When comparing Figma vs Adobe XD, XD even allows prototypes to be triggered by voice commands, which sets it apart.
- Figma: Yes, it’s quite straightforward, like Adobe XD without fancy transitions.
Typography and Placeholder Data
All these apps handle text and fonts pretty well. Working with special characters might be a bit trickier in Sketch, but it’s not a major issue. Many find Adobe XD the most user-friendly, but that’s subjective.
Except for Figma, you can import small snippets of data beyond just Lorem Ipsum to see how your design looks with real content. In the comparison of Sketch vs XD, XD takes the lead here: it provides built-in data sets, and Sketch lets you use your own data. Figma might not have won this round.
Vector Editing
Figma is more flexible for editing vectors. It uses vector formats that let you connect multiple lines to a single point, making vector drawings quicker. In Sketch and Adobe XD, paths are limited to connected nodes.
Collaboration
Platform differences affect how these tools collaborate. Figma was made for collaboration. You can work on projects together in real time, see who made changes, and add comments directly. You can easily share projects for free, allowing others to leave feedback without special software.
Sketch and Adobe XD have added collaboration features to keep up with Figma. Sketch’s real-time collaboration was added in May 2021, available to subscription users and specific Mac versions. Like Figma, Sketch also has a version history and lets unlimited guests view prototypes through the web app.
Adobe’s Coediting lets you save projects to the cloud and invite others to design together. This works on Mac and Windows, making it a flexible Sketch alternative, but not as seamless as Figma.
Costs
Budgets matter when you’re using your own money. Keep in mind that some licenses offer discounted rates for education and promotions (usually 50% off). For instance, Figma is free if you’re not collaborating in a team. Don’t overlook these special pricing options.
Figma: If you’re working solo, Figma is free! You get up to 3 projects at no cost. For unlimited projects and team features, plans start at $12 per month.
Sketch: Pay $99 for a license and you’ll have the Mac App forever, along with access to all future versions of the app.
Adobe XD: Adobe XD offers free plans based on your personal or team requirements. Paid options begin at $11.89 per month.
Developer Hand-off
Figma’s collaboration features make it easy to share your Figma designs with developers. Designers can be invited as Viewers to review prototypes, leave comments, and export assets—all through a single link.
Sketch uses a web inspector to let developers inspect Sketch files and export assets, even if they’re not using a Mac. Handoff tools like Zeplin also work with Sketch.
Adobe XD offers a development share option. You can mark design files and assets for export, which developers can then download from a single link onto their own computers.
Offline Use
This is a key consideration when comparing Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch. Some online apps allow you to work without Wi-Fi, but full access to open, use, and save within the app while offline is important.
Figma: No, they mentioned in an AMA that they don’t have plans for it currently.
Sketch: Yes, it’s possible.
Adobe XD: Yes, you can work offline.
Symbols
Symbols can make your design process much easier. They’ve completely transformed how we design. Instead of creating and copying elements repeatedly, symbols do it all for you.
Figma
Ready to use! Symbols now come with states, constraints, and overrides.
Sketch
Symbols in Sketch are really impressive and they keep getting better. You can update symbols throughout your entire project and they can resize automatically.
Video:- https://cdn.sketch.com/docs/symbols/create-symbol@2x.mp4
Adobe XD
It provides elements that you can use all over a project and even in different projects. It also lets designers create different versions of an element for various interactions, called component states.
Conclusion
When it comes to choosing between Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD, it’s really up to what you personally prefer. These tools are free and great for modern web design. Many designers really like Figma due to its unique features. But ultimately, the right choice depends on your specific web design requirements and preferences.
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