Figma vs Adobe XD – With the advent of Figma in 2016 and the beta release of Adobe XD in the same year, these two applications competed for user market share. Both Figma and Adobe are here to help designers and people who work in software development, especially UI/UX Designers.
Since its initial release, these two design tools, namely Figma and Adobe XD, have competed with each other to be the best. With their respective advantages, we as users are confused about which tools to choose which are suitable for the design project we are working on.
In this article, fernn.id will try to compare the two. Hopefully it can be a reference for you when deciding which tools to use.
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Figma vs Adobe XD, which is better in 2022?
Figma is a collaborative, online-based vector design tool. This app has been attracting attention since its launch because it brings its own uniqueness than its predecessors. Due to its collaborative nature, multiple people can work on the same design file in Figma at the same time.
Figma is very popular among professional UI/UX designers because of its easy-to-use interface. There is a desktop and Web-based version of Figma, while Adobe XD only offers a desktop version. Figma helps the design team stay ahead but also without neglecting the role of the developer or product manager.
While Adobe XD is a vector-based design tool developed by one of the largest application development companies, Adobe. Five years after its release, Adobe occasionally launches new features, and tries to keep up with the ever-increasing expectations of designers.
This is done so that Adobe XD will always be the tool of choice for designers and still overshadow Figma in the competition.
1. Price packages offered
Both Figma and Adobe XD offer free starter plans. For those of you who don’t have the budget to subscribe to design tools, you don’t need to worry, because both of them provide a free version.
Figma has a free starter pack of up to two editors and three projects. Also provides version history (editing history) up to 30 days and unlimited cloud storage in the free version. Paid plans consist of individuals and organizations. Individual plans cost $12 to $15 USD per editor, per month; enterprise/organization plan, which is $45 per editor, per month.
While Adobe XD in the free version provides collaboration for only 2 co-editors and only one active design link. Also available is a document history of up to 10 days and cloud storage limited to 2GB.
In terms of features available for the free version, Figma is superior to Adobe XD. However, XD is slightly cheaper for the subscription plans they offer.
2. Supported platforms
Figma is a browser-based application that supports editing in any WebGL-enabled browser. Users can see the design in progress in a desktop browser. Figma also offers desktop applications for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems.
Using the Figma Mirror app, users can preview their designs on a mobile device to see how it looks and feels on a real device. This app lets users preview static designs and interactive prototypes.
Adobe XD is a desktop-based application and is available on Windows and Mac OS X. Users can preview web designs in the browser and get feedback on designs that have already been created. To see the mobile version of the design, we need to install the Adobe XD application on the iOS or Android platform.
Figma excels in that it can run on Chrome OS and Linux, as well as Windows and Mac OS, whereas Adobe XD only runs on Windows or Mac OS.
3. Collaboration and Screen Sharing
Both Figma and Adobe XD allow users to collaborate and share screens with fellow designers, stakeholders or clients.
Figma allows multiple users to log in and edit the same document at the same time. Each user’s avatar appears to the right of the toolbar. Each user avatar has a different color and, within the workspace, the person’s name appears in the pointer.
Figma automatically saves any updates to the design and document you are working on. If we’re working on a project together and a change occurs, members on the team are immediately notified and can update what they see, keeping all team members’ screens up to date. No manual file uploads, downloads or merging required.
Collaboration is the main function that is at the core of Figma. Since Figma is a web-based application, the collaboration features are very accessible. The collaboration features that differentiate Figma from Adobe XD are the observation mode, team library, seamless sync process, and updating of changes to shared assets.
In this aspect Figma won a landslide victory against Adobe XD.
4. Design Interaction
Figma and Adobe XD both provide users with a wide range of design interaction options. However, in Figma, users can only define one interaction per UI element. In contrast, Adobe XD lets users define two interactions per element—for example, click and highlight.
So, for this aspect Adobe XD is superior mainly because of its ability to trigger multiple interactions per design element.
5. Hand over the design to the developer team
The developer hand-off feature in Figma allows users to embed specifications in documents. After sharing the design link, we don’t need to republish and share the document again and again because the specifications will always be updated automatically when changes occur. Developers just have to check the design file, take a code snippet, and look at the notes.
In contrast, Adobe XD provides a separate spec sheet that users can publish as a link for others to access. Because it is necessary to republish this spec sheet every time a designer makes edits to a design, Adobe XD does not provide a good user experience.
Figma is the winner in this section for its ability to update documents that have been shared without resubmitting them to the developer.
6. Comment feature on the design sheet
In Figma, we as users can add comments when designing prototypes. Plus, reviewers can add comments while reviewing prototypes. In Adobe XD, reviewers can comment on a prototype only after we create a link to the prototype.
Figma comes out victorious here.
7. Review of design documents
Both Figma and Adobe XD provide a way to preview documents. When the user clicks the Present/Show Design icon in Figma to run the prototype, it takes a little time to load the entire process into the browser.
Whereas in Adobe XD, users can create a link to a mockup design, then share it with a client or manager, allowing them to view and comment on the mockup.
Adobe X excels over Figma because we can add voice narration when presenting design documents. This is a great feature for people who work in different time zones or who have very busy schedules.
Also, because Adobe XD runs locally on the user’s computer, prototypes appear quickly when we run it, compared to Figma’s slower load time.
Adobe XD is a winner in this aspect due to its voice narration feature and faster load times when viewing prototypes in Desktop Preview mode.
