Figma vs Sketch 2026: Browser Platform or Native Mac Editor

Sketch and Figma are the two design editors most interface designers have used. Sketch came first, as a native Mac app; Figma took the browser and made multiplayer editing the default. In 2026 they still sell to the same people, but they have moved apart. Sketch stays a focused design tool with a Mac editor at its center and lets you bring your own AI. Figma has become a suite with whiteboards, slides, websites, metered AI and developer tooling behind one seat.

Every price below was read from each vendor's own pages in October 2026 ^{[172] [2]}. Annual totals and differences are our arithmetic.

The short answer

Choose Figma if designers, engineers and product people work in the same files, if anyone who edits uses Windows or Linux, or if you want Dev Mode, Code Connect, Figma Make or Sites. Choose Sketch if your designers are all on Macs, value a native app that works offline, want a lower price per editor, and prefer to connect their own AI client rather than buy credits.

The rest of this page explains where that line falls.

## Three apps against one platform

Sketch describes itself as three apps. The Mac app is where design happens; the web app is for developers, managers and stakeholders, who view, inspect and comment; and an iPhone app shows documents and plays prototypes ^[201]. The Mac app requires macOS Sequoia 15.0 or newer ^[212].

Figma edits in the browser on any operating system, with desktop apps on top ^[36]. One seat type decides whether a person edits, builds or comments ^[92]. That single difference settles the choice for many mixed teams before price comes up. Check operating systems first.

How often each ships

Sketch publishes named Mac releases: Dublin on 7 April 2026, Edinburgh on 22 June and Florence on 26 August, with point releases between them ^[212]. Its public roadmap lists component variants and sections, now in beta, faster rendering in complex documents, and agents such as Claude and Codex working inside Sketch ^[198].

Figma ships continuously in the browser. In 2025 and 2026 alone it added Make, Sites, Buzz, Draw, Motion and an agent in Figma Design that became generally available on 6 October 2026 ^[96]. One Trustpilot reviewer complained that new features arrive almost every two weeks ^[167].

## Price per editor

Plan	Price per editor a month, billed yearly
Sketch Standard	$12
Sketch Professional	$24
Sketch Enterprise	$44
Figma Professional, Full seat	$16
Figma Organization, Full seat	$55
Figma Enterprise, Full seat	$90

Sketch prices per editor and gives viewers away ^[172]. Figma prices per seat type: a Full seat edits designs, and cheaper Dev and Collab seats cover engineers and reviewers ^[2].

Five designers for a year

By our arithmetic, five editors cost US$720 a year on Sketch Standard and US$960 on Figma Professional with annual billing. At the next tier up the gap widens: US$1,440 on Sketch Professional against US$3,300 on Figma Organization.

One Figma Full seat costs a third more than one Sketch Standard editor: US$192 a year against US$144. That difference pays for the browser editor, FigJam, Slides, Make and the Dev Mode stack. If your team would use none of those, it pays for nothing.

## A mixed team of twenty

Take five designers, five engineers and ten reviewers. On Sketch, only the five designers need paid seats, because viewers and developer handoff are free: US$720 a year on Standard, by our arithmetic ^[192].

On Figma Professional, five Full seats cost US$960 a year. If the engineers need full Dev Mode, five Dev seats add US$720, and Collab seats for ten reviewers who run FigJam boards or decks add US$360, for US$2,040 in all. If the reviewers only comment, free View seats keep the total at US$1,680.

The comparable tiers are not the same tiers

Sketch's Professional plan adds SSO, project archiving and permissions groups ^[172]. In Figma, SSO starts on Organization ^[93]. So a team that needs SSO pays US$24 per editor a month on Sketch and US$55 per Full seat on Figma, both billed yearly. Two-factor authentication is available to every Sketch account ^[197].

At Enterprise, Sketch adds SCIM provisioning and bring-your-own-key encryption, with custom security reviews and terms from 15 editors ^[172]. Figma Enterprise adds workspaces, seat types set through SCIM and guest restrictions ^[125].

## Free plans and trials

Sketch has no free plan, and says why in its FAQ: free plans, in its view, lead vendors to remove features later to push people to paid tiers ^[172]. It offers a 30-day trial with no credit card ^[172].

Figma has a free Starter plan with three team files, three FigJam files, three Slides files and unlimited drafts ^[129]. There is no separate trial of the paid plans. Sketch's argument against free plans is worth reading next to Figma's Starter limits: both are deliberate choices.

A license you keep

Sketch still sells a Mac-only license for US$120 per seat, with one year of updates ^[172]. When the year is up you can renew, or keep using the last version you updated to ^[199]. Licenses no longer include uploads to a workspace or real-time collaboration ^[199].

Figma has no equivalent. Every Figma plan is a subscription or the free Starter plan ^[2]. For a freelancer who works alone and offline, the license is the cheapest way to own a professional editor.

AI: credits against bring-your-own

This is the largest difference in 2026. Sketch runs an MCP server locally on the Mac, started from the command bar, and says there are "no tokens to buy, no extra tiers, and no add-ons" ^[189]. It works with Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and other MCP clients; you pay your AI provider, not Sketch ^[189].

Figma meters its own AI. A Professional Full seat includes 3,000 credits a month, other seats 500, and more cost extra at rates shown only in the admin dashboard ^{[94] [96]}. Figma's credits buy Figma's own agent, Make and image models, which Sketch does not offer.

What each AI layer can do

Sketch's AI page lists swapping light components for dark ones, filling placeholder text with realistic content, tidying layers, building a palette from a photo, rebuilding styles and components from a code repository, and turning a frame into code ^[189]. All of it runs through the user's own AI client.

Figma's layer is broader and built in: Figma Make builds code-backed prototypes from prompts, the Figma agent edits designs, and image tools remove backgrounds or generate images ^[94]. Its MCP server also connects external agents, with limits of 20 tool calls a month on Starter and View seats and 200 a day on Professional Dev and Full seats ^[155].

Where each stands on AI

Sketch's about page says it puts designers at the heart of what it does, not AI ^[196]. Figma's AI page says its AI workflows help teams build the right thing fast ^[24].

Training matters too. Figma trains on customer content when Content training is on, which is the default on Starter and Professional ^[99]. Sketch says it collects minimal analytics and does not track what you do in your documents ^[196].

Viewers and handoff

Both give viewers away. Sketch invites developers to inspect designs in the browser for free: copy values and CSS, download assets, and export design tokens for color variables, layer styles and text styles ^[192]. Viewers need the document's Can download and inspect permission to export assets ^[204].

Figma's free View seat can view and comment, export, and use basic inspection, including copying CSS, iOS and Android code ^[3]. Full Dev Mode needs a Dev or Full seat ^[92].

Developer tooling beyond inspection

Figma goes further here. Dev Mode adds statuses, change comparison and a dedicated view for engineers ^[118]. Code Connect maps design components to production code from Organization upward ^[93], and the MCP server hands design context to coding agents ^[120].

Sketch's handoff is free and simple, and its MCP server can create code from a frame ^[189]. It has no equivalent of Code Connect or Dev Mode statuses on its published pages.

Real-time collaboration

Sketch includes real-time collaboration on subscriptions: co-editing, following a presenter, and inviting guest editors who already pay for Sketch at no extra cost ^[191]. Editing together requires a subscription ^[202]. Previews can carry passwords and expiry dates ^[191].

Figma made multiplayer its starting point; files are live documents in the browser, and Starter already co-edits on three team files ^[129]. On Sketch, collaborators who edit need the Mac app; on Figma, any browser will do.

Layout and design systems

Sketch's Stacks build layouts that grow or shrink with their content, with sizing options its docs describe as very similar to CSS Flexbox ^[210]. Symbols, with overrides, are its reusable components ^[205], and Color Variables can be exported as color tokens ^[206]. Variants and sections are in beta ^[198].

Figma's equivalents are auto layout, components with variants, and variables with modes: 10 per collection on Professional, 20 on Organization ^[93]. Library analytics and branching start on Organization ^[125].

Prototyping

Sketch prototypes support hover, press and toggle interactions, overlays, multiple start points, Smart Animate transitions and multi-directional scrolling, and can be embedded anywhere ^[193]. Prototypes can be shared by link from the Mac, web or iPhone app ^[207].

Figma prototypes add variables, expressions and conditional logic on paid plans, and can include video ^[93]. Prototype-only sharing, without the source file, is on Professional ^[128].

Whiteboards, slides and websites

Every Figma paid seat includes FigJam and Figma Slides, and the Full seat adds Sites, Make and Draw ^[2]. A Sketch subscription covers design, prototyping and handoff ^[172].

If your team would otherwise pay for a whiteboard and a presentation tool, add that to Figma's side of the ledger. If it already has them, do not. Count what you own.

Integrations

Sketch's workspace integration today is Slack, with more promised ^[208]; its plugin directory adds tools such as Notion and Unsplash ^[200]. Its handoff page also suggests sharing links to the latest design, or a specific version, in GitHub, Jira or Slack, and embedding designs in Notion ^[192]. Figma lists live embeds in Jira, Confluence, Asana and Notion, apps for Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Workspace, and a Zapier connector ^[35].

Storage, hosting and privacy

Sketch gives 50GB of storage per editor on Standard and Professional, and unlimited on Enterprise and Private Cloud ^[172]. Its data sits in Amazon Web Services' us-east-1 region; Private Cloud lets customers choose a hosting location ^[172]. Its file format is open, and local files are supported ^[196].

Figma offers EU hosting for Figma and FigJam files ^[84] and publishes a SOC 2 Type 2 report and ISO 27001 certification ^[37].

Sharing security

Sketch documents are private by default; files and assets use complex temporary URLs that expire, and file names are concealed ^[197]. A permissions directory showing who can open what needs the Professional plan ^[197].

Figma's Professional plan adds password protection, viewer restrictions and prototype-only links ^[128]. Required password protection on links and expiring public links are Enterprise settings ^[93].

Payment and invoices

Sketch takes credit or debit cards only for Standard and the Mac license; Enterprise offers invoices ^[172]. Figma takes credit cards for new Professional upgrades, and invoicing may be possible on Organization ^{[137] [3]}.

Education and nonprofits

Sketch gives verified students and educators a year of free access, with 30 days of use while the application is checked ^[195]. Nonprofits get 50% off a yearly Standard subscription or a Mac license ^[172].

Figma's Education plan is free for verified students and educators, with Professional features ^[3]. Figma offers no nonprofit discount ^[3]. For a registered charity, that alone can decide it. Sketch also lets holders of an old educational license move to a free Education Workspace ^[199].

Canceling

Sketch lets an admin cancel at any time from the web app; access continues to the end of the billing period, then documents go read-only and can be downloaded for 90 days before the workspace is deleted ^[172]. A canceled subscription can be reactivated within those 90 days ^[172].

Figma Professional is canceled by downgrading to Starter at the end of the period ^[137]. Online Organization plans can be canceled only in the 30 days before the term ends, by email ^[59]. Figma payments are non-refundable ^[3].

Moving from Sketch to Figma

Figma imports .sketch files ^[186]. Artboards become frames, pages stay pages, and symbols become components; a Sketch symbol library arrives as a design file that you publish as a library on a paid plan ^[185].

Two things do not travel: styles must be recreated, and local fonts need the desktop app or Figma's font installer ^[185]. Very large files may fail and should be split first ^[185]. For a handful of assets, copying and pasting from Sketch into a Figma file also works ^[185].

Moving the other way

Figma's help center documents imports into Figma, not exports to Sketch. Teams leaving Figma can save local copies of files in Figma's own format ^[153]. Sketch imports bitmap images, SVG and PDF documents ^[211]. Plan for a rebuild, not a conversion. Budget the time.

A regional note

Sketch says it can no longer support direct purchases from customers in India from 15 July 2026; buyers there go through partners ^[172]. Figma lists five billing currencies in its help center ^[140].

What Figma users complain about

Figma's Trustpilot profile shows 2.0 from 241 reviews; in our 100-review sample, 32 concern billing, seats or cancellation, and 15 concern AI credits ^[167]. We did not collect a comparable review corpus for Sketch, so we draw no comparison on sentiment.

A third option: Penpot

If neither fits, Penpot is the open-source editor that runs in the browser at design.penpot.app or on your own server with basic Docker knowledge ^[213]. Its hosted Professional plan is free, and Unlimited costs US$7 per editor a month with a US$175 monthly cap ^[171].

Penpot publishes a migration guide for teams leaving Figma, using a Penpot Exporter plugin; Figma's auto layout becomes Flex and Grid layouts in Penpot ^[214].

Who should pick Sketch

A Mac-only design team that works offline, does not need whiteboards or slides, and wants a predictable price per editor. A team that already pays for Claude, Cursor or Codex and wants AI without a second meter. A nonprofit that can use the 50% discount. A designer who prefers to own a license rather than rent one.

Who should pick Figma

Any team with Windows or Linux users, any team where engineers and product managers work in the same files, and anyone who wants Dev Mode, Code Connect, Make or Sites. Budget for the higher seat price and for AI credits.

## Verdict

Sketch is the better-value Mac editor and the more private one; Figma is the better platform. For most product teams the platform wins, because the collaboration and handoff it adds would otherwise be bought separately. For a small Mac studio designing client work, Sketch's simpler pricing, bring-your-own AI and plain cancellation terms are worth a serious look.