Figma vs Sketch Comparison

The future of design: cloud-based, real-time collaboration

VS
Sketch

A macOS-exclusive, fast, mature vector design tool

7 min readAraçlar

Quick Verdict

In 2025, Figma became the industry standard — especially for team collaboration, design-system management, and developer handoff. Choose Sketch only for macOS-locked teams and offline-work requirements. If you haven't switched to Figma yet, now is the right time.

FigmaSketch
Read the full verdict

Score Comparison

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Detailed Scoring

Detailed Scoring: Figma and Sketch — category-by-category scores out of 10
CategoryFigmaSketch
Performance
8/10
9/10
Ease of Learning
9/10
8/10
Ecosystem
10/10
7/10
Community
10/10
7/10
Job Market
10/10
6/10
Future-Proof
9/10
5/10

Pros & Cons

Figma

Pros

  • Real-time, multi-user collaboration — like Google Docs
  • Browser-based — Windows, Linux, macOS — platform independent
  • Powerful component-library and design-token management
  • Dev Mode automatically extracts CSS/Swift code for developers
  • Responsive components with Auto Layout
  • An extremely rich plugin ecosystem
  • FigJam built in for whiteboarding and brainstorming
  • Design generation and transformation with Figma AI

Cons

  • Requires an internet connection (offline mode is limited)
  • Browser performance can degrade on large files
  • Adobe's acquisition was called off, but uncertainty remains
  • The free plan is limited to 3 projects
  • The desktop app is really just an Electron wrapper

Best For

Collaborative design across remote teamsManaging large design systemsDeveloper-designer handoffCross-platform product design (web + mobile)Rapid prototyping with Figma AI

Sketch

Pros

  • Native macOS — fast, low memory footprint
  • Offline work — no internet dependency
  • A powerful, mature Symbols system
  • Good integration with tools like Zeplin and Abstract
  • Optimized for iOS Human Interface Guidelines compliance
  • Smart component resizing with resizing handles
  • A strong plugin API and mature ecosystem
  • A one-time-license option is available

Cons

  • macOS only — Windows and Linux users can't access it
  • Real-time collaboration isn't as strong as Figma's
  • Doesn't have as large or active a community as Figma
  • Figma leads for web and other-platform design work
  • New adoption is declining — the industry is moving to Figma

Best For

iOS-focused studios with an all-macOS teamEnvironments requiring offline workSmall teams and solo designersProjects with an existing Sketch libraryiOS/macOS-specific design projects

Code Comparison

Figma
// Figma API - Exporting design tokens to code
// Token extraction from a Figma file with a Node.js script
const axios = require('axios');

const FIGMA_TOKEN = process.env.FIGMA_TOKEN;
const FILE_KEY = 'your-figma-file-key';

async function extractDesignTokens() {
  const response = await axios.get(
    \`https://api.figma.com/v1/files/\${FILE_KEY}/variables/local\`,
    { headers: { 'X-Figma-Token': FIGMA_TOKEN } }
  );

  const { variables, variableCollections } = response.data.meta;

  // Convert tokens to Swift
  const swiftTokens = Object.values(variables)
    .filter(v => v.resolvedType === 'COLOR')
    .map(variable => {
      const value = variable.valuesByMode[Object.keys(variable.valuesByMode)[0]];
      const { r, g, b, a } = value;
      return \`  static let \${variable.name.replace(/[/-]/g, '_').toLowerCase()} = Color(red: \${r.toFixed(3)}, green: \${g.toFixed(3)}, blue: \${b.toFixed(3)}, opacity: \${a.toFixed(3)})\`;
    })
    .join('\\n');

  const swiftFile = \`import SwiftUI

extension Color {
\${swiftTokens}
}\`;

  require('fs').writeFileSync('DesignTokens.swift', swiftFile);
  console.log('DesignTokens.swift generated!');
}

extractDesignTokens();
Sketch
// Sketch plugin API - Exporting a style library
// Sketch JavaScript API (CocoaScript based)
@import 'sketch/dom';

function exportTextStyles(context) {
  const document = sketch.getSelectedDocument();
  const textStyles = document.sharedTextStyles;

  const swiftCode = textStyles.map(style => {
    const { name, style: { fontSize, fontFamily, fontWeight } } = style;
    const swiftName = name.replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/g, '_').toLowerCase();

    return \`  static let \${swiftName} = Font.custom("\${fontFamily}", size: \${fontSize})\`;
  }).join('\\n');

  const output = \`import SwiftUI

extension Font {
\${swiftCode}
}\`;

  // Save to file
  const filePath = NSString.pathWithComponents([
    NSTemporaryDirectory(),
    'DesignSystem.swift'
  ]);

  output.writeToFile_atomically_encoding_error(
    filePath, true,
    NSUTF8StringEncoding, null
  );

  sketch.UI.message('DesignSystem.swift generated: ' + filePath);
}

// A Sketch-like workflow with Figma MCP
// The Figma MCP Server gives direct access
// to design data from the code-generation environment

Conclusion

In 2025, Figma became the industry standard — especially for team collaboration, design-system management, and developer handoff. Choose Sketch only for macOS-locked teams and offline-work requirements. If you haven't switched to Figma yet, now is the right time.

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FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Professional is $12/month/seat, Organization is $45/month/seat. The free plan includes 3 projects and limited collaboration. Free Professional access is available for students and educators.

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