design software · Tool Face-Off

Adobe XD vs Figma

Quick answer

Figma has largely won this battle — Adobe XD is officially discontinued for new features, while Figma keeps shipping. XD still works if you're deep in the Adobe ecosystem, but for most teams Figma is the obvious choice.

Adobe XD

Adobe's UI/UX design tool, now in maintenance mode

3.1★

Figma

The browser-first design tool that took over the industry

4.6★

Free Tier

1 active project, limited sharing

Unlimited drafts, 3 team projects

Starting Paid Price

Included in Creative Cloud (~$54/mo full suite)

~$12/seat/mo (Professional)

Real-time Multiplayer

Coediting added late, still clunky

Rock-solid, up to hundreds of cursors

Runs in Browser

No — desktop app only

Yes — no install required

Component/Variant System

Basic components, no variants

Full variants & component properties

Plugins & Community

Small plugin ecosystem

Thousands of plugins, huge community

Dev Handoff

Via Adobe Creative Cloud or Zeplin

Built-in Dev Mode (inspect, copy code)

Auto-Layout

Responsive resize, limited

Advanced auto-layout with wrapping

Adobe Suite Integration

Native — Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects

Third-party plugins needed

Active Development

No — feature updates discontinued

Yes — frequent major releases

Offline Use

Full offline support

Limited offline via desktop app

FigJam / Whiteboard

No equivalent

FigJam included in paid plans

Adobe XD

Pricing★★★☆☆

Features★★★☆☆

Ease of Use★★★★☆

Prototyping★★★½☆

Integrations★★★½☆

Collaboration★★½☆☆

Community & Resources★★½☆☆

Figma

Pricing★★★★☆

Features★★★★½

Ease of Use★★★★½

Prototyping★★★★½

Integrations★★★★½

Collaboration★★★★★

Community & Resources★★★★★

Worth knowing

Adobe announced it would stop developing new features for XD in 2023, effectively putting it in hospice care.
Figma reached a $10 billion valuation before Adobe tried (and failed) to acquire it for $20 billion.
Figma's multiplayer was built from scratch using CRDTs — the same tech behind Google Docs.
XD was launched in 2016 and was genuinely competitive for about four years.
Figma has a dedicated education plan that gives students and teachers free access to full features.

Adobe tried to buy Figma for $20 billion — more than 50x Figma's revenue at the time — and regulators still said no. Adobe then just... gave up on XD. Ouch.

If you want

You're already paying for Adobe Creative Cloud and work solo

XD is included at no extra cost and integrates natively with Photoshop and Illustrator.

→ Pick Adobe XD

If you want

You work on any kind of team

Figma's real-time collaboration is unmatched — there's simply no contest.

→ Pick Figma

If you want

You want the best prototyping and component system

Figma's variants, auto-layout, and prototype interactions are miles ahead of XD's frozen feature set.

→ Pick Figma

If you want

You're starting fresh and learning UI/UX design

Massive community, free templates, tutorials everywhere — Figma is the industry standard employers expect.

→ Pick Figma

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