15 ms·

One thing I think people aren't pointing out is how much Figma seems to have done [1] to make the web platform work for them in the way Sketch is describing the

One thing I think people aren't pointing out is how much Figma seems to have done [1] to make the web platform work for them in the way Sketch is describing the Mac App. It almost seems like a technical moat of sorts. Achieving the ridiculous snappiness Figma in browsers is certainly non-trivial. [1] https://www.figma.com/blog/building-a-professional-design-tool-on-the-web/ https://www.figma.com/blog/building-a-professional-design-to...

pupdogg 6y ago
Every single day I’m finding myself using more and more Figma over my standard workflow tools like Photoshop and Illustrator...I just absolutely love how fast and snappy it is.
- JKCalhoun 6y ago
  I must be the only one that refuses to pay for a software subscription. But I'm not a pro, don't have corporate to pay for my license, may only use a drawing, design, paint program occasionally.
  - jordankoschei 6y ago
    Figma is free unless you need team functionality.
    - deltron3030 6y ago
      You need the team plan if you want to share a design tokens/components across projects, for example a color palette.
  - voodoomagicman 6y ago
    There is a really useful free tier - I think the paid tier mostly includes collaboration features.
    - LegitShady 6y ago
      I had a recent experience with autodesk that shows that free tiers can disappear or be neutered after you've invested significant time and energy into them. If you just owned that version of the software it would work forever instead you are at the mercy of the platform forever. Caveat emptor
      - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
        It's not just free tiers. Imagine the comments here in a decades time when Figma goes full Adobe and starts to squeeze every last drop of blood out of their customer base.
        LegitShady 6y ago
        when the article about not being able to run adobe CS1/2 came up I nervously eyed my copy of CS6 from 2012...
      - arvinsim 6y ago
        Except some non-subscription software are still SaaS in disguise. Take a look at Sketch. You can use a file on future versions...but up to a point. If you hit that limit, you will have to buy the upgrade.
        LegitShady 6y ago
        I don't use sketch, so I don't know anything about it. It's mac only and while i have an ipad pro and an iphone, I don't own a mac and dont want one, and thats a mac only app. I'm not sure why sketch would have the restrictions they have except that forever supporting old formats might be more expensive than they could justify.
  - nbzso 6y ago
    I am pro and don't use cloud software in production, actually this is a clause in contract for my clients. They care about quality not trendiness. Downvotes on your comment are telling me that this is the new JS topic. Oh no.... :)
    - eightysixfour 6y ago
      I think there are plenty of things to knock cloud based SaaS tools for but quality is a weird one - there are plenty of high quality cloud based solutions that can deliver high quality outputs.
      - nbzso 6y ago
        Sorry, my english is not polished enough to express my point of view properly. I will try again. When I talk about quality it is in context applied to servicing my clients. In context of UX/UI and graphical design. When using a traditionally licensed software I own a tool. I can do my professional work with this tool and make a profit. New features add extra functionality and if I have a business case for this new functionality I can invest. But in most of use cases I can do my work with previous version with base functionality. Life cycle of graphic software must be long. Thats why I use Affinty software for design and avoid Adobe products. I know what my ROI is. My software is not bloated with background web services and notifications.
- billylindeman 6y ago
  IDK if I'm the only one but figma feels lightyears away from sketch in snapiness, but the multiplayer features of figma are what give it the edge.
  - weixiyen 6y ago
    Agree, Figma is definitely slower, but Sketch has issues too when there are too many objects in the workspace. I think if Sketch made their performance 10x better, then I'd agree that native apps are better, but it's more like a 1.2x than a 10x.
- piyush_soni 6y ago
  Am I the only one that finds figma a little complicated to use (I mean, I didn't find it intuitive enough). But then again designing is not my job, I'm just a developer who thought of trying it after so many people praised it.
sergiotapia 6y ago
Figma user here, I wouldn't call it snappy. Feels just about the same as any other design tool I've used in the past (as a dev, consumer -- not the designer).
Justsignedup 6y ago
figma is pretty freaken amazing, and it works outside of macs. So overall there is nothing but upsides to it. Collaboration is amazing too. Just... No down sides.
- nikitaga 6y ago
  > No down sides Figma is significantly more expensive than Sketch, e.g. for individuals: $144/year vs ($99 for first year + $79 for next years), and that's if you choose to upgrade Sketch every year, which you don't need to. Figma also doesn't really work offline.
  - fyfy18 6y ago
    Figma have a free plan which works perfectly fine for my purposes (implementing designs given to me by designers, and very occasionally making my own).
- EvilEy3 6y ago
  Atrocious performance and memory usage. I have to always close tab after I'm done with Figma or laptop crawls.
- achow 6y ago
  Fan of Figma, but would switch to a better one in a heartbeat because of the following huge downside.. Once you are in Figma, you are trapped forever. No way to get out your original editable artwork files. Buyer beware!
  - Griffinsauce 6y ago
    That goes for nearly all design software...
    - achow 6y ago
      Not really. I could switch to Figma from Sketch very easily because I could upload my Sketch files in Figma and Figma could deconstruct them into layers and elements with even layer names intact! Vice versa? No. Even Photoshop files .PSD are readable in many other photo editing apps. Figma.. no never.
valuearb 6y ago
It’s snappy for a web app. If it was a native app it would be mediocre.
- shp0ngle 6y ago
  the thing with web apps is - it's slow, but it is the Java's original goal from the 90s "write once, run everywhere" actually realized. Plus, built-in collaborativeness and automatic updates. And, easier to get developers. Native is nice, native is fast, and it will have its place (compare how bad is Google Meet compared to Zoom with respect to CPU/RAM), but web is becoming "good enough".
  - andrekandre 6y ago
    > write once, run everywhere thats rarely true for complex web apps... (doubly true if your using firefox)
  - arrayjumper 6y ago
    > Native is nice, native is fast Only if you are using a Mac. On linux, the zoom client is neither fast nor (in my admittedly slightly subjective opinion) nice.
    - monsieurbanana 6y ago
      That's an interesting anecdote, as I've only used zoom on linux, but not really related to what you quoted.
      - arrayjumper 6y ago
        Interesting. I'm curious what machine spec you're on. I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 on an dell laptop (XPS 7590 with an i9 processor, 32gb ram, discrete Nvidia graphics card). I see my processor spin up to 90% utilization whenever I do a zoom call.
    - WolfRazu 6y ago
      Zoom is Electron isn't it? That's not native.

pupdogg 6y ago

Every single day I’m finding myself using more and more Figma over my standard workflow tools like Photoshop and Illustrator...I just absolutely love how fast and snappy it is.

JKCalhoun 6y ago
I must be the only one that refuses to pay for a software subscription. But I'm not a pro, don't have corporate to pay for my license, may only use a drawing, design, paint program occasionally.
- jordankoschei 6y ago
  Figma is free unless you need team functionality.
  - deltron3030 6y ago
    You need the team plan if you want to share a design tokens/components across projects, for example a color palette.
- voodoomagicman 6y ago
  There is a really useful free tier - I think the paid tier mostly includes collaboration features.
  - LegitShady 6y ago
    I had a recent experience with autodesk that shows that free tiers can disappear or be neutered after you've invested significant time and energy into them. If you just owned that version of the software it would work forever instead you are at the mercy of the platform forever. Caveat emptor
    - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
      It's not just free tiers. Imagine the comments here in a decades time when Figma goes full Adobe and starts to squeeze every last drop of blood out of their customer base.
      - LegitShady 6y ago
        when the article about not being able to run adobe CS1/2 came up I nervously eyed my copy of CS6 from 2012...
    - arvinsim 6y ago
      Except some non-subscription software are still SaaS in disguise. Take a look at Sketch. You can use a file on future versions...but up to a point. If you hit that limit, you will have to buy the upgrade.
      - LegitShady 6y ago
        I don't use sketch, so I don't know anything about it. It's mac only and while i have an ipad pro and an iphone, I don't own a mac and dont want one, and thats a mac only app. I'm not sure why sketch would have the restrictions they have except that forever supporting old formats might be more expensive than they could justify.
- nbzso 6y ago
  I am pro and don't use cloud software in production, actually this is a clause in contract for my clients. They care about quality not trendiness. Downvotes on your comment are telling me that this is the new JS topic. Oh no.... :)
  - eightysixfour 6y ago
    I think there are plenty of things to knock cloud based SaaS tools for but quality is a weird one - there are plenty of high quality cloud based solutions that can deliver high quality outputs.
    - nbzso 6y ago
      Sorry, my english is not polished enough to express my point of view properly. I will try again. When I talk about quality it is in context applied to servicing my clients. In context of UX/UI and graphical design. When using a traditionally licensed software I own a tool. I can do my professional work with this tool and make a profit. New features add extra functionality and if I have a business case for this new functionality I can invest. But in most of use cases I can do my work with previous version with base functionality. Life cycle of graphic software must be long. Thats why I use Affinty software for design and avoid Adobe products. I know what my ROI is. My software is not bloated with background web services and notifications.
billylindeman 6y ago
IDK if I'm the only one but figma feels lightyears away from sketch in snapiness, but the multiplayer features of figma are what give it the edge.
- weixiyen 6y ago
  Agree, Figma is definitely slower, but Sketch has issues too when there are too many objects in the workspace. I think if Sketch made their performance 10x better, then I'd agree that native apps are better, but it's more like a 1.2x than a 10x.
piyush_soni 6y ago
Am I the only one that finds figma a little complicated to use (I mean, I didn't find it intuitive enough). But then again designing is not my job, I'm just a developer who thought of trying it after so many people praised it.

sergiotapia 6y ago

Figma user here, I wouldn't call it snappy. Feels just about the same as any other design tool I've used in the past (as a dev, consumer -- not the designer).

Justsignedup 6y ago

figma is pretty freaken amazing, and it works outside of macs. So overall there is nothing but upsides to it. Collaboration is amazing too. Just... No down sides.

nikitaga 6y ago
> No down sides Figma is significantly more expensive than Sketch, e.g. for individuals: $144/year vs ($99 for first year + $79 for next years), and that's if you choose to upgrade Sketch every year, which you don't need to. Figma also doesn't really work offline.
- fyfy18 6y ago
  Figma have a free plan which works perfectly fine for my purposes (implementing designs given to me by designers, and very occasionally making my own).
EvilEy3 6y ago
Atrocious performance and memory usage. I have to always close tab after I'm done with Figma or laptop crawls.
achow 6y ago
Fan of Figma, but would switch to a better one in a heartbeat because of the following huge downside.. Once you are in Figma, you are trapped forever. No way to get out your original editable artwork files. Buyer beware!
- Griffinsauce 6y ago
  That goes for nearly all design software...
  - achow 6y ago
    Not really. I could switch to Figma from Sketch very easily because I could upload my Sketch files in Figma and Figma could deconstruct them into layers and elements with even layer names intact! Vice versa? No. Even Photoshop files .PSD are readable in many other photo editing apps. Figma.. no never.

valuearb 6y ago

It’s snappy for a web app. If it was a native app it would be mediocre.

shp0ngle 6y ago
the thing with web apps is - it's slow, but it is the Java's original goal from the 90s "write once, run everywhere" actually realized. Plus, built-in collaborativeness and automatic updates. And, easier to get developers. Native is nice, native is fast, and it will have its place (compare how bad is Google Meet compared to Zoom with respect to CPU/RAM), but web is becoming "good enough".
- andrekandre 6y ago
  > write once, run everywhere thats rarely true for complex web apps... (doubly true if your using firefox)
- arrayjumper 6y ago
  > Native is nice, native is fast Only if you are using a Mac. On linux, the zoom client is neither fast nor (in my admittedly slightly subjective opinion) nice.
  - monsieurbanana 6y ago
    That's an interesting anecdote, as I've only used zoom on linux, but not really related to what you quoted.
    - arrayjumper 6y ago
      Interesting. I'm curious what machine spec you're on. I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 on an dell laptop (XPS 7590 with an i9 processor, 32gb ram, discrete Nvidia graphics card). I see my processor spin up to 90% utilization whenever I do a zoom call.
  - WolfRazu 6y ago
    Zoom is Electron isn't it? That's not native.