Linearity
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy it if you design on iPad or Mac and want AI-assisted, editable on-brand campaign graphics without Adobe's subscription.
New check
Comparison
Linearity vs Figma
Linearity and Figma both land on Depends.
Figma
Depends
Confidence: High
Buy it if you are a product or design team building user interfaces together every week . it is the category standard and the free tier is genuinely usable.
| Compare | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Solo designers on iPad/Mac | Product and UX teams shipping software who design together daily |
| Who it's not for | Windows or Android-only teams. Linearity is Apple-first | Solo freelancers or small teams that only need occasional simple mockups . a paid seat plan here is overkill; Penpot, Balsamiq, or even a template will do |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.12 | Figma advertises SOC 2 Type 2, SSO, and a trust center, but 2025 was rough: Figma's own Data Processing Addendum discloses a security breach caused by a command injection, a command-injection CVE exists in Figma Desktop for Windows, and two RCE vulnerabilities were found in the third-party Framelink Figma MCP server that many teams connect to Figma. |
| Public sentiment | Users praise Linearity's intuitive iPad design experience, but many complain about forced cloud storage and steep pricing.¹ | Aggregate sentiment is strongly positive on the core product . 4.6 stars on G2 with real-time collaboration as the standout strength and users saying it speeds up layout work significantly.15 |
| Biggest gotcha | Pricing anger is common. 'Their pricing is surreal'. Check renewal costs before committing.² | Seat-type sprawl is the big trap: full editor seats, Dev Mode seats, and cheap collaborator seats (around $5/month) mean your real cost depends on who touches files . model this before committing |
Pick Linearity when
- Solo designers on iPad/Mac
- Marketing teams needing on-brand campaign graphics
- Startups wanting an Illustrator-lite
- Beginners in motion graphics (Move)
When Linearity is not a fit
- Windows or Android-only teams. Linearity is Apple-first
- Pros needing full Illustrator or After Effects power
- Teams that require local file storage, cloud is forced
- Budget buyers tired of subscription pricing
Pick Figma when
- Product and UX teams shipping software who design together daily
- Design systems teams maintaining shared component libraries
- Startups through enterprises that want designers and developers on one canvas
- Teams that want the de facto industry tool with the largest community and plugin ecosystem
When Figma is not a fit
- Solo freelancers or small teams that only need occasional simple mockups . a paid seat plan here is overkill; Penpot, Balsamiq, or even a template will do
- Non-design teams (marketing, ops) that just want a whiteboard . Miro or Google Slides is the right-sized tool
- Budget-sensitive orgs planning to put many engineers on it . Dev Mode seat pricing drew open revolt from users, so the bill scales badly with dev headcount
- Buyers who need offline or self-hosted control of design data . Figma is cloud-first, and offline-first alternatives exist for that reason
Sources
review
review
- Reddit . The forced Linearity Cloudreddit.comreview
- Macline . Linearity has become the everything app for designmacline.substack.comreview
- Paperlike . Linearity Curve Review 2026paperlike.comreview
- Capterra . Reviews of Linearity Curvecapterra.comreview
- App Store . Linearity Curve ratings and reviewsapps.apple.comreview
- Linearity . Pricing planslinearity.ioofficial
- Linearity . Switching from Starter to Prolinearity.ioofficial
- Linearity Support . Payments and planssupport.linearity.ioofficial
- Linearity . Product security pagelinearity.iosecurity
official
- Figma Review: The Good and Bad (Crazy Egg)crazyegg.comreview