Sketch
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a Mac-based UI designer or small studio that wants an affordable native design tool; most collaborative product teams will be better served by Figma.
Comparison
Sketch vs Figma
Sketch 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 | Sketch | Figma |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Mac-based UI/UX designers | Product and UX teams shipping software who design together daily |
| Who it's not for | Windows or Linux teams . Sketch runs on Mac only | 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 | Publishes security measures and states at least one annual penetration test; one CVE (2021) appears in public vulnerability databases.⁵ | 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 | Reviewers generally describe Sketch as solid, affordable design software, though a minority of UX practitioners call it overrated.⁸ | 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.14 |
| Biggest gotcha | No free tier . every editor pays from day one, even solo users³ | 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 Sketch when
- Mac-based UI/UX designers
- Freelancers and small design studios
- Budget-conscious teams avoiding Figma pricing
- Designers who prefer a native offline app
When Sketch is not a fit
- Windows or Linux teams . Sketch runs on Mac only
- Teams needing real-time multiplayer editing at scale
- Non-designers who just want quick social graphics . use Canva
- Anyone expecting a free plan . there isn't one
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
- Sketch Pricing 2026: $12-$44/editor/monthcostbench.comreview
- Sketch Pricing | Capterracapterra.comreview
- About Sketchsketch.comofficial
- Sketch Securitysketch.comofficial
- Sketch Security Vulnerabilities . Vulnersvulners.comsecurity
- Sketch raises $20m Series A from Benchmark . TechCrunchtechcrunch.comnews
review
- Review of Sketch: Pricing, Pros, Consfirstsales.ioreview
- Sketch Software Reviews . SoftwareAdvicesoftwareadvice.comreview
official
review
- anybody using sketch . Reddit r/Designreddit.comreview
- Figma Review: The Good and Bad (Crazy Egg)crazyegg.comreview
official