--- title: "Sketch vs. Figma in 2026: Which One You Should Choose!" url: "https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/blog/sketch-vs-figma-in-2026-which-one-you-should-choose" language: "en" description: "In 2026, Figma is the de facto standard in UX design. When Sketch still makes sense – and why there's no way around Figma if you care about your career." published: "2025-11-30T09:00:00+01:00" updated: "2026-10-14T09:50:32+02:00" --- # Sketch vs. Figma in 2026: Which One You Should Choose! In 2026, Figma is the de facto standard in UX design. When Sketch still makes sense – and why there's no way around Figma for your career. When I was job hunting in 2025, I took a close look at more than 60 job postings for UX designers. The result was sobering, but also clear-cut: exactly one single posting mentioned Sketch. The rest? Figma, Figma, Figma. That number is no coincidence. It reflects a development I've witnessed firsthand over the past few years as a UX designer with more than 10 years of experience working with developers: by 2025, Figma had established itself as the de facto standard. The question is no longer "Sketch or Figma?" but rather "Are there still any reasons to use Sketch?" **TLDR:** In 2026, Figma is the clear standard in UX design – especially if you work with developers. Sketch still has a few niche advantages for Mac users, but for your career and effective teamwork, there's no way around Figma. ## **Why Developer Collaboration Is Everything** In my more than 10 years as a UX designer, I've delivered numerous larger software projects – most of them based on Quasar and Material Design. What I've learned along the way: the best UI design software is the one that gets in the way of the design-to-development workflow the least. ### **Variables & Styles: The Foundation of Modern Design Systems** In all of my projects, I defined every important parameter as a design token from the very start: colors, typography, spacing, shadows – simply everything. The result? Communication with developers became much easier. There were no more endless discussions about color values or spacing, because everything was clearly defined. This is exactly where the fundamental difference between Figma and Sketch in 2025 shows: **Figma's Variables** are a game changer. You can define tokens for colors, numbers, text, and even booleans. These can be organized into collections and even work with modes – perfect for dark mode, multiple brands, or responsive breakpoints. The integration into the entire design system is seamless, and developers can read these values directly. **Sketch's symbol system** works too, but in 2025 it feels more like an outdated solution. Overrides are less flexible, scalability is more limited, and communicating with developers requires more manual documentation. ### **Developer Handoff: From Design to Code** The moment a design is handed off to development often determines whether a project succeeds. This is where the wheat is separated from the chaff. **Figma's Inspect feature** has matured to the point where developers get all the relevant information without any additional plugins: exact spacing, color codes, CSS properties, iOS and Android code snippets. Everything is available right in the browser. No download, no installation needed. **Sketch** requires external tools like Zeplin or Avocode for a similar workflow. That means extra costs, more accounts, and more potential sources of error. In practice, this often leads to friction that costs time and nerves. ### **Live Collaboration: The Real Game Changer** This is where the difference between the two tools is most obvious. I remember a project where we sat together live in the Figma file during a design review: designer, front-end developer, and product owner, all at the same time. We could make changes, discuss, and make decisions in real time. The developer voiced his technical objections right away, I adjusted the design, and in the end we had a result everyone was on board with. With Sketch? You design alone, export, share, wait for feedback, adjust, share again. This asynchronous workflow simply takes too much time. **Figma's real-time collaboration** works like Google Docs for design. Multiple people can work at the same time, leave comments, and see each other's cursors. That's not just a "nice to have" – it fundamentally changes how teams work together. ## **AI and the Future: Who's Better Positioned?** In 2025, no UX designer can ignore AI anymore. The question is: which tool integrates AI meaningfully into the workflow? ### **Figma's AI Integration and the Ecosystem** Figma has already integrated several AI features: auto layout improvements, content suggestions, automatic layer naming. But the real advantage lies in the ecosystem. Tools like UX Pilot show where things are heading. UX Pilot is an AI tool that can be used directly alongside Figma and lets you generate complete screen designs and landing pages from a prompt. You can create wireframes, develop high-fidelity designs, and even generate entire screen flows – all based on natural-language descriptions. What makes it special: the generated designs can be imported directly into Figma. Not as images, but as fully editable designs with all their layers, styles, and components. I personally love using UX Pilot for quick prototypes or when I want to explore several design variations. The generated designs are a solid starting point that I then refine to my liking. ### **Sketch's AI Approach** Sketch also introduced some AI features in 2025, mainly around asset generation and layout optimization. However, it lacks seamless integration with external AI tools like UX Pilot. That's mostly because Sketch is a desktop app, while Figma's browser-based approach offers far more integration options. ## **Sketch in 2025: When Does It Still Make Sense?** Fairness matters to me, so I also want to highlight the situations in which Sketch can still be a valid option: ### **Native Mac Performance** Sketch is and remains a native Mac application. If you work exclusively on a Mac and care a lot about performance, Sketch can sometimes run more smoothly than Figma in the browser with very complex files. That said, this advantage shrinks with every Chrome optimization and every Figma update. ### **One-Time Payment vs. Subscription Model** Sketch still offers a Mac app license with no mandatory subscription (even though updates cost extra). Figma is purely subscription-based. For freelancers who rarely work in teams and want to keep costs down, that can be relevant. ### **Existing Workflows** If your entire team has been working with Sketch for years, all the libraries are established, and switching to Figma would mean too much disruption in the short term, a gradual transition makes more sense than an immediate switch. *But: all of these points are temporary exceptions. In the long run, there's no way around Figma.* ## **Figma in 2025: Why It's the Standard** ### **Platform Independence** Browser. That's it. Whether Mac, Windows, or Linux – Figma runs the same everywhere. My teams often had developers on Windows machines, product managers on Macs, and me as the designer somewhere in between. With Figma? No problem. With Sketch? Either everyone buys a Mac or we need workarounds. ### **Ecosystem and Plugins** The Figma plugin ecosystem in 2025 is simply overwhelming. From accessibility checks to content generation to code export: there's a plugin for almost every problem. The community is huge, active, and constantly producing new solutions. ### **Future-Proofing** Adobe didn't end up acquiring Figma (the deal fell through due to antitrust concerns), but that hasn't weakened Figma. On the contrary: the company is investing heavily in new features, AI integration, and developer tools. Sketch, on the other hand? In 2025, its development feels more like maintenance than innovation. **My Clear Recommendation: What You Should Choose** ### **For Beginners** **Choose Figma. Period.** You'll learn the tool the market demands. You'll have access to the largest community. You can start for free with the Free plan and explore all the features. The learning curve is gentle, the resources are endless, and the job prospects are better. ### **For Teams** **Choose Figma.** Live collaboration, easy handoff, platform independence, better integration with developer tools. Speaking as someone who has worked in teams for more than 10 years: the productivity gain from true real-time collaboration can't be overstated. ### **For a Career Focus** **Choose Figma.** 1 out of 60 job postings mentioned Sketch. That's the reality of the German job market in 2025. Every hour you invest in Sketch is an hour you're not investing in Figma – and therefore an hour that reduces your career prospects. ## **Conclusion** After more than 10 years in the UX industry and dozens of projects in close collaboration with developers, my conclusion is clear: Figma won the race in 2025. Sketch was a pioneer. It got a lot right and paved the way for modern design tools. But the future belongs to browser-based, collaborative platforms with open ecosystems and seamless developer integration. The job market numbers don't lie. The technical advantages are overwhelming. The outlook is clear. - If you're starting to learn UX design today: learn Figma. - If you work in a team: switch to Figma. - If you want to advance your career: invest in Figma. The question in 2025 is no longer "Sketch or Figma?" but "When are you making the switch to Figma?" *This content was created with the support of OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 and DALL·E technologies, as well as Midjourney and DeepL. However, the majority of the editorial work was done by our team to ensure authenticity and expertise.*