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AMA: Figma's New Pricing Model

over 6 years ago from Dylan Field, CEO at Figma

  • Roman PohoreckiRoman Pohorecki, over 6 years ago

    Wait, Sketch or Designer isn't high quality software that takes a ridiculous amount of effort?

    Software has been sold on a license basis for decades, so it's not exactly unsustainable. It's being invaded by subscription models with snackable prices where you never really own your license, and now you don't really own your files. The fact that I cannot put a .Figma file on my dropbox and send it to a friend is complete deal breaker, and I hope it's unacceptable to the design community.

    0 points
    • Thomas Lowry, over 6 years ago

      You raise valid points, but at least Figma is a true cloud-based solution unlike the Adobe CC model, and leverages that to make the collaboration happen as it would in something like Google Docs and without the headaches of version control in the traditional sense. I can adapt to either pricing model, but for me it comes down to the features within the app, the workflow, and the development teams commitment to constantly innovating and adding new features

      Follow Figma's release notes page and see how frequent and significant some of the updates have been. Contrast that with Sketch updates—the last few updates have been a disaster (just look at their Twitter replies), so much so that I now skip the updates until the dust settles and they release fixes. What is your time worth when Sketch is bugging out on you and you are waiting for a fix? The plugin model has its advantages, but I feel like it is hindering the progress of Sketch's native functionality, and some features are pretty weak in Sketch (ex: grids are a good example).

      I feel your article may be little premature since pricing doesn't go into effect until July. There is still lots of time for them to address some of peoples concerns. At least by announcing pricing now, teams who are on the fence due to unknown pricing, can now plan for it. In any case, if you are adamantly against subscription software, then Figma probably isn't for you.

      It is worth mentioning that a Sketch license (to receive updates) is only valid for a year. You can continue using the software, but without release updates. If you want to stay current (and I don’t know why you wouldn’t since there are still many missing features and bugginess in Sketch combined with how fast the UI/UX world, and the workflows are moving)—that is an additional $69USD per year after the initial year (for an individual). So your math isn’t really an apples to apples comparison. If you want to stay current (which you always will be with Figma) your comparison is more like $600 vs $375, not $99. You have to decide whether it is worth the $225 price difference over that 5 years. But also factor in that developer hand-off does not require an additional license, and its looking like it also won’t require another third party tool like Invision Inspect or Zeppelin (so there is potential savings elsewhere).

      0 points