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Esraa Nasr
Esraa Nasr

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UI Design Applications

What's the best app? and Why?

I want to use a new UI design app for design websites mockups.
I used to use photoshop for it. But I hear about Sketch, Figma, and XD.

What's the difference between them?

Top comments (11)

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chrissiemhrk profile image
Chrissie

Adobe XD and Figma are the best, figma has a great free plan that let's you have unlimited files and it's available in thebbrowser so it's easy to get started. If you have the money then I'd recommend to go ahead and buy adobe XD

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amorganpd profile image
amorganPD

FYI Adobe XD has a free plan as well:
adobe.com/products/xd.html

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chrissiemhrk profile image
Chrissie

Oh I didn't know that, thanks ☺

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esraanasr92 profile image
Esraa Nasr

Figma has a free plan for 3 projects only. So I must remove the project to start a new one if I created 3. Or if I created 3 projects I can't do any project

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sahilgarg profile image
Sahil Garg

Figma is certainly the best as it is very light weight and has some great features. Also, as I am on Linux, there isn't any way I can use Adobe products. So, I prefer figma as it has a browser version which is no different from the app version. Also, Linux has an unofficial Figma client.
But you may try Adobe XD if you don't use linux. Check whether it suits you.

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esraanasr92 profile image
Esraa Nasr

I also use Linux so I'll try to use Figma

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sahilgarg profile image
Sahil Garg

Also, Akaira is in development. It would a good alternative to all these. Also it is free and open sourced with a github repo. You should keep track of it as well to shift to it.

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stereoplegic profile image
Mike Bybee • Edited

I've been eagerly awaiting Akira for a while, but it's very slow going and, last I checked, nowhere near ready for prime time.

Figma is the best UI-specific option for Linux right now and probably will be for a long time, but you can use Inkscape in a pinch - and as of v1.0, they have finally fixed it so that coordinates 0,0 are at top and left (like DOM and most other UIs are laid out) rather than bottom and left. You won't be able to easily grab CSS or use a plugin to convert to e.g. React components or React Native Stylesheet like in Figma, though.

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khrome83 profile image
Zane Milakovic

I find Figma to be the best. I have used Sketch as well. Both are fairly similar. Sketch is a little further ahead, for example giving text fields to popular content in a reusable component within it.

Figma is a little closer to the browser. Hell, it runs in one. So I find measurements and structure to be a lot more similar. This makes it a lot easier to transition imho.

The other great thing is it’s lighter weight to run. Seems faster a lot of the time. And in general has had more meaningful updates than sketch. People are talking about Figma the way they use to talk about Sketch. Excited.

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stereoplegic profile image
Mike Bybee

I still prefer Sketch, but Figma has been gradually winning me over (especially since I can use it in Linux). I definitely prefer Figma's freemium (with project limits, but otherwise very generous) to Sketch's $99/yr. before you can even start.

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andreabaccolini profile image
Andrea • Edited

Sketch Adobe XD and Figma are certainly better because they are designed for this purpose and have specific tools that help you design UI with more speed and precision even for the responsive.