Top 3 UI/UX Design Tools: Figma vs Sketch vs Penpot

Figma earns the top collaboration slot because real-time multiplayer editing isn't a feature bolted onto the product, it's the core idea the product was built around from its first version, the way Google Docs changed document editing applied to interface design. That browser-first, no-install model is the main reason Figma became the category's dominant tool, with more than 13 million monthly active users reported by early 2025 and use across the large majority of the Fortune 500.

Beyond the core canvas, Figma has built out Dev Mode for inspectable specs and generated code snippets, Variables for token-driven design systems, and FigJam for whiteboarding, all on the same platform. That breadth, plus a large plugin and community-template ecosystem, is why most new design teams default to Figma without seriously evaluating an alternative first.

The honest tradeoff is cost predictability: 2025's unified seat types (Full, Dev, Collab, View) plus a steep Enterprise price increase in February 2026 make per-seat budgeting less simple than it used to be, and very large files can still feel slower in-browser than in a native desktop-only tool.

For a cross-functional team that needs stakeholders, engineers, and designers all working in the same file without installing anything, Figma is the strongest fit on this list.

Sketch earns its place here for the team Figma doesn't fit as well: one fully standardized on Mac hardware with years of Sketch Symbols and shared styles already built. Sketch effectively created the category of a dedicated vector-based interface design app back in 2010, well before Figma or Adobe XD existed, and it's still a fast, polished, native macOS editor that many long-time users genuinely prefer to a browser-based canvas.

Since Figma's rise, Sketch has added a companion web app supporting real-time collaboration, commenting, and handoff inspection without requiring the Mac app, along with SSO and SCIM provisioning on its higher tiers. That collaboration layer works, but it sits on top of a native single-user editor rather than being the architecture the product was designed around, which is the core practical difference from Figma.

The honest tradeoff is platform lock-in and cost: there's no native Windows or Linux editor, no permanent free plan, and the plugin ecosystem, while mature, has less relative momentum than Figma's since Figma became the default pick for new teams.

For a Mac-only design team that already has a Sketch library and doesn't need heavy cross-platform or stakeholder-heavy collaboration, Sketch remains a reasonable, defensible choice.

Penpot earns its place on this list for a reason that has nothing to do with matching Figma or Sketch feature-for-feature: deployment control. Built by Kaleidos, a Spain-based open-source software company, Penpot is released under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, meaning the full source code is auditable, and designs are stored in an open, SVG-based file format rather than a proprietary one. Self-hosted Penpot is free with no per-seat licensing cost at all, running on your own infrastructure.

Functionally, it covers the same core ground as Figma and Sketch, a vector canvas, components and shared libraries, and real-time multiplayer editing as a core feature rather than an afterthought, with a community-built exporter plugin that helps migrate existing Figma files over.

The honest tradeoff is maturity: the plugin ecosystem is smaller than Figma's, some advanced prototyping and large-file performance still lag behind the category leader, and self-hosting requires genuine Linux and Docker capability that not every team has in-house.

For a team in a regulated industry, government body, or privacy-focused organization that cannot put product designs on a third-party US cloud, or one that simply wants to escape growing per-seat SaaS costs, Penpot is the strongest fit on this list.