Figma vs Adobe XD Vs Sketch against Freshers/Exp Designers - What can be best 25 Parameters' compared

When it comes to using softwares like Adobe xd, Figma and Sketch, even experienced people and freshers still have a confusion which to use. Some people even take lot of time to even figure out which software is better for them. Right, so this podcast is going to give you clarity by comparing 25 different parameters of these three softwares. Over experienced and freshers take lot of notes. Let's jump into this podcast. To be very honest, any tool or software is best. Guys, it's not about. I mean I would say three tools are really best. Whatever. I'm suggesting you because it's all about the person and how do you want it to really utilize it. Okay, so anyway, I'm going to be comparing the 20 different parameters for freshers as well as experienced designers. But have in mind do not have a lot of time and dilemma to think which is good, this is good, this is bad, this, that and all. Try to start with something. Taking action is a very important factor here rather than dwelling upon yourself. Okay, the very first important parameter which I wanted to compare you is the platform compatibility. Okay, first let's take Figma. Figma is a web based any platform. Okay. Sometimes it's available in the desktop version and. And for mobile versions you can take out for just prototyping method and Sketch when you say when you take it is exclusively for macOS. A lot of features are very much built in for that. Okay, Plugins as well. Adobe XT is for both guys. It's an industry standard and recommended software which is more better I would say because I personally used Adobe XD in a more detailed way. Okay, so for Mac OS and Windows it's better. And the thing is, figma's accessibility aids beginners a little better compared to any other software. But when it comes to experienced people, Adobe XT really caters for both experience as well as freshers, providing more flexibility. So think in mind before you choose to decide on going with the software. Okay, this is the first parameter. The second is collaboration option. So Figma has a real time collaboration, whereas Sketch also has a collaboration is a third party tool. You have to be relying on that. And Adobe XD definitely has collaborative feature because it's an industry standard software. Okay, so being a fresher, figma's real time collaboration is ideal for group projects. It's a very small scale, okay. Because as student you won't be able to afford Adobe xd. Sometimes it's better. And also let me tell you, even for experienced people, FIGMA really streamlines the communication and design teams better I'll tell you there is something called FigJam. You can create a like a Miro board like similar like a mirror and envision. You can create a whiteboard. You can even brainstorm. You can have a real time collaboration for that. Adobe XT as well provides collaboration but that's for sharing and viewing. But Figma really offers you something like a fig much FIG jam which is really useful. Okay, so when it comes to third parameter like let's say learning curve. Adobe xt let me say Figma. Okay, so Figma is a very gentle learning curve, not a problem. And even Sketch is also easy to learn. Particularly it's a Mac OS recommended. So it's. It's for Mac users and for Adobe XT it's. It's very user friendly. It's also minimal learning curve I would say. But when it comes to fresher Adobe xt simplicity eases the learning. Better to be very correct. This is perfect guys because Adobe XD has lot many features which is more intuitive. You can able to find lot many shapes additions, you can find deletions, you can add buttons, you can add background colors. Figma is a little next version I would say in terms of simplicity because Adobe has experimented it for years. They not only have XD software, they have Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects. So all these things are very much design related software. So they kind of know the interface and intuition. What are you really user really thinks when he presses the option and how it should be intuitively available. So you need to take that advantage. But for experienced people, Figma's advanced features like let's say accommodation, the needs for seasoned designer is better. The features is really inbuilt. Particularly for the plugin and other option it's better. Okay, now let's come to another parameter which is pricing. See, Figma is a free one. Okay, you have that free one also Advanced has little pricing and Sketch is a one time payment for perpetual license. And definitely Adobe is a paid one. It's mostly for the cloud subscription and other things you'll be paying. And sometimes Adobe has a student plan also which you can check out. Okay, for being a student, Figma is better. For experienced I would say if you wanted to use some premium benefits, Adobe XD is even more better. Okay, so let's come to prototyping. So Figma has a very good robust features and transition and animation. That's no doubt about it. But where the Sketch has only the basic prototyping and and plugins only can really enhance this things better. You need to have in mind. Okay. Particularly I've recorded a podcast on what you call 25 different plugins. How I mean what a designer can do with using figma. You can check out my, I don't know like 50th, 60th episode. I have that particular podcast. It's a very detailed, cool kind of a features where you can even convert your entire presentation and a case study using your Figma file. It's. It's a very detailed podcast to record it. Okay. And if you're using Adobe xd, this is really strong for making prototypes guys. It's much capable and the build is solid. That's why experienced people and industry really recommends and using that. Okay. It's a very comprehensive prototyping suit and you can able to share with your developers as well. Figma has advanced prototyping feature and it can help some impressive portfolios and all this stuff relating to students life. Okay, yeah. Now let's come to plugins and integration. Figma has extensive plugin and ecosystem. It's definitely mind blowing. Okay, so Sketch has a rich plugin library but it's not as cool like figma. Okay, I'll tell you, Adobe XD is also little growing in their plugin support but they have a very good solid built plugins which will not crash often. Like let's say personally if you use Figma there are some plugins which will crash. Like let's say if you use Unsplash. Okay. Sometimes it's because of your system also it makes that problem. But Adobe XD doesn't do that. Adobe XT has a variety to support. Even your system configuration is little low. I've kind of used lot of plugins in Adobe XD and I've tried in Figma also. This is the kind of experience I have. Okay, but the cool looking Figma, I mean the cool looking plugins are really mostly available in figma. You can try it on. Okay, so Figma offers some kind of a functionality and other aids to make some design tasks better. It's mostly for students. Okay, so Sketch and figma's mature plugins ecosystem offers some customized even for experienced people. I would suggest. Now let's come to another part which is vector editing. Okay, so Figma has advanced vector editing capabilities. It has a pen tool, it has a draw tool. You can able to change handles. Definitely it's possible. Same goes for Adobe XT as well. You can make all basic vector shape and even for the sketch it's excellent available, no problem. Okay, so Adobe XT Simplicity is more important for freshers, I would say in terms of this feature. Whereas Figment Sketch is used both for good precise setting for experienced people. Okay. The other feature is handoff and design specification. See, let's say a detail spec and developer handoff is very much available in Figma, no problem at all. And in. In Sketch it requires a third party tool. It's. It's a little disadvantage. Whereas in Adobe XD it's completely butterlike experience. All your what you call developers will be able to take it very easily. Figma is good for educational institutes and collaborating with different developers in a freelancing way. But even for experienced people, Adobe and Figma both does this work? Okay, let's come to another category for asset and libraries. Figma has a lot of shared libraries and components. It's a shared components, definitely. Okay. And Sketch has a basic and robust symbol and they also have a library system which is not extensive as figma, but they do have an Adobe XD has basic asset library features. They don't have much advanced. Okay, so Sketch and symbols and other libraries teach the importance of design consistency. It's really good for people who are starting up. They can use Sketch checking out the robustness of the asset libraries and all. If you're a experienced guy, you can use Figma. Adobe XD both are really good in library and asset management. Let's come to user interface design. See, Figma is built for website and application. It's really good. Same goes for Adobe XD as well. But Sketch is originally focused only on UI UX design, only for web development applications. You need to get that clarity because predominantly it started with only for UI UX designers. That's the reason. But Adobe XT and what you call Figma, it's. It's not only for UI vex designer, it's for even developers, it's for even other people as well. Okay, so Adobe XT's UI UX focus provides some clarity for beginners. Figma's versatility caters to range of different different projects. You can able to collaborate with different different projects in a real time way. Let's come to animation capabilities. Figma has most advanced animation you can find. There are very detailed precision transition options and timings and layouts available in figma when you prototype and animate it. Whereas Sketch really has limited feature. And also Adobe XD has basic animation capabilities which is really good because I've tried it. Okay, so figma's animation enable creative exploration for beginners. Whereas figma's advanced Animation will be catering for experienced people. Let's come to usability testing. It has been Figma has a very good integrating third party tools integration for usability testing like let's say usabilityhub.com Etc. Whereas the the sketch requires a third party. Okay, it has a plugin inbuilt. Particularly in Figma there are huge plugins available. You can find out it's beautiful. But in Fig, in. In Sketch you need to require a third party. Okay. In Adobe XT there are some basic usability testing feature but it's not like as good as Figma. Okay, so figma's usability test features really educate on user centric design where it's mostly for freshers and it's useful whereas for higher level designers also it is more more important to use figma usability plugins etc. Now let's come to responsive design. It is excellent for responsive design. When it comes to Figma where it is Sketch also offers the features but it's basic. Even Adobe XT it's basic. But Figma is the best. So Sketch responsive features really provides a foundation for beginners. People are starting maybe they can use Sketch for that. But Figma's advanced feature is really useful for the experienced people as well. When it comes to another feature which is called offline mode see, figma only offers limited offline functionality but Sketch works in offline as well after initial setup. This is really beautiful. That's the one advantage where I get tell freshers can use utilize that. But Adobe XT only offers a limited offline functionality. It's. It's little sad. So Sketch offline mode is more advantage for people like students and Adobe XD and other Sketch mode offer more reliable offline access for experienced designer on the go. Let's come to customer support. Okay, See Figma has a very good responsive customer support. Adobe has excellent infrastructure to do it whereas Sketch has a limited one. Okay, it's normally advised for freshers to start with Figma and Adobe xt but like let's say for experienced people also it's the same. Let's come to updates and innovation. Okay. When it comes to updation, Figma and Adobe XD really make a lot of updates, new features, cool features. Because Adobe has a creative cloud releases coming every single day, every single week, right? But Sketch is little bit comparatively low but it has frequent updates. Okay, so for beginners it's much easier because frequent updates across all tools keep beginners to be very fresh compared to the industry trends. But figma's innovative features can drive efficiency for experienced designers as well when it comes to file export. Okay, the other feature, File export, Figma offers a diverse export option and Sketch offers a standard and robust export option. It's really good. But Adobe XD only offers standard which is a normal export feature like png, jpeg, this, that. But Figma is really cool in that. So Sketch export option introduce beginners to industry standard practices. What has been followed, that's better. But figmas and other diverse option can be used for experience design. Now let's understand asset management. Okay. See figma has a centralized asset, there's a beautiful thing. But Sketch has a localized asset because it has an offline feature as well. But Adobe XD has only the basic asset management system. So Adobe XT simplicity is better. I always tell simplicity and usability is better in Adobe XD software, particularly for beginners. Right. So same feature, but if you want an advanced feature. Yeah, for experienced people it's only Figma. Figma, figma. Okay, let's come to version history. So detailed version history and collaboration is available in both Figma as well as Adobe xt. There is no doubt about. Got it. But in cloud when in Sketch version history is available with Sketch cloud only you have to go to and sign in and find the cloud options. It's little painful. Okay, so it's better if you have a lot of detailed version when you use Figma and Adobe XT which I've used. So figma's version history educates people what changes they have made in the version 1, 2, 3, etc. Whereas Figma's detailed version history enables you to manage. Even some experienced designers can able to come back and see. Let's come to another factor most important industry adoption. Nowadays it's widely accepted FIGMA across industries. But Adobe XD is popular, definitely popular, no doubt about it. But Sketch is little bit popular. I would say so Sketch has a wide product option among students community so they can use it. But Figma and Adobe XD is little bit what you call comparatively better in industry reach for both software particularly Figma is gaining more population, I mean more popularity now when it comes to another feature called export to coding because we have to give to the coder also. Right. End of the day that's also very important. So Figma has a very strong export code functionality whereas Adobe XT has Basic one but it's solid robust build whereas Sketch offers a third party source. Okay, you can able to do that and then let's go into the security feature when it comes to security. Now Figma has released an enterprise level security features and that's true for the higher level. And there is no doubt about Adobe, they have excellent premium infrastructure for security. But Sketch has a local file security cloud sharing vulnerability. So industry is not very much accepting this one. So being a fresher, it's good to start with Figma and Sketch. But over the time you will have to switch to Adobe because Adobe is more security infrastructure because a lot of time industry relies on only on security, confidentiality and most crucial data production. Right. You have to take care of that. Let's come to another feature called accessibility feature. Figma has a very good accessibility feature whereas Adobe XT has Basic and Sketch offers third party plugins to use. It's. It's really sad, but that's the truth. Let's come to community and resources. So Figma has a very strong online community and resources. There is no doubt, no doubt about it. But when it comes to community support, yeah, Figma is better. I would say Adobe XD is little growing. It's not bad. It's growing. Okay. But cloud has been the. Sketch has active community with abundant resources so that you can find for freshers, particularly if you are fresher. It's good to start with Figma community because you get a lot of support there. Last but not the least, let's come to licensing flexibility. Figma has a subscription based pricing. Okay. But Sketch is a one time payment, three updates for a year. Whereas Adobe has a premium plan and they have a part of Adobe Creative Cloud Soup subscription and it's little expensive. Okay. So if you're a student, start with a trial free version slowly you can update. But if you are an industry guy, definitely start testing both Figma and Adobe XD whichever is fine. Better. Okay, I hope you would have gotten a clarity on the parameters. Whatever we have come back. Okay, so the overall way, which software is better? I mean I'm not making a rating or something. I'm saying any tool is best. But play your ground safely if you're a student or an experienced designer and then choose it. Okay. I hope this podcast would have given you clarity on this tool. So start using it and pasting the link of the three tools as well. You can create a free account and start making some basic designs now. Okay, It's. It's very easy. And I'm also pasting you some Daniel Scott YouTube channel where you can refer for all the quick references guide and shortcuts in Mac and Windows. That is one good YouTube channel which I found which is useful. Okay, thank you so much guys. Give me best rating in Apple and Spotify if you find this as useful and if you need my mentorship support in getting know more about product design and UI UX design, you can write an email for it. I take only few students who are damn serious and I help them achieve 2x or 3x salary growth in less than 3 months to become a designer. Even if you're a non designer coming from a software background, I take only three months to help them to become successful. Okay, if you find this like let's say okay Jagdish, I also want to become a designer. You can send an email. I'll be happy to help you. Okay, thank you guys. Take care. All the best. Bye Bye.