Figma Professional vs Adobe XD — and why only one is still being built

Figma is an interface design tool that lives in the browser. The file sits on Figma's servers, several people can be inside it at once, and the desktop app is the same thing in a window. Figma Professional is the paid tier: it is billed per editor seat, and on top of the free plan it adds shared team libraries, full version history and Dev Mode.

Adobe XD is a desktop application for Windows and macOS, attached to Creative Cloud. Files are .xd documents on your own disk, prototypes are shared as links, and the tool sits close to Photoshop and Illustrator.

One fact reshapes everything below. Adobe has placed XD in maintenance mode: security and operating system compatibility fixes continue, new features do not, and it is no longer sold as a standalone plan. Adobe's proposed acquisition of Figma was abandoned under regulatory pressure in Europe, and XD did not return to active development afterwards. So this is not two tools competing on equal ground. It is a tool that is still being built, next to one that has been set aside.

The obvious win is working together. Two designers, a developer and the client can be inside the same file at the same moment, and feedback arrives as comments pinned to the screen in question rather than a numbered list in an email. One link replaces the folder of exported PNGs.

The deeper win is systems. Components, variants, auto layout and variables let a button, a card or an entire colour scheme be defined once and updated everywhere, and shared team libraries push that across every file the team owns. On a project that runs longer than a few weeks, that is the difference between an interface that stays coherent and one that quietly drifts.

Then there is handoff. Dev Mode gives developers measurements, values and assets they can pull themselves, so you stop being the export service. Add a large plugin ecosystem and one plain fact: the trade has settled here. The freelancer you hire next month, the developer joining the project and the client's own team already know Figma. Nobody has to be taught the tool before the work starts.

XD runs on your machine, and that still counts. It opens and edits a file with no connection at all, which is a genuine advantage if you work from a site, on a train, or in a neighbourhood where the line drops for an hour a day. Figma's offline behaviour is limited and should not be planned around.

It is also lighter. On an older laptop with modest memory, XD stays responsive where a browser holding a large Figma file starts to struggle. And the file is yours in the ordinary sense: an .xd document on your disk, backed up with everything else, readable without signing in to anything.

If your assets already live in Photoshop and Illustrator, XD sits beside them without friction. And if you already pay for Creative Cloud for photo, video or print work, XD costs nothing extra — for one screen a month, buying a paid Figma seat is spending money on a problem you do not have.

The honest caveat. Every one of those advantages belongs to a tool that has stopped moving. They are reasons to carry on with XD, not reasons to start with it.

Figma has a free plan, and it is real software rather than a trial that expires. One person can design, prototype and share links on it for a long time. It caps how many shared files you keep and how far back version history goes, and it leaves out shared team libraries and Dev Mode.

Figma Professional is billed per editor seat, so the total depends on how many people edit and for how long. ROSH™ Company Labs quotes it rather than publishing a number — contact for pricing, and the answer comes back in dirham with nothing added at the end.

XD no longer has a price of its own. There is no standalone plan to buy, so access rides on a Creative Cloud entitlement. ROSH™ Company Labs sells Creative Cloud at 400 MAD for four months, but treat that as a Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere decision — ask before ordering whether XD actually appears in the app list on the plan, rather than assuming it does.

Payment is in dirham through local methods over WhatsApp, so no international card is needed. ROSH™ Company Labs is an independent brand rather than a registered company and issues no tax invoice — worth knowing before you order if your accountant needs one.

If you are learning interface design, start on Figma's free plan and buy nothing. The tutorials, the courses and the files people share are all Figma, and the free tier carries a beginner well past the point where the tool is the limitation.

• Freelancer with paying clients, or a small studio: Figma Professional. Team libraries and Dev Mode pay for themselves in the hours you stop losing to exports and revisions.
• Already paying for Creative Cloud and designing one screen a month: stay on XD if it is available on your plan. Adding a seat you barely use is not a saving.
• Maintaining a live XD project: finish it in XD. There is no clean conversion and rebuilding a large file costs days. Start the next project in Figma.
• Working where the connection is unreliable: XD is the better offline tool today, and that deserves to be weighed honestly against building on something that has been set aside.
• Hiring designers, or handing work to developers: Figma, without hesitation.

If none of those quite describes you, say on WhatsApp what you are building and who else touches the file. You will get a straight answer, including that the free plan is enough, when it is.