After 8 months of switching between tools and dealing with broken imports, crashed files, and pissed-off designers, here's what actually works and what will fuck up your workflow.
Penpot: Free but You'll Earn Every Penny
Penpot is the closest thing to "Figma but free" that exists. It's open source, runs in the browser, and doesn't cost anything. The catch? You'll spend time they don't charge money debugging weird component behavior.
What Actually Works
Where Penpot Will Hurt You
Real Migration War Story
Migrated our SaaS design system from Figma to Penpot in January 2024. First week was great - everything seemed to work, import looked clean. Week 2, we discovered component overrides don't behave like Figma - text overrides randomly reverted to default states. Week 3, complex auto-layout broke entirely when nesting reached 3 levels deep. Week 6, we finally gave up and rebuilt everything from scratch using Penpot's native paradigms. It worked, but cost 120 hours of design time and 40 hours of developer re-education.
Bottom line: Perfect for teams that value freedom over polish. If your design system is simple or you're allergic to subscription fees, Penpot works. If you need Figma's advanced features, you'll be frustrated daily.
Canva: When Your Marketing Team Hijacks Design
Canva is what happens when marketing people decide they can do design. Surprisingly, for certain workflows, they're right. If you spend more time making Instagram posts than interface components, Canva beats Figma hard.
Where Canva Actually Wins
Where Canva Makes You Cry
- Pixel precision is impossible. Everything snaps to arbitrary grids
- No component system worthy of the name. Copy-paste workflows like it's 2010
- Developer handoff is nonexistent. Export a PNG and describe spacing in Slack
- Complex layouts break. Anything more sophisticated than a flyer becomes painful
- File organization scales terribly beyond 50 projects
War Story: The Marketing Department Revolt
Tried to get our marketing team using Figma for consistency. After 2 months of complaints about "why is this so complicated," they started using Canva behind my back. Discovered they were producing better social content in Canva than struggling with Figma. Fucking humbling.
The brutal truth: If your team makes more social posts than app screens, just use Canva. Stop pretending marketing assets need the same precision as interface design. Save $200/month and your sanity.
Sketch runs like a fucking rocket compared to browser-based tools. If you're on Mac and performance matters more than collaboration theater, Sketch demolishes Figma. The problem is convincing your Windows-using developers to care.
Why Sketch Still Dominates Performance
- Native app speed. Complex files with 500+ components open in 5 seconds, not 45
- Memory doesn't leak. Unlike browser tabs that eventually consume 8GB RAM
- Offline always works. Internet dies? Keep designing. Browser tabs crash? Too bad
- 10+ years of plugin development. Every workflow optimization exists and actually works
- Version control that makes sense. Files are files, not cloud mysteries
The Windows Problem That Kills Teams
Here's the brutal reality: half your team uses Windows. Sketch Cloud's web version exists but feels like viewing designs through plastic wrap. Your developers won't be able to inspect files properly. Remote designers with Chromebooks are fucked.
Performance Reality Check
Opened my 450-component design system:
- Sketch: 8 seconds, smooth zooming, responsive interactions
- Figma: 35 seconds, stuttering zoom, UI lag when selecting components
- Penpot: Crashed twice, eventually loaded in 60 seconds
The Collaboration Compromise
Tried running a mixed team with Sketch + web handoff. Designers loved the performance. Developers complained about export quality. Remote workers felt excluded. Switched back to Figma after 3 months because team harmony mattered more than file loading speed.
Bottom line: Best design experience available, but only works if your entire team runs Macs and doesn't mind file-based workflows. Otherwise you're creating a two-tier team experience.
Adobe XD is what happens when a company gives up on a product but can't admit it. Adobe officially put XD in "maintenance mode" in 2024. New features are nonexistent. The plugin ecosystem is a graveyard. But if you're trapped in Adobe's ecosystem, it still technically works.
Why XD Still Exists
- Already included with Creative Cloud, so it costs nothing extra
- Creative Cloud integration means assets sync from Photoshop/Illustrator automatically
- Enterprise SSO works if your company uses Adobe for everything else
- Voice prototyping that nobody uses but exists
- Won't randomly change because Adobe stopped developing it
The Abandonment Reality
Adobe's last meaningful XD update was over 2 years ago. The community forum is full of feature requests that will never happen. Third-party plugins stopped being updated because developers moved to Figma. Adobe has officially confirmed maintenance mode status with no plans for new development.
My XD Death Experience
Used XD for 6 months in 2024 because our agency already had Creative Cloud licenses. File corruption happened twice - once during a client presentation, once right before a deadline. Complex components with nested states randomly broke, turning interactive prototypes into static shapes. Adobe support responses took 2 weeks minimum. Moved to Figma and never looked back.
When to Consider XD:
- You already pay for Creative Cloud and need something basic
- Your team lives in Photoshop/Illustrator and wants asset sync
- You need a temporary solution while evaluating real alternatives
- You enjoy using software that will definitely be discontinued
Bottom line: XD works but has no future. Don't start new projects in a dead tool. If you're using it now, make migration plans before Adobe pulls the plug entirely.
Framer: For Teams That Want to Ship Websites, Not Mockups
Framer breaks the traditional design → development handoff by letting you publish actual websites directly from the design tool. If you build landing pages or marketing sites, it's brilliant. If you design mobile apps, it's useless.
Where Framer Wins Big
- Design to live website in one click. No developer handoff drama
- Real CMS integration so clients can edit content without breaking layouts
- Advanced animations that actually run in browsers, not just prototypes
- Custom code components when design limitations hit reality
Where Framer Fails Hard
- Mobile app design is pointless. Everything's optimized for web
- Complex design systems don't translate well to website-first thinking
- Learning curve is brutal if you're used to traditional design tools
- Collaboration sucks compared to dedicated design platforms
Real Project Experience
Built a SaaS marketing site in Framer instead of designing mockups for developers. Took 40% longer to design but shipped 2 weeks faster overall. Client could update copy and images themselves. Developers could focus on the actual product instead of building marketing pages.
The brutal reality: Framer changes project economics for web-focused teams but creates workflow friction for everything else. Perfect tool for the right use case, wrong tool for most design work.
Why Most "Migration Guides" Are Bullshit
Every tool vendor publishes migration timelines that assume perfect conditions and cooperative teams. Real migrations are messier:
Week 1: Tool looks promising in demos
Week 2: First complex file import breaks everything
Week 3: Team discovers missing features they didn't know they used
Week 4: Half the team wants to switch back
Week 6: Rebuild design system from scratch
Week 8: Finally working, productivity still 70% of before
Week 12: Team admits new tool works but misses old workflows
The honest timeline: 3 months to match your previous productivity, 6 months to exceed it. Anyone promising faster transitions is selling something.
Those are the real experiences behind the marketing headlines. Every tool has trade-offs, and what matters is finding the right match for your specific situation.
Rather than picking based on feature lists or price alone, you need a systematic way to evaluate alternatives against your actual needs. The decision matrix below will help you calculate which tool makes the most sense for your team's priorities and constraints.
