Framer vs Figma: Quick Comparison

When to Choose Figma

Figma makes the most sense when your primary need is collaborative design work rather than publishing live sites.

The tool has established itself as a go-to platform for teams that need to work together on UI/UX projects.

Choose Figma if you:

• Need collaborative design tools for team-based UI/UX work

• Have multiple stakeholders who need to review and comment on designs

• Work with a development team that will implement your designs

• Need extensive version control and design system management

• Work across different operating systems and need browser-based access

• Design products rather than marketing sites

Collaborative Design Is Your Priority

The tool's real strength lies in how it handles collaboration. Multiple designers can work on the same file simultaneously, with changes appearing in real-time. This eliminates the traditional back-and-forth of sending files and merging changes.

When stakeholders need to review designs, they can leave comments directly on specific elements, and designers can address feedback without switching contexts.

This collaborative approach works particularly well for product teams where designers, product managers, and developers all need visibility into the design process. Everyone works from the same source of truth, which reduces miscommunication and speeds up the feedback loop.

You're Designing for Developer Implementation

Figma excels when you're designing something that a development team will implement. The tool provides developers with everything they need to build what you've designed.

They can inspect elements to get exact measurements, colors, typography specifications, and spacing. The tool can export assets in various formats, and there are plugins that generate code for different frameworks.

This makes Figma practical for product development workflows where design and development are separate phases. Designers can create detailed specifications, and developers can reference those specifications directly without asking for clarification on every detail.

You Need Extensive Design System Management

Large product teams benefit from Figma's design system capabilities. The tool lets you create master components that propagate changes across all instances. When you update a button style in your component library, that change appears everywhere that button is used. This helps maintain consistency across large products with multiple designers working on different areas.

Figma also includes robust version history, so teams can see how designs evolved and roll back to previous versions if needed.

The branching features let designers explore alternatives without affecting the main design files. This version control becomes increasingly valuable as projects grow in complexity.

Figma's Pricing for 2026

Figma uses a seat-based pricing model where each seat gives access to multiple Figma products including FigJam, Figma Slides, Dev Mode, Figma Design, and more.

Figma pricing structure:

• Starter (Free): Personal projects, unlimited drafts, UI kits and templates, basic design file inspection, 500 AI credits per month

• Professional ($16/month per Full seat): Unlimited files and projects, team-wide design libraries, advanced Dev Mode inspection, 3,000 AI credits per month. Also available at $3/month for Collab seats and $16/month for specialized seats.

• Organization (from $55/month per Full seat, billed annually): Unlimited teams, shared libraries and fonts, centralized admin tools, 3,500 AI credits per month. Collab seats start at $5/month.

• Enterprise (from $90/month per Full seat, billed annually): Custom team workspaces, design system theming and APIs, SCIM seat management, 4,250 AI credits per month, enterprise-level security. Contact sales for full pricing.

The Professional plan makes sense for professional designers or small teams that need unlimited files and advanced prototyping.

Organizations benefit from the Organization plan when they need to manage multiple teams and centralize design assets across departments. Enterprise plans provide the security and admin features that large companies require for managing design at scale.

Figma also offers free plans for students and educators, and free viewer seats with comment access are available on all plans.

What Figma Doesn't Do

The main limitation is that Figma doesn't publish websites directly. The output is design files that developers then need to implement. 

This works well when you have a development team, but it creates a handoff step between design and production. If your goal is to publish a marketing site or landing page quickly without developer involvement, Figma won't get you there on its own.

When to Choose Framer

Framer takes a different approach than Figma. While it includes design capabilities, the tool is fundamentally built to publish production websites.

Choose Framer if you:

• Need to publish a production website with custom domain and hosting

• Build marketing sites, landing pages, or content-driven projects

• Want advanced production-ready animations and interactions

• Need a built-in CMS for content management

• Work independently or with a small team

• Want to move from design to live site without developer handoff

You Need to Publish a Production Website

When you finish designing in Framer, you can connect a custom domain and launch a live site immediately. The tool includes hosting, SSL certificates, and everything needed to put a site online.

This makes Framer practical for marketing sites, landing pages, and content-driven projects where you want to move quickly from design to production.

This direct path from design to live site matters when you don't have a development team or when you need to launch quickly. Instead of designing in one tool and then waiting for developers to implement your design, you can design and publish in the same environment.

You're Building Marketing Sites or Landing Pages

Framer works particularly well for marketing sites that need regular content updates. The tool includes a content management system, which means marketing teams can update text, images, and other content without touching the design structure. 

This separation between design and content makes it practical for sites that change frequently.

The CMS supports relationships between content types, so you can build more structured content models when needed. For example, you could create a blog where posts have authors, categories, and tags, all managed through the CMS interface. This capability puts Framer in a different category than pure design tools.

You Want Advanced Production Animations

Framer's animation capabilities go beyond prototyping. These are production-ready interactions that work on live sites. The tool generates optimized code automatically, so you can create sophisticated animations without writing JavaScript. The animations run smoothly and respond to user interactions in ways that feel native to the web.

This distinction matters because prototype animations and production animations serve different purposes. Figma's animations work well for demonstrating how something should behave, but they're not meant to ship as part of a final product. Framer's animations are built for production from the start.

Framer's Pricing for 2026

Framer's pricing is structured around site plans rather than user seats. All plans include free viewers, with additional editors billed separately.

Framer pricing structure:

• Free: Personal projects, 10 CMS collections, 1,000 pages, basic features for exploring the platform

• Basic ($10/month, billed annually): Custom domain (free .com included), CMS access, AI-powered design tools, fast and secure hosting, built-in SEO. Additional editors are $20/month. Best for creative personal sites and freelancers.

• Pro ($30/month, billed annually): Everything in Basic, plus staging and instant rollback, roles and permissions, relational CMS, site redirects, multiple locales as add-on. Additional editors are $40/month. Best for growing professional sites and small agencies.

• Scale ($100/month plus usage, annual only): Everything in Pro, plus custom locale regions, events and funnels, priority support, premium CDN, flexible usage-based limits, A/B testing (add-on), custom proxy setup (add-on). Additional editors are $40/month. Best for advanced, high-traffic sites.

• Enterprise: Custom limits, enhanced security features, dedicated support, annual billing options. Contact sales for pricing based on specific requirements.

The Basic plan works for freelancers or small businesses that need a professional site with a custom domain and CMS capabilities.

The Pro plan makes sense for growing businesses or agencies managing client sites that need staging environments and more sophisticated content structures. The Scale plan is designed for high-traffic sites where you pay for what you use beyond the base limits.

What Framer Requires

Framer has a steeper learning curve than Figma, particularly if you want to use its advanced animation features. 

The basic site building is straightforward, but getting comfortable with the full capabilities takes time. Designers who are used to traditional design tools will need to adjust their thinking somewhat, since Framer works more like building a site than creating static mockups.

The tool also assumes you want to publish sites, which means you'll need to think about hosting, domains, and site performance from the start. This is different from pure design tools where you can focus solely on how things look without worrying about how they'll actually work on the web.

Real Framer Success Stories

Here's what we've achieved for clients using Framer, including the Figma-to-Framer workflow:

Daily Body Coach built a premium fitness concierge site in just 1 month, achieving 100%+ growth and serving top 1% entrepreneurs. The Framer site gave them the flexibility to showcase their high-end offering with custom animations and seamless booking integration.

Zen Educate - Migrated their Series B-backed edtech platform to Framer, enabling 10x more growth experiments with 2x faster iteration speed and zero launch delays. What used to take weeks of developer time now ships in days.

The Nations - Took one of YouTube's top music channels to #1 on Google in just 1 month. The Framer site loads fast, ranks well, and doubled artist submissions compared to their old site.

Can You Use Both Framer and Figma Together?

Many design teams use both tools in their workflow. The typical approach involves designing in Figma during the collaborative phase, then building in Framer for production. This combination lets you use each tool for what it does best.

The Common Workflow

Design and production process:

1. Design phase in Figma – Create high-fidelity mockups and collaborate with stakeholders using Figma's real-time collaboration features

2. Approval phase – Use commenting and version control to gather feedback and finalize designs with all stakeholders

3. Production phase in Framer – Rebuild approved designs as live websites, set up CMS, implement interactions and animations

This approach works when you need Figma's collaborative features during the design phase but want Framer's publishing capabilities for the final product. 

The tradeoff is that you're essentially building the site twice, once in Figma and once in Framer, which takes more time than designing directly in your publishing tool.

The Alternative Approach

Some teams design directly in Framer, skipping Figma entirely. This works for smaller teams or solo designers who don't need extensive collaboration features and want to move faster from design to production.

When you design directly in Framer, there's no translation phase between design and implementation because you're building in the same tool you'll use to publish.

The limitation with this approach is that Framer's collaboration features aren't as robust as Figma's. If you need multiple stakeholders to review and comment on designs, or if you have a large team working on different parts of a project simultaneously, Figma's collaborative environment is more efficient.

If you need a Framer expert to build your site, Goodspeed specializes in building production-ready Framer sites for marketing teams and startups.

Key Differences That Matter

Beyond the basic comparison, there are specific differences that affect which tool works better for different situations.

• Code integration: Figma focuses on a visual, no-code design environment. Framer allows direct code integration for advanced customization.

• Collaboration approach: Figma is built for teams. Multiple designers can edit simultaneously, and the commenting system handles complex feedback loops with threads, mentions, and status tracking. Framer supports collaboration but is better suited for smaller teams or individual designers who need to ship sites quickly.

• Learning curve: Figma's interface is familiar to most designers. If you've used other design tools, you'll recognize the basic concepts and can start working productively relatively quickly. Framer has a steeper initial learning curve, particularly for advanced animation features.

• Output quality: Figma outputs design files that serve as specifications for developers. The quality depends on how well the designer has prepared the files and how accurately the developer implements them. Framer outputs live, hosted websites that work immediately.

How Goodspeed Uses Both Tools

At Goodspeed, we've found that using both tools in a two-step process works well for client projects.

This approach combines Figma's collaborative strengths during the design phase with Framer's production capabilities for the final site.

Our Two-Step Process

Step 1: Design in Figma

Our designers create high-fidelity mockups in Figma when starting new projects. This is where we collaborate with clients to refine the direction and ensure we're aligned on the vision.

Figma's commenting and version control features make this collaboration efficient, clients can leave feedback directly on designs, and we can iterate quickly based on that feedback.

Working in Figma during this phase also means we can explore multiple directions without committing to building anything. We can create variations, test different approaches, and get client approval before moving to implementation. This reduces risk and ensures we're building the right thing.

Step 2: Build in Framer

Once designs are approved, our developers rebuild them in Framer to create the production site. This rebuild process involves setting up the site structure, implementing the CMS for content management, and adding the interactions and animations that make the site feel polished.

We use Framer for production because it gives us control over the final output and lets us iterate quickly if we find issues during implementation.

The built-in CMS also makes it straightforward for clients to manage content after launch, which is important for marketing sites that need regular updates.

Work with experienced Framer developers who understand both tools and can help you choose the right approach for your project.

Why This Workflow Works

This two-step approach takes longer than designing directly in Framer, but it gives us the benefits of both tools.

We get Figma's collaborative features when we need them most, during the design phase when we're gathering feedback and refining the direction. Then we get Framer's production capabilities when we need those, during implementation when we're building the actual site.

The approach works particularly well for clients who need to involve multiple stakeholders in design decisions.

The Figma phase lets everyone provide input efficiently, and the Framer phase ensures the final site is built properly without the delays and potential miscommunication that come with traditional developer handoff.

Which Tool Should You Choose? Framer or Figma?

The answer depends on what you need to accomplish and how your team works.

Choose Figma if your primary need is collaborative design work with a team. If you're creating mockups and prototypes that a development team will implement, Figma gives you the collaborative features and design system capabilities to work efficiently. The tool makes sense when you have multiple designers working together, when stakeholders need to provide feedback on designs, or when you need robust version control and design system management.

Choose Framer if you need to publish an actual website. If you're building marketing sites, landing pages, or content-driven sites that need a CMS, Framer lets you move from design to production without developer handoff. The tool makes sense when you want to launch quickly, when you need a CMS for content management, or when you want advanced animations that will actually ship as part of the final site.

Use both tools if you have a larger team that benefits from Figma's collaboration features during design, but you want Framer's publishing capabilities for the final product. This approach takes more time than using a single tool, but it gives you the advantages of both. You get efficient collaboration during the design phase and direct control over the final site during implementation.