Is Figma Free or Paid?

Right, so you probably just discovered the wonderful world of web design, or as we like to call it nowadays "UI/UX design" - and most likely you've heard that Figma is the main tool in this industry.

Now your second logical step is you want to know if Figma is free to use or if it costs money?

Is Figma Free or Paid?

As with most digital products nowadays everything seems to run on a monthly or yearly subscription model. Figma is no exception, but the good thing is they do also offer a free version. 

So, in short for the ones that skim through articles: Figma is a freemium product. You have a free to use version (at least at the time I'm writing this) which lets you use the tool for as long as you want.

The nice thing is they enable all the features of premium with some small exceptions, like libraries and some team project limitations, but we'll get into specifics below.

Now let's talk about Figma's pricing:

At the time I'm writing this the free plan is well, free. Then there's the professional plan which is $12 per editor per month, then there's organization which costs $45 per month and finally the enterprise at $75 per editor per month.

Another great thing is that Figma runs a program for students and educators which means free premium access. You can read details about the program and how to apply on their website.

Now let's talk about the features you get when you get an active subscription (or as a student):

 Features exclusive to paid plans:

  • there's no more 3 files / 1 team project limit. everything becomes unlimited 
  • you get unlimited version history, compared to the 30 days history in free
  • you can use team libraries
  • you get access to audio conversations in team files

And of course the organization and enterprise have all the above listed features and some extra more that are custom tailored for big teams with lots of designers. But nothing I would personally use or want as a freelance designer. 

Figma Dark Patterns

Now Figma is a great tool, don't get me wrong but if you ever plan to upgrade and decide to put up a team together (like the avengers but for web design) you will notice probably three months down the road that you're getting billed hundred of extra dollars when you were supposed to only pay $12 per month in the first place. 

That's because Figma doesn't let you know that every time new users get edit access to your design files they automatically get added to your billing invoice. So you're basically going to pay $12 for every user on your design file.

Trust me, I'm lucky that I'm broke and my empty bank account denied the transaction because otherwise I would have been a few hundred dollars short. 

Final Words

Everything I wrote above is probably subjective to change and by the time you're reading this it's probably outdated. Figma is currently free to use but they also have paid monthly plans with extra small features and perks. 

Now that we got that out of the way, Adobe has finalized the process of buying Figma and what Adobe is really good at is at making users pay a lot of money for their product bundles. 

Another tiny small detail is that they paid 20 billions for it and last time I checked there were rumors that they were a bit dissatisfied and worried that they probably overpaid by a few billions. 

But what this means for you as an end user is that the more time goes on and we get old and sad, Figma will continue to make it harder and harder for you to stay on the free plan. 
They will remove features, they will add limitations, they will increase prices, you name it. 

So my suggestion for you is that you enjoy Figma as it is while it lasts because it could maybe get better but it definitely won't get cheaper.

June 30, 2023


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