Adobe After Effects vs. Figma

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe After Effects
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Adobe After Effects allows users to create cinematic movie titles, intros, and transitions, remove an object from a clip, start a fire or make it rain, or animate a logo or character. The vendor states that with After Effects, users can apply motion-graphics and animation to any digital object.
$20.99
Per User Per Month
Figma
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Figma, headquartered in San Francisco, offers their collaborative design and prototyping application to support digital product and UI development.
$15
per month per editor
Pricing
Adobe After EffectsFigma
Editions & Modules
Annual Plan (Paid Monthly)
$20.99
Per User Per Month
Monthly Plan
$31.49
Per User Per Month
Annual Plan (Prepaid)
$239.88
Per User Per Year
Professional
$144
per year
Organization
$540
per year
Starter
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe After EffectsFigma
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe After EffectsFigma
Considered Both Products
Adobe After Effects
Chose Adobe After Effects
Because they are part of the Creative Cloud platform, all Adobe software. They are well integrated into each other. If I create a vector in Illustrator and save it, load it up in After Effects, and notice that I need to adjust it? Well I don't have to fully close out of After …
Chose Adobe After Effects
We use these tools in conjunction with After Effects not as a replacement. Apple Motion does many of the same things as After Effects and in some ways is more intuitive. However, After Effects is bundled with software we absolutely must use and is the industry standard. New …
Figma
Chose Figma
Figma is by far the best prototyping tool out there. I am such a fan of this tool.
Chose Figma
Figma is the most efficient tool for teams and sharing with clients. It's also easier to learn than other Adobe products. When sharing designs with clients, Figma looks more professional than Canva.
Chose Figma
Figma is truly a Swiss army knife in the retrospect that it does everything...but better that you'd expect it to be where you think...hmmm maybe I don't need this prototyping tool, or this design library framework app, or this simpler solution, because I can just use Figma for …
Chose Figma
In theory it can do the all the things these other apps offer. And it does to a certain extend. if your prototypes are not too complex it can completely remove the need for other prototyping software. Through Figjam presentation and collaboration, alternatives provide no extra …
Chose Figma
Figma is easier to use and has more intuitive UI. It is easier to share and it is free to use.
Chose Figma
Figma let's you do almost everything the others let you do together, so instead of using 4 different softwares, you just use figma.
Chose Figma
Figma and Adobe PhotoShop serve different purposes in the design workflow, catering to distinct design needs.
Figma excels in collaborative design work with its real-time editing and commenting features, allowing multiple users to work simultaneously on the same file, fostering …
Best Alternatives
Adobe After EffectsFigma
Small Businesses
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Maya
Score 8.4 out of 10
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Blender
Blender
Score 9.2 out of 10
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate
Score 8.4 out of 10
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe After EffectsFigma
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(39 ratings)
8.9
(207 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(2 ratings)
10.0
(7 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(8 ratings)
8.1
(40 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
5.5
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(7 ratings)
5.1
(17 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe After EffectsFigma
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
I would recommend Adobe After Effects to a colleague above all other comparable software that I have used, however, with the caveat that it can be time-consuming to learn to use and can be frustrating if you are not familiar with the software. Difficulty aside, once you begin to understand how to use Adobe After Effects, it is the only software for the job.
Read full review
Figma
I would recommend if you need to start from scratch a product UI or any customer journey that you need to implement that requires designing and visualizing different steps to complete a process. I would recommend that any design/UI/UX team brainstorm and make proposals that they can compare and discuss in a visual way.
Read full review
Pros
Adobe
  • Adobe After Effects allows you to exercise a great level of control over how to animate just about every aspect of an object. You can control animation speed of entry and exit, the direction of rotation, scale, position, and so many more attributes.
  • Adobe After Effects is so popular that you can find so many paid and free third-party plug-ins and scripts to incorporate into your project.
  • There is such a breadth and depth of features available in Adobe After Effects, you will never get tired of exploring the program and using its many features to take your projects to new heights
  • Adobe After Effects works well with other products in the Adobe Creative Suites including, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Media Encoder
  • Adobe After Effects allows you to customize the setup of your workspace and panels
Read full review
Figma
  • Figma allows us to create universal content. This means that if multiple designers want to re-use a piece of content, and if everyone's content should be dynamically updated from time to time, we can easily accomplish this by turning design elements into a universal instance. Then, if an update is needed, we can push the change out to all assets at once. It's very efficient and ensures we're all updating content accordingly.
  • Figma also allows us to set parameters for the company's brand guide and share them across various designers. This way, we can easily pull from approved brand fonts, colors, and more, which allows our assets to remain unified across multiple touchpoints.
  • Figma also allowed us to create and install our own plugin, which we use to export every slide we have in a frame at one time, versus the default export feature, which limits you to one slice at a time. This is particularly useful for us when we're working on email templates, since we tend to have a ton of slices in any given series.
Read full review
Cons
Adobe
  • I would like the Re-Link file structure to mimic Premiere.
  • I would like to see native .obj importing and manipulation.
  • I would like to see better audio editing available within Adobe After Effects. if it could be given a separate layer/panel.
Read full review
Figma
  • It will be great if Figma will consider having the Pages where interactions can be stitched together among the Pages and not just one page with so many Frames to create the stand-alone clickable prototype that can be used to simulate the intended UX
  • Bring back the Inspect Mode tab right on the right-side panel of the main workspace instead of hiding behind the Dev Mode.
  • Figma Slides feature could be improved quite a bit more in order to be easier to assemble slides into a presentation deck and having pre-built templates for slides can be useful too.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
I will renew my use of After Effects since it's affordable and always has been reliable. They also always continue to update new features and add new things to compete with other software out there. I also like all the 3rd party plugins out there that keep my interest for the future and new toolsets and creative solutions.
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Figma
Figma is a pretty cool tool in many areas. My team almost uses it on daily basis, such as, brainstorming on product/design topics, discussing prototypes created by designers. We even use it for retrospectives, which is super convenient and naturally keeps records of what the team discusses every month. Furthermore, I do see the potential of the product - currently we mainly use it for design topics, but it seems it is also a good fit for tech diagrams, which we probably will explore further in the future.
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Usability
Adobe
There's a lot of features and functionality that Adobe After Effects offers that can be hard to navigate at times. Depending on the depth you plan to use the software for, that can take some time to learn. The built-in templates and tutorials really help soften that learning curve. Once you get past some of the basics, it's fairly simple to use.
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Figma
There's a bit of a learning curve, but generally I think it's both more powerful and intuitive that other UX design tools. Most of what I need to do as a designer can be done in this platform, from basic wireframes to creating a design system, to creating pixel perfect designs, to prototyping to dev handoff.
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Reliability and Availability
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Figma
The only regret I have is, its not available when there is no internet
Read full review
Performance
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Figma
I think its great, As there are many other software or systems which can be integrated with it as plugins or API's
Read full review
Support Rating
Adobe
Adobe customer support is wonderful. They genuinely care about their product and the end user experience. The products they create have always been innovative and continue to improve. They have a huge chunk of the user market in their field and still strive to improve. This is such a big deal for me and other small business/organizations that need their products and don't have a large voice on our own.
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Figma
I haven't used their support lately but in the past, they had a chat that I used often. They often responded in a few hours and were able to give a satisfactory solution. I would imagine it's less personal now but the community has expanded drastically so there are more resources out there to self serve with a bit of Google magic.
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In-Person Training
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Figma
In-person training has its own benefits - 1. It helps in resolving queries then and there during the training. 2. I find classroom or in-person training more interactive. 3. Classroom or in-person training could be more practical in nature where participants can have an hands on experience with tools and clarify their doubts with the trainer.
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Online Training
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Figma
Online training has its own merits and demerits - 1. Sometimes we may face issues with connectivity or the training content 2. The way training is being delivered becomes very important because not everyone is comfortable taking online training and learning by themselves. 3. With the advancement of technology online training has become popular but there is a segment of people who still prefer class-room training over online one.
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
I find Adobe After Effects to be superior to iMovie and Final Cut Pro in that I am able to do much more with the software. It isn't as limiting as the other two. I also like that it isn't an Apple product. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Apple. There is a bigger learning curve with After Effects, but once you get the hang of it, there's really no comparison.
Read full review
Figma
Miro is more user-friendly than Figma, but is less robust in terms of web prototyping and graphic design. While Figma isn't made to be used as a design tool, our team has taken to using it as such because it's richer in functions and personalizations compared to Miro and Figma.
Read full review
Scalability
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Figma
I think this is great and as I mentioned at ADP we use Figma extensively whether by designers, researchers or content writers
Read full review
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Adobe After Effects has a great impact on business as maximum work can be done in one software
  • To run this software you need to have good configuration system
  • Motion Graphics, 2d Animation and video editing can be done in one software
Read full review
Figma
  • Allows us to get funding for further phases of the project (which is uncountable)
  • Well, it lets us show off when needed due to well suited UI-oriented character
  • Easily approachable by anyone (browser use)
  • User friendly interface
  • More advanced cooperation requires some of the users to have a license
Read full review
ScreenShots