Adobe Illustrator CC vs. Figma

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Illustrator
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Illustrator CC is a vector-based graphic design software.
$20.99
per month
Figma
Score 9.0 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 Illustrator CCFigma
Editions & Modules
Yearly - Billed Monthly
$20.99
per month
Monthly
$31.49
per month
Yearly - Billed Upfront
$239.88
per year
Professional
$144
per year
Organization
$540
per year
Starter
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe IllustratorFigma
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 Illustrator CCFigma
Considered Both Products
Adobe Illustrator
Chose Adobe Illustrator CC
Adobe Illustrator gives you much more control over every aspect of the design process. Canva has several limitations like being unable to customize gradients or creating clipping masks. Inkscape only works in RGB space and has a less intuitive user interface. They benefit from …
Chose Adobe Illustrator CC
We selected Adobe Illustrator CC as a company because of it's wide array of other programs that we can bundle together. It's a tool that most our vendors are also familiar with so it simplifies our workflow to use it. I like the functionality and the fact it's a tool I'm super …
Chose Adobe Illustrator CC
The integration with Creative Cloud Libraries and Adobe Fonts, combined with the powerful array of tools offered in Adobe Illustrator makes up for the high price compared with other tools that are often free. You even get an outstanding 3D renderer built in with excellent …
Figma
Chose Figma
Figma is way better than Adobe Illustrator because of its ability to seamlessly integrate multiple use cases like mobile design and vector-based shape building. While Adobe Illustrator is great for adding texture and depth to illustration you can still build high-end …
Chose Figma
I would use Figma for sure for any product design you need, for any marketing or visual illustrations related to a product or business. Even if the navigation between files/folders and within the design is not the best, the capabilities and focus on designing are the best in …
Chose Figma
Figma is far superior to Canva in my opinion. Canva is a great tool for novice designers who need to rely on templates and a limited number of options to complete their tasks. Figma is much closer to Photoshop in its features and application, but separate from Photoshop in that …
Chose Figma
Figma was a huge turning point compared to its competitors, especially Adobe XD, a tool designed for the same purpose as Figma. I would say that it and all the other tools I mentioned, including those that do not have the same focus on UX design (Photoshop and Illustrator), …
Chose Figma
It has all the necessary tools for the job while allowing a much greater collaborative workspace. I have a very limited time and can't lose it asking to designers to show me what they are doing and setting up meetings to comment / design with them. All other tools do not have …
Chose Figma
Figma does everything that I personally needed to do, and does all of those really well.
If you're a UI / UX designer, there is nothing better out there. If you're a PM, you'll be working on this quite a bit, but this is definitely not the best wireframing tool.
Chose Figma
Figma is the best for collaboration, most intuitive interface and compatible with the most outside softwares. Plugin library is also expansive
Chose Figma
Figma is by far the best prototyping tool out there. I am such a fan of this tool.
Chose Figma
Better auto layouts, components and prototyping capabilities. Variables in Figma are also a fantastic addition to create a robust, and scalable design system. I use these features all the time. Love them!
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
In Figma I can make websites and apps. With Miro I can brainstorm about how I want the app to be and what my ideas are.
Chose Figma
Figma stands out with its robust collaborative design capabilities, enabling multiple users to work simultaneously, unlike Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator, which are more suited for individual use. Figma's cloud-based platform facilitates real-time feedback, version control, …
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
I was not the one who selected Figma and it is certainly missing some features of photoshop that I'd like to have but its a great all in one software for design and collaboration and its very easy to learn and get new members on board.
Chose Figma
They are used for different things so they don't really stack up against each other. I know there is FigJam, but we are not using it within the team. For workshops and discussions we use Miro as a tool, but all the design tasks are carried out within Figma. We mostly use Figma …
Chose Figma
It is easier to use and more accessible without paying thousands of dollars for a subscription service.
Chose Figma
Figma is easy to start and not complicated, even for entry-level designers. Its price is also cheap compared to Adobe.
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 is closer to capabilities to Adobe tools like illustrator and white boarding tools like Miro, making it more versatile
Chose Figma
Figma is a lot cleaner, easier to navigate and organize. Maybe you can't do as much visually but you can move faster in Figma. I'm trying to remember more but honestly I've been using Figma for so long now.
Chose Figma
Figma supports and is supported by other design apps, but it really shines in prototyping for web and app development. It's easy to share with colleagues and collaborate in one space, the open space allows for a ton of iteration, and the organization of layers functions better …
Chose Figma
In Figma we have it all! From sketches, wireframes, to complex design systems, components, tokens, libraries, etc.

It is also very easy to share interactive prototypes, the developer team can also access the files from anywhere, without installing anything on their computers, …
Chose Figma
Figma is inherently "smarter" than these other apps for its ability to create design tokens, generate code and is just better suited all around for screen-based design.
Best Alternatives
Adobe Illustrator CCFigma
Small Businesses
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 7.7 out of 10
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
GIMP
GIMP
Score 8.5 out of 10
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 7.7 out of 10
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe Illustrator CCFigma
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(110 ratings)
9.0
(206 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(7 ratings)
Usability
6.6
(7 ratings)
8.3
(39 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
5.5
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(25 ratings)
5.0
(17 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 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 Illustrator CCFigma
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
Adobe Illustrator is used to help make drawings look good but not make them. It is easy to add color or texture but it is hard to actually make the drawings in it. I would recommend using other software to make the lines for plans and sections and using Adobe Illustrator to make it look good.
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
  • Vector graphics for scaling to large sizes
  • Filling an object with a texture
  • Easily adjusting and expanding an artboard to fit the size of the content (especially for infographics)
  • Compatibility with other Adobe CC programs, but also exporting for PPT graphics
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
  • It's tough to master. If you haven't used Adobe products like Photoshop or Illustrator before, there is a lot to take in.
  • It would be great to have some better options to preview the final product if you're creating a multiple page document.
  • Better integration and pricing points with Adobe Stock for the useful stock images to complete your projects.
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.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
While Adobe Illustrator CC is one of the only true design software out there, it really stands heads above the other products. It's clean UI and menu structure is easy to navigate.
Read full review
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 bit of a learning curve to this software vs other similar tools that can take some time to learn and get familiar with but the amount of functionality that Adobe Illustrator CC offers is quite large compared to simpler tools.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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
I normally already know how to do whatever I'm trying out, but the documentation (as well as a simple Google search) makes any question quick to resolve. The Adobe boards themselves are a fantastic resource, especially for resolving questions between new programs and iterative releases.
Read full review
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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Implementation Rating
Adobe
It was very easy to purchase and download.
Read full review
Figma
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Adobe
They complement each other, each with its own specific characteristics, but within a marketing sector, an experienced designer knows that the use of these tools in sets makes all the difference. It is possible to combine their uses and create really relevant materials that will bring a great return to the company and in the dissemination of arts with superior quality to the competitors
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.
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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
  • Helps us quickly and easily create and manage numerous logos
  • Cloud libraries allow us to access commonly used colors, fonts, logos and other design elements quickly
  • We are able to provide high-quality, scalable college logos for print and digital which give us a more professional, credible look.
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