For years, the choice of UI design tool was a hot topic in the design community: Adobe XD or Figma? Two apps with similar ambitions, two passionate communities, and two different philosophies on design workflows. But if you're asking this question today, one key detail changes everything: Adobe has effectively abandoned XD.
After its attempt to acquire Figma fell through in 2023 due to antitrust concerns, Adobe stopped investing in XD. No new features, no public roadmap, no active development. The product is still available for download, but it's in a state of maintenance mode. For anyone choosing a tool to build a career or a team around, this is a deal-breaker.
In this guide, I'll explain the real differences between Adobe XD and Figma, why XD left the scene, and—most importantly—how to move from XD to Figma without losing your work. No biased opinions, just an honest comparison. But I'll tell you upfront: the conclusion is clear.
What you'll learn in this article:
- What happened to Adobe XD and why Adobe stopped its development
- The practical differences between XD and Figma: collaboration, prototyping, plugins, and price
- Why Figma has become the undisputed industry standard
- How to migrate your files from XD to Figma, step by step
- What skills to focus on to get up to speed in Figma quickly
What Happened to Adobe XD
Adobe XD launched in 2016 as Adobe's answer to Sketch, which was the leading UI design tool at the time. For a few years, it grew steadily, boasting seamless integration with the Creative Cloud ecosystem, smooth prototyping, and a gentle learning curve for those already familiar with Photoshop or Illustrator.
Then Figma arrived and changed the game. Figma offered something that neither XD nor Sketch had: real-time, browser-based collaboration. In 2022, Adobe announced its intention to acquire Figma for $20 billion—a figure that speaks volumes about who was winning the war. However, the deal collapsed in late 2023, blocked by antitrust regulators in the UK and EU.
The result? Adobe was left with XD, a product where investment had already slowed in anticipation of the merger, and no real incentive to revive it. Since then, XD has not received any substantial updates. It has been removed from major subscription plans, development is frozen, and the community has gradually moved elsewhere. Technically, you can still use it, but you'd be building on a foundation that its own creator has stopped maintaining.
For a designer, this is a major problem. A tool without updates means no new features, plugins that become outdated, worsening compatibility over time, and—crucially—skills that are no longer in demand in the job market.
Key Differences: Adobe XD vs. Figma
Let's set aside the "abandonment" issue for a moment and compare the two tools on their merits. Even before XD's development halted, Figma was already leading on several key fronts.
Collaboration. This is where the real battle was won. XD was born as a desktop application: a file lives on your computer, and to collaborate, you have to share, sync, and manage versions. Figma, on the other hand, lives in the browser. Multiple designers can work on the same file simultaneously, seeing each other's cursors in real time, like a Google Docs for design. For teams—and for working with clients and developers—this is a massive difference.
Prototyping. Both tools let you link screens and create navigable flows. XD always had solid prototyping capabilities, with polished transitions and micro-interactions. Figma offers comparable features, plus Smart Animate and interactive components that, combined with live collaboration, make prototype testing much more immediate. The tools are close here, but Figma's surrounding ecosystem is far more vibrant.
Plugins and Community. Here, the gap is huge. Figma has a massive and continuously growing marketplace of plugins and widgets for everything from accessibility checking and dummy content generation to asset exporting and integration with tools like Notion and Slack. XD had its own plugins, but with development frozen, many are no longer updated, and the ecosystem has stagnated.
Price. Figma has a generous free plan, perfect for learning and for individual projects, with paid plans designed for teams. XD was tied to the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, a more rigid and costly model (often starting around $55/month in the US for the full suite) for those who didn't need the entire software package.
Components and Design Systems. Both tools handle reusable components, but Figma's system of variants and shared styles, along with team-level libraries, makes it the go-to tool for building and maintaining robust design systems.
Why Figma Became the Industry Standard
The sum of these advantages created a snowball effect. Once teams adopted Figma for its collaboration features, agencies started requiring it, universities and bootcamps began teaching it, and job postings started listing it as a core skill. It's the classic network effect: the more people use it, the more valuable it becomes for everyone to use it, because you can collaborate with anyone.
Today, if you browse job listings for UX/UI designers on LinkedIn or Glassdoor, you'll find Figma listed as a core requirement in the vast majority of posts. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field is growing, and Figma is the tool powering that growth. Knowing Figma is no longer a "nice to have"; it's a fundamental skill, like knowing how to use email or a spreadsheet. Adobe XD, in contrast, appears less and less frequently—and when it does, it's often for roles at companies looking for someone to help them migrate away from it.
This doesn't mean XD was a bad tool. It was a good product. But UI design is a field where the industry-standard tool matters immensely. It determines who you can collaborate with, what files you can open, which tutorials you can find, and what plugins you can use. And today, that standard is Figma.
How to Migrate from Adobe XD to Figma
The good news is that switching from XD to Figma doesn't mean starting from scratch. There are proven methods for bringing your work from one tool to the other.
1. Export Your Files from XD. Open your projects in Adobe XD and prepare the .xd files you want to transfer. This is a great time to do some housekeeping: archive old projects and identify the ones that are truly worth migrating.
2. Use an Import Plugin. Figma and its community offer tools to import XD files directly. The most well-known plugin is "XD to Figma" (and similar community alternatives). You upload the .xd file, and it reconstructs your frames, layers, text, and components inside Figma. The conversion isn't always 100% perfect—complex effects or interactions may need some tweaking—but the bulk of your layout will be preserved.
3. Rebuild Your Design System. After importing, spend time reorganizing your components, styles, and libraries using Figma's variants and shared styles. This is where you'll see the real benefit of migrating: a more organized and collaborative system than you had in XD.
4. Verify Your Prototypes. The links between screens and transitions will need to be checked and often recreated natively in Figma to take full advantage of Smart Animate and interactive components.
5. Onboard Your Team. If you work in a group, share the files, set permissions, and get everyone used to working in the same space. This is where Figma truly shines.
A practical tip: instead of mechanically migrating everything, view the process as an opportunity to rebuild better. Often, recreating a component from scratch in Figma using its native logic is faster and yields a cleaner result than importing and then fixing it.
What to Learn to Get Started in Figma
If you're coming from XD, you're already halfway there. You understand the basic concepts of UI design—frames, layers, components, prototyping. What you need to do is remap those concepts to Figma's logic and learn the features that XD lacked.
The key areas to focus on first:
- Auto Layout, Figma's responsive layout system, which will likely be the biggest change to your workflow compared to XD.
- Components and Variants, for building reusable elements and managing different states in an organized way.
- Shared Styles and Libraries, the heart of any collaborative design system.
- Collaboration and Commenting, for working with teams, clients, and developers in the same file.
- Dev Mode, for handing off specs and assets to the engineering team.
The most effective way to learn these skills is to get hands-on with a real project. You can start for free by following a Figma tutorial to get comfortable with the interface, then practice by rebuilding real screens. A great exercise when switching from XD is to start with the fundamentals of visual design: create a wireframe to map out the structure, and then a high-fidelity mockup to hone your visual skills.
The Bottom Line
The Adobe XD vs Figma debate now has a much clearer answer than it did a few years ago. XD was a good product with solid prototyping and convenient integration with the Adobe ecosystem. But after the failed acquisition of Figma, Adobe stopped its development, leading to no updates, unmaintained plugins, and a dwindling community.
Meanwhile, Figma has cemented its advantages—real-time browser collaboration, a massive plugin marketplace, an accessible free plan, and enterprise-grade components and design systems—becoming the de facto industry standard. It's the tool that teams use, companies demand in job posts, and the entire ecosystem has rallied around.
For those coming from XD, the path forward is clear. Migrating is straightforward, your core skills are transferable, and investing your time in Figma means investing in the tool of the present and the foreseeable future. If you want to learn to use it like a pro—from Auto Layout to design systems—our Figma course and the complete UX Designer path will guide you from theory to practice on real-world projects.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is Adobe XD still usable in 2024 and beyond?
Technically, yes. The software can still be downloaded, and .xd files still open. However, Adobe has ceased active development following the failed Figma acquisition. This means no new features, increasingly outdated plugins, and a shrinking community. It's not a solid foundation for new projects or a career.
Can I convert my Adobe XD files to Figma?
Yes. There are import plugins (like "XD to Figma" and other community-built alternatives) that can reconstruct frames, layers, text, and components from an .xd file. The conversion preserves most of the layout, though complex interactions and special effects may require some manual adjustments in Figma.
How hard is it to switch from XD to Figma if I already know XD? Not very hard. The core concepts—frames, layers, components, prototypes—are common to both tools, so you have a head start. The main new features to learn are Figma's Auto Layout, component variants, and real-time collaboration. With a good tutorial and some hands-on practice, you can become proficient in a few weeks.
