The Right Tool for the Right Job.
Recently I've had to advocate for Sketch more than ever as there has been a migration from companies to use Figma. Since both are Vector based the difference lies in the fundamental format in which each is composed. A common misconception is that Figma has a desktop application dedicated to Mac’s. In fact they provide a web container that isn’t as useful as Sketch to perform design tasks on a MacBook or other Apple desktop devices. When asking a large corporation about their choice for Figma they said the rational boiled down to one thing: licensing. Sketch is Native to Mac and is only available on their platform, whereas Figma provides access from any system into their service. The ability to access design is one aspect, however with no dedicated PC’s that solve the creative needs of designers it begs the question of why use a web container for their application if the industry standard is a MacBook Pro.
Sketch is Native to Mac OS, Figma is a web container. There are clear differences that enable Sketch to be higher quality in design.
Since Sketch is Native to Mac it enables high fidelity over the designs created. I recently built CosmicMotive.com using Sketch because the degree of fidelity when doing Native applications is of the highest importance. Figma can get close, but the level of design achievable using Sketch is far greater than Figma, which is why I prefer this tool as a standard to my design. I primarily design Native experiences and when I am not doing that I prefer having higher fidelity in my work.
Figma is a great tool that follows the same general principle of using Vector shapes as a guide, however the ability for it to render as clean as Sketch is not possible. If you are doing responsive web applications that don’t require a high degree of final visual polish this is a great choice. However when providing final designs for Native experiences Sketch is the only solution that will provide the degree of quality that is required. It’s hard to compare the two, however I find that most people who do so are not educated on this piece and it is important to use the right tool for the right job. Licensing and containing the experience to Mac only has it's limitations, but for designers looking for a high degree of fidelty there is little comparison with how each can render and the potential output.