As of 28 Oct 2026, the panel rates Figma 2.5/5 and Sketch 3/5 in Design. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 0 of the 6 judges pick Figma and 6 pick Sketch. Figma scores higher on 4 of 7 criteria (Pricing transparency, AI features & rights to the work, Brand assets & governance, plus 1 more). Sketch scores higher on 3 of 7 criteria (Files, formats & portability, European sovereignty and Collaboration, review & developer handoff). Provenance — Figma: Rest of world; Sketch: EU-Made. Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made.
The two benches split along clear lines rather than settling on one verdict. Figma's means lead on pricing transparency (8.0 vs 6.3; 6–0), AI and content rights (5.0 vs 4.0; 6–0), design and prototyping (7.0 vs 6.7; 2–0 with four ties) and brand asset governance (4.0 vs 3.2; 3–0 with three ties). Sketch's means lead on file ownership and portability (8.0 vs 4.5; 6–0), sovereignty (3.7 vs 1.3; 6–0) and collaboration and handoff (6.8 vs 6.5; 3–1 with two ties). The weighted totals shown run to Sketch for five judges — product designer 6.1 vs 6, frontend engineer 6.8 vs 5.3, brand marketer 5.1 vs 5, data protection officer 5 vs 4.3, skeptic 5.6 vs 5 — with no totals shown for the agency owner. The attributes list Figma's data residency as US default and subprocessor exposure as US CLOUD Act; Sketch's entity jurisdiction is listed as NL, with ownership, data residency and subprocessor exposure as unknown.
Choose Figma if
You need per-seat euro prices published before purchase: pricing transparency leans 6 judges to 0 toward Figma (8.0 vs 6.3), with €16/mo for a Full seat at Professional, €55/mo at Organization and €90/mo at Enterprise stated on the pages.
You plan to use AI features and want AI credits stated per plan: the AI and content rights lean is 6 to 0 toward Figma (5.0 vs 4.0).
Your team's main need is design and prototyping, where Figma's mean leads 7.0 to 6.7 with 2 judges leaning Figma, 0 leaning Sketch and 4 ties.
You need a documented logo-to-brand-kit generator: brand asset governance leans 3 to 0 toward Figma (4.0 vs 3.2), with 3 judges tying.
Choose Sketch if
You need design files readable without the vendor's app: file ownership and portability leans 6 to 0 toward Sketch (8.0 vs 4.5); documents are ZIP archives of JSON with an independently versioned JSON Schema on npm.
Your procurement requires an EU legal entity: Sketch's legal entity jurisdiction attribute is NL, and the sovereignty lean is 6 to 0 toward Sketch (3.7 vs 1.3); Figma's data residency attribute is US default.
Your developers inspect files in the browser: collaboration and handoff leans 3 to 1 toward Sketch (6.8 vs 6.5), with free browser-based developer inspection documented.
Your team is frontend-heavy: the frontend engineer judge's weighted total is 6.8 for Sketch against 5.3 for Figma.
Your data protection officer must sign off: that judge's weighted total is 5 for Sketch against 4.3 for Figma.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The Data Protection Officer
Reviews every tool where unreleased products, customer screenshots and employee photos end up. Wants the contracting entity and hosting region named, the AI providers on the subprocessor list, and training on customer files excluded for the whole organisation in the terms — not behind a toggle each user has to find.
Figma
Sketch
This judge's pick
Criterion by criterion
Design, prototyping & design systems
Figma
Team-wide design libraries published across teams, shared styles for colour, text, grids and effects, and an AI component generator that works with the customer's real tokens, variables and component variants point to a design system managed in the tool. We found no public information on versioned library releases or on prototypes with transitions and conditional logic, which keeps it below the top of this band.
Sketch
The prototype documentation covers overlays, hover, press and toggle triggers, scroll areas, animations, multiple start points and sharing, and shared Libraries propagate Symbol changes to everyone using them, with starred versions controlling which changes are released. Instance overrides for text, colours, images and nested Symbols are documented, but we found no public information on variables or tokens with modes and themes, component variants, or conditional logic in prototypes.
Collaboration, review & developer handoff
Figma
Dev Mode is well evidenced with measurements, copy as CSS, iOS and Android code, a code panel in CSS, Swift and XML, and asset export; free viewers can comment without a paid seat, and an MCP server and integrations directory are named. We found no public information on version history with restore, branching, or named issue-tracker integrations.
Sketch
Real-time collaboration, unlimited free viewers, free browser-based developer inspection and document version history are priced into the plans, comments carry threads, mentions, Markdown, resolution and per-document commenting permissions for viewers and guests, and the handoff tools include Inspect, Export and an MCP server. We found no public information on restoring earlier versions, branching, or a developer view linking components to code or named issue-tracker integrations.
Brand assets & governance
Figma
The logo-to-brand-kit generator produces colour palettes, typography pairings and brand assets on the canvas, and over a thousand community templates exist — brand kit generation rather than a governed central library. We found no public information on locked templates, rights or expiry metadata, or approval workflows; the brand guidance captured governs Figma's own marks, not customer assets.
Sketch
Shared Libraries of Symbols plus shared styles in the document structure form the team's reusable kit, and the pages restrict who can edit a Library document and how third-party Symbols may be consumed. We found no public information on brand guidelines published in the tool, approval workflows for new assets, rights and expiry metadata on licensed assets, or team templates that non-designers fill in.
Files, formats & portability
Figma
Customer ownership of all Customer Content and a 30-day electronic retrieval window after termination are written into the terms, and export as CSS, SVG and PNG plus an asset export panel are documented. We found no public information on an open or documented file format, whole-file download, or bulk export of a team's files.
Sketch
The document format is published as an independently versioned JSON Schema with TypeScript types on npm, the ZIP-and-JSON archive structure is documented down to the images and pages folders, and documents can be generated and modified without the app; the native Mac app works offline and a Private Cloud with a choice of hosting locations is sold, alongside a documented Figma import. We found no public information on bulk export of a team's files, transfer of removed users' files to the organisation, or a retention and deletion timeline for files after a contract ends.
AI features & rights to the work
Figma
Training on Customer Content happens only when the Content Training toggle is on in administrative settings — a control to find and set, not an exclusion written into the terms, and its default state is not documented — while the AI terms do state the customer owns Input and Output. The captured pages name no AI model providers or processing locations, and Figma expressly disclaims warranty and liability for AI output rather than offering indemnity.
Sketch
Background removal runs on-device on the Mac with images never sent to Sketch or an external provider, and the MCP server runs locally and is disabled by default. However, the privacy statement says information sent to a chosen third-party AI provider may be used for model training under that provider's policy, the MCP switch sits with each user in the app's settings rather than an organisation-wide admin control, and we found no public information on commercial-use rights for generated output or any IP indemnity.
European sovereignty
Figma
The terms are entered with Figma, Inc. under California law and San Francisco courts, and the privacy policy states all personal information is transferred to, processed and stored in the United States with no residency option offered; the published DPA with Module 2 Standard Contractual Clauses is the only European-facing safeguard captured. The subprocessor page is referenced but not captured, the named providers such as Zendesk, Statsig and Akismet are US services, and the Berlin Figma GmbH in the German imprint is not the contracting entity.
Sketch
The entity is named as Sketch B.V., retention periods are anchored in Dutch civil and fiscal law, a Data Processing Addendum and a subprocessor list are published, and Standard Contractual Clauses are invoked for transfers with the United States named. We found no public information on where Workspace files are stored for standard plans — a choice of hosting locations is described only for Private Cloud — and the published subprocessor categories give no named providers or locations, so the residency chain remains unstated.
Pricing transparency
Figma
Every plan and seat type is priced in euros with the billing period stated, free view-and-comment access on paid plans is explicit, mid-term seat additions are prorated and invoiced on a stated schedule, per-plan AI credit allotments are listed, taxes are stated as excluded, and Governance+ is named as Enterprise-only, with renewal, price-change termination and downgrade conditions in the terms. We found no numeric price for pay-as-you-go or subscription AI credits and no storage pricing, so a heavy AI user's total cost is not fully computable.
Sketch
Three plans are priced publicly per Editor with the billing period stated — '€ 11 Monthly / per Editor, billed yearly' at Standard, '€ 22' at Professional and '€ 44' at Enterprise, plus '€ 108 Per seat, includes one year of updates' for the Mac-only licence — with main features per plan listed, including where SSO, permissions groups, SCIM and BYOK encryption begin, unlimited free viewers, free developer inspection, and storage of 50GB per Editor. Private Cloud is 'Contact for pricing' with a one-time setup fee, and we found no public information on how and when added seats are billed, VAT treatment, or any AI credit pricing.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
Figma
Sketch
Legal entity
Not determined
Not determined
Ownership
Not determined
Not determined
Data residency
Not determined
Not determined
Subprocessors
US CLOUD Act reach
Not determined
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.
As of 28 Oct 2026, the panel rates Sketch higher: 3/5 against 2.5/5. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 0 of the 6 judges pick Figma and 6 pick Sketch. Which one fits depends on the criteria that matter to you; the table on this page shows both side by side, and each judge’s reading has its own page. Both were scored by the same AI bench under the same rubric, from public evidence only, as the methodology describes.
Is Figma or Sketch European?
Figma is not European by provenance (Rest of world). Sketch is European (EU-Made). Provenance is read from each company’s own legal pages: who builds it and who owns it.
Do Figma and Sketch have a free plan?
As of 28 Oct 2026, Figma’s own pages state a free plan; Sketch’s pages as captured do not. Each product page links the pricing page it was read from.