Launched in 2015, the Figma editing app has taken the world by storm. It allows you to design pretty much everything – from company logos to entire websites and mobile apps.
Broadly speaking, there are two reasons why Figma has become so widely used. First, it’s an awesome tool – easy to use, with lots of different options and chock-full of cool resources. The second reason is that it’s also free to use.
Well, kind of free. You don’t have to pay for Figma if you’re sticking with its basic plan – which is effectively designed for personal use. But if you want to make the most out of Figma (if, for example, you’re a web design start-up with a handful of employees), you’ll have to pay for it.
And here comes the bad news – when used for corporate purposes, Figma isn’t cheap. In fact, it can turn out to be prohibitively expensive. Which is why you need to learn all about the different Figma pricing options at your disposal and pick the best plan for you.
And this guide is designed to help you do just that.
Key points
- Thanks to how user-friendly it is, Figma has become the most popular web-based UI design app on the market.
- Although Figma won’t charge you for its initial tier, the truth is that its free plan is only suitable for personal use. If you run or work for a company that needs to work on a design project, you’ll need to sign up for a Figma subscription.
- There are three different Figma pricing plans – Figma Professional (an affordable option for small-to-medium businesses), Figma Organization (a more costly alternative for big corporations) and Figma Enterprise (an even more expensive tier for behemoth-sized companies).
- As great as Figma is, it falls into certain dark patterns that can turn out to be very costly to your company.
What is Figma?
In a nutshell, Figma is an open-sourced and web-based design app that allows you to create your own graphics and web designs. The seeds for Figma were planted more than 10 years ago when its creators came up with a hugely revolutionary idea of making visual design accessible to everyone.
And that’s what they did. These days, Figma is used by everyone and their dog – from tech start-ups in need of cool visuals for social media to graphic designers in charge of designing company logos. In fact, Figma comes highly recommended by companies as prestigious as Airbnb or Condé Nast, which have firmly stamped their seal of approval on this app.
Here are some of the main reasons why Figma has garnered such a distinguished fanbase:
- It’s a rare UI and UX design app that is genuinely easy to use – you don’t need to have a master’s in digital design to master it.
- Figma works directly on your browser, so there are no cumbersome installation processes or disruptive updates (we’re looking at you, Adobe).
- It was released just at the right time – the mobile and web app market boom shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Apps need cool designs – and that’s where Figma comes in.
- Figma allows you to create designs from scratch or to use pre-made templates.
- It’s partially free – and its free plan lets you store up to 3 active projects at a time.
At this point, you might be asking yourself, “but what if I need to work on more than 3 projects at the same time?” And that is a fair question indeed. The answer? You’ll have to pay for a subscription.
And that’s where things can get confusing – not to mention expensive.
A guide to Figma pricing plans – how much does Figma cost?
To cater to everyone’s needs, Figma offers a few different subscription tiers. If you want Figma for personal use only, it might be worth sticking with its free version. But if you run or work for a company that uses this app on a weekly basis, you will need to invest in one of Figma’s subscription plans.
Figma Pricing Plan: Free
This is the entry-level subscription tier in the spectrum of Figma pricing. Because it doesn’t include a lot of the features available on other plans and limits your usage, Figma Free is designed exclusively for individual use (and very small teams at best). However, it’s worth mentioning that Figma Free is not a free trial. There is no time limit at all, and you can keep using it for small, personal projects for as long as you like.
Here are some of the key features of Figma Free:
- Allows you to work on 3 Figma files at the same time – meaning you can easily complete a small design project.
- You can also simultaneously work on 3 FigJam (Figma’s collaborative whiteboard for team brainstorming) files at the same time.
- The tool is completely free to use.
- Firms let you upload an unlimited number of files and collaborate with an unlimited number of people.
- You get access to the Figma mobile app.
- Some plugins, widgets and templates are included– meaning it’s great for visual design newbies.
There’s no doubt that Figma Free is a great tool – particularly at its $0 price tag. But the truth is that most companies need a bit more oomph from their UI design tool – enter Figma Professional.
Figma Pricing Plan: Professional
This is the first paid subscription tier that Figma offers. At an affordable $12 per editor per month, it includes a lot more features than the entry-level free plan. Figma Professional is ideal for small start-ups that need a reliable design tool and for bigger companies for whom design might not be the biggest priority.
Here are some of the main features of this Figma pricing plan:
- Costs $12 per editor/month if you pay for the entire year in one go or $15 per editor/month if you pay monthly.
- Unlike the free version, it allows you to work on an unlimited number of Figma and FigJam files.
- An unlimited version history comes with the package– so you can go back and recover old files that might have been deleted or amended by mistake.
- A wide range of sharing permissions with different levels of permission are included which make collaborating a cake walk.
- Gives you the option to open shared projects that many people can access and work on.
- Grants you access to team libraries – which makes team collaboration a lot easier.
- It also includes audio conversations, which is perfect when several team members are working on one file at the same time.
As you can see, all these features make Figma Professional a very attractive option for most small-to-medium-sized businesses. But if you’re a large corporation, you might want to look into one of the following tiers.
Figma Pricing Plan Organization
Whereas Figma Professional is designed for companies that don’t employ more than 100 people, Figma Organization is tailor-made for large organizations with hundreds of employees. It’s also used by smaller organizations for whom UI design is a priority.
Here are some of the key things you need to know about this Figma pricing plan:
- Costs $45 per editor per month – meaning it’s much pricer than Figma Professional. Only annual billing is available at the moment.
- Includes everything that the Professional tier does and lots of extras.
- Whereas Figma Professional allows you to have team libraries, Figma Organization grants you access to company-wide libraries – perfect for large organizations with several offices/teams.
- It’s chock-full of in-depth analytics to improve your designs.
- You get to branch and merge projects – meaning team members can work individually and then put their efforts together.
- Features centralized file management options for extra security.
- Allows you to unify billing for best invoicing practices.
- Includes a wide range of private plugins and widgets to make your projects more unique.
Until fairly recently, Figma Organization used to be Figma’s top subscription tier. But that has changed. In 2022, Figma unveiled Figma Enterprise. Let’s see what it’s all about.
Figma Pricing Plan Enterprise
The latest Figma pricing plan, Figma Enterprise, emphasizes the power of connection and interactivity. It introduces dedicated workspaces and provides more options to delegate and automate admin tasks. It’s also more security-focused – which is a must for companies dealing with sensitive information.
Here are some of the key features of Figma Enterprise:
- Costs $75 per editor per month. Only annual billing is available at the moment.
- Includes everything that the Figma Organization tier does – plus many extras.
- Gives you better and more complex personalization options than any other Tier.
- Allows you to break down silos between departments and establish flexible workspaces.
- Lets you default new users to a viewer-restricted role – meaning you’ll avoid some costly rookie mistakes.
- Comes with lots of feedback options that make collaboration easier – such as embedded comments within each project.
- Features granular security controls for enhanced safety.
As you can see, it doesn’t get better than Figma Enterprise when it comes to SaaS design apps. The problem? That it might be too expensive – particularly if you fall on what we call a “dark pattern”.
What is the Figma dark pattern?
All that glitters is not gold. The truth is that SaaS can cost your company a lot of money – and we mean a lot. Why? Because certain SaaS providers recur to what we call dark patterns.
In a nutshell, dark patterns are unethical design practices that SaaS providers use in order to increase their revenue by making companies pay more money than they should. From silent recurring transactions that suck your cashflow dry to free trials that automatically convert into pay subscriptions, SaaS dark patterns are everywhere.
Figma is especially notorious for its dark patterns, but it isn’t alone. Read on to learn more.
How to avoid Figma Dark Patterns
Brian is not alone. Hundreds of angry users have flooded twitter, on exactly this. Here’s one story that we saw first hand.
GetMega is a rapidly growing Series B startup, that ordinarily spent US$2000 on Figma. One month, this simple dark pattern resulted in a US$20,000 charge. Ordinarily, this would be a very expensive mistake. However, GetMega is a Quolum customer, and that’s how Quolum has come to the rescue.
Thanks to Quolum’s proactive spend control features, the payment was blocked before it got processed. Further inspection revealed that the massive expense was due to adding 34 new users into their Figma account without express approval for an annual plan change.
With Quolum’s help, Get Mega diffused this stressful situation by getting the invoice canceled as well as deploying additional measures to prevent such circumstances from not happening again. From this case, it is evident how important spend control checks and balances are so organizations can manage their finances responsibly without any unexpected surprises.
How to save money on Figma
Let’s not sugar-coat it – Figma is an essential UI design tool for thousands of businesses. However, it falls into certain dark patterns that can be very costly to your company. So, how do you stay on top of these dark patterns and ensure that you don’t end up paying thousands of dollars more than you should?
By relying on the most robust SaaS management and procurement tool that can take care of every single aspect related to your SaaS – Quolum.
Most SaaS management tools will just let you know when your software subscriptions are up for renewal and provide you with some usage analytics – so you can get a vague idea of how your business is using its SaaS portfolio. But that’s not us. Sure, we can do all that, but we won’t just stop there.
For Figma in particular our one-of a kid integtration tracks detailed feature usage analytics, to ensure that you never overpay for users who accidentally get added, or worse don’t use paid features.
Now let’s say you move away from the world of dark patterns, and move up to the enteprise plans. We’ve still got your back. To start with, we can negotiate your SaaS contracts for you. We hate boasting, but the truth is that we’re pretty good at it – on average, we’ve saved our clients around 30% on their SaaS spend. Oh, and there’s more.
We can also let you know which of your SaaS apps are completely expendable from day one. Not just that – we’ll also cancel your contracts for you. That way, you can focus on what you do best without having to worry about time-consuming SaaS management tasks. So on the off chance you use a competitor like Zeplin, we flag and eliminate those duplicates.
Did we also mention that you don’t have to pay a single cent if it turns out that Quolum doesn’t save you money? That’s right – we offer a savings guarantee. No savings, no paying. That’s how confident we are in our ability to cut SaaS costs.
If you want to learn more talk to our savings expert today to start saving money immediately. You won’t regret it!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Figma used for?
As a browser-based design tool that ticks all the boxes, Figma is used for all kinds of design projects – from phone apps and websites to company logos and visuals for social media.
Is Figma completely free?
No, Figma isn’t completely free. While it’s true that Figma has a free entry-level option, this tier isn’t really recommended for companies. If you need to use Figma for corporate purposes, you’ll have to subscribe to one of its paid tiers.
Does Figma charge per editor?
Yes, Figma charges you a fixed amount per each editor that logs into your projects. For Figma Professional, this is $12 per editor per month (or $15 if you pay monthly); for Figma Organization, it’s $45 per editor per month, and for Figma Enterprise it’s $75 per editor per month.
Who is Quolum for?
Quolum is a great choice for any company that uses SaaS applications regularly. It takes care of all the heavy lifting that’s usually involved with SaaS – procurement, contract renewals, usage tracking, etc.