Adobe XD Alternatives for UI Design and Prototyping

Adobe XD is Adobe's UI design and prototyping app for Windows and Mac. It still works, but the XD product page carries a notice that it "is currently in maintenance mode". In practice that means bug fixes, security and privacy updates for existing customers, and no new features, as Adobe repeated to Creative Bloq in February 2024. An Adobe staff reply on the community forum says XD is "no longer available for purchase as a single application" and is only included in the Creative Cloud All Apps plan.

So an XD file is a dead end for a team that wants new features, plugins that keep working, or a tool new hires already know. The seven picks below are ordered for the most common case: a product team that designs screens, shares a component library and hands off to developers. After that come tools for richer prototypes and for detailed specs. If your main worry is the handoff step, our Zeplin alternatives page covers developer-side tools.

Prices below are as of November 8, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Figma

Most XD users end up here, because Figma covers the same job (artboards, components, auto layout, click-through prototypes) and adds the parts XD stopped growing: variables, branching on higher plans, and a Dev Mode for developers. Files live in the browser, with desktop apps for Windows and Mac, so a reviewer on any machine opens a link and comments.

Pricing is per seat type. Professional costs $16 a month for a Full seat on yearly billing or $20 billed monthly, $12 or $15 for a Dev seat, and $3 or $5 for a Collab seat. Organization Full seats are $55 a month and Enterprise $90, both billed yearly. Seat-based billing applied from each team's first renewal on or after March 11, 2025, per the Figma help centre.

Best for: A product team that designs, reviews and hands off in one shared file.

Pricing:

• Starter: free, one team with one folder and 3 files, 30-day version history
• Professional: Full seat $16/month billed yearly or $20 monthly; Dev seat $12 or $15; Collab seat $3 or $5
• Organization: Full $55/month, Dev $25, Collab $5, billed yearly
• Enterprise: Full $90/month, Dev $35, Collab $5, billed yearly

Watch out for:

• The free Starter plan has no Dev Mode or Code Connect and stops at 3 files, per the plans and features page, so real projects need Professional.
• Seat types make the bill harder to predict than XD's single subscription. Anyone who edits designs needs a Full seat.

Official site: Figma.

Penpot

Penpot is the open source answer to Figma, and the cheapest way out of XD for a small team. It runs in the browser on Penpot's cloud, or on your own server, so client work never has to leave your network. Developers get an Inspect mode with measurements, asset export and SVG, HTML and CSS snippets for any selected object.

The pricing page lists the Professional plan at $0 for up to 8 team members with unlimited viewers. Unlimited costs $7 per editor a month, capped at $175 a month however big the team gets, and Enterprise is $25 per member a month. All prices are in USD, and non-profits, schools and open source projects get discounts.

Best for: Small studios and agencies that want no licence cost or need to self-host.

Pricing:

• Professional: free, up to 8 team members, unlimited viewers
• Unlimited: $7 per editor per month, capped at $175 per month
• Enterprise: $25 per member per month
• Private Server: $50k per year
• Self-hosting the open source version: free

Watch out for:

• The free plan stops at 8 team members, per the pricing page; a ninth person moves you onto a paid plan.
• Self-hosting is free, but your team then owns the server, updates and backups.

Official site: Penpot.

Sketch

Of all the picks, Sketch feels most like XD: a native canvas, symbols, and prototypes that play on a phone. Sketch is still a Mac app first. The web app handles viewing, version history and developer handoff in any browser, and the iPhone and iPad app plays prototypes and mirrors from the Mac.

The pricing page lists Standard at $12 per editor a month billed yearly, with free viewers, free developer handoff and a free MCP server. Professional is $24 and adds SSO and permission groups. If you would rather own a licence, the Mac-only licence costs $120 per seat with one year of updates. Prices exclude VAT.

Best for: A designer or small team on Macs that liked XD's native-app speed.

Pricing:

• Standard: $12 per editor per month, billed yearly
• Professional: $24 per editor per month, billed yearly
• Enterprise: $44 per editor per month, billed yearly
• Mac-only licence: $120 per seat, one year of updates
• 30-day free trial; free for students and teachers

Watch out for:

• Design work needs a Mac. Windows users can only view and inspect in the browser.
• There is no free plan for working designers, only a 30-day trial, per the pricing page.

Official site: Sketch.

ProtoPie

XD's auto-animate got you smooth transitions between artboards. ProtoPie is for the next step: prototypes with variables, conditions, text input, device sensors and multi-screen setups that feel like the shipped app. Teams usually keep designing in Figma or Sketch and import into ProtoPie for the interactions that matter.

The pricing page has a free plan with 2 prototypes, 8 scenes each and 50MB of cloud storage. Basic starts at $25 a month for one seat and 20 prototypes, and Pro starts at $47 per editor a month with unlimited prototypes and team libraries. Yearly billing saves up to 26%. The Connect add-on, for linking prototypes to hardware and other apps, is $20 a month per user.

Best for: Interaction designers who need prototypes that react like real software.

Pricing:

• Free: 2 prototypes, 8 scenes per prototype, 50MB storage
• Basic: from $25 per month, 1 seat, 20 prototypes
• Pro: from $47 per editor per month, unlimited prototypes
• Enterprise: custom, minimum 3 seats
• Yearly billing saves up to 26%

Watch out for:

• It is a prototyping tool, not a design tool, so you still pay for Figma, Sketch or Penpot to draw the screens.
• On Pro, the Connect add-on has to be bought for every editor, per the pricing page.

Official site: ProtoPie.

Framer

If you used XD mostly to mock up marketing sites that a developer then rebuilt, Framer removes that rebuild. You design on a canvas with breakpoints and the result is a published, responsive website with a CMS and hosting. It is a poor fit for app screens, but for landing pages it saves the handoff entirely.

The pricing page lists a free plan with a Framer domain and 1 GB of bandwidth. Basic costs $10 a month billed yearly for 30 pages and 2 CMS collections, and Pro is $30 a month billed yearly for 150 pages. Each extra editor costs $20 a month.

Best for: Designers who build and publish marketing sites themselves.

Pricing:

• Free: Framer domain, 1 GB bandwidth
• Basic: $10 per month billed yearly, 30 pages, 2 CMS collections
• Pro: $30 per month billed yearly, 150 pages, 10 collections
• Extra editors: $20 per month each

Watch out for:

• Every extra editor adds $20 a month, so a team of five pays more for seats than for the plan itself.
• Its prototyping is built around web pages, not multi-screen mobile app flows.

Official site: Framer.

UXPin

UXPin attacks the gap XD never closed: prototypes drawn as pictures of components rather than the components themselves. Its coded libraries (MUI is built in) let you place real React components, so states, inputs and data behave as they will in production. It also has AI credits for generating layouts.

The pricing page lists Core at $29 per seat a month billed yearly or $49 monthly, and Growth at $40 yearly or $69 monthly. Every plan starts with a 14-day trial without a credit card, after which you can stay on a free plan with 2 prototypes, 50 AI credits and a 20-component MUI library.

Best for: Teams with a React design system who want prototypes to match the code.

Pricing:

• Free: 2 prototypes, 50 AI credits, MUI library limited to 20 components
• Core: $29 per seat per month billed yearly, $49 billed monthly
• Growth: $40 per seat per month billed yearly, $69 billed monthly
• Enterprise: custom price
• AI credit add-ons from $13 per month for 200 credits

Watch out for:

• Monthly billing costs far more: Core is $49 a month against $29 on the yearly plan, per the pricing page.
• The free plan's 2 prototypes are enough to evaluate it, not to run a project.

Official site: UXPin.

Axure RP

Axure RP 11 is the old hand of the group, and still the tool for prototypes full of conditional logic, dynamic panels, repeaters and form validation. Business analysts and UX leads use it to produce specs that developers can click through. Visual polish takes more work than in XD, but the behaviour you can model is far deeper.

The pricing page lists Axure RP Pro from $29 per user a month and Axure RP Team from $49, with Enterprise through sales. Team adds co-authoring, revision history and hosted team projects. A subscription can be used on any number of computers, on Windows or Mac.

Best for: UX leads and analysts documenting complex flows and business rules.

Pricing:

• Axure RP Pro: from $29 per user per month
• Axure RP Team: from $49 per user per month, adds co-authoring
• Enterprise: contact sales
• Monthly subscriptions are sold online only

Watch out for:

• Co-authoring and revision history are only on Team, per the pricing page, so solo Pro users work on local files.
• Its default widgets look like wireframes, so high-fidelity visuals usually start in another tool.

Official site: Axure RP.

How to choose

When to stay with Adobe XD

Stay for now if you already pay for Creative Cloud All Apps, your files are in XD and a client still asks for XD deliverables. Adobe still ships bug and security fixes, per the XD product page notice and Adobe's own statements, so nothing breaks tomorrow. Use the time to export assets and rebuild your component library in the tool you pick, because no new features will arrive and the plugins you rely on may stop being maintained.

Frequently asked questions