Figma Alternative: A Free UI Design Tool in Your Browser

If you want a Figma alternative for designing app and website screens on your own, Interface Designer is a free option that runs in your browser. It has frames, auto layout, components, variables and clickable prototypes, it opens Figma (.fig) files, and your designs stay on your device. If your work depends on editing the same file live with a team, Figma is still the better tool, because Interface Designer doesn't have real-time collaboration.

This comparison is based on what each product is designed for. Figma changes its plans, limits and prices over time, so check Figma's own site for the current terms.

The short version

	Interface Designer	Figma
Built for	Solo designers, founders, students, developers	Design teams and the people they work with
Runs in	Your browser, installable, works offline once loaded	Browser and desktop apps
Frames, auto layout, components	Yes	Yes
Variables	Yes	Yes
Clickable prototypes	Yes	Yes
Real-time collaboration	No live sessions	Yes, a core feature
Sharing	Save the design file or export screens	Share a link to the file in the cloud
Developer handoff	Export SVG and PNG assets	Dedicated handoff mode for developers
Opens Figma files	Yes, .fig files open	Its own format
Where files live	On your device	In Figma's cloud
Price	Free to use; a free account for PNG, SVG and JPG export; Pro adds more	Has free and paid plans; check their pricing page

Who each one is for

Choose Figma when design is a team activity. A product team where designers, developers and managers all open the same file, leave comments, share a component library across projects and hand designs to engineers. Figma was built around that shared workspace, and it does it well. If your company already runs on Figma, staying there is usually the right call.

Choose Interface Designer when you're working on your own and want a capable screen design tool without a team setup. A founder wireframing a new app. A freelancer mocking up a homepage for a client. A UX student practising components and prototypes for a portfolio. A developer sketching an interface before writing code. You get the core tools for screen design, your files stay on your machine, and you can work offline.

What Interface Designer does well

• Built for screens. Draw a frame for each screen, lay out its contents with auto layout, and turn repeated parts like buttons into components. A button grows with its label and a list reflows when you add an item.
• Variables for a small design system. Build buttons, cards and form fields as components, with variables for colours, and reuse them on every screen.
• Prototypes in the same file. Link frames together and play the prototype to click through the flow the way a user would.
• Opens what you have. Figma (.fig) and Sketch files open, as do SVG, PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF and TIFF.
• Your designs stay on your device. Files aren't uploaded. The only exception is a Pro tool you choose to run, like Remove background, which sends that one image to be processed and deletes it afterwards.
• Works offline. Install it from your browser and, once it has loaded, it works without an internet connection.
• Runs anywhere a browser does. Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebooks.

What Figma does better

Figma is one of the most widely used interface design tools, and most of its strengths come from its shared cloud workspace. Interface Designer is built around files on your own device instead.

• Real-time collaboration. Several people can work in the same file at once and see each other's changes. Interface Designer has no live sessions.
• Comments and review. Teammates and stakeholders can comment directly on a design in Figma.
• Shared libraries. Teams can publish components and styles and use them across many files and projects.
• Developer handoff. Figma has dedicated tools for engineers to inspect designs and get specs.
• Plugins and community files. There's a large library of plugins, templates and UI kits made by other people.
• Whiteboarding. Figma also offers FigJam for brainstorming and diagrams alongside design files.

If these are central to how you work, Figma is the better fit.

What Interface Designer doesn't do

It doesn't have live sessions or publishing, so there is no shared online file for a team to work in together. In the editor, Share opens Export. To share work, you save the design file and send it, or export screens as images. PNG, SVG and JPG export need a free EveryApp account, and PDF export needs Pro. Complex Figma files may not come across exactly, so check them after opening.

How to switch from Figma

1. In Figma, open the file you want and save a local copy as a .fig file from the File menu.
2. Open Interface Designer. The first load downloads the editor, so give it a moment.
3. Open the .fig file, or drop it on the home screen.
4. Check each screen. Simple layouts usually come across well. Look closely at complex components, effects and prototype links, and fix anything that changed.
5. Keep working, then click Share and Export to save screens as PNG, SVG or JPG.

If you're starting fresh, skip the import. Start a new design, draw a frame for each screen, and build from there.

Tools that help with screen design

Picking colours is often the first step. The color palette generator builds a palette you can turn into colour variables, and the contrast checker tells you whether text is readable on its background. For more, read our guide to free color tools for designers.

Can you use both?

Yes. Many people use Figma at work, where the team already lives there, and a lighter tool for personal projects, client mockups or quick wireframes. Because Interface Designer opens .fig files, you can move a design across when you need to.