Adobe says that it will not only keep Figma free but will be adding new technology from its own creative suite to the popular collaborative design app.
The news is likely to assuage the fears of the millions of ardent fans of the app given Adobe’s current model of pricing its creative suite at exorbitant rates. The new additions to Figma will include photo, video, and illustration editing as well as the ability to link projects from Adobe’s suite of products like Photoshop or Premiere Pro, Adobe Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky told Bloomberg.
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Figma currently operates on a freemium pricing model, meaning that its base features will always be available to users, but extended or niche features will require a payment plan. Adobe has no plans on changing that, Belsky said.
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Adobe acquired Figma on September 15 for a whopping $20 billion, the largest ever buyout of a private software maker. The company behind Photoshop, Lightroom and a host of other products plans to complete the acquisition by 2023.
The move comes in light of more people entering the design space and looking for intuitive options like Canva, Figma and Lightricks.
While Figma is predominantly used by those who work on interface design, Adobe has its own product, called Adobe XD, which according to Belsky hasn’t been doing particularly well and is an “immaterial product”. With the acquisition of Figma, Belsky has said that the company will begin to reevaluate how it shifts its focus and resources.
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Meanwhile, Figma’s co-founder Dylan Field has said that users tend to fear innovation and that this will likely slow down the acquisition. He went on to tell Bloomberg that he hoped that the acquisition would benefit Figma via Adobe’s technology and expertise.
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Field also mentioned that he would continue to work on Figma although he would be willing to provide advice to Adobe for their products adding that InDesign was something he felt would improve with collaborative workflows.