Sketch vs Figma
Sketch is a European alternative to Figma: same content & media use case, headquartered in Netherlands and governed by EU GDPR, while Figma is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
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- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
Figma is the standard tool for interface design, letting teams design, prototype and hand off to developers together in the browser. A free tier covers small projects; professional plans charge per editor. The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2025 and is based in San Francisco, which keeps customer design files under US jurisdiction.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Sketch vs Figma at a glance
| Sketch | Figma | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Netherlands | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need content & media built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Figma ecosystem |
Choose Sketch if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Figma if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Figma ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
Why choose Sketch over Figma?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Figma is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Sketch removes that overhead. As a Netherlands-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.