Short answer: No — It's legacy software in a collaborative, cross-platform world.
Worth it for: Die-hard Mac purists who design in a vacuum, refuse to collaborate. Skip if: You work on a team, use Windows Better alternative: Figma
When It IS Worth It
Let's be brutally honest: there are vanishingly few legitimate reasons. It's worth it only if you are a solo operator, your entire workflow and plugin ecosystem is irreversibly locked into Sketch, you exclusively use a Mac, and you have a pathological aversion to loading a web browser. If you view design as a solitary, offline art form to be handed off as a static file, then sure, Sketch’s focused canvas might feel familiar. You're essentially paying for nostalgia. There is one narrow technical argument in Sketch's favor: native macOS performance on truly massive files. If you're designing a component library with 500+ symbols and your Figma browser tab is choking under the weight, Sketch's native app handles it without breaking a sweat. Vector rendering on Apple Silicon is genuinely fast. But this edge case affects maybe 2% of designers, and Figma's desktop app has narrowed the gap significantly.
Also, Sketch's plugin library — while no longer growing — has some deeply embedded workflows that teams built over years. If you have a custom Sketch plugin that automates your entire design-to-handoff pipeline and nobody has time to rebuild it in Figma, that's a real switching cost. Not a reason to recommend Sketch, but a reason some shops haven't left. Inertia is powerful.
When It Is NOT Worth It
In 2026, this is nearly every professional scenario. It is categorically NOT worth it if you work on a team of any size. The "collaboration" features are bolted-on afterthoughts compared to Figma's live, multi-cursor DNA. It is not worth it if anyone in your orbit uses Windows, Linux, or a Chromebook. Mac-only in 2026 isn't a principled stand; it's stubbornness that actively hinders your work. It's also not worth it if you care about the platform's future. The innovation pace has slowed to a crawl, playing catch-up to features the industry settled on years ago.
The hiring angle alone should kill this decision. Post a design job listing requiring Sketch proficiency in 2026 and watch your applicant pool shrink by 70%. New designers learn Figma in school. Bootcamps teach Figma. Your future hires won't know how to open a .sketch file, and you'll waste their first week on tool training instead of actual design work. Sketch isn't just a worse tool — it's a worse hiring strategy.
Who Should NOT Buy This
- Product designers at tech companies: You will be isolated from your team.
- Freelancers who work with clients: You will waste hours exporting and explaining files.
- Design students: You are learning a dead-end skill.
- Anyone in a hybrid or remote team: The friction will kill your velocity.
- Windows or Linux users: Obviously. But you shouldn't even have to consider this.
Cheaper or Better Alternatives
| Alternative | Price | My Take |
|---|---|---|
| Figma | Free plan; $15/editor/month | The winner. Real-time collaboration, cross-platform, and the industry standard for a reason. This is what modern design looks like. |
| Penpot | Free & Open Source | A fantastic, Figma-like open-source contender. If you hate subscriptions and love freedom, start here. |
| Figma (again) | Seriously, just use Figma | I'm listing it twice because the hesitation to switch is the only thing keeping Sketch on life support. they're only still in Sketch because moving their files seems annoying. |
Check out our Ableton Live review for comparison. Check out our Adobe Creative Cloud review for comparison. Plugin quality varies wildly — some are maintained by one person who might abandon them without notice. Figma's plugin ecosystem is larger and more reliable by comparison. If your workflow depends on a specific Sketch plugin, you're one developer's burnout away from a migration crisis.
Version history saves entire states of your design, not just individual artboard changes. After your client asks you to "go back to what we had two weeks ago" for the third time, this feature stops being nice-to-have and starts being essential for your sanity and your deadline.
Final Verdict
skip. Sketch is legacy software. It pioneered the vector-based UI design tool category and then rested on its laurels while Figma redefined what a design tool could be: collaborative, accessible, and living in the cloud. Paying $10 a month for Sketch in 2026 is an act of sentimentality, not pragmatism. You are investing in the past. Your time, your team's time, and your career are better served by the tools that won the future.
The most telling signal? Sketch's own team seems to know this. Feature announcements come with increasing desperation — "Look, we have real-time collaboration too!" — but they're always 2-3 years behind what Figma shipped and refined. When your product roadmap consists entirely of copying the competition's old features, you've stopped being a tool and started being a museum exhibit. The $10/month is a donation to keep the lights on, not an investment in your workflow.
FAQ
Is Sketch still being developed?
Technically, yes. You'll get updates. But they're largely minor refinements and playing catch-up. The era of Sketch leading the market is over.
What about Sketch's performance vs. Figma in the browser?
For complex files on a local Mac, Sketch can feel snappier. This is its one technical merit. But this edge-case benefit is obliterated by the colossal workflow disadvantages everywhere else.
I have years of Sketch files. What do I do?
You can import them into Figma. The conversion isn't always perfect, but it's a one-time pain for a permanent upgrade. Clinging to a sinking ship because you don't want to repack is not a strategy.
But I just prefer the native Mac feel!
I get it. The macOS integration is polished. But design has moved beyond the desktop. That preference now costs you collaboration, hiring pools, and tooling integration. It's a luxury you can't afford.