Sketch has been making UI design tools since 2010, which means it's old enough to have invented conventions that the rest of the industry copied and then surpassed. Symbols, shared styles, component-based design systems: Sketch had these before Figma existed. Figma took those ideas and added the browser and real-time collaboration, which turned out to matter more than anyone at Sketch probably expected.
The question Sketch has been answering ever since is: what does the best native Mac design app look like, for people who value native Mac design apps? The Copenhagen update in 2025 is the most serious attempt at that answer in years. A contextual toolbar that changes based on what you've selected, a rewritten Inspector panel, wrapping Stacks for more flexible auto-layout, 5x faster document loading. They also adopted macOS Tahoe's Liquid Glass aesthetic, which is either coherent or cosmetic depending on your view of that design language.
The native Mac focus is real and not trivial. Sketch runs at GPU speed, starts fast, and handles large documents without the memory pressure that browser-based tools accumulate in long sessions. If you're doing production UI design work on a MacBook Pro and spending most of your day in the tool, the performance difference is felt rather than benchmarked. Figma has improved substantially, but it's still running in a browser, and that architectural fact has consequences.
Cloud collaboration exists (Sketch has it), but it's not the same as Figma's real-time multiplayer. For teams where multiple designers are working in the same file simultaneously, Figma's approach is still more fluid. Sketch is better understood as a collaboration-supported tool than a collaboration-first one. The Web Inspector gives developers access to specs without needing the desktop app, which covers the most common handoff use case.
The Copenhagen update's reception was mixed in ways worth noting. Early releases had bugs that disrupted workflows. Some long-time users found the Inspector changes disorienting after years of muscle memory. This is a recurring pattern with Sketch updates: the design ambition is high and the execution sometimes catches up later. If you're evaluating it right now, checking the current point release is more informative than the initial review cycle.
At $12 per month per editor billed annually, Sketch is priced reasonably for a professional tool. The pricing is per-editor rather than per-seat for the whole team, which is the right model for a desktop-first tool where viewers can use the web interface without a paid license.
Sketch is for designers who prefer owning their software environment over renting it from a browser. If the macOS experience matters to you (the keyboard shortcuts, the performance, the integration with the rest of the system), Sketch is still the best native option. If your team needs real-time collaboration as a baseline requirement, or if you're building on Windows or Linux, the choice is effectively made for you.
Latest Updates
Sketch ships local MCP server and 2026.1 beta
Sketch quietly launched a local MCP server — connect Claude, Codex, or any MCP-compatible tool to your designs for code generation and design queries. Off by default, local only, so you control what gets access. The 2026.1 beta also lands with 150+ improvements: selection colours, a smarter eyedropper that picks up colour variables, and a redesigned workspace invite flow.
Get full control over what you share with Previews
Tags: Web App With previews in the web app, you can choose which pages or prototypes from a document to share — and keep the rest hidden. There’s no need to copy work to a clean document, or worry about clients digging through the “Rough Ideas” page. You can share a preview link with anyone to view in their browser, no Sketch account required. You can choose if previews are password protected, and also when to expire them so their links no longer work. When you set up a preview, you can choose t
Get better previews when you share in Slack
Tags: Web App With our first-party Slack integration you can connect your Workspace and see rich previews of any document or comment link you share. We already show link previews in Slack for public documents, but now you’ll see them for private documents in your Workspace once you’ve connected it. We’ve got some exciting plans to make this Slack integration even more useful, but for now, we hope you’ll enjoy seeing a little more of your documents in everyone’s favorite virtual workplace. Docume
A faster way to organize your Workspace
Tags: Web App You can now quickly select multiple documents or folders in your Workspace, move them by dragging them to another folder, create a new folder from your selection, or even archive them. When you select multiple documents or folders (by dragging a selection or using the checkboxes when you hover their thumbnails), you’ll see a new toolbar at the bottom of the browser window that gives you quick access to common actions. To create a new folder for your selection, use the Move… action
Inspect any document with a full layer list
Tags: Web App When you’re inspecting designs in the web app, we now show a full layer list for the document. Now it’s easier than ever to understand a document’s structure and hierarchy, find specific layers, copy their CSS and export them. Along with the new layer list, we’ve updated the contextual menu for selections in Inspect mode. When you select a layer and right-click, we’ll give you options to export, copy CSS, and navigate to layers related to that selection. If you select a Symbol inst
Sketch has been making UI design tools since 2010, which means it's old enough to have invented conventions that the rest of the industry copied and then surpassed. Symbols, shared styles, component-based design systems: Sketch had these before Figma existed. Figma took those ideas and added the browser and real-time collaboration, which turned out to matter more than anyone at Sketch probably expected.
The question Sketch has been answering ever since is: what does the best native Mac design app look like, for people who value native Mac design apps? The Copenhagen update in 2025 is the most serious attempt at that answer in years. A contextual toolbar that changes based on what you've selected, a rewritten Inspector panel, wrapping Stacks for more flexible auto-layout, 5x faster document loading. They also adopted macOS Tahoe's Liquid Glass aesthetic, which is either coherent or cosmetic depending on your view of that design language.
The native Mac focus is real and not trivial. Sketch runs at GPU speed, starts fast, and handles large documents without the memory pressure that browser-based tools accumulate in long sessions. If you're doing production UI design work on a MacBook Pro and spending most of your day in the tool, the performance difference is felt rather than benchmarked. Figma has improved substantially, but it's still running in a browser, and that architectural fact has consequences.
Cloud collaboration exists (Sketch has it), but it's not the same as Figma's real-time multiplayer. For teams where multiple designers are working in the same file simultaneously, Figma's approach is still more fluid. Sketch is better understood as a collaboration-supported tool than a collaboration-first one. The Web Inspector gives developers access to specs without needing the desktop app, which covers the most common handoff use case.
The Copenhagen update's reception was mixed in ways worth noting. Early releases had bugs that disrupted workflows. Some long-time users found the Inspector changes disorienting after years of muscle memory. This is a recurring pattern with Sketch updates: the design ambition is high and the execution sometimes catches up later. If you're evaluating it right now, checking the current point release is more informative than the initial review cycle.
At $12 per month per editor billed annually, Sketch is priced reasonably for a professional tool. The pricing is per-editor rather than per-seat for the whole team, which is the right model for a desktop-first tool where viewers can use the web interface without a paid license.
Sketch is for designers who prefer owning their software environment over renting it from a browser. If the macOS experience matters to you (the keyboard shortcuts, the performance, the integration with the rest of the system), Sketch is still the best native option. If your team needs real-time collaboration as a baseline requirement, or if you're building on Windows or Linux, the choice is effectively made for you.
Latest Updates
Sketch ships local MCP server and 2026.1 beta
Sketch quietly launched a local MCP server — connect Claude, Codex, or any MCP-compatible tool to your designs for code generation and design queries. Off by default, local only, so you control what gets access. The 2026.1 beta also lands with 150+ improvements: selection colours, a smarter eyedropper that picks up colour variables, and a redesigned workspace invite flow.
Get full control over what you share with Previews
Tags: Web App With previews in the web app, you can choose which pages or prototypes from a document to share — and keep the rest hidden. There’s no need to copy work to a clean document, or worry about clients digging through the “Rough Ideas” page. You can share a preview link with anyone to view in their browser, no Sketch account required. You can choose if previews are password protected, and also when to expire them so their links no longer work. When you set up a preview, you can choose t
Get better previews when you share in Slack
Tags: Web App With our first-party Slack integration you can connect your Workspace and see rich previews of any document or comment link you share. We already show link previews in Slack for public documents, but now you’ll see them for private documents in your Workspace once you’ve connected it. We’ve got some exciting plans to make this Slack integration even more useful, but for now, we hope you’ll enjoy seeing a little more of your documents in everyone’s favorite virtual workplace. Docume
A faster way to organize your Workspace
Tags: Web App You can now quickly select multiple documents or folders in your Workspace, move them by dragging them to another folder, create a new folder from your selection, or even archive them. When you select multiple documents or folders (by dragging a selection or using the checkboxes when you hover their thumbnails), you’ll see a new toolbar at the bottom of the browser window that gives you quick access to common actions. To create a new folder for your selection, use the Move… action
Inspect any document with a full layer list
Tags: Web App When you’re inspecting designs in the web app, we now show a full layer list for the document. Now it’s easier than ever to understand a document’s structure and hierarchy, find specific layers, copy their CSS and export them. Along with the new layer list, we’ve updated the contextual menu for selections in Inspect mode. When you select a layer and right-click, we’ll give you options to export, copy CSS, and navigate to layers related to that selection. If you select a Symbol inst