Figma vs Framer: Which Is Better for Ecommerce Design?

framer vs figma

Figma and Framer are two of the top UI design tools available right now — but which one actually works better for ecommerce brands?

Whether you’re designing product pages, launching seasonal landing pages, or building a full ecommerce experience from scratch, the right tool can save you time, improve conversions, and reduce friction across your workflow.

After extensive testing and research, I recommend Figma for larger ecommerce teams that rely on scalable design systems, and Framer for brands looking to launch fast, without needing developers.

Figma vs Framer: Quick Verdict

Figma – Best for established ecommerce teams managing complex design systems

Framer – Best for small to mid-size brands launching quickly with no-code tools

In this review, I’ll compare Figma and Framer across the categories that matter most for ecommerce brands: pricing, features, templates, publishing, collaboration, and speed to market.

This piece was updated on 08/27/25.

Quick Comparison: Figma vs Framer

Get a side-by-side look at how these platforms stack up:

CategoryFigmaFramer
Best ForTeams, dev handoff, design systemsLaunch speed, no-code ecommerce, landing pages
Live Website BuilderNoYes
PrototypingYesYes
CMS CapabilitiesNoYes
Developer HandoffYesNot needed
HostingNoIncluded
Ecommerce TemplatesNoGrowing library
AI ToolsBasicBuilt-in AI site generation
Price Range15 to 45 per editor/month10 to 60 per month

Best for Pricing: Framer Offers Better Value

Framer Homepage

If you’re comparing dollar for dollar, Framer offers the better pricing structure — especially if you’re a lean ecommerce team looking to design and publish in one place.

Framer Pricing (2025)

Framer’s pricing is simple and affordable, especially for small to mid-sized ecommerce teams.

All plans include hosting, CMS access, and publishing features — meaning you can design, build, and launch your site from a single platform without needing additional tools or services.

The pricing is flat-rate and not tied to the number of team members, which makes it budget-friendly as your team grows.

  • Free – Limited pages, Framer branding
  • Mini (10 per month) – Custom domain, basic CMS
  • Pro (20 per month) – CMS collections, analytics
  • Team (60 per month) – Multiple editors, team workspace

Figma Pricing (2025)

Figma uses a per-editor pricing model, which can become costly for larger teams but gives you access to powerful collaborative features and a robust design system infrastructure.

It’s ideal for ecommerce businesses with a structured design workflow and development team handling the build process. Note that Figma does not include hosting or CMS functionality — it’s strictly a design tool.

  • Free – Up to 3 files
  • Professional (15 per month per editor) – Unlimited files, shared libraries
  • Organization (45 per month per editor) – Design systems, analytics
  • Enterprise – Custom pricing

The catch with Figma is the per-editor pricing.

If you’ve got 4 or 5 designers, the monthly cost can add up quickly — and you’ll still need developers to turn your designs into live ecommerce pages.

Framer, on the other hand, covers everything from design to deployment in one price. Hosting, CMS, and updates are all included.

The Winner

Framer offers more value out of the box — especially if you’re building and launching ecommerce pages without a dev team.

Best for Ecommerce Design Features: Figma

Figma Homepage

Both tools offer modern design capabilities, but Figma pulls ahead when it comes to systemized ecommerce design at scale.

Why Ecommerce Teams Use Figma

  • Component libraries for buttons, CTAs, product cards, and page layouts
  • Team collaboration with real-time editing and comments
  • Auto layout for responsive design previews
  • Developer handoff with code inspection and asset export
  • Plugin marketplace with tools for accessibility, dummy data, icons, and more

If you’re designing 20 or more product templates, Figma’s reusable components and design systems are unmatched.

Framer is catching up — but its strength is speed, not scale.

Why Ecommerce Teams Use Framer

  • Design-to-live flow with no developer handoff
  • Built-in CMS for dynamic product pages and collections
  • No-code animations for hover effects, transitions, and interactivity
  • AI tools to generate sections, layouts, and full-page wireframes
  • Fast hosting with global CDN, SSL, and SEO tools built in

The Winner

Figma is best for ecommerce teams managing large-scale design systems. Framer is best if you’re launching pages fast and don’t need deep design structure.

Best for Website Publishing: Framer

This is where Framer changes the game.

With Framer, your designs go live. You don’t need a separate developer, hosting platform, or CMS.

What you build in the editor is your actual site.

Framer’s Publishing Features

  • One-click publish to live domain
  • Custom domain connection
  • CMS for products, collections, or blog content
  • SEO tools including metadata, alt tags, sitemap, and redirects
  • Global CDN hosting for fast performance

Figma doesn’t offer publishing or hosting.

You’ll need to export assets and send them to your dev team or push them into Webflow, Shopify, or another platform.

Use Case: Product Launch Page

If you’re building a quick landing page for a limited-edition drop, Framer gets you from concept to live URL in hours. In Figma, you’re stuck in the design stage — and development might take days or weeks.

The Winner
Framer — no contest. It’s the only one that publishes live ecommerce pages natively.

Best for Prototyping: Tie

Both Figma and Framer let you

Figma Prototyping

  • Clickable interactions between frames
  • Overlays, transitions, hover states
  • Works well for internal reviews and testing
  • Extensive device preview options

Framer Prototyping

  • Add scroll effects, animations, hover effects
  • Preview in browser or publish to live domain
  • Smooth motion design without code
  • Advanced animation controls for ecommerce visuals

The Winner
It’s a tie — both offer advanced prototyping tools. Choose based on whether you’re prototyping for development or launching directly.

Best for Ecommerce CMS: Framer

Figma doesn’t have CMS features — it’s strictly for design.

If your ecommerce site has dynamic product pages, blog content, or collections, Framer handles that natively.

What You Can Do With Framer CMS

  • Create product collections with title, image, price, description
  • Use dynamic fields in templates to auto-populate landing pages
  • Build category landing pages that auto-update with new content
  • Connect external data via Airtable or REST API
  • Edit content post-launch without touching the design

Framer’s CMS is also helpful for ecommerce brands managing seasonal content.

For example, if you run frequent promotions or switch up your homepage for different campaigns, you can store and manage those assets directly inside Framer without needing to update the design itself every time.

This allows your marketing team to take full control of content updates without involving designers or developers.

The Winner

Framer — it’s the only one with CMS capabilities built in.

Best for Templates: Framer

Framer-Gallery

If you want to launch faster, templates help. Framer offers a growing selection of free and premium ecommerce templates that work out of the box.

Framer Templates

  • Built for ecommerce with product grids, hero sections, checkout links
  • Fully responsive
  • Easy to swap branding and content
  • New templates added weekly

These templates are also useful for testing new concepts. Let’s say you want to validate a product-market fit or run a quick A/B test — Framer lets you duplicate a template, customize it for your audience, and ship it without needing to build something from scratch.

Figma doesn’t offer built-in templates. You’ll need to source third-party UI kits, and they won’t be functional websites — just design files.

The Winner
Framer — it gives you working ecommerce templates, not just mockups.

Best for Developer Handoff: Figma

Figma dashboard

If you’re working with a front-end team, Figma wins here.

Figma for Developers

  • Inspect styles, typography, spacing
  • Copy CSS, iOS, and Android code snippets
  • Export SVGs, PNGs, and assets
  • Link to GitHub and Storybook integrations
  • Use Figma Tokens for design-to-code consistency

One of the biggest advantages is that Figma acts as the single source of truth. Developers can work off the exact file designers used, without needing to interpret screenshots or PDFs.

This keeps everyone aligned and speeds up the build process, especially for ecommerce sites with lots of reusable components like product tiles or navigation menus.

Framer skips this step entirely — the idea is to publish without a developer. That makes it less suitable for structured dev teams.

The Winner

Figma — better suited to structured teams with front-end workflows.

Best for Team Collaboration: Figma

Both platforms support real-time collaboration, but Figma has more maturity here.

What Figma Offers

  • Unlimited file commenting
  • Team libraries
  • Version history
  • Permission settings
  • Cross-functional collaboration with developers, marketers, and designers

Figma is also built to scale with your team.

Whether you’re a small ecommerce startup or part of a global design team, the platform offers the controls you need to manage permissions, standardize your design system, and ensure quality across every project.

This level of control helps reduce errors, design debt, and duplicated work.

Framer allows multiple editors but lacks the structured versioning, review cycles, and enterprise controls Figma has built up over time.

The Winner
Figma — it’s the industry standard for collaborative design teams.

Best for Speed to Market: Framer

Speed matters in ecommerce. You want to test landing pages, run promos, launch new products, and update fast.

Framer gets you live faster.

No developer back-and-forth, no static mockups, no delay.

Figma requires dev resources, QA, and deployment cycles.

Framer also reduces revision cycles. Because what you build is what you publish, there’s no gap between design intention and the final product.

This means fewer rounds of edits, quicker stakeholder approvals, and faster launches — especially for agile ecommerce teams that rely on speed to stay competitive.

The Winner
Framer — it’s unbeatable for speed and flexibility.

Final Recommendation: Which Should You Choose?

Here’s my bottom-line recommendation after using both platforms extensively with ecommerce teams:

ScenarioBest Tool
You need live landing pages fastFramer
You have a development team and need scalable design systemsFigma
You want to launch and update your site without codeFramer
You’re working in a large team with multiple stakeholdersFigma
You want CMS features baked inFramer
You need component libraries and version controlFigma

Use Figma if you’re running a larger operation and already have a front-end team or agency in place.

Use Framer if you’re a small to mid-size brand that wants to move fast, test ideas, and build live pages without developers.

Some teams use both: Design in Figma, launch in Framer.

Bogdan Rancea is the founder and lead curator of ecomm.design, a showcase of the best ecommerce websites. With over 12 years in the digital commerce space he has a wealth of knowledge and a keen eye for great online retail experiences. As an ecommerce tech explorer Bogdan tests and reviews various platforms and design tools like Shopify, Figma and Canva and provides practical advice for store owners and designers. His hands on experience with these tools and his knowledge of ecommerce design trends makes him a valuable resource for businesses looking to improve their online presence. On ecomm.design Bogdan writes about online stores, ecommerce design and tips for entrepreneurs and designers.

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