Figma Dev Mode vs. Zeplin – What's the best design handoff tool?

The two big players in the design handoff industry are Figma Dev Mode and Zeplin. I did a deep dive into the key differences between the two — let’s see the results.

00:00 - Intro
00:42 - Similarities
01:27 - Figma Key Differences
02:46 - Zeplin Key Differences
07:26 - The Verdict

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#designhandoff #productdesign

[uxtools]

Have you tried both tools? What did you think?

[dwilson]

This is so informative. Thank you! We used to use Zeplin + Sketch, then moved all in on Figma. Now handoff is getting messy with a bigger team. We gave dev mode a try, but it doesn't really solve our problems...and now we're revisiting Zeplin.

[gualterferrada]

Very interesting! We are assessing the possibility of integrating zeplin in our development process, however "I don't feel it" yet. And I can explain why:
- It's all about the process you follow and if the "Hand-off is messy" maybe there is a need to pause and rethink the way you're delivering it to your development team. We have done that and the current process increased efficiency and quality of development (at the cost of a more cautious process in the Design team).

This need to integrate Zeplin came from our development team (which could be a red flag and I could be wrong on what I wrote above) but their main reason was to have a better overview of their development state (e.g. is this component developed? Is this in the Design system?...) Our design team is pretty small (5 elements atm) and I totally agree with your verdict - maybe we should stick with Figma.

Just to give a quick tip - you also have dynamic connectors on Figma (go on a figjam board - copy one connector and paste on your Figma file).

[jacob.olenick]

This video was super helpful to watch. I haven't used Dev Mode quite yet but have used Zeplin in the past. Great content!

[Timbo-zpye]

This is great! Thank you for thoroughly analyzing these. Re-sharing this with my team now. One small bit of feedback: I thought the background music was a bit distracting and loud at the beginning and end.

[marinaaizen]

Fantastic info! I was team Figma for everything, but since they charge you for learning the tool, I'm learning Zeplin to start with something and get ready whenever I needed. Super useful. I think Zeplin has a lot of very well integrated tools (I've just found out) with Figma and Slack, and the possibility of making changes and have them organized like in GIT, is super useful for not making mistakes while continuing with the process. I'm team Zeplin now for handoff. Many thanks!

[Okimoto]

Great video!! 👍🏼But one question - When is your 'Field Guide for Colors' package coming out. I feel like it's been ages.

[Stoobers]

Very helpful info. I mainly use Figma, but had a little muck about with Zeplin a while ago. I'm still not sure which would fit our very small and very green dev team. It probably doesn't help that we don't use Figma as fully as we could. Pretty hard when the team work not just dev roles I guess.

[prameshxo]

really helpful content buddy, subscribed ❤️

[EK_Designs]

Thank you for this breakdown and comparison!

[platinumdynamite]

The one thing that makes Zeplin a pain in the ass is the lack of clarity of when a screen was uploaded and the sometimes very long time it takes to export a frame.

[CarlHeaton]

Try looking at the camera and not yourself next time :) Great video and super useful tho :)