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Figma Make has grown well past basic colours and typography — it now generates whole working UIs and can even reference local or GitHub repos. The catch is where it lives: inside Figma, on a paid seat, metered by Make credits that Figma bills separately from whatever LLM you already pay for. Design Mode runs in your browser on the real deployed page, is MIT-licensed and free, and brings your own agent over MCP.
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | Design Mode | Figma Make |
|---|---|---|
| Visual editing of any live website | Yes — full design surface (typography, colour, layout, spacing, motion, effects) | Generates UIs in Figma's canvas/files (and from local / GitHub repos) — not your live deployed page |
| MCP (Model Context Protocol) handoff to AI agents | Yes — Cloud, Local, and Self-hosted modes; eight MCP tools | No open MCP handoff — output stays in Figma or its export |
| Persistent change history (Changes tab) | Yes — searchable, filterable, exportable | Figma version history (inside the file) |
| Open source | Yes (MIT) | Proprietary — vendor-locked to Figma |
| Price | Free forever | Paid Figma seat + metered Make credits, billed by Figma separately from your LLM provider |
| Markdown / JSON export of the diff | Yes | Code export within Figma's ecosystem |
| Best fit for | Designers, developers, QA, PMs, content, indie hackers, agencies, vibe coders | Teams who live in Figma and accept credit-metered generation |
| Works from your local / GitHub repo | Edits the live rendered page; the diff plus file:line hints go to your agent to apply in the repo with the model you already pay for | Yes — but generation is metered by Make credits and the workflow stays anchored in Figma |
When to pick Design Mode
- You want to edit the actual deployed page, not regenerate it in a canvas.
- You don't want a second metered bill (Make credits) on top of your LLM provider.
- You want open source, no vendor lock-in, and a bring-your-own agent (Claude Code, Cursor, …).
When to pick Figma Make
- Your team already lives in Figma and wants generation native to the canvas.
- You're spinning up a fresh prototype from a prompt rather than refining a shipped page.
Honest take
Figma Make is genuinely powerful inside Figma's ecosystem, and the local / GitHub-repo support is real. But it's a paid, credit-metered, Figma-locked generator. Design Mode is the opposite trade: free, open, bring-your-own-LLM, and pointed at the live page you've already shipped.