Adobe Inc. vs Figma, Inc.: Strategic Comparison

This in-depth comparison examines Adobe Inc. and Figma, Inc. across revenue, market value, business model, competitive positioning, and long-term growth strategy. Whether you are researching Adobe Inc. on its own, evaluating Figma, Inc., or weighing the two companies side by side, the breakdown below highlights where each company leads and where the gap between Adobe Inc. and Figma, Inc. is widest.

On the headline numbers, annual revenue is $23.8B (FY2025) for Adobe Inc. and $1.1B (FY2025) for Figma, Inc., while their respective market capitalizations stand at $93.0B and $11.0B. Both Adobe Inc. and Figma, Inc. are headquartered in United States. Their local markets and applicable rules may still differ.

Adobe Inc.: Adobe began with PostScript, introduced Illustrator in 1987, released Photoshop in 1990, and introduced Acrobat and PDF in 1993. It later expanded through acquisitions including Macromedia, Omniture, Marketo, Workfront, and Frame.io, while shifting its creative applications toward Creative Cloud subscriptions. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California. Birthed directly from a Xerox PARC garage project in Mountain View, California, the software pioneer revolutionized digital printing before ultimately pivoting to aggressively monopolize the entire creative software industry.

Figma, Inc.: Figma is a San Francisco software company whose browser-based design canvas became the standard workspace for product teams designing apps and websites. Before Figma, designers typically worked in desktop tools such as Sketch or Adobe XD and passed files around. Figma put the whole file in the browser behind a shareable link, so designers, engineers, product managers and marketers can edit or inspect the same design at the same time. Since 2023 it has added Dev Mode, Slides, Sites, Make and Weave, aiming to cover the path from idea to shipped product. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Adobe Inc. and Figma, Inc. pursue distinct approaches to generating revenue, and understanding how each company operates is the foundation of any fair comparison between Adobe Inc. and Figma, Inc..

Adobe Inc. business model: Adobe earns most of its revenue from subscriptions. In fiscal 2025, subscription revenue was $22.904 billion, or about 96% of total revenue. Digital Media includes Creative Cloud and Document Cloud, while Digital Experience includes applications and services for customer experience management. Adobe also reports a smaller Publishing and Advertising business.

Figma, Inc. business model: Figma sells per-seat subscriptions on a freemium, product-led model. Individuals can start free, and teams upgrade to Professional, Organization or Enterprise plans for shared libraries, admin controls, SSO and security features. Seats are priced by role (full, dev and collab seats), so engineers using Dev Mode and colleagues using FigJam or Slides can be billed separately from designers. Since 2026 Figma also sells AI credit add-ons consumed by tools such as Figma Make; Q2 2026 was its first full quarter of AI credit monetization. Revenue reached US$1.06 billion in 2025, with a 136% net dollar retention rate showing that existing customers keep adding seats.

The durability of a company's moat often decides long-term winners. Here is how the competitive advantages of Adobe Inc. stack up against those of Figma, Inc..

Adobe Inc. competitive advantage: Adobe combines established creative applications, the PDF and Acrobat document workflow, and customer-experience software in subscription offerings. Its fiscal 2025 Form 10-K says its markets are competitive and subject to rapid technology change, so continued product development and customer retention remain important.

Figma, Inc. competitive advantage: Figma's advantage is its browser-based multiplayer technology and its community. Building a graphics-heavy design tool that runs reliably in a web browser took years of engineering with WebGL. Because it runs in the browser, anyone can open a design from a link, which removes friction for collaborators. Its community also publishes thousands of free templates and plugins, which adds to the cost of switching to another tool.

Future prospects matter as much as current results. The growth strategies below explain how Adobe Inc. and Figma, Inc. each plan to expand from here.

Adobe Inc. growth strategy: Adobe's stated strategy includes expanding Creative Cloud and Document Cloud, developing Firefly and other AI capabilities, and growing customer-experience applications. In 2026 Adobe also announced that Anil Chakravarthy, who leads Customer Experience Orchestration and worldwide field operations, will become CEO on December 1, 2026.

Figma, Inc. growth strategy: Having established itself in interface design, Figma is extending into the stages before and after design and adding AI. FigJam covers early brainstorming. Dev Mode gives software engineers features for turning a Figma design into working code. Its AI tools generate prototype screens and code. The aim is to be the tool a product team uses from first idea to shipped product.

A closer look at the financial trajectory of Adobe Inc. and Figma, Inc. rounds out the comparison.

Adobe Inc.: Revenue rose from $5.854 billion in fiscal 2016 to $23.769 billion in fiscal 2025. Fiscal 2025 net income was $7.130 billion, compared with $5.560 billion in fiscal 2024. Adobe's fiscal years in this series ended on the Friday closest to November 30 or, in some years, early December. Adobe commands a market valuation frequently exceeding $200 billion, driven by its monopoly-like grip on creative software.

Figma, Inc.: Figma has reported as a public company since its July 2025 NYSE listing. Revenue grew 41% to US$1.06 billion in 2025, and the company generated US$242.7 million of free cash flow, but posted a GAAP net loss of US$1.25 billion, mainly from US$1.36 billion of stock-based compensation tied to the IPO. Growth then accelerated in 2026: Q1 revenue was US$333.4 million and Q2 revenue was US$370.1 million, up 48% year over year, with an 84% GAAP gross margin, a GAAP net loss of US$112.2 million, non-GAAP operating income of US$36.1 million and US$1.7 billion of cash and marketable securities at June 30, 2026. Before the IPO, the 2023 collapse of Adobe's US$20 billion takeover left Figma with a US$1.0 billion termination fee. Figma is a dominant force in collaborative design software, holding a private market valuation of $12.5 billion following the collapse of its proposed acquisition by Adobe.