Adobe XD Review: Is It The Right UX Software For Your Team?

Adobe XD requires a Creative Cloud subscription, which costs $22. 99/month for the single app or $54.

99/month for the full suite. If you're already paying for Photoshop or Illustrator, adding XD is economical; if not, budget accordingly.

The software excels at vector design and interactive prototyping but lacks advanced animation capabilities—if you need frame-by-frame animation or complex motion design, you'll need to export to After Effects or use a dedicated animation tool. In a demo, verify that XD's artboard-based workflow matches your team's process.

Test real-time collaboration by inviting a colleague to edit the same file simultaneously; latency and sync issues occasionally occur with large files (50+ artboards). Check whether your design system tools—component libraries, design tokens, version control—integrate with your existing setup.

XD syncs with Creative Cloud Libraries, but if you use Figma or Sketch for shared components, you'll need to manually migrate or maintain dual systems. XD integrates natively with other Creative Cloud apps and supports plugins through the XD plugin marketplace, but the ecosystem is smaller than Figma's.

If your workflow depends on specialized plugins (e. g.

, for data population, advanced prototyping interactions, or custom export formats), test those specific integrations before committing. Pricing locks you into Adobe's ecosystem; switching to Figma or another platform later means re-exporting and rebuilding files.