Branding agency tools: Figma, Sketch and zeroheight priced in dollars, Adobe and Frontify by billing unit only

What to take away

Figma, Sketch and zeroheight publish a per-seat price in US dollars. Adobe Creative Cloud for teams prices per licence without a figure in its page text, and Frontify prices by active users with no fixed price.
Billing unit decides costa seat, a licence and an active user behave differently when a client or freelancer joins.
Published prices may exclude sales tax, so ask for a sterling quote with VAT before comparing.
No tool is ranked. They do different jobsauthoring, design systems and governed publishing.

The comparison at a glance

Each row names the billing unit and what the supplier's own pricing page publishes, as stated on each pricing page on the review date; confirm the live page before you buy.

Tool	Billing unit	Published price (US dollars)	Terms worth noting
Figma Professional	Seat: Full, Dev or Collab	$16, $12 and $3 a month	Mid-term seats charged at the monthly price
Sketch	Editor	$12 Standard, $24 Professional, $44 Enterprise a month, billed yearly	Free viewers; SSO from Professional
zeroheight Starter	Editor	$49 a month after a 14-day trial	Up to 5 editors; prices exclude sales tax
Adobe Creative Cloud for teams	Licence	Per licence; figure not shown in page text	180-day version history; admin dashboard
Frontify Platform	Monthly active user	No fixed price displayed	Six-month averaging; external partners count

Figma Professional: three seat types

Figma lists Professional at $16 a month for a Full seat, $12 for a Dev seat and $3 for a Collab seat. The Collab seat has full access to FigJam, Figma Slides and Figma Buzz, so a reviewer may not need a Full seat.

Watch the mid-term rule. If you add new paid seats to a Professional team during an annual term, Figma charges a separate monthly subscription for those seats at the monthly price. Budget for that when a project brings in extra designers.

Sketch: pay per editor, view for free

Sketch prices per editor per month, billed yearly: Standard at $12, Professional at $24 and Enterprise at $44. Standard includes real-time collaboration and unlimited free viewers, which suits a client who only looks at work.

Professional is the agency-facing plan and adds single sign-on, project archiving and permissions groups. If a freelancer needs to edit, they count as an editor. A client who only views does not need a paid editor seat.

zeroheight: a design-system home for brand guidelines

zeroheight offers a Free plan with 1 editor, 1 styleguide and 1 token set. The Starter plan is $0 for 14 days, then $49 per editor a month, with up to 5 editors, 2 styleguides and 3 token sets. Prices exclude sales tax.

For a branding agency the unit to test is the editor. Five editors on Starter is the ceiling before you need Enterprise, so count your guideline authors before you count your reviewers.

Adobe Creative Cloud for teams: Illustrator by licence

The page for Creative Cloud for teams sets out a Single App plan, which offers any one Creative Cloud app, and a Creative Cloud Pro plan with more than 20 apps including Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat Pro. Illustrator is the vector source-asset tool for logos, icons and packaging.

Prices are shown per licence, either monthly or as an annual price paid upfront. The page also lists a single admin dashboard for assigning licences under one contract, and 180-day version history for reverting to past work.

Frontify: pay by monthly active users

Frontify bills through a monthly active user model and displays no fixed price. It engages customers directly to assess their needs and propose a tailored package, so a published figure does not exist to compare.

For an agency the unit matters. An active user is anyone who logs in at least once a month, and that includes external partners. Short spikes are smoothed by six-month averages. Test this against your vendor due diligence list before signing.

Example: a six-person agency team

Illustrative arithmetic using the dollar prices above. Figma: two Full seats, one Dev seat and three Collab seats cost 2 × $16 + $12 + 3 × $3 = $53 a month. Sketch Professional with six editors costs 6 × $24 = $144 a month. zeroheight Starter with five editors costs 5 × $49 = $245 a month.

These are not like-for-like jobs, so the totals compare billing behaviour, not value. Where UK VAT at the standard rate of 20 per cent applies, add a fifth to each. Put the same headcount into the budget template, which has a VAT field, so quotes arrive in one shape.

What to check before you shortlist

Confirm the exact plan and seat type in writing.
Ask for sterling prices, with and without VAT.
Ask how guests, freelancers and clients are counted.
Check who owns the account and the exit route.
Record the date you read each supplier page.

Rights matter too. Under the GOV.UK copyright guide, protection arises automatically, so settle ownership of files and templates in writing, as the commercial contracts checklist sets out. The GOV.UK VAT rates page confirms the standard rate of 20 per cent.

See the pricing models article for the wider comparison, the tools and supplier guide for handover checks and the template handover comparison for Canva and Adobe Express.

Common questions

Why is this list not ranked?

Each tool answers a different job, so one score would compare a vector editor with a publishing platform.

How much do these tools cost?

Figma, Sketch and zeroheight publish per-seat prices in US dollars, as in the table. Adobe's page text shows no figure, and Frontify shows no fixed price. Ask each supplier for a sterling quote against your headcount.

Which tool suits a small agency?

Start with the billing unit. Two people authoring one brand fit a seat or editor model. Many external reviewers fit free viewers, a Collab seat or an active-user model.