Layouts vs Figma for mobile app design
Figma designs a picture of your app. Layouts designs the actual app. If your React Native codebase already exists, Layouts lays every real screen on a canvas, lets an AI agent restyle anything you point at, and drops the new variant next to the original. Figma stays useful for brand work and early exploration; Layouts replaces it for iteration on a shipping app.
The one-sentence difference
Figma is a vector tool that produces mockups. Layouts is a design tool that produces real UI by editing the components in your codebase. That distinction governs every other difference between the two products.
Workflow comparison
| Step | Figma | Layouts |
|---|---|---|
| Get a screen | Redraw it from scratch or rebuild from a screenshot | Connect the repo; every screen appears automatically |
| Try a change | Manually edit shapes, text, components | Describe the change to the AI agent |
| Compare versions | Duplicate the frame; risk drift from real components | Variant appears next to original on the canvas |
| Ship the change | Hand off to an engineer to rebuild in code | Accept the variant; the code change is already real |
| Stay in sync with prod | Manual; drift is constant | Always in sync — designs are the code |
Where Figma still wins
Figma is the right tool for moments when no code exists yet — brand identity work, marketing site exploration, early product wireframes when the team is still arguing about the shape of the thing. Figma is also the right tool when you need vector freedom: posters, illustrations, slide decks.
If you are designing in a vacuum and the output is a picture, Figma is the right tool. If the output is shipping UI, see below.
Where Layouts wins
Layouts wins anywhere the picture of the app and the real app have drifted apart — which, for most production teams, is a full-time problem. Common scenarios:
- Restyling a shipping feature. "Make the home page purple" in Layouts edits the real Home component; in Figma it edits a frame that an engineer will still have to translate.
- Trying many variants quickly. Layouts places variants side by side on the canvas. Comparing in Figma means cloning, naming, and remembering which variant matches which prod state.
- Designers and engineers working in the same artifact. Layouts removes the handoff step. There is nothing to "hand off" — the change is the code.
- Auditing UI consistency across the whole app. Because Layouts lays every real screen on one canvas, finding the one screen still using the old button is a Cmd-F problem, not a manual sweep.
Fidelity
Mockup fidelity in Figma depends on how disciplined the team has been about syncing components and tokens. In practice, even mature design systems drift. Layouts has no fidelity problem because there is no mockup — what you see on the canvas is what end-users see in the app.
AI design, compared
Figma's AI features generate vector mockups: useful for ideation, but the output is still a picture. Layouts' AI agent edits the real component tree. Asking Layouts to "tighten the spacing on the profile card" changes the spacing in your ProfileCard component; asking Figma the same thing changes a rectangle.
Pricing, roughly
Figma charges per editor seat. Layouts charges per project with usage-based AI credits. Most small teams find Layouts cheaper because designers and engineers share the same canvas — there is no "Figma seat for the engineer to review."
Frequently asked
What is the main difference between Layouts and Figma?
Layouts renders your real React Native app on a canvas and lets an AI agent change it through conversation. Figma is a vector drawing tool that produces mockups of an app, not the app itself.
Does Layouts replace Figma entirely?
Not for greenfield brand work or marketing assets. Layouts replaces Figma for the part of the workflow where teams iterate on an existing mobile app's UI. Many teams keep Figma for early-stage exploration and use Layouts once code exists.
Do designs created in Layouts ship to production?
Yes. Layouts' variants are built from the real components in your codebase, so accepting a variant produces a working code change instead of a static export an engineer has to rebuild.
Which platforms does Layouts support?
Layouts is React Native first. Native iOS (Swift) is the next planned platform.
See your app on a Layouts canvas
Connect a React Native repo; every screen lays out automatically.
Connect your app →