The short answer
Pick Claude Design if you are not a designer and you want a polished interface, deck or ad concept by chatting, especially if the result is headed to code. Pick Figma if you have designers who need precise control and a shared design file. Both of us think Figma will keep a place.
Our evidence comes from one week. Claude Design had been out four days when we covered it in Episode 40 (April 2026). Sam had already done three projects in it. Figma we have paid for and used, less each year, since well before the show started.
What we built with each
Claude Design
- HipTrain Meta ad concepts: Sam asked for ad concepts aimed at women 50 to 70, "a little cheeky, self aware." Claude Design built a presentation of three concepts, wrote an image prompt and a Google Veo prompt for each, and Sam ran one image through Nano Banana and dropped it back in (at 03:34).
- Internal web app redesign via Claude Design handoff to Claude Code: Claude Design redesigned an internal app page by page. Sam clicked "hand off to Claude Code," got a zip, and Claude Code had the full app live in the new design in about thirty minutes (at 06:44).
- A deck, Sam's third project that week.
Figma
No show builds. Sam said in Episode 2 that Jordan and Sam's company holds about 10 Figma licenses and that he can get around it, but that our weekly use had dropped as AI tools improved.
Head-to-head
Sam described the experience as "a UX UI designer at your hip that you can chat with." The question that defines this page came from Jordan at 09:59, when he said it "definitely feels like a little bit of a Figma killer in my opinion." Sam's reply:
I think, like, you know, I'm I I would say my Figma skills are pretty awful, and this is incredibly easy. I mean, we it's it's as easy as chatting with any AI and it does a really good job and it's intuitive.
— Sam Nadler, Episode 40
He said he had "already redesigned multiple things" and that the results were top tier.
Where each one fell short
Claude Design. Sam noted "mixed reviews" on social media, though his own experience was great. He kept getting told to start a new chat to save context, and admitted "I think I've been overusing the tool." The handoff to Claude Code "actually took quite a while," about thirty minutes. Jordan also asked whether it should exist at all as a separate product; Sam was "a little surprised" it was not rolled into Claude Code or Cowork. Jordan's theory: a web app is a faster way for Anthropic to test whether customers want it.
Figma. Our criticism has been the same since 2025: it has not kept up on AI. Jordan said in Episode 2 that Figma's first AI feature got it in "some trouble" because the designs looked like other apps. In Episode 43, Adir Ben-Yehuda said younger companies "think Figma is not relevant anymore."
What our guests use
Adir's Autonomy AI takes design input from "an image, Figma, even a cloud cloud design" and turns it into changes on a real codebase, so in his workflow the two are interchangeable starting points (Episode 43, at 05:44). In Episode 50, Jordan used Claude Design as the benchmark for what Hardik Kabaria's company does for simulation: "just how cloud design has helped, you know, non designing engineers build front ends."
Which one we reach for now
For us, Claude Design. Sam's last word in Episode 40:
So, we'll see. I mean, obviously I think Figma will have its place, but this is I think I think this is a step it feels like a step for me in my what I'm doing, a step function in my capabilities.
— Sam Nadler, Episode 40
In the same episode he said he had already shown teammates who maintain their own web apps how to redesign them this way: "about an hour ago, they were showing me the new designs, they were brilliant." If you design for a living, Figma is not going anywhere yet. If you are a founder, PM or engineer who needs good design, start in Claude Design and hand off to code. For how our Figma use was already shrinking before this, see Bolt vs Figma.
FAQ
Is Claude Design a Figma killer?
Jordan said it definitely feels like a little bit of a Figma killer in his opinion, but added he does not know. Sam said Figma will have its place, while Claude Design felt like a step function in his own capabilities.
Can non-designers use Claude Design?
Yes, that is who it helped most on our show. Sam, who says his Figma skills are pretty awful, called it incredibly easy and as easy as chatting with any AI.
Can Claude Design hand off to code?
Yes. Sam linked his local codebase, clicked hand off to Claude Code, got a zip file, and Claude Code applied the redesign to the whole web app in about thirty minutes.
What can you export from Claude Design?
Sam showed a zip download, PDF, sending to Canva, standalone HTML, a shareable link teammates can comment on or edit, and the Claude Code handoff.