I tested 3 Chinese Figma alternatives — one is actually better (2026)

Figma just raised prices again. The $12/month “Professional” plan is now $15, the $45 “Organization” plan is $55, and if you’re on a team of 5 designers, you’re looking at $275/month before Dev Mode seats.

I got tired of the pricing treadmill and went looking for alternatives. Not the usual suspects — Penpot, Sketch, Lunacy — those are already well-covered. I went deeper.

I spent two weeks testing three Chinese design tools that barely have English documentation. Here’s what I found.

The contenders

JsDesign — The Figma clone that’s 90% of the way there

JsDesign is the most ambitious of the three. It’s a web-based collaborative design tool that looks and feels remarkably like Figma. Same left toolbar, same right panel, same layers panel, same Cmd + / quick actions.

What’s good:

• Real-time collaboration works. Multiple designers in one file, seeing each other’s cursors, no lag. I tested with 3 people simultaneously — it held up.
• Figma file import. Drag a .fig file directly in and it converts most layouts correctly. Auto-layout, components, and text styles all survived in my testing.
• Component variants. Property overrides, boolean properties, instance swapping — all there.
• Unlimited free files. No page limit, no viewer restrictions, no “free tier cap” modals.
• ~200 plugins available. Essentials covered: icons, stock photos, content generators.

What’s missing:

• No FigJam equivalent
• Dev Mode is basic — CSS/iOS/Android snippets, but no polished inspect panel
• English UI is 85% translated
• No desktop app — browser only

Price: Free for individuals. Team: ¥29/user/month (~$4). Figma Professional: $15/user/month. 73% cheaper.

Mockplus — The prototyping specialist

Mockplus is less about pixel-perfect UI and more about rapid prototyping and wireframing. Think Balsamiq speed with Figma-like polish, but not a full Figma replacement.

What’s good:

• 3,000+ pre-built components for iOS, Android, and web. Assemble a prototype in under an hour.
• Interaction designer is genuinely faster than Figma’s. Fewer options, less cognitive load.
• Built-in user testing analytics — click heatmaps, drop-off points, session time. Figma doesn’t have this natively.
• Native desktop app for Mac/Windows.

What’s missing:

• Vector editing is basic
• No auto-layout equivalent
• Limited design system features
• Import limited to Sketch files

Price: Free for 3 projects. Pro: ¥199/year (~$28/year). Figma Professional: $180/year. 94% cheaper.

Lanhu — The handoff tool designers need

Lanhu isn’t a design tool — it bridges design and development. Upload Figma/Sketch/PS files, developers get organized specs with measurements, CSS, assets, and version diffs.

What’s good:

• Automatic spec extraction — dimensions, spacing, colors, typography, multi-res assets
• Version comparison — highlight diffs between design versions
• Coordinate-specific comments — click a pixel to comment there
• Integrates with existing tools — keep using Figma, Lanhu is just the handoff layer
• Auto-generated style guides from your designs

What’s missing:

• Not a design tool — you still need Figma/Sketch
• English UI is rough (~60%, machine-translation quality)
• Team management oriented toward Chinese org structures

Price: Free for 10 projects. Team: ¥25/user/month (~$3.50). Figma Dev Mode: $25/seat/month on Organization. 86% cheaper.

Comparison table

Who should switch?

Try JsDesign if: You’re a solo designer or small team tired of Figma’s pricing. You do standard UI work and can tolerate occasional Chinese UI text. 73% savings for 90% feature match.

Add Mockplus if: You prototype heavily and need user testing. Not a Figma replacement — an addition. At $28/year it’s practically free.

Add Lanhu if: Design-to-dev handoff is your bottleneck. Developers asking “what font?” on Slack constantly. Solves this better than Figma Dev Mode at 1/10th the price.

Stay with Figma if: You need the plugin ecosystem or work on large teams with established workflows. Figma is still the best overall product — these win on price and specific workflows.

These three tools represent something bigger. There’s an entire ecosystem of Chinese software that the English-speaking world has never heard of — not because it’s bad, but because Chinese companies don’t invest in English marketing. That gap is why ToolBridge exists. More coming.