# Design Rails vs Figma

Figma templates give you a starting point for design systems. But they assume you have a designer to customize them—and they don't output agent context.

TL;DR

**Figma Templates**  
Use Figma templates if you have designers who will customize them and create production assets.

**Design Rails**  
Use Design Rails if you're building with AI and need an agent-ready brand without Figma expertise.

| Feature | Figma Templates | Design Rails |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Requires Figma skill | Yes | No |
| Customization depth | Complete control | Guided choices |
| Outputs code/tokens | With plugins | Native |
| Agent context (.md) | No | Yes |
| Logo design | Manual | Generated |
| Time to usable output | Hours-weeks | ~30 minutes |

Better with Figma Templates  
#### Full creative control  
You have Figma expertise and want full creative control, even if it means manually translating designs into code and agent context later.

Better with Design Rails  
#### Solo founder shipping  
You don't have designers. You need Claude to generate consistent UI. You need something you can drop into your repo today.

Better together  
#### Designers exploring fast  
Use Design Rails to rapidly generate a design system starting point, then import into Figma for revisions. Skip the blank canvas and start with a cohesive foundation.

#### The bottom line  
Figma templates are a starting point for designers. Design Rails is a complete solution for AI builders. If you have a Figma-fluent team, a template might be the right foundation. If you're building alone with AI coding agents, Design Rails gives you the agent-ready context without the Figma detour.