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How Figma converts users from freemium to premium

Analyzing Figma’s latest monetization strategy

Rosie Hoggmascall
11 min readJun 6, 2024

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This is an image of the Figma logo with money emojis

After over five years on Figma, I saw my first monetisation prompt last week.

There I was creating a Figjam board with some paywall inspo when I noticed a little free-text module crop up:

This is your last free file

Screenshot of figma file UI with a prompt to upgrade

This is the first time — that I’ve noticed — I’ve been asked to upgrade.

And once I saw this, I started to see it everywhere.

In the sidebar. In the top navigation. Inside and outside my files.

I thought:

Why now? And why so much?

So, curious as I am, I decided to grab some screenshots and take a closer look.

In the next 2000 words, we’ll have a look at how Figma uses various entry points, UI prompts, payment flows and product-led growth to help convert user from free to paid.

And, by the end I’ll explain why I still haven’t ended up paying for it after using is for 5 years free.

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Rosie Hoggmascall
Rosie Hoggmascall

Written by Rosie Hoggmascall

I write a weekly newsletter on UX, monetisation, product-led growth | Sign up @ growthdives.com

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