For the PM on an existing product whose work has to ship as code, not as a Figma artifact.
Figma Make pushes to GitHub one-way – the React it generates lands on your default branch, no PR, no review gate. The code follows Figma’s idea of your design system (the library, the Variables, now Make kits) rather than the React your team actually writes. Engineering opens the repo, finds code it didn’t review, and starts reconciling it against what already ships. Else writes against the codebase from the first prompt and opens a PR engineering reviews like any other change – so the design system the prototype uses is the one already in production, not the one packaged in a Figma kit.
TL;DR
Figma Make turns a Figma design and a prompt into a working React prototype, published as a web app with a public URL or embedded inside Figma, with an optional one-way push to a GitHub default branch. Figma Make is at its sharpest when the team’s design system already lives in Figma—Variables wired up, components published in libraries, and now (April 2026) Make kits packaging design tokens and npm components for the prompt to inherit.
Else removes the design-to-engineering translation step. Else writes the prototype directly against the customer’s real frontend codebase across React, Vue, and Angular, inheriting the components, CSS, and design system already in production. The prototype runs against the customer’s staging backend and deploys inside the actual product for real user tests, then lands as a pull request engineering reviews on GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket — code already written in the team’s stack, not generated React the team has to re-fit.
Both Else and Figma Make turn an AI prompt into something interactive. Figma Make produces a high-fidelity interactive prototype generated from a Figma design. Else produces a working feature on the customer’s real product code, against the real backend, in the team’s existing stack. Else is built for product managers and designers who need the prototype to land as a pull request engineering can review, test, and merge—on the codebase that already exists, in the framework that already runs.
The honest split
Figma Make is at its sharpest as a Figma-native prototyping tool: a designer prompts a design file into a working React prototype that publishes inside the Figma ecosystem. The Make kits release in April 2026 closed the design-system-context gap that earlier versions had.
Else is built for different ground entirely. The prototype runs on the customer’s real frontend code from the first prompt, across React, Vue, and Angular, on GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket, against the customer’s staging backend, and lands as a pull request engineering reviews—not a one-way push to a single default branch.
Side by side
| Figma Make | Else | |
|---|---|---|
| Who’s at the keyboard | Designer or PM (design-file-centric workflow) | Product manager, designer (repo-centric workflow) |
| Frontend frameworks | React only | React, Vue, Angular—any client-rendered SPA |
| Repo platforms | GitHub (default branch push only) | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket |
| Design system handling | Figma library + Make kits; design system canonical state is Figma | Inherits the design system already in the customer’s codebase |
| Backend | Optional Supabase connection; mock backend otherwise | Runs against the customer’s staging backend |
| Live user testing | Figma Sites or embedded prototype; no in-product analytics | Targeted in-product deployments to real users in the actual product |
| Output | Code pushed to GitHub or published interactive prototype | Pull request to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket |
| Multi-framework per customer | One framework per Make | Multiple frameworks under a single customer |
Where Figma Make wins
Figma Make is at its sharpest as a designer’s tool inside Figma. For a designer whose design system already lives in Figma — Variables wired up, components published in libraries, Make kits packaging the design library — Figma Make turns a design file into a high-fidelity interactive prototype without leaving Figma, with mobile preview from the Figma app and embed support across Figma design files, FigJam, and Slides.
When the goal is an interactive Figma artifact for stakeholder review, Figma Make is the shortest path.
Runs on the real product code, not the design file
Else writes against the existing frontend code from the first prompt — the actual components engineering already shipped, the actual CSS already in the repo, the actual routing already in production. The prototype and the product are the same codebase, not two artifacts that have to be reconciled later. The prototype looks like the product because it is built from the product.
Figma Make generates code from a Figma design and pushes the result to a GitHub repo as new code in Figma Make’s own component patterns. Engineering still has a translation pass to align that code with the production stack.
Inherits the design system already in your product
Else builds the prototype out of what the product already uses. Components, CSS tokens, typography, spacing — Else writes against the design system that already ships in the codebase, not a separate library to maintain in parallel.
Figma Make brings design-system context from a Figma library or a Make kit npm package — useful when the source of truth lives in Figma. The design system most B2B SaaS teams ship on lives in code, not in Figma; Else writes against that code directly.
Lands as code already written in your stack
Else writes the prototype directly against the team’s existing codebase, so what arrives in the pull request is non-opinionated code already written in the team’s stack — feature branch, diff, review, merge — the same workflow engineering already runs.
Figma Make pushes generated React to the GitHub default branch when an export is requested. The code is opinionated, written in Figma Make’s component patterns rather than against the team’s existing components, design tokens, or conventions, so engineering still has a translation step before that code can ship inside the product.
Runs on the codebase, regardless of stack
Else supports any client-rendered SPA: React, Vue, and Angular. The PM at a Vue shop and the PM at a React shop use the same Else, on the same workflow, against the same kind of pull request output.
Figma Make’s code output is React. A team running on Vue or Angular cannot use Figma Make to generate code on their existing codebase — the framework is not supported.
Ships across GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket
Else opens pull requests on GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. A team running engineering on GitLab or Bitbucket does not need to migrate, mirror, or stand up a parallel GitHub presence to use Else.
Figma Make pushes to GitHub only, and only to the default branch. Teams on GitLab or Bitbucket have no path into the repo.
Runs prototypes inside the actual product
Else deploys the prototype inside the customer’s actual product, served to specific users, teams, or companies through a targeted deployment via the Else SDK. A real user logs into the real product on a real account and sees the prototype as part of the experience; everyone else sees production. That makes user testing a test of the actual change in the actual environment, not a test of an embedded artifact.
Figma Make publishes the prototype as an interactive web app with a public URL or embeds it in a Figma design file, FigJam, or Slides — useful for stakeholder review inside the Figma ecosystem, not for testing the change inside the product the customer ships.
When to pick Figma Make
A designer with a design system already in Figma, building an interactive prototype to share with stakeholders or take into a design review — that is Figma Make’s room. Make kits bring the design library as context, mobile preview lets the designer test on a real device, and the prototype lives where the rest of the design work already lives. If the goal is an interactive Figma artifact rather than a PR engineering reviews, Figma Make is built for that.
When to pick Else
A PM or designer with a product already in market—real codebase, real design system in code, real backend, real users—whose work has to ship as code engineering can merge, not as a Figma artifact with a public URL. The prototype has to look like an embedded part of the app the team already ships, span more than React, reach beyond a one-way push to GitHub, and land as a reviewable PR on the repo they already use. The reason to pick Else is the work where the prototype is not the destination—the merged PR is.