Figma Alternative

Key differences

Both tools can be used for journey mapping. Here's a quick summary of what sets them apart:

Journey management depth: Smaply provides structured journey hierarchy, portfolio prioritization, and delivery tracking as core capabilities; FigJam is a general-purpose whiteboard with no journey-specific features beyond community templates.

Research-to-action workflow: Smaply's Research Hub connects research sources to insights to prioritized portfolio items with full traceability; FigJam captures research as sticky notes on a canvas with no structured synthesis.

Data in journey context: Smaply surfaces live metrics, planning status, and evidence directly inside journey maps through dedicated card types; FigJam boards are visual-only with no data integration.

Collaboration at scale: FigJam offers real-time multiplayer editing with cursor chat, built-in audio, and large-scale collaboration. Smaply provides real-time editing along with journey-specific features like granular permissions, filtered view sharing, and card-level comments.

Read on to learn which best suits your needs.

Quick comparison table

Purpose-built journey management vs. general whiteboarding

Journey management requires more than drawing maps. It requires governance, ownership, prioritization, metrics, and a connection to delivery. Smaply provides all of this as a connected system: Journey Coordinators own journeys, Journey Performance Indicators track health, portfolio items link pain points to opportunities to solutions, and planning cards show live delivery status from tools like Jira and Asana.

FigJam is a general-purpose whiteboard. It can host a journey mapping workshop, and it does this well. But once the workshop ends, FigJam boards are standalone files with no journey hierarchy, no portfolio tracking, no scoring, and no delivery connection. Figma was not included in Forrester's CJM platform evaluation because FigJam lacks the features required for journey management.

For teams that need to map a journey once and share the output, FigJam works. For teams that need to manage journeys as an ongoing practice, Smaply provides the system to do it.

Structured journey maps vs. freeform drawings

Even for the mapping step itself, the tools take different approaches. Smaply's editor is built specifically for journey mapping, with flexible lane and card options, emotion curves, persona filtering, stacking maps, and live data cards. Maps have an underlying data model with metadata, scoring, and traceability. Every card can hold structured information that connects to the broader system.

FigJam provides an infinite canvas where teams build journey maps using sticky notes, shapes, and connectors. Community templates offer a starting layout, but these are static visual templates that must be manually populated and maintained. G2 reviews note that FigJam boards can suffer from performance lag with large or complex files, which is common for detailed journey maps.

Smaply maps are living resources that stay current, connected, and actionable. FigJam maps are visual artifacts that capture a moment in time.

Research-to-action workflow

Research creates value when it connects to decisions. Smaply's Research Hub gives teams a dedicated space to upload research sources, extract quotes, detect sentiment, and synthesize insights before anything touches a journey map. Insights convert directly to portfolio items (pain points, opportunities, solutions) with full traceability from source to quote to insight to prioritized action.

FigJam handles research the same way it handles everything else: sticky notes on a whiteboard. AI can sort and summarize existing sticky notes by topic, which helps organize workshop outputs. But there is no structured research ingestion, no sentiment analysis on raw data, and no way to connect research findings to journey touchpoints in a traceable way.

The gap matters when teams need to justify decisions with evidence. Smaply preserves the chain from customer voice to strategic choice. FigJam preserves a snapshot of a workshop.

Integrations and data in context

Smaply's integrations are designed to surface data where journey decisions happen. Planning cards pull live status from Jira, Asana, Azure DevOps, and other delivery tools. Metrics cards display data from Google Analytics, Qualtrics, Power BI, and Tableau directly inside journey maps. Embed cards bring in Figma designs, Google Docs, and other content in context.

Figma's integration ecosystem is broader overall, with strong developer and product team integrations (Jira, GitHub, VS Code, Slack, Microsoft Teams) and a large community plugin marketplace. These integrations serve design and development workflows well. However, they do not surface CX-relevant data inside journey boards. FigJam has no integrations with analytics platforms, VoC tools, or data warehouses for pulling metrics into maps.

For CJM workflows, Smaply's integrations bring the right data into journey context. Figma's integrations serve the broader design and product development ecosystem.

Collaboration and workshop facilitation

FigJam's real-time collaboration is a genuine strength. It supports large-scale multiplayer editing with cursor chat, built-in audio conversations, stamps, timers, and open sessions that let guests join without creating an account. For live workshop facilitation, FigJam provides a smooth, low-friction experience.

Smaply also supports real-time collaboration for workshops, with multiple users editing simultaneously and card edits visible in real time. Beyond workshops, Smaply adds journey-specific collaboration features: granular permissions at the journey level, card-level comments with @mentions, viewer commenting without edit risk, and the ability to share filtered views showing only what is relevant to each stakeholder. For ongoing journey governance and stakeholder communication, these features matter.

Pricing

Smaply offers a free plan with core journey management features, and paid plans start at $37/editor/month (annual) with unlimited journeys on all paid tiers. Self-serve upgrade or sales-supported procurement, with month-to-month billing available on all plans.

FigJam is included with all Figma plans. The free Starter plan includes 3 FigJam boards. Paid plans range from $16-$90/seat/month depending on seat type and plan tier. For teams already paying for Figma for design work, FigJam is available at no extra cost. For teams considering Figma specifically for journey mapping, most of the product's capabilities (design, prototyping, developer handoff) would go unused.

Pricing subject to change. Check vendor websites for current information.

How to choose

Smaply is the better fit if:

• You need to manage journeys as an ongoing practice, not a one-time workshop
• You want structured prioritization with scoring, portfolio dashboards, and delivery tracking
• Your team needs research-to-action traceability from customer evidence to strategic decisions
• You want live metrics and planning status visible inside journey maps
• You need purpose-built journey maps with structured data, not freeform drawings

Figma (FigJam) may be better if:

• Your team already uses Figma and needs a quick way to run a journey mapping workshop
• You need a freeform whiteboard for brainstorming sessions, not structured journey management
• Real-time workshop facilitation with built-in audio, cursor chat, and large group collaboration is the primary need

Want to explore Smaply further?

If Smaply feels like a better fit for your approach to journey management, try it free or talk to our team about your needs.

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