Adobe XD is no longer available as a standalone app, but you can get it with Creative Cloud.
(Image credit: Adobe)
If you want to download Adobe XD, it's a little tricker than it used to be. Perhaps in the wake of the company's planned acquisition of rival software Figma, Adobe's UX and UI wireframing tool is no longer available for purchase as a single application. But you can still get hold of it as part of a Creative Cloud subscription.
That's right, while Adobe is continuing to support Adobe XD for existing users, there's no longer a way to purchase it on its own. It's now available only through the Creative Cloud All Apps plan (below), which gives you access to every Adobe app including Photoshop and Illustrator. To keep up to date with the best offers for that plan, be sure to check out our main Adobe Creative Cloud discount page. Also see our guide to the best wireframing tools, and consider signing up for our online UX design course if you're starting your UX journey.
How to buy and download Adobe XD
Buy an All Apps CC subscription from $52.99 per month An all Apps subscription is now the only way to download the full version of Adobe XD along with full access all the other Creative Cloud apps, such as Photoshop and Illustrator.
Coediting enables you and other designers to work together in Adobe XD in real time (Image credit: Adobe)
If you’re a student or teacher, you can buy After Effects as part of a discounted All Apps plan at a much lower rate. So right now, you can get the entire Creative Cloud suite of apps, along with 100GB cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark, for just $15.99 / £13.15 / AU$21.99 per month for the first year, and then $29.99 / £25.28 / AU$43.99 the following year.
Adobe has plenty of tutorials to get you started using XD (Image credit: Adobe)
Once you've downloaded Adobe XD, there are a ton of XD tutorials from Adobe to get you started with the software, and boost your skills and knowledge, whether you're a total novice or a seasoned pro. Head here for an introduction to the interface and basic features, and to learn more about what you can do with Adobe XD, from applying colours, borders and gradients to creating repeating elements with Repeat Grid.
Also, if you'd like to save yourself time and effort using Adobe XD, you can check out our roundup of the best Adobe XD plugins. These plugins will help enhance your workflow and speed up your processes, helping you do things such as find photos of faces for mockups, enhance the colours within your design, and make sure your prototypes are accessible.
What is Adobe XD?
Adobe XD is a vector-based UX design tool available for macOS and Windows that supports website wireframing and creating animated, click-through prototypes. The software makes it easy to bring in existing design work from other Creative Cloud apps, such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, using copy and paste. There's also a free companion app for iOS and Android that enable you to preview your designs on mobile devices: you can download this from the App Store or the Google Play store.
The best alternatives to Adobe XD
The main alternative to Adobe XD is Sketch. Launched in 2010, Sketch quickly became the digital design profession's go-to tool for mockups and prototyping. Indeed, Adobe XD was essentially launched in direct competition to it, and the two tools have very similar feature sets. However, note that Sketch is Mac-only, and no longer has a free tier, although it does offer a 30-day free trial. See our Sketch review for more details.
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There are plenty more alternatives to Adobe XD, though, including Invision, Figma, Marvel and Framer X. Each have their pros and cons depending on your needs: check out our roundup of 8 essential tools for UI prototyping, to learn more.
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.
