Here’s my two cents: My organization chose Sketch years ago because it was easy to use, executed design work precisely, and didn’t try to be an all-in-one bloated mess. It had a focused purpose, and that’s what made it stand out.
Sketch has come a long way—ditching Zeplin, getting our devs on board with Sketch Cloud, and while we still use Marvel for prototyping, that’s been fading thanks to the steady improvements in Sketch’s native prototyping tools.
But this latest update—switching from artboards to frames—feels like a cheap shot to chase trends and compete with that other app. Look, we get it: times are rough and competition drives innovation. But this change breaks compatibility with years of existing work. It’s not progress; it’s disruption for the sake of imitation.
Instead of copying that other app, focus on your core community. Engage your plugin developers. Host a workshop. Gather feedback. Look at which plugins are most used and bake those features into the native experience. One of my favorites was “Automate”—packed with essential features that should’ve been native from the start.
So please—listen to the OG UI/UX pros who built their workflow around Sketch. Stop chasing the hype around that other app, which only got popular because it’s free in some random UI/UX bootcamps. It gives beginners a false sense of expertise, and now that’s all they know how to use. That doesn’t make it better—it just makes it widespread. Don’t follow that crowd.
I agree that the features in the Automate plugin, along with a few other plugins, need to be made native, especially now that a lot of Automate’s functions have stopped working since Athens came in. Perhaps as a community we should list our favourite plugins, or their specific features, and implore the Sketch devs to implement them natively - or at least recreate the Automate plugin. I feel its loss heavily too.
However, I can respect that the devs do have to follow the way the wind is blowing to some degree. It keeps them relevant and also gives us, as workers, more fluidity in the industry to move between software. A huge change up like Athens is obviously going to disrupt workflows. I’m with you in hoping that the majority of plugins can get back up and running soon.
I must admit, one always hopes for a satisfactory response after a release, and while I could write an extensive explanation of why frames are powerful and flexible, I assume you’ve already heard those arguments. That said, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the new release and hope you’ll grow more comfortable with the changes over time. If you have any specific issues or concerns, we’re happy to take a look.
Regarding plugins, we’re open to integrating previously supported plugin features directly into Sketch. As SketchUser already suggested, this forum is a great place to share your ideas, and quite a few top-voted ideas have already made it into the app. I hope you’ll join the community in sharing and voting to help shape the future of Sketch.