Guide to collaborating with clients in Figma

If you are a freelancer or agency working with clients in Figma, there are a few things to consider when setting up Figma so you can work together effectively. This guide helps you navigate the two primary approaches:

• Invite clients to your agency’s Figma team
• Request an invite to a client’s team or organization

Invite clients to your team

For agencies who prefer to manage projects within their own Figma team, we recommend inviting clients to your team. There are a few things to consider with this approach:

• Choosing a plan type: If you have more than three design files and FigJam files on a Starter team, you’ll likely need a paid plan to collaborate with clients.
• Assigning clients a seat type: If client involvement is limited to leaving comments, we recommend assigning them a free, viewer-restricted seat. This allows clients to comment on and review work without you needing to pay for their access. In scenarios where clients need to edit or contribute actively, they will need a paid seat on your team. To prevent clients from accidentally upgrading themselves to a paid seat, we recommend setting the default seat type to viewer-restricted for both Figma design and FigJam.
• Working in projects and files: You can invite clients to an entire project, individual files, or both. We recommend not inviting them to your team or organization as this may grant them access to work you’ve created for other clients.
• Transferring work after the engagement is complete: After work has completed, you have a few different options for transferring work:
  • If your client uses Figma on the Organization or Enterprise plans, you can transfer a project—or your entire Professional team—to their organization.
  • If your client uses Figma on the Professional plan, you can save a local copy of your files and your clients can import them to their account. If a file uses styles or components from a team library, it won’t receive any library updates after it is imported into a different account.

Request an invite to a client’s team or organization

For agencies who manage projects in clients’ Figma teams or organizations, there are several things to consider:

• Requesting the right seat: You'll need a paid seat in your clients' team or organization before you can edit files. Consider requesting a full seat in Figma design or FigJam depending on the type of work you do.

  Note: If you're a freelance developer and only need access to Dev Mode, the type of seat you need depends on your client's plan:

  • Dev Mode is included with full Figma design seats on the Professional, Organization, and Enterprise plans.
  • Dev Mode is available as a standalone paid seat on the Organization and Enterprise plans.
• Requesting access to the right teams, projects, and files: Be sure to double check you’re invited to everything you need.
• Accessing work after the engagement is complete: After work has completed, your client may remove your access to their team or organization. Make sure to discuss in advance if you can save a local copy of your work.
• Keeping your personal work separate: If your agency's work is predominantly within client teams, consider maintaining a free Starter team for your personal work.