Dev mode for all viewers?

Figma prices are per seat in a team. DEV mode works only within teams. So every developer who wants to have access to DEV mode must be in your team. This means that you as a team owner have to pay for each place for a developer to see the project in DEV mode. And no, they can’t buy their own separate subscription, because then they will have their own one-person team. It also means that if a developer collaborates with different agencies/designers to inspect the project they will be paid each time they are added to the team.

Alternatively they can have their own personal subscription and you have to give the project to the developer as a file and they will add it to their team folder.

So basically if you are a freelance designer, you have to pay for every developer who you want to share your design file with? Or hand it over lock stock and barrel to a developer and not be able to continue editing it! I am not sure this is very workable.

Even then, it appears if you hand it over to another ‘team’ you have to be a member of that team and they will end up paying for you as a member of their team too. It just seems crazy to me, or am I totally misunderstanding?

Please tell me how I can share my design file with a developer who has access to dev mode without us both incurring additional cost.

This is so backwards, it practically doesn’t permit collaboration between agencies/freelancers and if I already have paid account, and want to collaborate with an agency, they would have to pay for another account, when I’m already paying for the service.

Figma after its brief friendship with Adobe has absorbed its evil behaviour when it comes to sucking money from everyone. The recent glorifying of DEV mode has nothing but an extra money-extracting green toggle button. Now sharing files with developers whose job is to just copy the CSS is made redundant. You have to pay full one-seat price for 1/4 of usage. I understand you want to make money. But at least reduce for paid viewers. Tomorrow you will ask for money for viewers to open the files. We have to move to a new platform. Figma is on its way to becoming the next evil after Adobe.

So disappointed in this.
Maybe they could do a 1-1 option, whereas one Pro user can share one file in Dev Mode at a time?? The more I think the angrier I get!! 😠

Not the main reason I paid for my Pro plan but it definitely leaves a bad taste. Need to weigh in my options going forward.

When did this change come into play?

This was not the module before and it’s posing road blocks for sounds like everyone who is trying to share their files with developers outside of their organization. This does not seem conducive to collaboration and efficiency, which is what Figma’s brand is built around.

Very unfortunate.

I ran into the same issue as you today. It’s really a pain that both sides have to be on the same team to switch to DEV mode. It’s kind of a dumb rule, and for Figma, it’s a big obstacle for freelancers like us to collaborate with others.

This is such a bad move for Figma. I’ve been behind them for so long and now it feels like they’re taking a turn. Makes me wonder what the next amazing design tool is in the horizon.

I paid for the pro subscription for this very reason, only to find out that I still could not access the designs (in dev mode) shared by the freelance designer working on my design. 🤔

This is the reason we decided to move away from Figma

So what is Dev Mode - View Only even give the user?  Is it any different from a Design seat that is view only?

Well articulated. Figma must seriously relook at this predatory tactic before we choose to move on !