Figma plugin vs widget: what's the difference?

• Who sees it. Only the person running a plugin sees it. Everyone in the file sees a widget.
• How long it lasts. A plugin stops when you close it. A widget stays on the canvas until someone deletes it.
• How many at once. You can run one plugin at a time. You can add as many widgets as you like.
• Where it runs. Plugins run in Figma Design, Dev Mode, FigJam, Figma Slides and Figma Buzz. Widgets run in Figma Design files and FigJam boards.
• What it leaves behind. A plugin leaves whatever it created or changed, such as layers, text or renamed frames. A widget leaves itself, with its own state stored in the file.

A plugin is a small app that works on your file through Figma's Plugin API. You run it, it opens a panel (or runs straight from the actions menu), it does something to the canvas, and you close it. Other people in the file can see the result, but not the plugin itself, and Figma doesn't show them which plugins you ran.

That makes plugins the right fit for one-person jobs: filling a table with data, generating placeholder content, checking contrast, exporting assets, turning frames into a GIF. Figma's rules for plugins are strict and simple. You have to start them yourself, only one runs at a time, and nothing keeps running in the background once the plugin closes.

A widget is an interactive object you drop onto the canvas. Developers build widgets with a React-like set of components (frames, text, shapes) on top of the same Plugin API, so a widget can also read the file, call external services and open an iFrame when you click it. The difference is that the widget is multiplayer by design. Everyone in the file sees the same widget and its current state, and several people can click it at the same time.

Typical widgets are voting tools, counters, timers, checklists, sticky tables, embedded previews of links and status badges. You can move, copy and delete a widget like any other object.

Ask whether the result needs to stay interactive for other people after you're done.

• Use a plugin when you want to change the design and move on: generate, rename, align, clean up, fill, export. The output is ordinary layers, so nothing extra lives in the file.
• Use a widget when the thing itself is the point: a poll in a workshop, a live checklist on a handoff page, a counter that the team updates, a note that tracks a design's status.

Some teams use both for the same job. A flowchart plugin can draw connected shapes and arrows once, while a widget version would sit on the board and let others edit the flow through its own controls. If you don't need that shared control, the plugin output is lighter and easier to edit with normal Figma tools. Our figma flow arrows guide shows the plugin approach.

In Figma Design, click Actions in the toolbar, open the Plugins & widgets tab, pick a recent or saved widget or search for one, then click Run to place it. In FigJam, hover over the stack of recent tools in the toolbar, click More, open the Widgets tab and click Add. You can also click Open in on a widget's Community page.

Plugins use the same menus with a different tab. The full walkthrough for every product is in how to install Figma plugins.

Both need edit access. Only people who can edit a file can interact with its widgets, including visitors in FigJam open sessions, because a widget can change other layers. Plugins follow the same logic, and people on a View seat can't run them in any product.

Both also carry the same privacy trade-offs. Plugins and widgets can read every layer in the file, user names and avatars, cursor positions and the current selection. Check the network access label on the Community page before adding either to a client file. In organizations on the Organization or Enterprise plan, admins switch on plugin approval and widget approval separately, so a plugin being approved doesn't mean a widget from the same developer is.

Plugins update themselves: the next time you run one, you get the latest published version. Widgets don't, because an update could break data stored in the widget. To check for an update, right-click the widget, hover over Widgets and choose Update to latest version if it's offered. If the update breaks something, Cmd + Z (Ctrl + Z) undoes it.

To clear every widget from a file, right-click the canvas, hover over Widgets, click Select all widgets and press Delete. This is worth doing before you hand off a file that picked up workshop widgets along the way.

Most of what designers need day to day is a plugin. Browse our best Figma plugins lists by task, or start with the FigJam list if you're running workshops, since that's where widgets are most common.