# Abstract Reviews **Vendor:** Abstract **Category:** [Other Collaboration Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/other-collaboration) **Average Rating:** 3.9/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 28 ## About Abstract Abstract is a version-controlled design workflow management system that enables seamless and open collaboration between design teams and organizational stakeholders. Abstract is your team's version-controlled source of truth for all design work. We believe that design shouldn't be locked away in folders and proprietary code. Design work should be accessible. Decisions should be captured in a single place. And teams should be empowered to work together, not silo’d. Our approach paves the way for designers to spend less time searching for files and other“workaround work,” and more time on craftsmanship and innovation. ## Abstract Reviews ### 1. The source of truth for teams **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rúbrio N. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 01, 2020 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Have an up to date source of truth for projects. Work simultaneously on a project with other team members. Handoff projects to developers. Able to share projects with anyone. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Limitation of 100 artboards by Collection. Not able to export artboards as images. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** A good solution for those who need to share projects and also receive feedback. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Share and modify master/template files within the company team. Discuss and comment on projects as they are being developed. Minimize the gap between design and implementation. ### 2. Great tool for file management and collaboration **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2023 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Version tracking for sketch files is amazing. It clears out any confusion between versions using the version notes. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Ability to export and support developers to download assets from the screens directly. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's helping the team to stay up to date with all the work happening across the team. It makes us all more productive. ### 3. More trouble than its worth. **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 25, 2022 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Version control for interface components is a great idea. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Company is poorly run. Support doesn't answer emails. Rarely release new features, and when they do they are full of bugs. (XD support) Also, they sell off useful functionality to other companies. (Notebooks) Software is very slow often taking 15 minutes to open a file. Your branches won't show up for your colleagues resulting in a lot of lost work or diverged branch There is no pulse from the company last posts on social media were over a year ago. Eliminated all user groups, and the moderators from Abstract were useless anyway, often giving false info and empty promises. We are getting off the platform when they tripled the price. They use their clients as Beta users. Syncing libraries take 3-8 hours to finally show up. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** No **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Version control. ### 4. Powerful version control for Sketch, but painfully slow **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Adam B. | Senior UI/UX Designer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2021 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Robust version control that allowed us to do branches and merge cleanly **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Painfully slow with a large project, may cause Sketch to freeze or beachball constantly, steep learning curve and weak onboarding for new users **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** If you use Sketch and need a way to manage design work with more than 1 designer, Abstract will be the ultimate tool for you. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allowed us to manage our design work more effectively and minimize the number of conflicts. ### 5. Good. Could be Better! **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 17, 2021 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Simple learning curve. Availability of web interface. Option to create and share a 'collection' of pages within a project. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Not sure if it's a Mac issue, but while sharing, any links open up in the web view, even when the native app is installed and running. It isn't a very pleasant experience. Also, sometimes there are sync issues as well. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Abstract serves as a collective repository for design software (such as XD, Sketch) source files. It helps in collaboration between multiple designers working on the same project. However, realtime collaboration in the same file is not possible/ ### 6. Abstract causes Sketch to lag **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Market Research | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2020 **What do you like best about Abstract?** I like how it is easy to create new branches for new teams/projects. The best part is that you can easily delete a branch or undo a merge if you somehow accidentally created something you shouldn't. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Abstract is paired with Sketch for commits but it causes Sketch files to lag when you pull it to work. I would need to constantly restart my computer to enhance the latency but it would quickly cause lag again. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cross team sharing ### 7. Impossible to live without in large corporations **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jordi L. | Senior Product Designer / Researcher / UX, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 25, 2020 **What do you like best about Abstract?** The capability to work likewise devs work with git, design gets commits, merge, branches, all the good of version control applied to design, specially key when a large number of people is iterating through the same files / project. The integration with Sketch is really good. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Sometimes is very slow, and when having multiple files Abstract gets confused when creating branches, sometimes opening branches from other files that the desired. When using design systems I don't like the fact that to update it you have to copy modifications done in one file, have to be copied, then opening a branch of the design system and merging again. I understand the why, but sure there is work to do there. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Having control over versions, being able to review others work remotely and receive feedback before merging iterations on files to master project. You have a secure project repository with minimum risk to lose or overwrite files. ### 8. Great resource for working with designers and other team members **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian S. | UX Writer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 05, 2019 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Abstract has a ton of features, but the best is the ability to comment and annotate comments on existing designs. As a UX Writer, I may receive a collection from a designer and it's super simple for me to jump right in and start commenting and annotating so they know exactly what to do and where when we go through the next iteration. Version control is also a HUGE bonus here. As designers update, comments and previous versions are easy to access and reference. There are some cool hidden functions, like being able to hit "inspect" and copy one whole section of text. Alerts that are sent to inboxes are also really helpful (so are the notifications that pop up on the program icon itself). You can also tag other users, which is great at getting their attention. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** It's sometimes a pain to sync with a program like Sketch, but I manage. It also takes communication with the designers to make sure collections aren't just "deleted" but rather updated so version control is followed. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** If you do end up choosing Abstract, make sure you have processes in place for all team members to follow so it doesn't become the Wild West in abstract of randomly named collections/artboards. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Collaboration is great, as it allows employees who work in different offices or time zones to go back and forth not just in chat, but within a design to improve and make iterations without being right next to one another. ### 9. Great, but syncing problems **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jessica B. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 17, 2020 **What do you like best about Abstract?** I like how it keeps old version of your work **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Has so many syncing issues, it's a headache sometimes **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Saving old files ### 10. Great software to store and version all sketch files **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ermand D. | Senior PHP Developer & Scrum Master, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 23, 2019 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Our designers use Abstract at our work for their daily work to manage versioning and workflow for design projects and we are quite happy with it. The main advantage is that we can use it offline as well. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Sketch libraries + Abstract are just too cumbersome to use and there have been some little bugs we have run into. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** We are quite happy with it and I would totally recommend to check it out before considering any other app. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are using Abstract to store and version control all our Sketch files in one place. It's a really great collaboration tool between our designers and to share it with our front end developers. ### 11. Git for Sketch **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joachim G. | UX Manager, Internet, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Abstract?** I love how I, as a UX Manager can manage my team's projects and do a full design review before merging with their master branches. Works just like bitbucket or jira. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** There were times when my employee's synced files weren't really synced up to what the server had. I wish it had live collaboration. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** Live collaboration integration into sketch like figma would be great. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sketch file versioning, remote collaboration. ### 12. Great features at good price point **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 06, 2019 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Ability to inspect the design with the CSS on the right, having developers not have to pay for their accounts viewing the designs. Collections and sharing links only pertinent to the project. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Inability to use tabs to multitask different designs like S, M L at the same time. The fact that the zoom does not default to 100% and if you come back it resets to the tiny overview at like 6%. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Getting good designs handed to front end developers, being able to still inspect and see the relevant CSS, letting devs who view it not need to pay for their accounts. We saved a lot switching to Abstract. ### 13. Great tool for design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Awori J. | Graphic Designer, Design, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 18, 2019 **What do you like best about Abstract?** I liked it how it provides solutions for collaboration on the same file for designers,it removes issues where you would create conflicted files or multiple files when two people are working on the same file.I can resolve conflict in the software i merge in my branch, thus keeping a clean and accurate master file **What do you dislike about Abstract?** The software could became more intuitive, master docs versus branches provides some confusion **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** I can recommend it to upcoming businesses because its cost is minimal and there is high quality of results **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Now everyone in the organization is able to keep on the same page as far as latest designs, what changed and being able to collaborate easily hence smooth workflow ### 14. If you are using Sketch with large teams, this is a must! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Luke S. | Director, Experience Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 26, 2019 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Abstract is an incredibly helpful tool for teams. If you are familiar with GitHub, it accomplishes that for designers. We have a large 15+ person team between us and the client the use sketch, Abstract lets us share, version, and comment work quickly, with minimal override issues. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Abstract does not allow you to push a backup to your own server or cloud provider. They claim they backup your work to their systems, but we highlight it as a large risk to our business that Abstract does not allow us to push backups to Dropbox, Google Drive, or our own servers. It means that we have to manually export and back up our files and versions, it's time consuming. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** Abstract still seems new to the game, so keep an eye out for new things they are releasing! **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sharing and versioning Sketch files among a larger team. ### 15. A suitable platform designed to manage and collaborate on sketch lines. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Collins J. | Graphic Artist, Printing, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 14, 2019 **What do you like best about Abstract?** The software allows everyone in the organisation to collaborate in doing tasks and getting latest design updates quickly. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** The software has various branches and apps that can lead to confusion when designing. However, this can be solved through keenness when operating. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** The software works best as it gives updates on latest design between teams. It is also quick thus saving time. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** The software has enhanced collaboration in many teams leading to expansion of an organization in the work done. It is also quick and user friendly ### 16. Abstract Review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 26, 2019 **What do you like best about Abstract?** How well it integrates with Sketch and how it's really helped our design team's workflow. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Since it's still in beta there are some things that sometimes act funny, but they seem to update regularly and add new features so I'm not too upset. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Version tracking and replacing other tools that abstract now does. ### 17. Abstract is allows design teams to collaborate on design projects with their existing tools **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Akshay C. | UX Designer, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 01, 2018 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Abstract allows me to share my designs at every step of the way with other designers. If I am on vacation or an unforeseen sick leave, other designers from my team can easily pick my design file where I left off. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Right now Abstract only works with Sketch. Once Abstract rolls out Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, integration it will help my team transition completely off of Dropbox. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** Its a must if you have more than 2 designers. It will also allow you to comfortably work with remote designers. You can invite your Tech Leads and PMs to look at designs andgive feedbacks early in the design process. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Since Abstract allows other designers to collaborate, see what everyone else is working on it brings accountability and transparency within the design team. ### 18. Great for Team Collaboration **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Newspapers | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 05, 2019 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Abstract allows us to use the Git model for our design files, which is a game changer for working with a team. You can create branches to work on an idea without interrupting the master files, then request reviews before merging back in. Abstract also effectively works as our file storage, which is super convenient. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Abstract can be a little hard to navigate, and the barrier to sharing with someone who isn't a designer on the time can be a little tough sometimes. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Keeping design files organized, more efficient workflows between design teams. ### 19. if you know github, you'll learn abstract like it's nothing **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vivian L. | Interaction Designer, Computer Software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2017 **What do you like best about Abstract?** My company just started trying out Abstract so I don't have a lot of experience with it. However, it's JUST like Github, which I love. It even allows you to compare versions. control branches, and resolve conflicts! One thing that's interesting is that any Sketch file you open from Abstract opens *within* Abstract. This allows the software to execute better on version control. When you save and commit, you're saving and committing all within Abstract. A lead developer from the Abstract team came to our company to give a demo and told us about upcoming features, which are pretty sweet. I'm not sure I'm allowed to disclose it here, but Abstract's making some bold moves by taking up functions that other, more established software in the field have already built. This is a product and a team to watch. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** I wish there was more use of contrast and color -- right now, the app is mainly in white, black and some grey. It's a little difficult sometimes to differentiate sections of the page, which I think a good use of shading could resolve. Additionally, the learning curve may be high for some. If you've used Github before, Abstract instantly makes sense. One thing that is bothersome is that you can't "mix" or "combine" different versions in a conflict. You have to choose one version only. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** If you know github, you'll love Abstract. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Keeping track of thousands of Sketch files, Zeplins, Box, and Dropbox links was starting to get very complicated and confusing. Version control has always been very difficult when you have multiple members on a design team who are all handling different aspects of a project. For example, the content designer could have an old version with the right copy, the interaction designer may have the old copy with her own interaction flows created, and the visual designer may be working off of old copy when trying to design a new splash screen. It's quite complicated to keep track when there are multiple cooks in the kitchen, but this is where Abstract swoops in to save the day. ### 20. Abstract Review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Abstract?** This program is super user friendly- easy to use! **What do you dislike about Abstract?** High cost considering there are similar programs that can be used for free (i.e. Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive) **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** As someone still at university (and paying for it), I prefer to stick with free file sharing programs. However, for private businesses and those stable in a career, I'd definitely recommend this program because it is much more easy to use and more organized than others. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Used for smaller projects with multiple people- not necessarily solving problems, but the general work we need to get done is easier when we have a place for all of our files. ### 21. Great for collaborations between Product + designers **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2018 **What do you like best about Abstract?** Easy to use, doesn't take much effort to understand how to use the application. - marque tool that allows you to select a particular part of the design and make comments. Makes feedback extremely easy. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** The MacOS is slow to start as it does updates upon start. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** - marque tool that allows you to select a particular part of the design and make comments. Makes feedback extremely easy. ### 22. Abstract solves an essential need for us **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Abstract?** It is the source of truth for design files and allows organization in several ways for the work. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** I don't really dislike much, but I'd love to be able to attach more types of files, and get better insight into what changed on each artboard **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Design version control ### 23. Huge time saver for designers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mayank K. | Interaction Designer, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2017 **What do you like best about Abstract?** The ability to work on a similar set of files in parallel with other designers makes this an indispensable software for digital designers **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Some software version releases in the past have been buggy but they are also currently in beta and are constantly improving. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to checkout and merge files with the work of other designers makes it a very powerful tool. ### 24. Well-designed, but probably more useful for larger teams **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bec L. | Product Designer, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2017 **What do you like best about Abstract?** The software is intuitive for anyone who has used Github / version control before. It's been incredibly useful for maintaining multiple versions of a single project, so that I can explore different concepts. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** There's nothing I especially dislike. However, I don't think I've been able to use all the features fully because I am a design team of 1. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Abstract makes it faster for me to iterate on designs. It also acts as a central hub where I keep all my designs. It might not have a direct business impact, but it's certainly helpful for my design workflow. ### 25. The Github for designers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 29, 2017 **What do you like best about Abstract?** It is very simple to use, fast and keep everything well organized **What do you dislike about Abstract?** I don't find something to dislike yet. Abstract is very well done **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** Abstract is going to simply the way you work with your design team, everything is in one place, so you keep your file well organized **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Abstract is the Github for designers, so no more issues with your team finding the last version of a sketch file ### 26. My Word **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Animation | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Abstract?** The Break down of ease of using it. I can place and organize. Everything without fail or even worry **What do you dislike about Abstract?** Love it love it love it. So far I've had nothing to dilike **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** For me I'm able to organize all I can with it ### 27. Nothing Abstract with this program **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Entertainment | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Abstract?** The ease of having everything in one place. **What do you dislike about Abstract?** It can sometimes be slow. Which may be due to our older computers. **Recommendations to others considering Abstract:** Watch the YouTube videos to learn it. **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** It keeps the team in track. ### 28. Abstract - Love what you work with **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Writing and Editing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Abstract?** The ability to contact your colleagues at the drop of a hat **What do you dislike about Abstract?** The amount of portals to different links **What problems is Abstract solving and how is that benefiting you?** Keeping my associates in the loop ## Abstract Discussions - [Is abstract free?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-abstract-free) - 1 comment - [View Abstract pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/abstract/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-13+11%3A52%3A19+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=3e0679e4-95c0-4e81-9efc-cf8795a358a2&secure%5Btoken%5D=0cdfb4df69925aa0a573c1447f3df715ee97c6f43fd8e453c7595dc38102997f&format=llm_user) ## Top Abstract Alternatives - [Zeplin](https://www.g2.com/products/zeplin/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (115 reviews) - [MightyText](https://www.g2.com/products/mightytext/reviews) - 3.8/5.0 (43 reviews) - [EverAfter](https://www.g2.com/products/everafter/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (159 reviews)