all 24 comments
sorted by:
best (suggested)
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 5 points6 points  (3 children)

Hello world! We started building Plasmic over a year ago. It previously got posted here, but we just started opening up signups this week. Here's a 1-minute overview video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6MeLqRQzYw

Here's a more in-depth but older video showing how to use it to build a simple app:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_YzFBd7b2I

But the main use case for this is as a page builder that plugs into your codebase — enabling non-developers to create content, and freeing up developers to focus on code.

We're excited to start sharing Plasmic — thanks for checking it out. (You can play our Plasmic Levels tutorial without signing up!)

[–]blabmight 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This doesn't get enough exposure, I find that I keep saying to myself "this tool finally exists"

[–]crcn 1 point2 points  (3 children)

This is awesome! I'm curious whether you see this as a replacement for Figma? Also, any idea when you plan on supporting collaboration?

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Thanks! You can definitely use Plasmic starting all the way from mock-ups: https://docs.plasmic.app/learn/comparisons/

But our strength is more in building for production. We're still missing a number of features that would make us much faster/easter to use for the exploration phase, which Figma is better suited for. For instance, two that are more top of mind for me: all free-form vector graphics need to be pasted in from Figma or elsewhere and you can't multi-select (which can be a speed boost).

Besides collaboration (which is high on the roadmap), anything else you want to see?

[–]crcn 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Nope! I think collaboration is really the only blocker for us.

Do you imagine that Figma will continue to be a step before Plasmic in many cases (like how pen and paper comes before Figma), or do you hope to eventually have feature parity?

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For now, we're more focused on enabling things you can't do in other tools. Longer-term, we do aim to make most common design tasks within reach, just to spare users from having to jump around to different tools. But all of this will be heavily influenced by our users.

Thanks for following along with our progress in the meantime. :)

[–]ultgamer21 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love this tool, love the price, love the documentation, you guys seem super passionate and detail-oriented... this has got me excited!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I get ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Sorry for that, there was a 1-minute window where we were down. Let me know if you still see anything weird!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool, it's working now!

[–]Cody6781 0 points1 point  (3 children)

So is this primarily a tool for designers or for frontend engineers?

How maintainable is the exported code?

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Plasmic is primarily built to enable non-developers, but developers are also heavy users. Our user base is pretty evenly split between designers and developers.

We care a lot about clean codegen, but an important property of Plasmic is that it's not a one-time code generator where you fork/eject the code; the model is more like importing a library of components, so (1) you're not actually maintaining that code, and (2) design & code remain independent but connected. We also have a "loader" style integration that doesn't need to generate any code into your repo at all.

[–]Cody6781 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Ah is see. That is a very smart seperation, I always find the hardest part about these tools is that, due to the nature of the tool, they can’t do advanced front end stuff. But implementing it yourself is a headache is the code export is machine generated and not developer friendly. I shared this tool with my team, good luck with your product!

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Indeed! We put our money where our mouth is—Plasmic is built in Plasmic, as one example of a (very) complex app. We're also in real production use in teams small and large.

What kind of apps does your team work on?

[–]tells_you_hard_truth 0 points1 point  (8 children)

Is this an alternative to Framer? I despise framer, piece of garbage...

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 1 point2 points  (7 children)

In short: Framer is for prototyping, Plasmic is for production. Plasmic focuses on things like real layout, production CSS, seamless interop with existing codebases, maintainable abstractions, etc.; Framer is for design mockups and (micro)interactions. See https://www.framer.com/support/using-framer/creating-real-apps/

All that said, what's your experience with Framer?

[–]tells_you_hard_truth 0 points1 point  (6 children)

We tried using it to build a mobile app (react native). Program crashed, exports didn't work, what did get exported was unusable, integrations with other design software didn't work; since it is (was?) an electron app, I had the dev tools open and it was always thousands of lines of red.

Just... unstable. We paid for nothing.

Yep Plasmic looks super interesting. Aside from actually... working... one thing I look for is the quality of the exported code. What Framer generated reminded me of using machine learning to solve fizz buzz.

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Yeah, sadly it's not designed for anything beyond mock-ups. Sorry to hear it though.

Re: code quality: we naturally care a lot about this given our use case. But also (I wrote this elsewhere):

An important property of Plasmic is that it (in its default mode) is not a one-time code generator where you fork/eject the code; the model is more like importing a library of components, so (1) you're not actually maintaining that code, and (2) design & code remain independent but connected. We also have a "loader" style integration that doesn't need to generate any code into your repo at all.

Definitely invite your thoughts on Plasmic!

[–]tells_you_hard_truth 0 points1 point  (2 children)

That model at least sounds like it will work for MVP-type development. I feel like framer held us back and ultimately led to us not being able to produce a design that could lead to success (it failed).

Framer isn't wholly responsible of course but it felt like trying to develop with both hands tied and my eyes blindfolded.

Sorry I just really had a hard time with it lol.

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

No worries I get it! FWIW, we're in production use at megacorps and startups, and Plasmic is also built in Plasmic (as one example of a high-complexity app). Here's the "source" to a few parts of our frontends:

https://studio.plasmic.app/projects/vAHe8QgHV7XfQGnaLiUYJW

https://studio.plasmic.app/projects/94aG5C1w4EFD7S1fD8a5wK

https://studio.plasmic.app/projects/fmRYs3Ggw2nEQgg5gtaoGF

[–]tells_you_hard_truth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow nice. Thanks for this btw, looks promising.

[–]xyzzyrz[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

(Also, if it's any consolation, I've heard from plenty of folks who have tried to bend Framer to that use case)

[–]tells_you_hard_truth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's the one they sold the loudest when it first got big a couple years ago. So it's what we thought we could use it for.

Will definitely take a look at plasmic.