There's a version of this comparison where Figma wins because it's the professional tool that real designers use. But if you're a developer trying to make social media posts, that version of the comparison isn't useful to you.
The right answer is Canva. This article explains why Figma isn't exactly wrong, just much harder for no real benefit.
What each tool is actually built for
Figma is a design tool for product teams. It's for designing app interfaces, websites, component libraries, and interactive prototypes. It's excellent at those things. That's what the entire product is built around.
Canva is a design tool for people who need to create visual content without being designers. Social posts, presentations, flyers, YouTube thumbnails. Templates for all of it, sized correctly, ready to customize.
The overlap between these use cases is small. Social media posts are visual content, not product design. Figma happens to be able to handle it, but it wasn't built for it.
Why Canva works well for social posts
Templates are the main reason. Canva has thousands of them, already sized for every platform. Instagram square, Instagram story, LinkedIn post, LinkedIn banner, Twitter header, YouTube thumbnail. You pick one that's close to what you want, swap in your text and images, and you're done.
For a developer who wants to post about a project they shipped, share a quick tip, or announce something, this workflow takes 10 to 15 minutes. There's no figuring out dimensions, no building a layout from scratch, no thinking about typography. Someone already did that part for you.
The free tier covers most of what you need. Access to a large template library, basic editing tools, and export as PNG or JPG. The paid plan (about $15/month) adds a background remover, a brand kit for consistent colors and fonts, and premium templates. For occasional social content, the free plan is plenty.
The mobile app is also worth mentioning. Most web design tools don't translate well to mobile. Canva's does. If you want to quickly post about something while you're away from your desk, you can make a decent graphic on your phone in a few minutes.
Why Figma is harder for this
Figma can absolutely create social media graphics. It's a vector design tool, you can set any canvas dimensions, and the layout and typography tools are good.
But there are no templates for social content. You're starting from a blank canvas every time. To make a well-designed Instagram post, you need to research the right pixel dimensions, design the layout, choose fonts, think about hierarchy and whitespace, and handle image imports. That's a real design workflow. It's fine if you're a designer. For a developer who just needs to make a post, it's a lot of unnecessary overhead.
Figma is also built for files that evolve over weeks or months with multiple collaborators. The mental model of opening a Figma project to make a single social post doesn't quite fit. It's the wrong tool for the job even if the tool is technically capable of doing the job.
The one case where Figma makes sense for social content
If you're already using Figma for your product design, and you want your social posts to use the exact same fonts, colors, and visual style as your app, then designing social content in Figma makes sense. You can reuse components from your design system, maintain visual consistency, and keep everything in one place.
That's a real use case. But it only applies if you're already deep in Figma and you have a design system worth staying consistent with. For most developers, that's not the situation.
Pricing comparison
Canva free: good enough for most social media use. Canva Pro: $15/month or about $120/year.
Figma free: 3 projects, basic features. Fine for personal use. Figma Professional: $15/month per editor.
The price is similar. But Canva Pro's most useful features (background remover, brand kit) are directly relevant to making social content. Figma Professional's features (unlimited projects, advanced prototyping, dev mode handoff) are not.
The actual recommendation
If you're a developer who needs to make social posts and you don't already know Figma well: use Canva. It's faster, it's designed for exactly this task, and the learning curve is basically zero.
If you know Figma well and use it every day: you can use it for social content, but Canva will still be faster for template-based posts. Using both is reasonable. Figma for product design, Canva for social content.
The only reason to pick Figma for social posts over Canva is if you specifically don't want to add another tool to your stack. That's a valid preference, but you'll pay for it in time every time you need to make a graphic.