Replace Figma with Penpot: A Complete Migration Guide

Figma Enterprise costs $45/month per editor. For a 10-person design team, that’s $5,400/year flowing to Adobe. Meanwhile, Penpot does 80% of what Figma does — and it’s open source, self-hosted, and free forever.

Here’s how to make the switch.

Why Penpot works

Penpot isn’t a watered-down Figma clone. It’s a fundamentally different approach to design tooling:

SVG-native. Every design element is real SVG. No proprietary format, no vendor lock-in. Export any file, open it in any vector editor, migrate whenever you want.

Self-hosted. Your design assets live on your infrastructure. No worrying about Figma outages or Adobe changing their ToS.

Real-time collaboration. Multiplayer editing that matches Figma’s experience. Multiple designers can work on the same file simultaneously.

Open-source. No feature gets removed because it doesn’t fit the pricing tier. No forced migrations to new versions. The community controls the roadmap.

What you’ll miss

Be honest about the tradeoffs:

• Plugin ecosystem. Figma has hundreds of plugins for icon libraries, accessibility checks, design-to-code. Penpot has a growing plugin system but fewer options.

• Dev Mode. Figma’s developer handoff features are polished. Penpot has code inspection but it’s less refined.

• Native mobile apps. Penpot is web-only for now. No iPad app for sketching on the go.

• Advanced prototyping. Complex interactions, smart animate, variable states — Figma still leads here.

For most teams, these are edge cases. The core design workflow — creating components, building layouts, collaborating in real-time — works just as well in Penpot.

Migration steps

1. Deploy Penpot (30 minutes)

The official Docker deployment is straightforward:

# Clone the deployment repo
git clone https://github.com/penpot/penpot-deploy
cd penpot-deploy/docker

# Configure your domain
echo "PENPOT_PUBLIC_URI=https://design.yourcompany.com" >> config.env

# Start the stack
docker compose up -d

You’ll need a server with 2GB RAM minimum. A $6/mo DigitalOcean droplet handles a 20-person design team easily.

2. Export from Figma

Figma doesn’t have a bulk export, but you can:

1. Select all frames in a file → Export as SVG
2. Use the Figma API to script bulk exports
3. For complex files, share with the Penpot community — volunteers help with migrations

The most important exports:

• Design system / component library
• Active project files
• Brand assets (logos, icons, colors)

3. Import to Penpot

Create a new file in Penpot, then drag-and-drop your SVG exports. Component imports work well for simple cases.

For design systems, you’ll need to recreate:

• Color tokens (Penpot has a token system now)
• Typography styles
• Grid and layout settings
• Component variants

Plan 2-4 hours for a complete design system migration.

4. Update team workflows

The UI differences are minor. Key changes:

• Left sidebar: Layers and assets, same as Figma
• Right sidebar: Properties panel, nearly identical
• Top bar: Tools are in different positions but all the same concepts
• Keyboard shortcuts: Most match Figma (Cmd+D for duplicate, Cmd+G for group, etc.)

Share the Penpot docs with your team: https://help.penpot.app

5. Establish the new normal

Update your design file links in:

• Notion/Confluence documentation
• GitHub README files
• Slack channel descriptions
• Onboarding docs for new designers

The savings math

Cost category	Figma	Penpot
Software (10 seats)	$5,400/yr	$0
Server hosting	$0	$72/yr
Migration time	—	~8 hours
Year 1 total	$5,400	$72
Year 2+ total	$5,400/yr	$72/yr

Break-even point: Immediately. The migration pays for itself in month one.

For a 50-person design org: Figma costs $27,000/year. Penpot costs $72/year for the same server. That’s $26,928 annually reclaimed.

When to stick with Figma

Penpot isn’t for everyone yet. Stay on Figma if:

• You rely heavily on Figma plugins daily
• Dev Mode is critical for your engineering handoff
• Your team uses Figma on iPad
• You need advanced prototyping with complex animations

But if your workflow is primarily component-based UI design with standard collaboration needs, Penpot is ready.

Next steps

1. Try Penpot Cloud first. Use the hosted version at penpot.app to validate the workflow before self-hosting.

2. Migrate one project. Don’t try to move everything at once. Pick a single active project and migrate it end-to-end.

3. Join the community. The Penpot Discord and forum are active. Help is available.

The moat is cracking. Design tools don’t need to cost thousands per year. Penpot proves it.