Switch Guide: Moving from Figma to Penpot

Figma is owned by Adobe — a San Francisco-based corporation whose attempted $20 billion acquisition of Figma was blocked by regulators, but whose ownership of the platform is now firmly established. For Canadian design teams that want open-source design tooling they can self-host on Canadian soil, Penpot is the most mature alternative. It's built by Kaleidos (Spain-based), fully open source under MPL-2.0, and can be deployed on any infrastructure — including a Canadian VPS.

Why Consider Switching?

The data sovereignty argument is straightforward: Figma is US-hosted, US-owned, and subject to US law. Design files often contain unreleased product UI, brand assets, and confidential client work. For design agencies with government or healthcare clients, or for in-house design teams at regulated organizations, keeping design assets on Canadian infrastructure is a meaningful risk reduction.

The cost argument matters too. Figma is $15 USD/editor/month (approximately $20 CAD) — for a 5-person design team, that's $1,200+ CAD/year. Penpot self-hosted is free. A Canadian VPS to run it costs $20–$40/month.

What You'll Gain

Full data control: Your design files live on your server. No third party has access.
Open source: Penpot's code is publicly auditable. No vendor lock-in, no sudden price increases, no acquisition risk.
Canadian hosting possible: Deploy on a Canadian VPS — your design assets stay in Canada.
Vector-first design: Penpot uses SVG natively as its internal format, which is standards-based and portable.
Real-time collaboration: Penpot supports multiplayer editing like Figma — multiple designers can work simultaneously in the same file.
Prototyping: Penpot includes interactive prototyping with transitions and flows.

What You Might Miss

Plugin ecosystem: Figma has 1,000+ community plugins. Penpot's plugin system is newer and smaller. Some Figma-specific plugins won't be available.
Auto Layout maturity: Figma's Auto Layout (flexible frames, responsive components) is more mature than Penpot's equivalent. Complex responsive designs may require more manual work.
Dev Mode: Figma's Dev Mode is excellent for developer handoff. Penpot's developer inspection features are functional but less polished.
Component library breadth: Figma has a large community component library. Penpot's community resources are growing but not as extensive.
Self-hosting complexity: Unlike Figma (just open a browser), Penpot requires Docker and some server administration know-how to set up and maintain.

Migration Checklist

Export your Figma files — In Figma, select each file → Main Menu → File → Save local copy (.fig). Also export key design tokens as JSON if you use them. Note: Penpot cannot directly import .fig files — you'll need to use the SVG/PDF export route for individual frames, or rebuild in Penpot.
Provision your Canadian server — Minimum 4GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 50GB SSD for a small team. Docker required.
Install Penpot — Use the official Docker Compose installation. The setup takes approximately 30 minutes for someone comfortable with Docker.
Configure HTTPS — Use a reverse proxy (nginx or Caddy) with Let's Encrypt certificates. Point your domain (e.g., design.yourcompany.ca) at the server.
Create user accounts — Penpot supports email/password accounts and OIDC (OAuth2) for SSO.
Migrate design system components — Rebuild your core design system components (colours, typography, spacing) in Penpot first. This is the most important foundation step.
Migrate active project files — For each active project, export key frames from Figma as SVG and import into Penpot. For in-progress work, rebuilding in Penpot while working is often faster than trying to import complex files.
Update developer handoff workflows — Penpot has built-in inspect mode for developers. Walk your dev team through the new handoff process.
Set up automated backups — Penpot stores data in PostgreSQL. Schedule daily backups to Canadian object storage.

A Note on File Migration

Penpot cannot import native .fig files — this is the most significant friction point in the switch. The practical approach is to treat it as a "new chapter" migration: migrate your design system components carefully, then start new work in Penpot, keeping Figma available in read-only mode for historical reference. Most teams find that within 60 days, all active work is in Penpot.

Timeline Estimate

Server setup: 2–4 hours for someone comfortable with Docker. Design system rebuild: 1–3 days depending on complexity. Full team transition: 4–8 weeks, treating it as an incremental migration rather than a hard cutover.