Am I becoming a fan? I firmly believe that the Figma event I just witnessed would not have been possible without the innovative proposal that Penpot has presented to the world as a modern, updated, and open design tool. Some features showcased at the Figma event today seem to have been literally pulled from the Penpot application. And while some may prefer not to mention it or even deny it, it’s clear that this tool has set a precedent, demonstrating that the future of design lies in options like ours. The call made by Figma today sounds like a claim for the throne, revealing that they are not intimidated by competitors like Webflow, Framer, and others.
However, I don’t understand the direction Figma wants to take, as it is radically moving away from app navigation and experience creation. In my opinion, they had already claimed their place in market leadership, and this move might indicate they are focusing on a single tool dedicated to design, shutting the door on those seeking alternatives. This does not seem like a casual move, but rather a premeditated one.
This raises my curiosity: Will Penpot change its course in response? Many who criticize Penpot only compare it to Figma, and now Figma presents itself as a completely different beast. Personally, I would prefer Penpot to remain focused on UI/UX and not veer into extreme directions like Figma has. I believe that each tool should have a defined purpose. If we try to do everything in one application, we risk ending up in a digital chaos similar to Canva, which resembles a “jack of all trades.” What do you think?
I’m not sure what you’re referring to when it comes to feature seemingly pulled from Penpot, if we talk about Grid I’d say it’s been requested for a very very long time now, personally I still prefer Penpot integration which feels closer to code behavior than on Figma.
As to where Figma is going to me the main guideline is money, they’ve seized a large market share of the Ui/Ux crowd and now they would like to nip some from Miro with FigJam from Canva with Buzz from Framer with Sites and of course sprinkled around with as much AI as possible to bring all the VC to the yard.
My guess is that they also started to see some push back on their pricing model designer wise ballooning up with Dev mode and the likes so diversifying their products lines to other crowds make a lot of sense business wise.
Should this change Penpot course ? I don’t know, I hope not but at the end of the day everyone needs to put food on the table and easing the the financial burden of development for your main customers by expanding you base is one way to do it but it also trigger some sort of scope creep space race that can’t be cheap either.
Smart Grids - this is new, but the implementation is all in C++ for Figma’s internal layout engine, a much larger commitment than PenPot leaning on the browser’s layout engine
Plugins - was released in 2020, back then, this was the last major feature Figma built to catch up to Sketch
Comments dedicated panel - existed since 2017’s release in some shape, but went through a major rehaul in 2021
I feel like you might have misunderstood what I was trying to say in my earlier post. I wasn’t looking to spark a debate. Honestly, when Penpot launched, I knew it was going to make waves. It’s just a matter of time before bigger companies try to copy what Penpot does and slap it into their own apps. That’s cool for the folks who want to argue about who did it first or who does it better. But at the end of the day, having this amazing open-source tool available for free is a huge win for designers everywhere, right? What do you think?
