Design tokens: it's about ownership, not looks now

Published 19 July 2026 · Source dated 15 March 2025

Penpot's 2025 enterprise comparison shows teams increasingly picking design platforms based on data control and token portability, not just feature parity with Figma.

Penpot's 2025 enterprise comparison makes a sharp point: teams no longer just ask 'which tool has the best features' — they ask 'which platform can I self-host, and will my tokens survive a migration?' That's a real shift in how design systems get evaluated, driven by data-sovereignty concerns and long-term cost, not aesthetics. For juniors, the practical takeaway isn't 'switch tools' — it's that token discipline (naming, structure, documentation) matters beyond whatever tool you're in today. A well-structured token set is portable; a pile of hardcoded hex values isn't. **Why adoption, not hype:** this is enterprise procurement behaviour already changing, though token portability standards across tools are still early.

Coach
Pick one component in your design system and check — does it use tokens/variables, or hardcoded values? Fix one instance you find.

Source: penpot.app · 15 Mar 2025

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