We make a competing product, so factor that in. Format has been around a long time, the client tools are thoughtful, and for working photographers it does the job properly.

Format's plans

At the time of writing, Format lists Basic at $10/mo, Pro at $12/mo and Pro Plus at $15/mo, all billed annually, with a 14-day trial and no free plan. Their pricing page shows higher struck-through "regular" rates next to those, so read it carefully before assuming what monthly billing costs.

The limits are where the decision actually gets made. Basic gives you 10 pages, 70 high-resolution images, 3 client galleries, no image storage allowance, no custom fonts and no custom code editor. Pro moves to unlimited pages, 1,500 high-res images, 100 GB storage, 50 client galleries, 15 products in the store and a free custom domain for the first year. Pro Plus goes to unlimited images, 1 TB, 250 galleries and 1,000 products.

Note that custom fonts and custom code both start at Pro. If typography matters to you, Basic isn't really a plan, it's a trial with a bill.

Why people look elsewhere

Format is theme-driven by design. You choose a theme and configure it. There's custom code on the higher plans if you want to fight it, but the shape of your site comes from the theme.

For photographers that's usually fine and often preferable. For designers, illustrators and art directors it's a real constraint, because the portfolio is the work sample. Presenting your design ability inside a layout you didn't design undercuts the pitch.

Then there's the version problem. Most designers mock the site up in Figma, then rebuild it as closely as the theme allows. From that point you're maintaining two versions of the same site and they drift apart with every change. Eventually the Figma file is just an old picture of something that used to be true.

Stay on Format if

You shoot professionally and use client galleries, proofing and file transfer as part of delivery. Those are real features, they're well built, and Figment has none of them.

Stay if you sell prints through the site, since we have no store. Stay if you want a hosted platform that handles storage and video for you. Stay if the theme you're on already looks right and you'd rather shoot than fiddle.

I should also say we have no CMS and no animation engine, and we're more expensive. All true.

What Figment does instead

You design the portfolio in Figma. No theme, no configuration screens, just your layout. The plugin publishes your frames as a live site on your own domain in under a minute, and every future change is a Figma edit followed by a republish.

There's no second copy of the design, so there's nothing to drift. The file is the website.

What you get that Format doesn't offer

You own the Figma file outright, which makes the whole design portable to any tool at any time. No gap between what you designed and what's live. Updates are design edits rather than theme wrangling. Publishing takes under a minute. Typography and layout are yours from the start rather than a paid tier. The canvas stays open in a format AI can actually operate on. And we've been live since 2021, with 20,048 published sites.

Pricing: $29/mo Pro, $89/mo Team, 30-day trial, plus a free tier that publishes to a subdomain with a small "Built with Figment.so" badge. More than Format. If your priority is client delivery tooling rather than design control, Format is the better spend and I'd rather you knew that now.

Moving off Format

Rebuild rather than import. Screenshot each page at full height, download your images at full resolution while your account is still active, and copy your text somewhere safe. Then lay the pages out in Figma with a desktop and a mobile frame each.

If a Figma mockup of the site already exists from when you first set Format up, start there. That's usually most of the work.

Install the Figment plugin, publish, check the live URL, and only then repoint your domain. Cancel Format after the new site is serving, not before you've pulled your files.

On AI

We're building an AI website builder that works directly on your Figma canvas rather than inside a closed editor. It's in early access and not self-serve yet. To see Figment and get on the early access list, request a demo.

Want a second opinion on whether to move? Describe the site on Discord.