Developer Tools · alternatives
Alternatives to Penpot
23 developer tools tools sit alongside Penpot in this directory. Below is what separates each from Penpot on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 23
- With a free tier
- 19
- Cheaper to start
- 0
- Penpot starts at
- Free
Why people look past Penpot
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. Penpot has a free tier, and starts at Free against a category median of $44.5/month. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
The collaborative interface design tool
- Starts $12 a month dearer, at $12/month.
- 4 tiers to Penpot's 3.
The digital design toolkit
- No free tier, where Penpot has one.
- Starts $12 a month dearer, at $12/month.
- 4 tiers to Penpot's 3.
Design, prototype, and share user experiences
- No free tier, where Penpot has one.
- Starts $54.99 a month dearer, at $54.99/month.
Desktop AI coding assistant that runs on DeepSeek models
- Starts $5 a month dearer, at $5/month.
- 2 tiers to Penpot's 3.
Cloud development environments repositioned as a control plane for software engineering agents
- Starts $20 a month dearer, at $20/month.
Open source internal developer portal framework created and open sourced by Spotify
- 2 tiers to Penpot's 3.
Every Penpot alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penpot (this page) | Free | - | 3 | |
| FigmaCloud-based design tool with superior collaboration features and largest user base, though closed-source and requires subscription | Free, then $12/month | - | 4 | vs Penpot |
| SketchPremium macOS design tool with strong native performance and large professional user base | $12/month | - | 4 | vs Penpot |
| Adobe XDAdobe's design tool integrated with Creative Cloud, though currently in maintenance mode with no new features planned | $54.99/month | - | - | vs Penpot |
| Deep Code | Free, then $5/month | Freemium | 2 | vs Penpot |
| Ona (formerly Gitpod) | Free, then $20/month | Per month by compute unit | 3 | vs Penpot |
| Backstage | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Penpot |
| Frappe | Free, then $5/month | Per month by site or server | 3 | vs Penpot |
| Dagger | Free, then $50/month | Per month per team for Dagger Cloud | 3 | vs Penpot |
| Avo | Free, then $250/month | Per editor seat per month | 3 | vs Penpot |
| Okteto | Free | Quote | 3 | vs Penpot |
| Restate | Free, then $300/month | Per month by durable action count | 4 | vs Penpot |
| Nix | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Penpot |
| Tilt | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Penpot |
| Nixpacks | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Penpot |
| ConfigCat | Free, then $110/month | Per month by feature flag and environment count | 5 | vs Penpot |
| Cloud Native Buildpacks | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Penpot |
| Hookdeck | Free, then $39/month | Per month by delivered event count | 4 | vs Penpot |
| Spacelift | Free | By private worker and tier, not by user | 4 | vs Penpot |
| Atlantis | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Penpot |
| Soketi | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Penpot |
| Jitsu | Free, then $99/month | Per month by event volume | 4 | vs Penpot |
| Cortex | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Penpot |
| OpsLevel | On request | Quote | 2 | vs Penpot |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the Penpot badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (19)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
What you would be giving up
Penpot is most often brought in for ui/ux design, prototyping, design systems, developer handoff, open source projects. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If Penpot is broadly right and the question is cost, the Penpot pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Developer Tools category lists everything the directory holds, and best developer tools tools ranks them.
Penpot runs on web, windows, macos, linux. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about Penpot alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Penpot?
- 23 other developer tools tools are listed in this directory, led by Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Deep Code. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Penpot?
- 19 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Figma, Deep Code, Ona (formerly Gitpod), Backstage, Frappe.
- Is there a reason to switch away from Penpot?
- Nothing in the data flags one. Penpot has a free tier, and starts at Free against a category median of $44.5/month. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from Penpot?
- Penpot is most often brought in for ui/ux design, prototyping, design systems, developer handoff, open source projects. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to Penpot?
- None of the developer tools tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these Penpot alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Developer Tools, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare Penpot against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Penpot covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every developer tools tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Developer Tools category, 23 tools beside Penpot. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.