Developer Tools · head to head
Atlantis vs Penpot
Atlantis
Developer Tools
Runs Terraform plan and apply from pull request comments, self-hosted and free
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Atlantis there is no company, no service level agreement and no paid support at any price, and the six maintainers are volunteers with day jobs, which some risk committees will not accept for a component holding production cloud credentials.; Penpot smaller user base and community compared to Figma means fewer templates and resources
- They diverge on capability: Atlantis covers Pull request plans, Penpot covers Vector editing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Atlantis and Penpot actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Developer Tools).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Atlantis
- Pull request plans
- Comment driven apply
- Workspace locking
- Policy checking
- Multi-platform webhooks
- Custom workflows
Only in Penpot
- Vector editing
- Interactive prototyping
- Design systems
- Components & libraries
- Real-time collaboration
- SVG support
- CSS Grid & Flexbox
- Code export
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Atlantis
- Making Terraform review meaningful by putting the actual plan output in front of the approvernot Penpot
- Removing local applies and the credential sprawl that comes with every engineer holding production keysnot Penpot
- Getting pull request driven infrastructure without paying a per-user subscription for a hosted platformnot Penpot
- Enforcing Conftest policies as a blocking check before an apply can runnot Penpot
Penpot
- UI/UX designnot Atlantis
- Prototypingnot Atlantis
- Design systemsnot Atlantis
- Developer handoffnot Atlantis
- Open source projectsnot Atlantis
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Atlantis
- There is no company, no service level agreement and no paid support at any price, and the six maintainers are volunteers with day jobs, which some risk committees will not accept for a component holding production cloud credentials.
- The security surface is inherently sharp, because it is an internet-reachable webhook endpoint that executes applies with privileged credentials, gated by pull request comment authorisation that is coarse next to a real policy engine.
- It is stateful, holding a working directory and lock database on local disk, so high availability and horizontal scaling are awkward and you own upgrades, webhook plumbing, secret rotation and the host itself.
- It lacks the features that distinguish the commercial alternatives, with no native drift detection, no cost estimation, no managed state interface and no policy engine beyond the Conftest integration.
- Terragrunt and monorepo layouts are not first-class, requiring hand-written custom workflows and repository configuration that becomes a growing maintenance burden as the number of repositories increases.
Penpot
- Smaller user base and community compared to Figma means fewer templates and resources
- Self-hosting requires Linux server and Docker knowledge for technical setup
- Real-time collaboration features may have performance issues with very large design files
Pricing, plan by plan
Atlantis
Free- AtlantisFree
- Apache-2.0, no usage limits and no seat count
- No commercial edition and no paid support tier
- Community support through GitHub and the CNCF Slack channel
Penpot
Free- FreeFree
- Cloud-based design
- Real-time collaboration
- Components and variants
- Unlimited$7/month
- All free features
- Priority support
- Advanced cloud features
- Enterprise$950/month
- Custom enterprise features
- Dedicated support
- Advanced security
Which should you pick?
Choose Atlantis if
- You need pull request plans.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted.
- You also want comment driven apply.
Choose Penpot if
- You need vector editing.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
- You also want interactive prototyping.
Questions people ask
- Is Atlantis or Penpot better?
- Neither clearly leads. Atlantis starts at Free and Penpot at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Atlantis or Penpot?
- Atlantis starts at Free and Penpot at Free.
- Does Atlantis or Penpot run on more platforms?
- Atlantis runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted. Penpot runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
- Can I use Atlantis for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Atlantis best used for?
- Atlantis is most often used for making terraform review meaningful by putting the actual plan output in front of the approver, removing local applies and the credential sprawl that comes with every engineer holding production keys, getting pull request driven infrastructure without paying a per-user subscription for a hosted platform, enforcing conftest policies as a blocking check before an apply can run. Of those, making terraform review meaningful by putting the actual plan output in front of the approver and removing local applies and the credential sprawl that comes with every engineer holding production keys are not what Penpot is typically brought in for.
- What can Atlantis do that Penpot cannot?
- Atlantis covers Pull request plans, Comment driven apply, Workspace locking, Policy checking. Penpot covers Vector editing, Interactive prototyping, Design systems, Components & libraries.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Atlantis: Is there a company behind Atlantis?
No. It runs as a series of LF Projects under the Linux Foundation and is maintained by volunteers. There is no vendor to buy support from and no service level agreement.
Penpot: Is Penpot really free?
Yes. Penpot is completely free with no feature gates. The open-source version can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure for zero cost beyond server expenses.
SourceAtlantis: Is it a CNCF project?
No. It uses a channel in the CNCF Slack, which is often misread as membership, but the project sits under LF Projects rather than the CNCF.
Penpot: Can I self-host Penpot?
Yes. Penpot can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure with no licensing costs. Organizations with specific privacy or governance needs can run Penpot on their own servers.
SourceAtlantis: Does it work with OpenTofu?
Yes, there is a dedicated integration guide alongside Terraform, and it also has configuration for working with hosted Terraform backends.
Penpot: What are the paid plans if I use Penpot cloud?
Penpot's cloud service offers a free tier, Unlimited plan at $7 per user per month for professionals and medium teams, and Enterprise starting at $950 per month for larger organizations.
SourceAtlantis: What does it not do that a paid platform does?
Drift detection, cost estimation, a managed state and run interface, and a real policy engine. Atlantis does pull request plan and apply well and stops there.
Penpot: What platforms does Penpot support?
Penpot runs in the browser, so it works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and any OS with a web browser. No platform-specific downloads required.
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