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APIs · head to head

Formance vs Penpot

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Penpot logo

Penpot

Developer Tools

Open source design and prototyping platform

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.; Penpot smaller user base and community compared to Figma means fewer templates and resources
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Penpot covers Vector editing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and Penpot actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and Penpot differ
AttributeFormancePenpot
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeUnknown
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APIWeb, Windows, macOS, Linux
CategoryAPIsDeveloper Tools
FoundedUnknown2021

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in Penpot

  • Vector editing
  • Interactive prototyping
  • Design systems
  • Components & libraries
  • Real-time collaboration
  • SVG support
  • CSS Grid & Flexbox
  • Code export

Both cover

  • Self-hosted deployment

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot Penpot
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot Penpot
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot Penpot
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot Penpot

Penpot

  • UI/UX designnot Formance
  • Prototypingnot Formance
  • Design systemsnot Formance
  • Developer handoffnot Formance
  • Open source projectsnot Formance

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Formance

  • Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
  • Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
  • Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
  • Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
  • The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.

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

Formance

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licensed core ledger
    • Numscript transaction DSL
    • Multi-currency tracking
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Managed or private deployment
    • Payments connectivity and reconciliation
    • Support with response commitments

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 Formance if

  • You need double-entry ledger.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
  • You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Formance review

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.
Penpot review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or Penpot better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance 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, Formance or Penpot?
Formance starts at Free and Penpot at Free.
Does Formance or Penpot run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. Penpot runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what Penpot is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that Penpot cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. Penpot covers Vector editing, Interactive prototyping, Design systems, Components & libraries. Both handle Self-hosted deployment.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

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.

Source
Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

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.

Source
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

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.

Source
Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

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.

Source
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