Is Penpot or Rook better?

Neither clearly leads. Penpot starts at Free and Rook at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Penpot or Rook?

Penpot starts at Free and Rook at Free.

Does Penpot or Rook run on more platforms?

Penpot runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux. Rook runs on Linux, Kubernetes.

Can I use Penpot for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Penpot best used for?

Penpot is most often used for ui/ux design, prototyping, design systems, developer handoff. Of those, ui/ux design and prototyping are not what Rook is typically brought in for.

What can Penpot do that Rook cannot?

Penpot covers Vector editing, Interactive prototyping, Design systems, Components & libraries. Rook covers Ceph operator, Block, file and object, Erasure coding, CSI driver.

Developer Tools · head to head

Penpot vs Rook

Penpot

Developer Tools

Open source design and prototyping platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Rook

Cloud

Kubernetes operator that deploys and manages Ceph storage clusters

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Penpot smaller user base and community compared to Figma means fewer templates and resources; Rook rook automates Ceph but does not abstract it, so an incident still demands Ceph expertise, and organisations without it end up hiring consultants at exactly the wrong moment.
They diverge on capability: Penpot covers Vector editing, Rook covers Ceph operator.
Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Penpot and Rook actually diverge.

Attributes where Penpot and Rook differ
Attribute	Penpot	Rook
Pricing model	Unknown	Open source, no licence fee
Platforms	Web, Windows, macOS, Linux	Linux, Kubernetes
Category	Developer Tools	Cloud
Founded	2021	Unknown

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 Penpot

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

Only in Rook

Ceph operator
Block, file and object
Erasure coding
CSI driver
Automated upgrades
Multi-cluster mirroring

What people use each for

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

Penpot

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

Rook

An on-premises Kubernetes platform needing block, shared filesystem and S3 storage without buying three productsnot Penpot
A team that already runs Ceph and wants its lifecycle managed declaratively inside Kubernetesnot Penpot
A large cluster where three-way replication overhead is unaffordable and erasure coding is requirednot Penpot
An organisation building a private cloud that cannot use managed cloud storage services for residency reasonsnot Penpot

Where each one falls short

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

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

Rook

Rook automates Ceph but does not abstract it, so an incident still demands Ceph expertise, and organisations without it end up hiring consultants at exactly the wrong moment.
There is no vendor and no SLA; the realistic commercial support routes are IBM Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation or an independent Ceph consultancy, both of which change the cost picture entirely.
Ceph is resource hungry, needing substantial memory and dedicated disks per OSD, so the hardware cost of a properly sized cluster is often underestimated.
Recovery and rebalancing after a disk or node failure generates heavy background input and output that can degrade application performance for hours, which surprises teams sizing for steady state.
Minimum viable clusters require several nodes with several disks each, so it is impractical at small scale and the entry hardware cost exceeds simpler alternatives.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Rook

Free

RookFree
- Apache 2.0 licensed, no licence fee
- Graduated CNCF project
- Community support via GitHub and Slack only

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Rook if

You need ceph operator.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, Kubernetes.
You also want block, file and object.

Rook review

Questions people ask

Is Penpot or Rook better?: Neither clearly leads. Penpot starts at Free and Rook at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Penpot or Rook?: Penpot starts at Free and Rook at Free.
Does Penpot or Rook run on more platforms?: Penpot runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux. Rook runs on Linux, Kubernetes.
Can I use Penpot for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Penpot best used for?: Penpot is most often used for ui/ux design, prototyping, design systems, developer handoff. Of those, ui/ux design and prototyping are not what Rook is typically brought in for.
What can Penpot do that Rook cannot?: Penpot covers Vector editing, Interactive prototyping, Design systems, Components & libraries. Rook covers Ceph operator, Block, file and object, Erasure coding, CSI driver.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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

Rook: Who supports it in production?

Nobody by default. IBM sells Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation, which is supported Rook and Ceph, and independent consultancies sell Ceph support. Decide this before deployment.

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

Rook: Does it need Ceph knowledge?

Yes. Rook handles deployment and routine operations, but troubleshooting a degraded cluster is a Ceph skill and there is no way around it.

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

Rook: Can it replace an object storage appliance?

Functionally yes, through the RADOS gateway, but you take on the operations that an appliance vendor would otherwise carry.

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

Penpot vs Rook

Penpot

Rook

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Penpot

Only in Rook

What people use each for

Penpot

Rook

Where each one falls short

Penpot

Rook

Pricing, plan by plan

Penpot

Rook

Which should you pick?

Choose Penpot if

Choose Rook if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Penpot

More on Rook

Keep looking

Other head to heads