Developer Tools · head to head
Penpot vs Semperis
Penpot
Developer Tools
Open source design and prototyping platform
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
Semperis
Cybersecurity
Identity threat detection and Active Directory forest recovery for AD, Entra ID and Okta, from a privately held US vendor.
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- Only Penpot has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Penpot smaller user base and community compared to Figma means fewer templates and resources; Semperis scope is limited to Active Directory, Entra ID and Okta, so an organisation whose critical identity lives elsewhere gets little from it, and the recovery value declines in direct proportion to how much has already moved off on-premises AD.
- They diverge on capability: Penpot covers Vector editing, Semperis covers Active Directory Forest Recovery.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Penpot and Semperis actually diverge.
Identical on both: 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 Semperis
- Active Directory Forest Recovery
- Malware-free restore
- Replication-stream monitoring
- Automated rollback
- Attack indicator scoring
- Entra ID and Okta coverage
- Purple Knight
- Forest Druid
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Penpot
- UI/UX designnot Semperis
- Prototypingnot Semperis
- Design systemsnot Semperis
- Developer handoffnot Semperis
- Open source projectsnot Semperis
Semperis
- An organisation that cannot answer an auditor or insurer asking how long it would take to rebuild Active Directory after a destructive attacknot Penpot
- Post-incident recovery where domain controllers are compromised and restoring from system-state backup would reintroduce the attacker's footholdnot Penpot
- Continuous detection of privileged group changes and directory-level tampering that domain controller security logs missnot Penpot
- Hybrid estates where AD, Entra ID and Okta all matter and no single tool currently shows changes across the threenot 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
Semperis
- Scope is limited to Active Directory, Entra ID and Okta, so an organisation whose critical identity lives elsewhere gets little from it, and the recovery value declines in direct proportion to how much has already moved off on-premises AD.
- The licence buys tooling, not a proven runbook: forest recovery is only worth what your last rehearsal demonstrated, and a plan that has never been executed end to end in a lab is an untested assumption regardless of what was purchased.
- It overlaps with backup and directory management products from Quest, Veeam, Commvault and others, so the buyer must argue internally why a dedicated product is needed alongside a backup contract that already claims to protect Active Directory.
- Running Directory Services Protector well requires someone who understands AD internals, replication metadata and Tier 0 attack paths, and without that person the alerts on privileged changes are either ignored or auto-reverted in ways that break legitimate administration.
- Licensing is driven by identity object counts, so directories carrying years of stale user accounts and service principals pay for objects that should have been deleted, and the cleanup project that would reduce the bill is the one nobody has time for.
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
Semperis
On requestNo published plan breakdown. See the Semperis review.
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.
Choose Semperis if
- You need active directory forest recovery.
- You also want malware-free restore.
Questions people ask
- Is Penpot or Semperis better?
- Neither clearly leads. Penpot starts at Free and Semperis at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Penpot or Semperis?
- Penpot has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Penpot and On request for Semperis.
- Does Penpot or Semperis run on more platforms?
- Penpot runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux. Semperis runs on Web.
- Can I use Penpot for free?
- Yes. Penpot has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Semperis starts at On request.
- 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 Semperis is typically brought in for.
- What can Penpot do that Semperis cannot?
- Penpot covers Vector editing, Interactive prototyping, Design systems, Components & libraries. Semperis covers Active Directory Forest Recovery, Malware-free restore, Replication-stream monitoring, Automated rollback.
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.
SourceSemperis: Does this replace my backups?
No. It replaces the Active Directory recovery procedure specifically. You still need backups for everything else, and the point of Semperis is that a generic system-state backup of a domain controller is a poor way to recover a forest because it restores the operating system along with whatever compromised it.
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.
SourceSemperis: Is it useful if we are cloud-only on Entra ID?
Partly. Directory Services Protector covers Entra ID and Okta for change tracking and posture, but the forest recovery product, which is the strongest reason to buy, applies to on-premises Active Directory. A genuinely cloud-only organisation should weigh it against Microsoft's own tooling.
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.
SourceSemperis: Are Purple Knight and Forest Druid really free?
Yes, both are free downloads with no licence requirement, and they are widely used by organisations that are not Semperis customers. They are also, transparently, the top of the sales funnel.
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.
SourceSemperis: How long does forest recovery actually take?
The honest answer is whatever your rehearsal took. The vendor's case is hours instead of days, and automation genuinely removes most manual steps, but the number that matters for your board is the one from a test in your own environment.
Semperis: Does it require agents on domain controllers?
It collects directory changes from the AD replication stream, which is what lets it see changes that bypass the security log. Deployment details vary by product and version, so confirm the exact architecture against your domain controller change-control rules.
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