Is Penpot or Strapi better?

Neither clearly leads. Penpot starts at Free and Strapi at $35/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Penpot or Strapi?

Penpot has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Penpot and $35/month for Strapi.

Does Penpot or Strapi run on more platforms?

Penpot runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux. Strapi runs on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.

Can I use Penpot for free?

Yes. Penpot has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Strapi starts at $35/month.

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 Strapi is typically brought in for.

What can Penpot do that Strapi cannot?

Penpot covers Vector editing, Interactive prototyping, Design systems, Components & libraries. Strapi covers REST API, GraphQL API, Content management, PostgreSQL. Both handle Webhooks, Self-hosted support.

Developer Tools · head to head

Penpot vs Strapi

Penpot

Developer Tools

Open source design and prototyping platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Strapi

APIs

Headless CMS with REST and GraphQL APIs

From: $35/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

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; Strapi cloud pricing is per project, not per account, so a second project doubles the bill
They diverge on capability: Penpot covers Vector editing, Strapi covers REST API.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Penpot and Strapi actually diverge.

Attributes where Penpot and Strapi differ
Attribute	Penpot	Strapi
Starting price	Free	$35/month
Pricing model	Unknown	subscription
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Web, Windows, macOS, Linux	Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker
Category	Developer Tools	APIs
Founded	2021	2015

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 Strapi

REST API
GraphQL API
Content management
PostgreSQL
MySQL
MongoDB
AWS
Node.js support

Both cover

Webhooks
Self-hosted support

What people use each for

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

Penpot

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

Strapi

Running a self hosted headless CMS with a REST or GraphQL APInot Penpot
Giving editors a content admin panel over a custom content modelnot 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

Strapi

Cloud pricing is per project, not per account, so a second project doubles the bill
Starter at $35 a month allows 100,000 API requests, and overage is $1.50 per 25,000
Extra bandwidth is $30 per 100 GB and extra asset storage $0.60 per GB
Backups start at the Pro plan, weekly, and only become daily at Business
An uptime SLA is Business only, at $450 a month per project
Additional environments cost $60 a month on Pro and $300 a month on Business

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

Strapi

$35/month

Starter$35/month
- 100k API requests
- 50 GB asset storage
- 50 GB asset bandwidth
Pro$90/month
- 1M API requests
- 250 GB asset storage
- 500 GB asset bandwidth
Business$450/month
- 10M API requests
- 1000 GB asset storage
- 1000 GB asset bandwidth

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 Strapi if

You need rest api.
You work on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.
You also want graphql api.

Strapi review

Questions people ask

Is Penpot or Strapi better?: Neither clearly leads. Penpot starts at Free and Strapi at $35/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Penpot or Strapi?: Penpot has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Penpot and $35/month for Strapi.
Does Penpot or Strapi run on more platforms?: Penpot runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux. Strapi runs on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.
Can I use Penpot for free?: Yes. Penpot has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Strapi starts at $35/month.
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 Strapi is typically brought in for.
What can Penpot do that Strapi cannot?: Penpot covers Vector editing, Interactive prototyping, Design systems, Components & libraries. Strapi covers REST API, GraphQL API, Content management, PostgreSQL. Both handle Webhooks, Self-hosted support.

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

Strapi: How much do API request overages cost?

Additional API requests beyond the plan limit cost $1.50 per 25000 requests. Extra asset storage costs $0.60 per GB, and additional bandwidth costs $30 per 100 GB.

Source

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

Strapi: Is yearly billing available?

Yes, yearly billing saves up to 17% compared to monthly billing on Strapi Cloud plans.

Source

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

Strapi: What is included with the Pro plan?

The Pro plan costs $90 per month per project and includes 1M API requests, 250 GB asset storage, 500 GB bandwidth, multi-environment support, weekly backups, and manual backups.

Source

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 Strapi

Penpot

Strapi

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Penpot

Only in Strapi

Both cover

What people use each for

Penpot

Strapi

Where each one falls short

Penpot

Strapi

Pricing, plan by plan

Penpot

Strapi

Which should you pick?

Choose Penpot if

Choose Strapi if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Penpot

More on Strapi

Keep looking

Other head to heads