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Penpot vs Very Good Security

Penpot logo

Penpot

Developer Tools

Open source design and prototyping platform

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Very Good Security logo

Very Good Security

Cybersecurity

Tokenisation proxy that keeps card and personal data out of your own systems and out of PCI scope

From
$1000/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

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; Very Good Security vGS sits in the live path of every request carrying sensitive data, so its latency and availability become yours, and an outage in the proxy is a payment outage no matter how healthy your own systems are.
  • They diverge on capability: Penpot covers Vector editing, Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Penpot and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where Penpot and Very Good Security differ
AttributePenpotVery Good Security
Starting priceFree$1000/month
Pricing modelUnknownPer month
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Windows, macOS, LinuxWeb, API
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity
Founded2021Unknown

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 Very Good Security

  • Aliasing proxy
  • PCI scope reduction
  • Network tokenisation
  • Processor optionality
  • Card issuing data
  • Vault and access controls
  • Data residency options
  • Compliance artefacts

What people use each for

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

Penpot

  • UI/UX designnot Very Good Security
  • Prototypingnot Very Good Security
  • Design systemsnot Very Good Security
  • Developer handoffnot Very Good Security
  • Open source projectsnot Very Good Security

Very Good Security

  • A marketplace facing its first PCI DSS Level 1 assessment that wants to keep card data off its own estate rather than harden a dozen servicesnot Penpot
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot Penpot
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot Penpot
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot 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

Very Good Security

  • VGS sits in the live path of every request carrying sensitive data, so its latency and availability become yours, and an outage in the proxy is a payment outage no matter how healthy your own systems are.
  • Token portability is the whole selling point yet leaving VGS means migrating tokens back out, a project the vendor has no incentive to streamline, so the lock-in you removed from your acquirer partly moves to VGS.
  • Entry pricing at around one thousand US dollars a month is real money for a pre-revenue fintech, and it buys volume-limited throughput, so cost scales with exactly the growth that made you buy it.
  • Scope reduction is not scope elimination: your QSA still assesses how you integrate, and teams regularly discover that a support tool or an internal admin screen pulled plaintext back in and dragged systems into scope again.
  • Proxy-based interception constrains how you design request flows, and non-standard payloads, streaming uploads or binary formats often need custom routing rules that make debugging production issues noticeably harder.

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

Very Good Security

$1000/month
  • Starter$1000/month
    • Aliasing proxy
    • Vault storage
    • PCI scope reduction
  • Growth$undefined/month
    • Network tokenisation
    • Multiple processors
    • Data residency options
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom vault architecture
    • Dedicated support and SLA
    • Contractual compliance coverage

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 Very Good Security if

  • You need aliasing proxy.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want pci scope reduction.
Very Good Security review

Questions people ask

Is Penpot or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. Penpot starts at Free and Very Good Security at $1000/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Penpot or Very Good Security?
Penpot has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Penpot and $1000/month for Very Good Security.
Does Penpot or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
Penpot runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
Can I use Penpot for free?
Yes. Penpot has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Very Good Security starts at $1000/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 Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can Penpot do that Very Good Security cannot?
Penpot covers Vector editing, Interactive prototyping, Design systems, Components & libraries. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

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
Very Good Security: Does VGS make me PCI compliant?

No. It removes cardholder data from your systems so your assessment covers a far smaller boundary, but you still complete an assessment and your integration is part of 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.

Source
Very Good Security: Can I move to another processor without re-collecting cards?

Yes, that is a core reason people buy it. The vault reveals stored credentials to whichever processor you route to.

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
Very Good Security: What does it cost?

Published entry pricing is about one thousand US dollars per month; growth and enterprise tiers are quoted.

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
Very Good Security: Is it only for card data?

No. The proxy handles any sensitive field, including bank details, national identifiers and documents, though payments is where the product is now focused.

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