Penpotvs
Figma
Figma: Cloud-based design tool with superior collaboration features and largest user base, though closed-source and requires subscription
Penpot
Open source design and prototyping platform
As of 30 August 2026, Penpot is free to use. Penpot is the first open source design and prototyping platform meant for cross-domain teams. Softwr lists it under Developer Tools. Penpot is made by Kaleidos, launched in 2011, available on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
Overview
What Penpot does
Penpot is the first open source design and prototyping platform meant for cross-domain teams. It's web-based and works with open standards (SVG). Designers and developers can work together with no handoff drama.
What people use it for
- UI/UX design
- Prototyping
- Design systems
- Developer handoff
- Open source projects
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Penpot
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- PenpotvsSketch
Sketch: Premium macOS design tool with strong native performance and large professional user base
- PenpotvsAdobe XD
Adobe XD: Adobe's design tool integrated with Creative Cloud, though currently in maintenance mode with no new features planned
Pricing
What Penpot costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Cloud-based design
- Real-time collaboration
- Components and variants
- Design tokens
- Self-hosting option
Unlimited
$7 /mo
- All free features
- Priority support
- Advanced cloud features
Enterprise
$950 /mo
- Custom enterprise features
- Dedicated support
- Advanced security
Capabilities
Features
Vector editing
Interactive prototyping
Design systems
Components & libraries
Real-time collaboration
SVG support
CSS Grid & Flexbox
Code export
Figma import
Integration with Figma import
SVG export
Integration with SVG export
CSS export
Integration with CSS export
Webhooks
Integration with Webhooks
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
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.
SourceCan 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.
SourceWhat 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.
SourceWhat 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.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Penpot
- Company
- Kaleidos
- Based in
- Madrid, Spain
- Founders
- Pablo Ruiz-Múzquiz
Timeline
Penpot over time
Keep looking
Where to go from Penpot
- Penpot alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Penpot pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Penpot badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Developer Tools softwareThe full category
- Best Developer Tools softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Developer Tools software for
Compare Penpot with
- Keycloak
- Soketi
- Visual Studio Code
- Ansible
- Helix
- Bazel
- Eclipse IDE
- Pants Build
- Jitsu
- Notepad++
- Tilt
- Backstage
- StackBlitz
- Steampipe
- WarpBuild
- Webpack
- Avo
- Tilt
Other Developer Tools software
Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record
Open source12 researched notesOpen-source, extensible IDE historically centered on Java development
Free plan12 researched notesFast, scalable build system with intelligent defaults for Python and more
Free plan10 researched notesOpen source event pipeline that streams behavioural data to your own warehouse
Free, then $99/mo12 researched notesLocal Kubernetes development loop that rebuilds and live-updates containers on save
Open source12 researched notesOpen source internal developer portal framework created and open sourced by Spotify
Open source12 researched notesBrowser-based IDE and AI app builder running full Node.js stacks via WebContainers
Free plan8 researched notesQuery cloud APIs, SaaS tools and code with SQL, with no extract or load step
Free, then $49/mo12 researched notesAnalytics governance: define a tracking plan, generate typed code from it, and catch drift before release
Free, then $250/mo12 researched notesLocal Kubernetes development loop that rebuilds and live-updates containers on save
Open source12 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Penpot, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Penpot
Penpot alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Penpot pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Penpot
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Penpot badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Developer Tools software alternatives
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
quote
Programmable CI/CD engine that runs your pipeline as containers on any runner
Per month per team for Dagger Cloud
Feature flag service priced per flag and environment with unlimited seats and unlimited monthly active users
Per month by feature flag and environment countAnalytics governance: define a tracking plan, generate typed code from it, and catch drift before release
Per editor seat per month
Event gateway that receives, queues, retries and replays inbound webhooks
Per month by delivered event count
Kubernetes development and testing automation with shared caching, now owned by Incredibuild
Open source, no licence fee