Penpot
Design Tools Verified May 2026
The first open-source design platform that actually challenges Figma — and won't lock your files behind a paywall.
- Completely free for teams up to 8 members on cloud — credible Figma replacement at zero cost
- Built on web standards (SVG/CSS) — designs map directly to browser rendering without approximation
- Self-hostable for teams with data sovereignty or air-gapped environment requirements
- Full design and prototyping features including components, auto-layout, and interactive prototype linking
How Penpot scored 70/100
6 weighted criteria, each scored out of 10 and published with its reasoning. Featured placements never move a score.
Deal Strength
3.0 /10There's no exclusive coupon here, because the real value is that Penpot is free by default. The hosted Professional plan costs $0 for up to eight members plus unlimited viewers, with unlimited design files, and the software itself is open-source and free to self-host. The offer is access, not a discount.
Value for Money
10.0 /10Pound for pound, Penpot is the best value in UI design. The free tier delivers full editing, prototyping, and components that rivals gate behind paid seats, and the paid Unlimited plan runs just $7 per user per month, capped at $175. Self-hosting the open-source core is free forever, sidestepping per-seat pricing entirely.
Capability
8.0 /10Penpot covers the core design workflow with real depth: interactive prototyping, first-class native design tokens, reusable components and variants, and it's the only major tool with native CSS Grid and Flexbox rather than a plugin. Developer handoff exposes genuine SVG, CSS, and HTML. The main gap is a plugin ecosystem still smaller than Figma's.
Time to Value
8.0 /10Most users are designing within minutes. Penpot runs entirely in the browser with zero installs, so you sign up for the free plan and start a real project the same day. The only friction is the self-hosted route, which asks for a Linux server and Docker know-how; the cloud version has none of that.
Trust & Reliability
5.0 /10Penpot is a credible, community-backed project rather than an enterprise-proven institution. It's built by Kaleidos, has been public since 2021, and carries over 50,000 GitHub stars, which signals real momentum. That said, it's younger than Figma with a thinner enterprise track record, so demanding uptime guarantees still favor the incumbents.
Flexibility & Exit
10.0 /10Lock-in is essentially zero. Penpot is open-source under the MPL 2.0 license with an open file format, so you can self-host for full data ownership, export your work, and walk away whenever you like. Cloud plans are month-to-month with no long contracts, and the free self-hosted option means your files never sit behind someone else's paywall.
About Penpot
Quick answer
Penpot is an open-source, browser-based design and prototyping tool built by Spanish team Kaleidos. It handles UI design, interactive prototypes, design tokens, and developer handoff using open standards (SVG and CSS), and you can self-host it for free or use a hosted cloud plan. It's the most credible Figma alternative for teams that want to own their data and escape per-seat pricing.
What is Penpot?
Penpot is a web-based design and prototyping platform launched publicly in late 2021 by Kaleidos, a small product studio in Madrid that's been building open-source tooling for over a decade. The pitch is unusually direct for a design tool: there's nothing to install, no proprietary file format, and the entire codebase is available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license.
What sets Penpot apart from the rest of the design tool market is its commitment to open web standards. Where Figma and Sketch lean on closed engines, Penpot treats SVG as its native format and exports production-ready CSS, including tokens, variables, and component styles. If you've ever tried to translate a Figma file into clean front-end code, that distinction matters more than any single feature checkbox.
Key features
SVG-first canvas
Every shape, path, and component is stored as SVG, so what you design is what developers get. No rasterized surprises.
Real-time multiplayer
Live cursors, comments, and concurrent editing — comparable to Figma's multiplayer model without the seat minimums.
Design tokens & variables
Built-in support for color, typography, and spacing tokens that map cleanly to CSS custom properties.
Interactive prototyping
Wire up click-through flows, hover states, and transitions directly in the canvas — no extra plugin required.
Inspect mode for devs
Developers can pull exact CSS, measurements, and assets from any element without installing software.
Self-hostable
Run it on your own infrastructure via Docker or Kubernetes. Full data ownership, no third-party access.
Penpot pricing
Penpot's pricing model is the part that gets most attention, and rightly so. The self-hosted, open-source version is free forever — you pay nothing for the software, you just bring your own infrastructure. For teams that don't want to manage servers, Kaleidos offers Penpot Cloud, which is the official hosted version with team management, SSO, and other enterprise features layered on top.
Cloud tiers typically include a free plan (with limits on team size and file count) and paid team/enterprise plans. Exact monthly pricing has changed since launch, so verify the current tiers on the official site before budgeting.
What you get free vs paid
- Self-hosted (free): Every feature in the open-source release, unlimited users on your own hardware.
- Cloud free tier: Generous for small teams and individual designers; usually capped on private files or team size.
- Cloud paid: Adds SSO, audit logs, larger storage, priority support, and SLAs for businesses.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, dedicated infrastructure options, and onboarding support.
Penpot vs the alternatives
| Feature | Penpot | Figma | Sketch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open source | Yes (Apache 2.0) | No | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No | No |
| Native file format | SVG | Proprietary (.fig) | Proprietary (.sketch) |
| Browser-based | Yes | Yes | No (macOS only) |
| Free for teams | Yes (self-host) | Limited free tier | No |
| Plugin ecosystem | Growing | Mature, large | Established |
| Design tokens | Built-in | Via plugins | Native (recent) |
Who Penpot is for
✓ Use Penpot if you:
- Run a design team that resents per-seat SaaS pricing.
- Need to self-host for compliance, privacy, or just on-principle reasons.
- Want a clean handoff path from design to code (CSS, SVG).
- Work in or alongside an open-source culture.
- Are evaluating Figma alternatives after a price hike or contract change.
✗ Skip Penpot if you:
- Depend on a specific Figma plugin that has no Penpot equivalent.
- Need a heavily curated template marketplace out of the box.
- Have no one on the team willing to manage a Docker stack (if self-hosting).
- Use advanced features like FigJam-style whiteboarding as a daily driver.
What's included
- Open-source design and prototyping tool fully compatible with SVG and CSS standards
- Self-hostable on any server — complete data ownership with no vendor lock-in
- Real-time multiplayer collaboration with live cursors and shared design libraries
- Components and design tokens with a structure that maps directly to CSS variables and classes
- Prototype flows with interactions, animations, and overlay transitions for user testing
- Inspect panel exports CSS, SVG, and markup code for every element developers need
- Penpot Cloud free tier with unlimited projects and collaborators for open-source teams
- Figma import: paste Figma file URLs to migrate designs without manual rebuild
- SaaSTweaks-verified affiliate deal
- Vendor-direct activation flow with editorial pros + cons review
Penpot pricing
Verified May 2026. Vendor's published rates at the time we checked — always confirm at checkout.
| Plan | Price | Term | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional | Free | forever | Up to 8 team members; unlimited viewers; 10 GB storage; 7-day version history; cloud hosted |
| Unlimited | $7/user/mo | monthly | Capped at $175/mo; 25 GB storage; 30-day history; early feature access |
| Enterprise | $950/mo | monthly | Unlimited users and storage; 90-day history; priority support |
| Self-hosted | Free (OSS) | forever | Open-source; AGPL-3.0; deploy on your own infrastructure; full data control |
Getting started
4 steps. The last one is the part most people skip.
- 1
Open Penpot through the link on this page
It carries our referral tag. The price you pay is identical either way, and it never changes the score on this page.
- 2
Compare the tiers against what you actually use
The pricing table on this page lists what each plan includes. Match it to real usage rather than the tier the vendor highlights.
- 3
Start on the smallest plan that fits
Most vendors let you move up mid-cycle and bill the difference, so starting low costs you nothing but starting high does.
- 4
Check the renewal terms before you commit
Note the renewal date and the rate it reverts to, so the second invoice is not a surprise. Annual plans are usually cheaper per month but harder to exit.
Where Penpot wins and loses
What works
- Completely free for teams up to 8 members on cloud — credible Figma replacement at zero cost
- Built on web standards (SVG/CSS) — designs map directly to browser rendering without approximation
- Self-hostable for teams with data sovereignty or air-gapped environment requirements
- Full design and prototyping features including components, auto-layout, and interactive prototype linking
What doesn't
- Smaller component library ecosystem than Figma — community resources and templates are less comprehensive
- Real-time collaboration is present but multiplayer editing performance lags behind Figma at scale
- Less polish and fewer AI features compared to Figma Professional
- Self-hosted deployment requires infrastructure expertise and ongoing maintenance
The bottom line
Penpot is the most credible open-source Figma alternative going: a browser-based UI design and prototyping tool with native design tokens, real CSS Grid and Flexbox, and clean developer handoff. There's no coupon to chase and it's younger than Figma, but for teams that want to escape per-seat pricing and own their design files, it's a clear Buy.
Penpot's hosted Professional plan is free for up to eight team members plus unlimited viewers, with unlimited files and 10GB storage. The Unlimited plan is $7 per user per month, capped at $175 monthly, and Enterprise starts at $25 per user per month (minimum $950). Self-hosting the open-source software costs nothing beyond your own server.
Penpot is genuinely free for most people. It's open-source under the MPL 2.0 license, so you can use the hosted free tier or self-host the full app at no cost. You only pay when you outgrow the free plan's eight-member limit or need enterprise features like SSO, audit logs, and admin controls.
Penpot is the open-source Figma alternative: self-hostable, cheaper per seat, and the only major design tool with native CSS Grid and Flexbox rather than plugins. It gives you data ownership and an open file format Figma can't match. Figma still wins on plugin ecosystem breadth, third-party integrations, and sheer market adoption.
Yes. Because Penpot is built on web standards, its Inspect tab exposes the real SVG, CSS, and HTML behind every design, so what developers copy is close to what ships. Native design tokens keep colors, typography, and spacing synced between design and code, and MCP-compatible AI clients can read design files programmatically.
Yes, and this is a core reason teams choose it. The open-source app is free to self-host on your own Linux server via Docker, giving you full data sovereignty and control over your design files. If you want managed infrastructure with SSO and a chosen hosting region, Penpot offers a Private Server plan at $50,000 per year.
Penpot suits product teams that want open-source freedom, data ownership, and an escape from Figma's per-seat pricing, especially developer-minded teams who value native CSS layouts and clean handoff. It's ideal for startups, agencies, and organizations with privacy or self-hosting needs. Teams that lean heavily on a large plugin marketplace may still prefer Figma.
