Penpot: What It Actually Does, What It Costs, and Who It Fits
The leading open-source, self-hostable design and prototyping tool, built on an open SVG-based file format instead of a proprietary one, for teams that want data control or want to avoid per-seat cloud design pricing entirely.
Penpot is the most credible open-source alternative to Figma, and the main reason to pick it over Figma or Sketch is not feature parity, it is deployment control. Self-hosted Penpot is free with no per-seat licensing at all, runs on your own infrastructure under an open-source license (MPL 2.0), and stores designs in an open, SVG-based file format rather than a proprietary one. That makes it a genuinely strong fit for teams in regulated industries, government, or privacy-focused organizations that cannot put product designs on a third-party US cloud service, or for any team that simply wants to avoid growing per-seat SaaS costs. The honest tradeoff is maturity: Penpot's plugin ecosystem, large-file performance, and most advanced prototyping features still lag behind Figma, and self-hosting requires real Linux/Docker capability that not every team has in-house.
What Penpot Is For
Penpot is an open-source UI/UX design and prototyping tool built by Kaleidos, a Spain-based open-source software company, positioned explicitly as a Figma alternative that teams can self-host instead of depending entirely on a vendor's cloud. It is released under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, meaning the full source code is auditable and can be inspected, modified, or deployed by anyone, and it stores design files in an open, SVG-based format rather than the proprietary file formats most commercial design tools use.
Functionally, Penpot covers the same core ground as Figma and Sketch: a vector-based design canvas, components and shared libraries, and built-in prototyping, with real-time multiplayer editing as a core feature rather than an afterthought. The practical difference is deployment: Penpot can be self-hosted for free on your own servers (which requires genuine Linux and Docker familiarity to run and maintain) or used on Penpot's own hosted cloud, free or paid depending on usage, which gives teams that need data sovereignty, or that simply want to avoid ongoing per-seat licensing fees, an option neither Figma nor Sketch offers.
Key Features
- Fully open source under the MPL 2.0 license, with source code that can be audited, modified, and self-hosted
- Designs stored in an open, SVG-based file format rather than a proprietary one, avoiding format lock-in
- Self-hosted deployment via Docker for full data control, useful for regulated industries or privacy-focused orgs
- Real-time multiplayer editing, comments, and built-in prototyping comparable in concept to Figma's model
- A community-built "Penpot Exporter" plugin that helps migrate existing Figma files into Penpot
- No mandatory per-seat licensing cost at all on the free self-hosted or free cloud path
Pros & Cons
Pros
- ✔ Genuinely free and open source, with a self-hosted option that has no per-seat licensing cost whatsoever
- ✔ Open, SVG-based file format avoids being locked into a vendor's proprietary design file format long-term
- ✔ Full data control for teams, agencies, or governments that cannot put product designs on a third-party US cloud service
Cons
- ✕ Smaller plugin ecosystem and fewer third-party integrations than Figma
- ✕ Self-hosting requires real DevOps capability (a Linux server and Docker knowledge), which is not realistic for every team
- ✕ Some advanced prototyping, auto-layout behavior, and large-file performance still lag behind Figma
- ✕ The community Figma-to-Penpot migration plugin is still a work in progress and not yet full-fidelity for complex files
Pricing
Penpot has a genuinely usable free tier.
| Tier | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free (self-hosted) | $0 | Unlimited users, teams, and files on your own server, forever; requires your own Linux/Docker setup and maintenance |
| Free (cloud) | $0 | Hosted by Penpot, with usage limits comparable to a self-host trial, no infrastructure to manage |
| Unlimited (cloud) | Roughly $7/editor/month, capped around $175/month regardless of team size | Hosted by Penpot (EU or US region), unlimited design files, and priority support |
| Enterprise | Custom-quoted (published figures vary, from roughly $25/member/month to flat monthly pricing depending on source) | Choice of Penpot's cloud, your own cloud, or self-hosted, plus SSO, activity logs, and dedicated support |
Penpot's own pricing pages report somewhat conflicting Enterprise figures as of late 2026, so confirm the current rate and deployment options directly with Penpot before budgeting.
Pricing checked as of late 2026 and hedged as approximate - Penpot changes plan names and limits periodically, so confirm current figures directly on penpot.app before budgeting.
Common questions
Yes, in two different ways. Self-hosted Penpot is free forever with no per-seat licensing cost, with unlimited users, teams, and files, but you need to run and maintain your own Linux/Docker server. Penpot also offers a free hosted cloud plan with usage limits, so you don't need any infrastructure if you don't need self-hosting.
There is a community-built plugin called the Penpot Exporter that runs inside Figma, converts a file into a format Penpot can import, and is actively being developed, but it is not yet a full-fidelity, one-click migration for complex files. Simpler files with basic shapes and frames migrate more reliably than files with heavy plugin-driven or highly customized structures.
Penpot is open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0), meaning its full source code is publicly auditable and can be modified or self-hosted by anyone, which is the core difference from Figma's and Sketch's closed, proprietary codebases.
Penpot is built by Kaleidos, an open-source software company based in Spain that previously built the project management tool Taiga. Penpot is their flagship open-source design and prototyping product.
The main reason is deployment control, not feature count. A team in a regulated industry, government body, or privacy-focused organization that cannot put product designs on a third-party US cloud service gets a genuinely workable self-hosted option with Penpot that Figma and Sketch don't offer at all. A team purely optimizing for the richest feature set and plugin ecosystem will generally still find Figma ahead on that specific dimension.
Considering a self-hosted or open-source design tool for data control reasons?
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