# Alternatives to Penpot

Open source design with SVG-native files.

Penpot ranks #3 of 6 in UI design tools, with an Alt Score of 86. It is licensed under MPL-2.0, freemium from $7/user/mo and available on the web. 9 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/penpot/
Category: UI design tools

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Designers and developers on product teams who need real-time collaborative UI/UX design and prototyping, especially teams that want a self-hosted alternative to proprietary tools like Figma or Adobe XD.
- **What you get**: A full design and prototyping tool for responsive UI design, wireframes, and interactive prototypes, with CSS Grid/Flex-based layouts, reusable components, and design tokens for building design systems. Files are stored in an open, SVG-based format, and designs can be inspected as CSS, HTML, and JSON for handoff to developers. It's free and open-source, usable via Penpot's cloud or self-hosted on your own infrastructure.
- **How it works**: Sign up on Penpot's cloud or self-host it, then create a project and design directly in the browser using boards, layers, and components, with multiple users editing the same file simultaneously. Interactions between screens are added to build clickable prototypes, and the underlying code (CSS/HTML/SVG) can be inspected or exported for implementation.

## Profile

- **License**: MPL-2.0 (verified 2026-07-09)
- **Pricing model**: Freemium (verified 2026-07-09)
- **Starts at**: $7/user/mo (verified 2026-07-09)
- **Platforms**: Web
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-09)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Lunacy](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/lunacy.md) | 86 | ? | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 2 | [ProtoPie](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/protopie.md) | 86 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android |
| 3 | [Figma](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/figma.md) | 82 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android |
| 4 | [Sketch](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/sketch.md) | 78 | Proprietary | macOS, iOS, Web |
| 5 | [Framer](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/framer.md) | 68 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| UI design tools checklist | Penpot | Lunacy | ProtoPie | Figma | Sketch | Framer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Subscription | Freemium |
| Starts at | $7/user/mo | $11.99/user/mo | $25/mo | $3/mo | $12/editor/mo | $10/mo |
| License | MPL-2.0 | ? | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Web | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web, Browser extension | macOS, iOS, Web | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web |
| Real-time collaboration | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Components & variants | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prototyping & interactions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dev handoff (inspect, tokens) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Plugins ecosystem | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Offline editing | ? | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No |
| Version history & branching | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Free tier limits | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Design systems support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for Penpot. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **Starts at**: $7/user/mo — <https://penpot.app/pricing> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Unlimited $7 / user / month”
- **License**: MPL-2.0 — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/penpot/penpot/main/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Mozilla Public License Version 2.0”
- **Pricing model**: Freemium — <https://penpot.app/pricing> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Note: A free Professional tier sits alongside the paid Unlimited tier.
  - Quote: “Unlimited $7 / user / month”
- **Platforms**: Web — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/penpot/penpot/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Whether used in the browser or deployed on your own servers, Penpot works with open standards”
- **Status**: active — <https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Note: Continuous release history with commits on 2026-07-09.
  - Quote: “2.16.2 Latest”
- **Real-time collaboration**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/penpot/penpot/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Real-time collaboration strengthens this foundation, helping teams scale and bring design closer to the product”
- **Components & variants**: Yes — <https://help.penpot.app/user-guide/design-systems/variants/> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Variants allow you to group similar components, such as buttons, icons, or toggles, into a single, customizable component.”
- **Prototyping & interactions**: Yes — <https://help.penpot.app/user-guide/prototyping-testing/prototyping/> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Penpot allows you to prototype interactions by connecting boards, which can act as screens.”
- **Dev handoff (inspect, tokens)**: Yes — <https://help.penpot.app/user-guide/dev-tools/> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “At Penpot, you can inspect designs to get measures, view properties, export assets and get production-ready code.”
- **Plugins ecosystem**: Yes — <https://penpot.app/penpothub/plugins> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Note: The official Penpot Hub plugin directory.
  - Quote: “115 results”
- **Self-hostable**: Yes — <https://penpot.app/self-host> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Penpot is the only open-source design platform that is truly deployment agnostic”
- **Version history & branching**: Partial — <https://penpot.app/pricing> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Note: Auto versioning with plan-tiered 7/30/90 days of autosaved versions; no branching feature is listed.
  - Quote: “Auto versioning”
- **Free tier limits**: Yes — <https://penpot.app/pricing> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Up to 8 team members, and unlimited viewers Up to 10GB of storage (typical file size: 10–100MB) 7 days of autosaved versions 7 days of deleted file recovery”
- **Design systems support**: Yes — <https://penpot.app/design/design-systems> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Penpot has reimagined how designers and developers manage scalable UIs by becoming a powerful platform for design systems.”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/