Figma vs Penpot: Open-Source Design Tool Review for UI/UX Developers

In 2022, when Adobe announced its $20 billion acquisition of Figma, a quiet panic rippled through the design community. The deal—which ultimately collapsed in late 2023 due to regulatory pressure—sparked a mass reevaluation of tooling dependencies. Suddenly, “What if Figma gets worse or more expensive?” became a legitimate boardroom question for design teams worldwide.

Enter Penpot. The open-source, web-based design tool has been steadily maturing since its 2021 beta launch, positioning itself as the most credible Figma alternative for teams that want full control over their design infrastructure. But is it actually ready for production UI/UX work? I spent four weeks running both tools side-by-side on real projects to find out.

The Landscape: Why This Comparison Matters Now

Figma currently dominates the collaborative design space with over 4 million users and a valuation that peaked at $20 billion. Its browser-based architecture, real-time multiplayer, and plugin ecosystem set the industry standard. However, its proprietary nature means your design files live on someone else’s servers, and your subscription fees can rise at any time.

Penpot, backed by the Spanish company Kaleidos Open Source, takes a different approach. It’s fully open-source (MPL 2.0 license), self-hostable, and free to use on their cloud service. The project has gained significant traction—boasting over 50,000 GitHub stars and adoption by companies like Red Hat and the European Commission.

The core question isn’t “Which is better?” but “What do you actually need from a design tool?”

Installation and Setup: The First Fork in the Road

Figma takes about 30 seconds to get started. Create an account, open a browser tab, and you’re designing. There’s no installation, no server management, and no version control headaches. For freelancers and agencies, this frictionless onboarding is a massive advantage.

Penpot offers two paths. The hosted version at penpot.app is equally quick—sign up and go. But the real value proposition is self-hosting. You can deploy Penpot on your own infrastructure using Docker, Kubernetes, or even a Raspberry Pi for small teams. This means your design data never leaves your network, a critical requirement for regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and government contracting.

The trade-off is real: self-hosting requires DevOps involvement. You’ll need to manage updates, backups, and scaling. For a 5-person startup, this is overkill. For a 500-person enterprise with compliance requirements, it’s a godsend.

Interface and Design Workflow: Familiarity vs. Innovation

If you’re coming from Figma, Penpot’s interface will feel like a slightly different dialect of the same language. Both use the standard canvas-based layout with a left-side layers panel, central canvas, and right-side properties inspector. Keyboard shortcuts are nearly identical—V for the move tool, F for frames, R for rectangles.

However, subtle differences emerge with daily use. Figma’s vector networks and auto-layout system are more polished. Auto-layout in Figma handles complex responsive designs with nested constraints gracefully. Penpot’s equivalent feature, called “Constraints” and “Grid,” works well for basic layouts but occasionally requires manual adjustments when dealing with deeply nested components.

Penpot does have a few tricks up its sleeve. Its CSS-based styling means that what you see in the design tool more accurately reflects what you’ll get in the browser. The “inspect” mode generates clean, production-ready CSS code—something Figma does, but Penpot does it more transparently since the tool itself runs on web standards.

The Open-Source Advantage: What You’re Actually Paying For

Here’s where Penpot fundamentally changes the calculus. Because it’s open-source, you get:

  • No vendor lock-in: Your design files are stored in a documented, exportable format. If Penpot disappears tomorrow, you can migrate your files.
  • Customization: Penpot’s codebase is accessible. You can build custom plugins, modify the source, or contribute features you need.
  • Transparent development: The roadmap is public. You can see what’s coming and vote on features via their community forum.
  • Cost predictability: Self-hosted Penpot costs only your infrastructure. Cloud-hosted is free for unlimited projects (with paid tiers for larger teams).

Figma’s free tier is generous but limited to 3 files and 3 collaborators. Their Professional plan runs $15 per editor per month, and you’ll need to budget for additional seats as you scale. For a 20-person team, that’s $3,600 annually—not nothing, but not prohibitive either.

Collaboration and Handoff: The Real Test

Design tools live or die by their collaboration features. Figma’s real-time multiplayer is industry-leading. Cursors, comments, and version history all work flawlessly. The handoff to developers is seamless—developers can inspect layers, copy CSS, and download assets without needing a design license.

Penpot’s collaboration has improved dramatically, but it’s still a step behind. Real-time editing works, but I experienced occasional lag when three or more people were working in the same file simultaneously. The commenting system is functional but lacks the polish of Figma’s threaded discussions.

Where Penpot shines is in its developer handoff. Since Penpot natively understands CSS layout concepts (Flexbox, Grid), the generated code is often more accurate than Figma’s output. Developers can see the exact CSS properties applied to any element, including media queries and responsive behaviors. For teams that practice design-to-code workflows, this reduces translation errors significantly.

Performance and Ecosystem: The Practical Differences

Figma’s plugin ecosystem is one of its strongest assets. With over 1,000 plugins available—ranging from icon libraries to accessibility checkers to design-to-code exporters—there’s a tool for nearly every workflow. Penpot’s plugin system is younger and sparser, though it’s growing steadily.

In terms of raw performance, Figma handles large files more gracefully. I tested both tools with a 500-frame design system file. Figma maintained smooth scrolling and zooming; Penpot showed noticeable frame drops and occasional jank. This matters for teams working on complex, enterprise-scale design systems.

Both tools handle typography, color styles, and component libraries effectively. Penpot’s component system is less mature than Figma’s variants feature, but it’s catching up quickly—the 2024 releases have added significant functionality.

Security and Compliance: An Underrated Differentiator

For many organizations, the security story is the deciding factor. Figma offers enterprise-grade security (SOC 2, GDPR compliance, SSO), but your data resides on their infrastructure. Penpot self-hosted gives you complete data sovereignty—your design files, user data, and intellectual property stay behind your firewall.

This isn’t a niche concern. Government agencies, defense contractors, and healthcare organizations often have strict data residency requirements that make cloud-only tools non-negotiable. Penpot’s self-hosting capability opens doors that Figma simply cannot enter.

The Verdict: Choose Based on Your Constraints

After four weeks of intensive testing, my conclusion is nuanced. There’s no universal winner—only the right tool for your specific context.

Choose Figma if:

  • You’re a freelancer or small agency needing zero-friction collaboration
  • Your team relies heavily on the plugin ecosystem
  • You work with large, complex design files regularly
  • Your clients expect Figma-native file sharing

Choose Penpot if:

  • You have data sovereignty or compliance requirements
  • You want to avoid vendor lock-in and subscription costs
  • Your team includes developers who want closer design-code integration
  • You’re building a design system that needs to mirror CSS behavior precisely

The most pragmatic approach might be hybrid: use Figma for client-facing work and rapid iteration while maintaining your internal design system in Penpot. Several companies are already adopting this dual-tool strategy.

The design tool landscape is healthier with Penpot in the mix. It forces Figma to keep innovating and keeps prices competitive. Whether you’re a solo designer or an enterprise team, you now have a real choice—and that’s always good news.