Penpot: The Open-Source Figma Alternative You Can Self-Host

Penpot is a design tool built for teams where designers and developers share the same file. Unlike most interface design apps it is open source, so you can use the hosted service or install it on your own infrastructure.

Where Penpot is different

• Open standards: Designs are based on SVG, CSS, HTML and JSON, and Penpot has its own open file format. There is no lock-in to a proprietary container.
• Real layout rules: Boards support CSS Grid and Flex layouts, so a design behaves the way the finished page will.
• Design systems: Components, variants and native design tokens live in shared libraries.
• Developer handoff: Inspect mode shows SVG, CSS and HTML for the selected element, and a plugin system and open API let you connect other tools.

Getting started

Penpot does not need an installer. The Download button opens the official site, where you create an account and start designing in your browser. If you would rather host it yourself, the project documents Docker and Kubernetes setups, and the code is licensed under MPL-2.0 on GitHub.

What it costs

On the hosted service the Free plan is $0 per month with up to 8 team members, unlimited viewers, 10 GB of storage and 7 days of version history. Paid plans such as Unlimited (priced per editor per month) and Enterprise add more history and admin features. Prices change, so read the current pricing page before you commit.

If you work with Figma files today, a good way to evaluate Penpot is to rebuild one small screen. For a free tool that is closer to a desktop app, try Lunacy, and for drawing artwork rather than interfaces see Inkscape.