A former classmate, now a colleague, introduced me to Penpot, presenting it as a serious competitor to Figma. In the design ecosystem, is reliance on proprietary tools like Figma inevitable? This is the question that prompted me to explore this alternative to establish a detailed comparison.
What is Penpot?
Born in 2017 from a community logic valuing transparency, Penpot was launched in public beta in 2020. Its mission is to build a solid bridge between designers and developers by natively relying on web standards (SVG, CSS, HTML). This approach aims to minimize the gap between design and code, which greatly facilitates the “handoff” to the development teams.
Concretely, what does Penpot bring more?
a. Free offer and cost control
In the face of Figma's rising prices, Penpot's free offering is a compelling argument. Its model is based on three flexible subscriptions that ensure cost control:
- Professional Plan (Free): Unlimited files and projects, access to the plugin ecosystem, up to 8 members and 10 GB of storage.
- Unlimited Plan ($7/month): Retains the benefits of the free plan with unlimited teams and a monthly bill capped at $175, regardless of the number of users.
- Business Plan ($950/month): The all-in-one solution with unlimited storage and priority access to new features.
b. Data control and sovereignty
Penpot's self-hosting and open source nature is a major advantage over tools like Figma. While migrating from Figma is complex and can lead to data loss, Penpot guarantees the long-term sustainability of your projects thanks to the use of stable and universal web standards. A real asset against vendor lock in.
c. A naturally favored handoff
Penpot's features are truly designed to make handoffs easier. The tool is built on logic that is similar to code. For example, its layout system is directly inspired by web standards (Flex Layout et Grid Layout), unlike Figma's auto-layout.
The big advantage is that you can easily fix your mistakes without having to destroy everything. It's true that it took me a few tutorials to initially grasp the logic, but once I got the hang of it, Penpot is ultimately easier to use. As a bonus, the generated code is so clean that you can use it directly.
Coming from Figma, what is Penpot still missing?
a. User experience and maturity
Although its interface is very similar to that of Figma, which helps not to feel lost, the tool still shows a certain youth:
- Learning curve: Adding plugins or understanding Layout requires consulting the documentation and tutorials.
- features: The plugin ecosystem isn't yet as robust as its competitor's, and prototyping tools also offer less flexibility for designing complex, fluid animations.
The team is relentlessly dedicated to improving features, supported by a very active open source community that is working to bridge this gap.
b. Performance and resources
- Performance: Penpot's fluidity is generally reliable, but the tool tends to slow down as soon as a file becomes complex and large, which could be problematic for very large-scale projects.
- Resources: The community is active and growing, but it does not yet offer all the resources (UI kits, templates) that Figma has, thanks to its seniority.
Penpot is emerging as a serious competitor, capable of catching up in the short term. Not only are its features similar, but it could also streamline handoffs between designers and developers. Its main assets: its free nature and its open source model.
The roadmap announces, among other things, increased performance, the integration of AI and a back office for managing large organizations.
As a UX-Republic consultant, these strengths (free, open source, handoff) resonate particularly with our desire to provide pragmatic and open solutions that unleash the creativity of our teams and those of our clients.
All that's left is to test it and form your own opinion. Time will tell if it will succeed in dethroning Figma.
Vanessa Pancheco
Product Designer at UX-Republic
