# Penpot

> The open source design and prototyping tool for teams leaving Figma

Category: Open source alternatives (https://aiarabicdev.com/alternatives)
Canonical page: https://aiarabicdev.com/alternatives/penpot
Tags: design, prototyping, ui, collaboration

Penpot is a browser based tool for interface design and prototyping, the work most teams now do in Figma. It is MPL-2.0, can be self hosted with Docker, and is also offered as a hosted service with paid team plans.

## Facts

- Licence: MPL-2.0
- Language: Clojure
- Cost: Free core, paid tiers exist
- Self hostable: yes
- Added: 2026-10-25
- Last checked: 2026-10-25

## Links

- Website: https://penpot.app
- Source: https://github.com/penpot/penpot

## Design files built on web standards

Penpot covers the core of Figma: boards, components and variants, shared libraries, design tokens, comments and clickable prototypes, with several people editing the same file at once. Its layouts follow CSS flexbox and grid, so what a designer builds maps directly onto what a developer writes.

Files are stored as open SVG based data rather than a closed format, and the inspect panel gives developers CSS and SVG to copy. For a team where designers and developers sit close together, that standards first approach is the main reason to choose it over Figma.

## What switching from Figma costs

Figma's lead is its ecosystem: a huge community of files and plugins, Dev Mode, FigJam and the fact that every freelancer and agency already uses it. Penpot has a plugin system and a growing community, but you will find fewer ready made kits, and clients will still send you Figma links.

There is no perfect one click import of Figma files, so moving a mature design system usually means rebuilding components. Self hosting runs as several containers with PostgreSQL and storage for assets, and large files can feel heavier in the browser than they do in Figma.

## Reach for it when

- you want design files on your own server or in an open format
- your designers and developers want layouts that map to real CSS
- you are starting a new design system and are not tied to Figma files

## Watch out for

- moving an existing Figma design system usually means rebuilding it by hand
- the plugin and template ecosystem is much smaller than Figma's
- very large files can feel slower in the browser

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