Penpot: The Open-Source Design Platform Giving Figma a Real Fight
Penpot is an open-source, self-hostable design and prototype platform with 51.7K GitHub stars. Built on open standards (SVG, CSS, HTML), it bridges design and code with native Design Tokens, an MCP server, real-time collaboration, and a plugin system — all without vendor lock-in.
Open SourceDesign ToolsSelf-HostedDeveloper ToolsDesign SystemsAI Tools
There's an open-source design tool that has quietly crossed 51,700 GitHub stars — and most product teams still haven't heard of it.
Penpot is a free, open-source design and prototyping platform built for teams that build digital products at scale. It's not a Figma knock-off. It's a fundamentally different philosophy: designs built on open standards, running on your own infrastructure, readable by both developers and AI.
When Adobe tried to acquire Figma for $20 billion and the deal collapsed, it sent a clear signal: design infrastructure is critical, and vendor lock-in is a liability. Penpot offers the alternative — full ownership, open formats, and a platform that bridges the gap between design and code in ways proprietary tools simply can't.
Let's break down why Penpot is worth your attention in 2026.
What Is Penpot?
The Core Idea
Penpot is a design and prototype platform where designs are expressed as real code — SVG, CSS, HTML, and JSON. This isn't a marketing claim. When you design in Penpot, the output is actual web standards that developers can read, inspect, and ship without translation layers.
This means:
Developers get ready-to-use CSS and HTML code in the inspect tab
Designs travel in open formats — no proprietary .fig files
AI agents can read and manipulate designs via the MCP server
Design tokens flow directly into production codebases
Figma is the dominant design tool for product teams. But it comes with significant risks:
Proprietary file format: Your designs are locked in .fig files only Figma can open
Cloud-only: Your design IP lives on Figma's servers
Pricing power: After the Adobe acquisition failed, Figma raised prices significantly
Terms of service: You have no control over how Figma handles your data
Penpot breaks every one of these constraints:
Open SVG/JSON format that any tool can read
Self-hostable on your own servers
Free and open source under MPL-2.0
Full data ownership
For enterprise teams working under strict compliance requirements (healthcare, finance, government), this isn't a nice-to-have — it's a necessity.
2. Designs That Are Actually Code
Most design tools produce designs that need to be manually translated into code. This creates a gap:
Designs specify pixels; developers write CSS
Design updates don't automatically propagate to code
Design tokens live in Figma but need manual sync to codebase
The "handoff" process is a notorious bottleneck
Penpot eliminates this gap. Because designs are built on SVG, CSS, and HTML, what you design is what ships. The inspect panel gives developers actual, copy-paste-ready CSS — not approximations.
3. Native Design Tokens: A Single Source of Truth
This is one of Penpot's most powerful features — and something Figma only added as a third-party plugin ecosystem.
Penpot Design Tokens:
Are native to the platform, not bolted on
Serve as a single source of truth between design and development
Ensure consistency across design systems automatically
Can be exported and consumed directly in code
For teams building and maintaining design systems at scale, this is transformative. Token changes in Penpot propagate everywhere — no more manual updates across dozens of components.
Feature
Figma
Penpot
Design Tokens
Plugin-dependent
Native, built-in
Open format
❌ Proprietary
✅ SVG/CSS/HTML
Self-hostable
❌ Cloud only
✅ Docker/K8s
MCP server
❌
✅ AI-ready
CSS Grid layout
Limited
✅ Full support
Price
$15–$75/user/mo
Free (open source)
Data ownership
Figma's servers
Your servers
Core Features Deep Dive
Real-Time Collaboration
Penpot supports full real-time collaboration — multiple designers working on the same file simultaneously, live cursors, comments, and version history. This is on par with Figma's collaboration model, built on an open-source stack.
The comments system is deeply integrated into the workspace itself. Designers can add, view, and manage comments while designing — not just in a separate review mode.
CSS Grid and Flex Layout
This is where Penpot shines for developer-designer alignment. Penpot supports native CSS Grid and Flexbox layouts — the same layout models that actually exist in browsers.
This means:
Responsive designs behave exactly like production CSS from the start
No more "this looks right in Figma but breaks in the browser"
Developers can inspect layouts and get CSS they actually want to use
Plugin System
Penpot's plugin system lets teams extend the platform with custom functionality:
Integrate with external tools and APIs
Build automation workflows
Add AI-powered features
Create design-to-code pipelines tailored to your stack
Plugins have access to the full Penpot workspace and can read/write designs programmatically.
The MCP Server: AI-Ready Design
This is the feature that positions Penpot for 2026 and beyond.
Penpot ships an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that makes designs machine-readable and AI-actionable. This enables:
AI agents that can read your design system and generate matching code
Multi-directional workflows between design and code via AI
Automation of repetitive design tasks using LLMs
Integration with AI coding tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and others
As AI coding tools become standard in development workflows, a design platform that speaks the same language as these tools creates an enormous advantage. Penpot's MCP server means your design system can be a first-class context source for AI-generated code.
Inspect Mode: Ready-to-Use Code
Every design in Penpot has an Inspect tab that gives developers:
SVG code for vector elements
CSS for layouts, typography, colors, and effects
HTML structure
Design tokens as consumable values
This eliminates the "pixel-pushing" handoff entirely. Developers don't need to guess at values — they're right there.
The Technical Architecture
Penpot's tech stack is unusual and deliberate:
Backend: Clojure (74.1% of the codebase) — a functional, JVM-based language known for reliability and correctness
Frontend: ClojureScript + JavaScript — compiled to optimized JS
Performance layer: Rust (6.4%) — used for the render-wasm module, giving near-native rendering performance in the browser
Styling: SCSS (4.9%)
The Rust-powered WebAssembly renderer (render-wasm) is particularly notable — it gives Penpot canvas performance that rivals native applications, handling complex design files with thousands of elements smoothly.
Self-Hosting: Full Data Ownership
Penpot is the only major design platform you can fully self-host. Deployment options include:
Security policies prohibiting third-party cloud storage of IP
...Penpot is the only viable design platform option.
Community and Ecosystem
With 284 contributors, 51.7K stars, and 81 releases, Penpot has one of the most active open-source design tool communities in existence.
The team actively maintains:
Regular releases (multiple per month in active development)
Community forums with categories for troubleshooting, features, education, and localization
Penpot Ambassador program for community leaders
Translation support through Weblate for internationalization
Learning Center with tutorials and a UI Design Course
The project is backed by Kaleidos, a company with a decade-long track record in open-source software, providing the financial stability that many OSS projects lack.
Who Is Penpot For?
Enterprises Under Compliance Pressure
If your organization operates under strict data governance, Penpot's self-hosting capability makes it the only enterprise-grade design platform that keeps your design IP on your infrastructure.
Developer-Heavy Product Teams
Teams where developers and designers work closely together benefit enormously from Penpot's code-native approach. CSS Grid layouts, inspect mode with real CSS, and Design Tokens that sync to code eliminates the translation layer that slows most teams down.
Teams Building Design Systems
Native Design Tokens + component system + open format = a design system that actually scales. No more plugin dependencies, no more manual token exports, no more proprietary format lock-in.
Open-Source Organizations and Startups
For budget-conscious teams, Penpot offers Figma-level collaboration capabilities at zero software cost. The only investment is a server (or use penpot.app free).
AI-Forward Teams
The MCP server makes Penpot uniquely positioned for teams that want AI agents with design context. As AI becomes central to development workflows, having a design platform that speaks MCP is a competitive advantage.
Getting Started with Penpot
Option 1: Cloud (Zero Setup)
Go to penpot.app and create a free account. No credit card, no time limit. Works in any modern browser.
Option 2: Self-Hosted with Docker
bash
# Download the docker-compose file
curl -o docker-compose.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/penpot/penpot/main/docker/images/docker-compose.yaml
# Start Penpot
docker compose -p penpot -f docker-compose.yaml up -d
Access at http://localhost:9001.
Option 3: Managed Self-Hosting
Use Elestio or other managed providers if you want self-hosted without managing the infrastructure yourself.
Penpot vs. The Alternatives
Tool
Open Source
Self-Hosted
Design Tokens
MCP Server
Free Tier
Penpot
✅ MPL-2.0
✅ Docker/K8s
✅ Native
✅ Yes
✅ Full
Figma
❌
❌ Cloud only
⚠️ Plugins only
❌
⚠️ Limited
Sketch
❌
❌ Mac only
⚠️ Plugins only
❌
❌
Adobe XD
❌
❌
❌ Discontinued
❌
❌ Discontinued
Framer
❌
❌
❌
❌
⚠️ Limited
The Bigger Picture: Why Open-Source Design Matters
The design tool market has a fundamental tension: design is increasingly central to product development, but the tools that hold design data are proprietary and centralized.
This creates risks:
Vendor discontinuation (Adobe XD is dead; what if Figma follows?)
Pricing pressure (Figma's prices have increased post-Adobe deal collapse)
Data security (proprietary cloud storage of sensitive design IP)
AI integration gaps (closed tools can't expose data to AI agents)
Penpot's answer is structural: build on open standards, enable self-hosting, use open formats, and make designs machine-readable from day one.
With the rise of AI-assisted development, the value of a design platform that AI can natively understand is hard to overstate. Penpot's MCP server isn't a gimmick — it's a genuine architectural advantage that proprietary tools can't easily replicate.
What's Next for Penpot
The project's development velocity is high. Recent additions include:
Comments in workspace — view and manage comments while designing, not just in review mode
Organization navigation with SSO — enterprise-ready access management
Parallel devenv instances — better developer experience for contributors
WebAssembly renderer — near-native performance for complex files
The roadmap points toward deeper AI integration, more powerful design token management, and enterprise features that make Penpot competitive with Figma at every tier.
Final Take
Penpot isn't just a Figma alternative. It's a bet on a different model for design tooling:
Open source over proprietary
Self-hosted over cloud-only
Open standards over locked formats
Code-native over pixel-approximation
AI-ready over AI-resistant
For teams that care about data ownership, design-code alignment, and long-term infrastructure independence, Penpot is now genuinely mature enough to be the primary design tool.
51,700 stars and 284 contributors don't lie. The community has voted. Penpot is ready.
Try it at penpot.app — or self-host in 10 minutes with Docker.
Penpot is licensed under MPL-2.0 and maintained by Kaleidos. The project is actively developed with regular releases and a global contributor community. Source: github.com/penpot/penpot
