Adobe Express vs Penpot
Adobe Express and Penpot are both design tools tools. Adobe Express is aimed at creators and small businesses, while Penpot is aimed at developers and agencies. Penpot costs less, from $7/mo versus $9.99/mo for Adobe Express. Both have a free plan.
Adobe's template-based design app for social posts, flyers and video
Open-source design and prototyping platform
| Pricing | Freemium · $10 | Open source · $7 |
| Starting price | $9.99/mo | $7/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 30 days | 14 days |
| Built for | Creators, Small businesses, Freelancers, Enterprise | Developers, Agencies |
| Platforms | web, ios, android | web |
| Country | US · 2021 | ES · 2020 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Adobe Express if
Marketers and small businesses that need quick branded social and print content, especially inside Adobe Creative Cloud.
- Generous free plan from a trusted design vendor
- Firefly models trained on licensed content for commercial use
- Smooth handoff with Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat
Look elsewhere if: Teams needing the largest template library and docs suite or professional UI design (Canva, Figma).
Choose Penpot if
Teams that want open source, self-hosting or zero seat costs and can live without Figma's ecosystem.
- Free and open source with no seat limits
- Self-hostable for privacy and compliance
- Designer-developer friendly output
Look elsewhere if: Agencies collaborating with clients on Figma or teams dependent on Figma plugins.
Adobe Express vs Penpot pricing
Adobe Express
- Free$0Core templates and tools, 5 GB storage, limited AI generations
- Premium$9.99/mo250 generative credits/mo, premium assets, brand kits
- Firefly Pro$19.99/moExpress Premium + 4,000 credits, Photoshop web and mobile
- Teams$7.99/license/moAnnual plan, min 2 seats; first-year discount offered
Penpot
- Professional$0Free and fully featured, cloud or self-host
- Unlimited$7/editor/moCapped at $175/mo; extra storage, extended history
- Enterprise$25/member/moGovernance, central admin, team permissions
- Private Server$50k/yrDedicated infrastructure, enterprise support
Adobe Express · Key features
- Large template library for social, print, video and presentations
- Firefly text-to-image, generative fill and text effects
- One-click quick actions: remove background, resize, convert files
- Video editor with captions, animations and background removal
- Brand kits with logos, colors and fonts on Premium
- Content scheduler for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and more
Cons
- Smaller template and stock library than Canva
- Generative credits run out quickly on Premium
- Multi-page documents and whiteboards are weaker than Canva
Penpot · Key features
- Browser-based collaborative design with components and variants
- Flex and grid layout aligned with CSS
- Prototyping with interactions and flows
- Design tokens and SVG/CSS export
- Figma file import
- Self-hosting with Docker; unlimited users on SaaS
Cons
- Smaller plugin and template ecosystem
- Performance on very large files
- Fewer prototyping and Dev Mode features
Adobe Express vs Penpot: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Adobe Express or Penpot?
Penpot starts at $7/mo and Adobe Express at $9.99/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Adobe Express and Penpot have a free plan?
Yes, both Adobe Express and Penpot have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.
Which is better for small businesses, Adobe Express or Penpot?
Adobe Express lists small businesses as a core audience, while Penpot is aimed more at developers and agencies.