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desigma vs Penpot

desigma and Penpot are both design tools tools. desigma is aimed at creators and freelancers, while Penpot is aimed at developers and agencies. Both have a free plan.

desigma

Free, open-source, offline interface design tool written in Rust

Penpot

Open-source design and prototyping platform

PricingOpen sourceOpen source · $7
Starting priceNot published$7/mo
Free planYesYes
Free trial—14 days
Built forCreators, Freelancers, DevelopersDevelopers, Agencies
Platformsmacos, windows, linuxweb
Country—ES · 2020
Rating——

Choose desigma if

Designers and developers who want a free, offline, open-source design editor and are comfortable with alpha software.

  • Completely free with a permissive open-source license
  • Native Rust renderer stays fast on large files
  • Files stay local and the app works offline

Look elsewhere if: Teams that rely on stable collaboration, plugins and support for daily client work (Figma, Penpot).

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.

desigma vs Penpot pricing

desigma

  • Free$0MIT or Apache-2.0 licensed, no account, works offline

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

desigma · Key features

  • Frames, auto layout, components, variants and instance properties
  • Variables with modes bound to fills, sizes and spacing
  • Prototyping with Smart Animate, overlays and variable logic
  • Keyframe motion timeline with GIF, WebM and PNG export
  • Import of Figma .fig files, Figma REST JSON and Pencil files
  • Dev mode code for CSS, Tailwind, React, SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose

Cons

  • Early alpha, not yet ready for daily professional work
  • Unsigned builds trigger warnings on macOS and Windows
  • Collaboration, plugins and PDF export are beta or limited

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

desigma vs Penpot: FAQ

Do desigma and Penpot have a free plan?

Yes, both desigma and Penpot have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Not sure yet?