Happy Valley

Lucidchart vs Penpot

Lucidchart and Penpot are both design tools tools. Lucidchart is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while Penpot is aimed at developers and agencies. Penpot costs less, from $7/mo versus $9/mo for Lucidchart. Both have a free plan.

Lucidchart

Diagramming app for flowcharts, org charts and cloud architecture

Penpot

Open-source design and prototyping platform

PricingFreemium · $9Open source · $7
Starting price$9/mo$7/mo
Free planYesYes
Free trial—14 days
Built forSmall businesses, Enterprise, DevelopersDevelopers, Agencies
Platformsweb, ios, androidweb
CountryUS · 2010ES · 2020
Rating——

Choose Lucidchart if

Engineering, IT, product and operations teams that need accurate, data-linked diagrams embedded in their documentation tools.

  • Excellent for structured technical and process diagrams
  • Strong Atlassian, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 integrations
  • Data-linked diagrams stay current without manual edits

Look elsewhere if: Teams wanting freeform brainstorming boards or UI design (Miro, Figma, Whimsical).

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.

Lucidchart vs Penpot pricing

Lucidchart

  • Free$03 editable documents, limited objects per document
  • Individual$9/moBilled annually; unlimited documents, premium templates
  • Team$10/user/moBilled annually; 3-user minimum, collaboration and admin
  • EnterpriseCustomSSO, advanced security, data governance, Lucid Suite

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

Lucidchart · Key features

  • Shape libraries for flowcharts, BPMN, UML, ERD and network diagrams
  • AWS, Azure and Google Cloud architecture shapes
  • Org charts generated automatically from CSV employee data
  • Data linking from Google Sheets or Excel with conditional formatting
  • Lucid AI that drafts diagrams from a text prompt
  • Visio import and export plus SQL import for ERDs

Cons

  • Free plan is capped at three editable documents
  • Team plan requires at least three paid users
  • Freeform whiteboarding is weaker than Miro

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

Lucidchart vs Penpot: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Lucidchart or Penpot?

Penpot starts at $7/mo and Lucidchart at $9/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Lucidchart and Penpot have a free plan?

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

Which is better for small businesses, Lucidchart or Penpot?

Lucidchart lists small businesses as a core audience, while Penpot is aimed more at developers and agencies.

Not sure yet?