Penpot vs Zeplin
Penpot and Zeplin are both design tools tools aimed at developers and agencies. Penpot costs less, from $7/mo versus $13.75/mo for Zeplin. Both have a free plan.
Open-source design and prototyping platform
Design hand-off and documentation for product teams
| Pricing | Open source · $7 | Freemium · $14 |
| Starting price | $7/mo | $13.75/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | — |
| Built for | Developers, Agencies | Developers, Agencies |
| Platforms | web | web, macos, windows |
| Country | ES · 2020 | TR · 2014 |
| Rating | — | — |
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.
Choose Zeplin if
Larger product teams and agencies that want a curated hand-off layer.
- Clear separation of 'ready for dev' designs
- Works across multiple design tools
- Good for regulated or large teams needing approvals
Look elsewhere if: Small Figma-only teams already using Dev Mode.
Penpot vs Zeplin pricing
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
Zeplin
- Free$01 project, 100 screens, unlimited users
- Basicfrom $13.75/moPer project (1-12 projects), annual; unlimited users, 1,000 screens
- Advanced$12/seat/moPaid annually; 50 projects, unlimited screens, Flow Boards
- EnterpriseCustomUnlimited projects, SSO, MFA, SCIM, 24-hr support SLA
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
Zeplin · Key features
- Publish approved screens from Figma, Sketch, XD
- Specs, assets and code snippets for developers
- Flows and annotations to explain behavior
- Styleguides with tokens and component documentation
- Version history and change tracking
- Jira, Slack, Storybook and VS Code integrations
Cons
- Figma Dev Mode overlaps heavily
- Extra cost on top of Figma
- Less relevant for Figma-only small teams
Penpot vs Zeplin: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Penpot or Zeplin?
Penpot starts at $7/mo and Zeplin at $13.75/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Penpot and Zeplin have a free plan?
Yes, both Penpot and Zeplin have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.