One line each: Figma is for a product design team of two to five that ships interface work and needs engineers to inspect the same file. Penpot is for a design team at a company that will not put client files in a us-hosted saas.
Head to head
| Figma | Penpot | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | Web, macOS, Windows | Web, Self-hosted |
| Best for | A product design team of two to five that ships interface work and needs engineers to inspect the same file. | A design team at a company that will not put client files in a US-hosted SaaS. |
| Weakness | Pricing for additional editors is steep, and file-format lock-in is real, though exports are workable. | The plugin ecosystem is thin, the community file libraries are far smaller, and there is no round-trip with Figma files, so switching means redrawing. |
The verdict
Figma is freemium; Penpot is free. They share a shortlist, not a job description: what each one is actually good at barely intersects.
Where Figma falls down: Pricing for additional editors is steep, and file-format lock-in is real, though exports are workable.
Where Penpot falls down: The plugin ecosystem is thin, the community file libraries are far smaller, and there is no round-trip with Figma files, so switching means redrawing.
If you genuinely need both, you are the rare case where running two tools is cheaper than picking one badly.
Frequently asked
Is Figma or Penpot better?
Neither in general. Figma fits a product design team of two to five that ships interface work and needs engineers to inspect the same file. Penpot fits a design team at a company that will not put client files in a us-hosted saas. The weakness row in the table above is where they actually separate.
Is Penpot cheaper than Figma?
Figma is freemium, Penpot is free. The sticker price is rarely the bill — check the pricing section of each review.
Can I use both Figma and Penpot?
Plenty of teams do, usually with one as the system of record and the other for a specific workflow. It doubles the migration cost later, so pick a side before year two.