59.7k stars · MPL-2.0 · 2.17.2 (2026-08-27) · Track this in Scout
A Figma you can self-host, storing work in SVG and CSS rather than a proprietary binary.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons
What it is
A browser-based design and prototyping tool, fully open source, which stores its work in open web standards — SVG and CSS — rather than a proprietary binary. It runs on their hosted service or on your own server.
What it is good for. Anybody whose every visual decision is currently made in code, by a collaborator who cannot see the result. Penpot is where you try three landing-page arrangements in twenty minutes before asking Claude Code to build one — and because its layout model maps onto CSS Flex and Grid, what you hand over is values, not vibes. There is a smaller privacy argument too: unreleased pricing pages and unannounced features are exactly the material you might not want sitting on somebody else’s design service, and this one you can host. The honest framing: this is the one item on today’s page that will not pay off in an afternoon, because the cost is your learning rather than the install.
- MPL-2.0 and genuinely self-hostable — no seat pricing, no vendor holding your files.
- Open file format, so nothing you draw is trapped.
- Flex and Grid layout that corresponds to what the browser actually does.
- The real cost is learning a design tool, which is weeks of occasional use, not an evening.
- Self-hosting is several containers with their own database — use the hosted tier to evaluate.
- Figma tutorials do not translate one-for-one, and Penpot's own material is thinner.
