Penpot
Ranked 2 of 5 design tools by recommenders
Open-source design tool people recommend as a free, self-hostable alternative to Figma, with a code mode for developers. Common caveat: it is slow and crash-prone with large or complex files.
Open-source design tool people recommend as a free, self-hostable alternative to Figma, with a code mode for developers. Common caveat: it is slow and crash-prone with large or complex files.
46 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 23
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Open source and self-hostable
“Performance can be optimized eventually (it's code); closed-source licensing terms cannot be optimized by users (it's legal).”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “If you're looking for an open-source and self-host option then you might to checkout”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use” “that's so close to code (also, open source, self-hostable, etc, etc)”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” - Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma”
- Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “If AI Can Copy Photoshop, Why Would Anyone Build the Next Figma?”
Free or cheaper than Figma
“they offer a hosted version that's far more reasonably priced than Figma”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “I think PenPot is more dev-friendly. Their "Code" mode is 100% free”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Figma-use – CLI to control Figma for AI agents” “comparing this to penpot, which is free as long as you self-host”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use” Enjoyable and valuable for daily use
“It'd ruin the joy I get every day when I open it.”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “I'm actually surprised it delivers on the promise”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “Penpot has been invaluable!”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” Code mode and design-to-code
“that's so close to code (also, open source, self-hostable, etc, etc)”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “I think PenPot is more dev-friendly. Their "Code" mode is 100% free”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Figma-use – CLI to control Figma for AI agents”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow on large or complex files
“Penpot relies on an SVG engine, which limits performance as project complexity grows.”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use” “Motif was way superior than both figma and penpot in terms of rendering and performance with large design files.”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “it causes the whole system to slow to a crawl when opening anything complex”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” Crashes and bugs in use
“even on simple use I quickly ran into so many bugs & issues I quickly gave up”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “the app would crash after a few minutes and not properly show the canvases”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “Unstable, very crash prone with just a few users designing 10 plus pages.”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” - Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma”
Requires running a backend stack
“It seems unreasonable that an average designer should be required to learn server administration”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “why do I want a full backend stack running via docker on my machine for this? That sucks.”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma” “I don't want a fucking SaaS stack running on my macbook for a small graphics tool?”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Penpot: The Open-Source Figma”
Other design tools people recommend
The four most recommended other design tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canva | 27 | 21 | 56% | 11 | — | — |
| PenpotThis page | 23 | 23 | 50% | 8 | — | — |
| Sketch | 12 | 8 | 60% | 7 | — | — |
| Pencil.dev | 9 | 6 | 60% | 3 | — | — |
| Lunacy | 5 | 1 | 83% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 60 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Opensource and if you ask me, even better.”
“Penpot has an mcp… might be time to take a look.”
“issues with the way penpot generated SVGs (afaik not even SVG itself) and how they improved it in the WebGl renderer”
“redraw into figma or penpot (architects that draw more nicely, can scan images)”
“built out reusable PenPot components and design system tokens etc”
“Penpot relies on an SVG engine, which limits performance as project complexity grows.”
“comparing this to penpot, which is free as long as you self-host”
“If you're looking for an open-source and self-host option then you might to checkout”
“I think PenPot is more dev-friendly. Their "Code" mode is 100% free”
“The audacity of Penpot was to actually do it and accept the consequences.”
“I don't want a fucking SaaS stack running on my macbook for a small graphics tool?”
“once running, you connect to http://localhost:9001/ and off you go!”
“why do I want a full backend stack running via docker on my machine for this? That sucks.”
“even on simple use I quickly ran into so many bugs & issues I quickly gave up”
“that's so close to code (also, open source, self-hostable, etc, etc)”
“I really like what you are trying to do and your new Open Nitrate business model is wonderful”
“Looking forward to the new rendering engine. Very exciting work!”
“When a project is awesome but the language made it is the worse”
“New rendering engine should fix the performance issues.”
“I've tried again with the same wireframing kit and it happened to me too!”
“So, given that Penpot appears to mostly be developed in the EU, you'd need to fix that part first.”
“it causes the whole system to slow to a crawl when opening anything complex”
“That's the beauty of the open source, self-hosted option then”
“I'm actually surprised it delivers on the promise”
“Performance can be optimized eventually (it's code); closed-source licensing terms cannot be optimized by users (it's legal).”
“It'd ruin the joy I get every day when I open it.”
“Motif was way superior than both figma and penpot in terms of rendering and performance with large design files.”
“simply navigating between pages (even on the example documents) was causing parts of the document to change in bizarre ways”
“reasonably competitive with existing proprietary incumbants”
“Penpot's cool in this perspective.”
“you don't have to download it at all :)”
“Penpot provides the same.”
“It seems unreasonable that an average designer should be required to learn server administration”
“a large pain point is that text elements cannot be vectorized or converted to paths or shapes”
“Keeps things simple, has good ways of handling units and layout.”
“Penpot has been invaluable!”
“Gets very slow with large canvases though”
“they offer a hosted version that's far more reasonably priced than Figma”
“Unstable, very crash prone with just a few users designing 10 plus pages.”
“the app would crash after a few minutes and not properly show the canvases”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.