Penpot

Penpot is a free, open-source design and prototyping platform built for collaboration between designers and developers. It runs entirely in the browser and is built on open web standards — SVG, CSS, HTML, and JSON — so design specs translate directly into production-ready code without proprietary lock-in. Teams can self-host Penpot on their own infrastructure under an open-source license or use the cloud-hosted service.

What It Is

Penpot is a vector design and interactive prototyping tool that lives in the browser. Unlike proprietary design tools, Penpot is built on open standards: every design element is represented as SVG, and CSS properties are surfaced natively in the inspect panel so developers can copy real code rather than approximations. It is developed by Kaleidos, a Spanish software company with a long track record in open-source products, and the platform is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.

Core Design and Prototyping Capabilities

Penpot covers the full design workflow from wireframing to interactive prototype:

• Vector editing with Bézier curves, boolean operations, and path editing
• Components, variants, and shared libraries for design systems with nested overrides
• Native design tokens as a single source of truth between design and code
• Grids, guides, Flex Layout, and Grid Layout for responsive design that mirrors CSS
• Interactive prototyping with transitions, flows, overlays, and clickable view modes
• Inspect panel that exposes real CSS, SVG attributes, and measurements directly to developers
• Assets panel for managing colors, typographies, and components across files

Open-Source and Self-Hosting Model

Penpot's core platform is fully open source under the MPL 2.0 license, with the complete source code available on GitHub. Teams can deploy Penpot on their own servers using Docker, Kubernetes, or managed hosting options, giving them full control over data residency and security. This makes it a strong choice for organizations with strict compliance or governance requirements and those that want to avoid vendor lock-in. The self-hosted path is documented and actively maintained alongside the cloud offering.

Real-Time Collaboration

Multiple team members can work simultaneously in the same Penpot file, with live cursors and presence indicators. The platform supports team workspaces, shared projects, and role-based permissions so design assets can be shared across teams while keeping work organized. Comments can be left directly on designs and prototypes, bridging the gap between design review and handoff.

Developer Handoff and Web Standards Advantage

One of Penpot's most distinctive angles is its developer handoff story. Because designs are stored as SVG and styled with CSS properties, the inspect panel shows developers actual CSS code — not a translation layer. Penpot also exposes a REST API with access tokens, webhooks, a plugin system, and an MCP server, so designs can be read by developer toolchains and AI agents and the platform can be extended or integrated with other apps.

Current Status

Penpot is actively developed with regular releases published on GitHub. According to Penpot, hundreds of thousands of teams use the platform across its cloud and self-hosted deployments. The team publishes release notes, a public roadmap, and community updates through its blog and GitHub repository.