Penpot (self-hosted) vs Figma

Why Self-Host Penpot Instead of Using Figma?

Figma is a US company headquartered in San Francisco, and all your design work lives in its proprietary cloud. Adobe’s attempted acquisition (abandoned in December 2023 after regulatory pushback in the EU and UK) showed how quickly the ownership of a tool your whole team depends on can change.

Penpot takes a fundamentally different approach: it is a fully open-source design and prototyping platform under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, built on open web standards. Because you can run it yourself, the sovereign way to use Penpot is to self-host it on your own servers or at an EU hosting provider — then no vendor holds your designs at all.

Penpot is developed by Kaleidos, a team based in Madrid. Its hosted cloud is operated by Kaleidos Subsidiary S.L. in Spain, but the group’s parent company is Kaleidos, Inc., a Delaware (US) corporation. If you need a design tool with no US company in the chain, self-host.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Penpot (self-hosted)	Figma
Price	Free (open source); you pay only for your server	Free Starter / $16–$90 per full seat/mo
Data location	Your own servers or your EU host	Figma’s cloud (US company)
Company in the chain	None — you run it	Figma, Inc. (US)
Open source	✅ MPL-2.0	❌ No
Open standards	SVG, CSS	Proprietary format
Self-hostable	✅ Yes	❌ No
Real-time collaboration	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Components & design systems	✅ Yes	✅ Advanced
Prototyping	✅ Basic	✅ Advanced
Plugin ecosystem	⚠️ Growing	✅ Extensive
SSO	✅ LDAP / OpenID Connect (self-configured)	✅ Enterprise plans

Pricing

Self-hosting the open-source edition of Penpot is free: no licence fee and no per-seat charge. Your costs are a server (or a VM at an EU host), storage for files and the PostgreSQL database, backups and the time to maintain it.

For comparison (prices as of October 2026, in USD):

• Penpot hosted cloud (Kaleidos, US parent): Professional free · Unlimited $7/editor/month, capped at $175/month · Enterprise $25/member/month (SSO, choice of hosting region) · Private Server $50,000/year
• Figma Starter: Free, with limits
• Figma Professional: $16/month per full seat
• Figma Organization: $55/month per full seat (billed annually)
• Figma Enterprise: $90/month per full seat (billed annually)

For larger teams, self-hosted Penpot removes per-seat design licences entirely; the trade-off is that you carry the operating work yourself.

Privacy & Data Sovereignty

• Self-hosted, nothing leaves your infrastructure: design files, assets and user accounts are stored in your own PostgreSQL database and file storage
• Fully open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 — the code can be audited, forked and kept running regardless of what happens to the company
• Open standards: Penpot works with SVG and CSS, so exported assets stay usable in any standards-compliant tool
• Telemetry is your choice: the official Docker Compose file sends anonymous instance telemetry by default; set PENPOT_TELEMETRY_ENABLED to false to switch it off
• Hosted cloud has a US parent: the penpot.app service is run by Kaleidos Subsidiary S.L. (Madrid) under Spanish law, but its parent, Kaleidos, Inc., is incorporated in Delaware, so the hosted service is within reach of US laws such as the CLOUD Act. Penpot does not publicly name the hosting provider of its standard cloud; Enterprise plans offer a choice of hosting region (EU, US, etc.)

Migration Guide

Switching from Figma to a self-hosted Penpot can be done project by project, without disrupting ongoing work.

1. Deploy Penpot — On a Linux server or VM at an EU host, download Penpot’s official docker-compose.yaml, set the public URI, SMTP settings and login method (email/password, LDAP or OpenID Connect), disable telemetry if you wish, and put it behind a reverse proxy with TLS. (1–3 hours)
2. Set up backups — Back up the PostgreSQL database and the file storage volume on a schedule, and test a restore before your team relies on the instance. (1 hour)
3. Export and import your Figma files — Use Penpot’s Figma export plugin to export each Figma project, then import it into your Penpot instance. Review complex auto-layout, variants and prototyping flows, which may need manual adjustment. (15–30 minutes per file)
4. Rebuild design systems — Set up shared libraries, components and design tokens in Penpot; complex Figma variant setups may need to be rebuilt. (2–8 hours depending on library complexity)
5. Train your team — Walk designers and developers through Penpot’s differences in shortcuts, layout tools and the CSS-ready inspect mode. (1–2 hours)

Estimated total time: a few days for a typical design team, plus ongoing maintenance. Difficulty: Moderate — easy for designers, but someone has to run the server.

Example Scenarios

Illustrative scenarios of how teams typically use these tools — not documented customer case studies.

Portuguese digital agency eliminates per-seat design costs — A 25-person design agency in Lisbon that switches from Figma Organization to self-hosted Penpot avoids roughly $16,500 a year in full-seat fees (25 × $55/month), in exchange for running a server. Hosting Penpot on its own infrastructure in Portugal keeps client design data under EU jurisdiction, and the CSS-ready output simplifies the handoff to developers.

Public-sector team designs accessible services — A government digital services team could run Penpot on its own infrastructure to design citizen-facing web applications. Prototypes containing sensitive public service workflows never leave government servers, and the open-source licence fits public-sector policies that prefer open-source software.

Italian design school teaches open standards — A design school in Milan could run a self-hosted Penpot instance for its UX and UI courses. There are no student licences to manage, student work stays on the school’s own server, and students learn on a tool built around open web standards.

Company Background

Penpot was created by Kaleidos, a software company founded in Madrid in 2011 that previously built Taiga, an open-source project management platform. Penpot grew out of the same open-source approach and is developed in the open on GitHub under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.

Kaleidos is backed by venture capital, including a Series A round led by the US fund Decibel in 2022. According to the Global LEI register, the group’s parent entity is Kaleidos, Inc., incorporated in Delaware (LEI 254900SHAV30FTZSAT74), while the Penpot cloud service is operated by its Spanish subsidiary, Kaleidos Subsidiary S.L. in Madrid. The open-source licence means you can run and keep running Penpot independently of the company’s ownership.

Security & Compliance

• Open-source codebase (MPL-2.0) that internal teams or third-party auditors can review
• Full control of the deployment: you choose the jurisdiction, hosting provider, network exposure and encryption at rest
• TLS/HTTPS via your own reverse proxy for all traffic between clients and your Penpot server
• Authentication options: email/password, LDAP and generic OpenID Connect for single sign-on, plus optional Google, GitHub and GitLab logins (all disabled except email/password by default)
• Your own GDPR role: when you self-host, your organisation is the controller and no Penpot cloud processor is involved
• Regular releases through the open-source development process, which you are responsible for applying

Integration Ecosystem

• SVG and CSS output for direct use in web projects and other standards-compliant tools
• Access tokens and API for programmatic access to projects and files (enable access tokens in your instance’s flags)
• Webhooks for connecting Penpot events to external services (enable webhooks in your instance’s flags)
• Figma export plugin for migrating existing Figma files
• Plugin system with a growing set of community plugins
• Docker Compose and Kubernetes deployment options documented in Penpot’s technical guide

Who Should Switch?

Self-hosted Penpot is ideal for:

• Design teams that want to eliminate per-seat licensing costs and can run a server
• Public-sector and regulated organisations that need design files to stay on their own infrastructure
• Agencies that want to control client design data
• Open-source advocates who want a design tool they can audit and keep running independently
• Anyone concerned about vendor lock-in or US jurisdiction over their design work

The Bottom Line

Penpot is still maturing and does not yet match Figma feature-for-feature, particularly in advanced prototyping and plugins. But it is fully open source, built on open standards, and — crucially — you can run it yourself.

The hosted Penpot cloud is a convenient option, but because its parent company is incorporated in Delaware, it is not a strictly EU choice. Self-hosting Penpot on EU infrastructure is the route that gives you a capable collaborative design tool with no US company in the chain.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the hosted Penpot cloud at penpot.app a European alternative?

Only partly. Penpot was created by the Madrid-based team at Kaleidos, and the cloud service's terms name Kaleidos Subsidiary S.L. in Madrid as operator, under Spanish law. But according to the Global LEI register, the group's parent is Kaleidos, Inc., a corporation registered in Delaware, US. A Spanish subsidiary with a US parent can be reached by US laws such as the CLOUD Act. That is why this page recommends self-hosting the open-source edition on EU infrastructure as the sovereign route.

Can I import my existing Figma files into Penpot?

Yes. Penpot offers a Figma plugin that exports Figma designs into a format Penpot can import, both into the cloud and into a self-hosted instance. Most design elements transfer well, but some advanced Figma-specific features such as complex auto-layout, variants or plugin effects may need manual adjustment after import.

How do I self-host Penpot and what do I need?

The official route is Docker Compose: download Penpot's docker-compose.yaml, adjust the environment variables (public URL, SMTP, login methods) and start the stack, which includes the frontend, backend, exporter, PostgreSQL and Valkey containers. Penpot's documentation also covers Kubernetes and other methods. Put it behind a reverse proxy with TLS, configure backups for the database and file storage, and disable telemetry if you prefer (PENPOT_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false).

Is Penpot suitable for professional design teams working on production projects?

For core UI and UX work, yes. Penpot supports real-time collaboration, components, shared libraries, design tokens, flex and grid layout and prototyping. Advanced prototyping, plugins and some Figma-specific workflows are still catching up, so test your own design system before switching a whole team.

What does it cost?

Self-hosting the open-source edition is free — you pay only for the server it runs on. Penpot's hosted cloud offers a free Professional plan, Unlimited at $7/editor/month (capped at $175/month), Enterprise at $25/member/month and a Private Server option at $50,000/year (prices as of October 2026). Figma Professional costs $16 per full seat per month, Organization $55 and Enterprise $90 (billed annually).