Why Penpot Is the Open-Source Figma Alternative Your Design Team Needs

Your design tool bill just went up. Again.

If you're running a small agency, a startup, or even a marketing team that dabbles in UI mockups, you've probably noticed that Figma's pricing keeps climbing. In 2025, teams are facing 40% higher costs year-over-year. For some organizations, annual design tool expenses now exceed $15,000.

There's another way. Let me introduce you to Penpot.

What Is Penpot?

Penpot is an open-source design and prototyping platform that runs in your browser—just like Figma. You get vector editing, real-time collaboration, component systems, and all the essentials you'd expect from a modern design tool.

But here's what makes it different: Penpot is built on actual web standards (SVG, CSS, HTML). When your designers create layouts using Penpot's Flex and Grid systems, they're working with the same concepts your developers use every day. No translation layer. No "close enough" exports.

The Real Cost Difference

Let's talk numbers, because this is where it gets interesting for business owners.

*Infrastructure cost on Elestio for self-hosted Penpot (~$20/month)

The math is straightforward: Penpot's cost doesn't scale with your team size. Add five designers or fifty—your infrastructure cost stays roughly the same. Organizations consistently report saving 75-90% on design tool costs, even after factoring in hosting and maintenance.

Three Reasons SMBs Are Switching

1. Your Data Stays Yours

When you self-host Penpot, your design files never leave your infrastructure. For agencies handling client work under NDA, or companies in regulated industries, this matters. No third-party has access to your intellectual property.

2. No Vendor Lock-In

Figma exports work okay, but migrating a complex design system is painful. Penpot uses open formats based on web standards. Your work remains portable and yours forever—it's guaranteed by their open-source license.

3. Developer Handoff Actually Works

Because Penpot speaks CSS natively, the gap between "design" and "code" shrinks dramatically. Your developers aren't translating auto-layout approximations into flexbox—they're looking at actual flexbox values. This saves hours on every project.

What About the Trade-offs?

Look, I'm going to be honest with you. Penpot isn't trying to be a Figma clone, and there are differences:

Plugin ecosystem: Figma has years of third-party integrations. Penpot's plugin marketplace is growing but smaller.

Advanced prototyping: If you need complex micro-interactions and fluid animations, Figma's prototyping tools are more mature.

Performance on huge files: Very large design systems might feel slower in Penpot. For typical project work, it's solid.

For most SMBs, these trade-offs are acceptable. You're probably not building Figma's internal design system—you're creating landing pages, app interfaces, marketing materials, and client deliverables.

Getting Started Takes Five Minutes

Here's the thing about self-hosted tools: they used to require a DevOps team and a weekend of configuration. Not anymore.

With Elestio, you can deploy Penpot in a few clicks:

1. Select Penpot from the service catalog
2. Choose your cloud provider and region
3. Pick a plan (2 CPU / 4GB RAM handles most teams)
4. Click deploy

That's it. You get automatic SSL, backups, and updates. Your Penpot instance is ready for your team to start designing.

Is It Right for Your Team?

Penpot makes sense if you:

• Have a growing team and want predictable costs
• Care about data ownership and privacy
• Work closely with developers on implementation
• Prefer open-source solutions you can inspect and modify

Stick with Figma if you:

• Rely heavily on specific Figma plugins
• Need advanced prototyping for complex interactions
• Already have enterprise-wide Figma licensing

The Bottom Line

Design tools shouldn't eat your budget. Penpot proves that professional-grade design software can be open-source, self-hosted, and genuinely free to use.

The teams switching aren't doing it because Penpot is "good enough." They're switching because web-native design and true data ownership are better for how they actually work.

Ready to try it? Deploy Penpot on Elestio in five minutes and see for yourself.

Thanks for reading. See you in the next one!