The short version
Penpot is the open-source design platform most often named as a Figma alternative, and its pricing page makes the contrast unusually easy to read. Checked against the live page on 2026-09-14 (Cloud tab, real browser capture):
- Professional — $0/user/mo. Up to 8 team members, unlimited viewers, 10 GB storage, unlimited files, unlimited teams, and 7-day autosave/deleted-file history.
- Unlimited — $7/user/mo, with a hard monthly cap of $175 no matter the team size; 25 GB per member, 30-day history, early features.
- Enterprise — $25/user/mo, unlimited storage, 90-day history, SSO, SCIM, audit logs, advanced permissions.
- Private Server — from $50,000/year, dedicated infrastructure.
- Self-host — free forever, community supported.
This is a terms check, not a hands-on test. We captured the page in a real Chrome session on 2026-09-14 and dumped the rendered text; we did not create a Penpot account or import a design file.
What the free tier actually contains
The free Professional card is not a teaser. Every plan — free included — lists no file limits, unlimited teams, plugins, and the same core editor: Flex Layout, Grid Layout, path editing, libraries and templates. The collaboration section is also identical in the comparison matrix: multiplayer editing, comments, presentations and team management.
The part that matters for design-to-engineering workflows: the Devtools group — code inspector, properties inspector, distances/measurement, component annotations, and production asset export — is listed under “the same core features are included with every plan,” and the free-tier feature list on the page explicitly prints Inspect mode for Professional. A developer can be invited as a free viewer and still measure, inspect and export.
The genuine free-tier boundaries, per the card:
- 8 editors maximum, after that the structure pushes you toward a paid plan (though viewers stay free and unlimited).
- 10 GB shared storage, with the page noting a typical file size of 10–100 MB — fine for a product team’s active work, not an archive.
- 7 days of autosaved versions and deleted-file recovery, versus 30/90 on paid tiers.
The $7 plan with a $175 ceiling
The Unlimited tier is priced at $7 per user per month, but the card prints an unusual clause: “Capped monthly bill: never pay more than $175 per month, no matter your team size.” In list terms, $175 is 25 users at $7; seats 26+ effectively cost $0 in list pricing. We did not verify whether reseller or contract terms interact with this cap — the on-page text is reported as written.
Self-hosting: the second free option
Penpot is open source, and the pricing page carries a separate Self-host (You host) track: free forever, community-supported, for individuals, teams and organizations. Deployment is Docker/Kubernetes work that we did not attempt, so this article makes no uptime or maintenance claim — only that the page presents self-hosting as a permanent free path rather than a trial.
Penpot vs Figma: the pricing contrast readers actually want
| Penpot (2026-09-14 page) | Figma (2026-09-14 page) | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Up to 8 members + unlimited viewers, 10 GB | Starter: unlimited personal drafts, 150 AI credits/day |
| Developer handoff free? | Yes — inspect/devtools on every plan incl. free | Basic inspection free; full Dev Mode needs a paid Dev seat |
| Cheapest paid creator seat | $7/user/mo (Unlimited) | $16/mo Full seat yearly ($20 monthly), Professional |
| Mid tier | Enterprise $25/user/mo | Organization $55/user/mo (annual only) |
| Top listed tier | Private Server from $50k/yr | Enterprise $90/user/mo (annual only) |
| Self-host | Yes, free | No |
| Data ownership | Open-source, your own export/hosting | Vendor-hosted |
Caveats this comparison is not making: we did not benchmark editor parity, feature depth, or migration fidelity. Penpot’s own FAQ offers Figma/XD migration services, which implies migration is real but assisted; we have not run it. See our Figma terms check for the full Figma side, including its geo-based currency behavior.
One oddity on the live page worth flagging
During capture, the rendered page contained the literal string
askjdkjdhlkjdhldskjhasldjhdfsl — keyboard-mash placeholder text — appearing repeatedly between
plan descriptions (visible in the full-page and card captures). It suggests unpublished draft
content shipped to the production pricing page on the day of capture. It does not change any
pricing number, but readers auditing the page themselves may notice it.
Verdict (terms-level, no score)
No star rating because we did not run a design project on Penpot. What the terms support: for a team of up to 8, Penpot’s free tier covers the full design-to-dev pipeline that competitors meter per developer seat; the $7 tier with a $175 cap is the cheapest listed paid seat in the category; and the open-source/self-host track removes vendor lock-in, which is a structural differentiator no closed-source competitor offers. The open questions — Figma file import fidelity, plugin ecosystem depth, performance on large files — are exactly what a future hands-on test would have to answer.
Methodology & sources
- penpot.app/pricing — captured 2026-09-14 (UTC) in a real Chromium session: rendered text dump and full-page/card/self-host screenshots (evidence above), including the Cloud and Self-host sections. Primary source for every number here.
- Figma figures cross-referenced from our own same-day capture, documented in Figma pricing terms check.
- Checked 2026-09-14. Pricing pages change; re-verify before citing.
