How Penpot: Bridge the Gap Between Designers and Developers

For years, digital product teams have been forced to choose between powerful, closed-source design tools and the freedom to truly own their creative process. Penpot is changing the game. As the first web-based, open-source design and prototyping platform, Penpot empowers designers and developers to work together in real time, using open standards and a workflow that feels natural to both worlds. Whether you’re a solo creator, a startup, or a global enterprise, Penpot gives you the power, flexibility, and control to design and build without compromise.

Website: https://penpot.app/

Why Choose Penpot?

In a landscape dominated by proprietary tools, Penpot stands out with a fundamentally different approach:

• Truly Open Source 100% MPL-2.0 licensed, Penpot lets you self-host, audit, and extend every aspect of your design workflow.
• Design as Code Penpot expresses designs natively as CSS, SVG, and HTML—making handoff to developers seamless and eliminating the "lost in translation" drama.
• Real-Time Collaboration Designers and developers can work together in the same file, with live updates, comments, and feedback—no more endless exports or version confusion.
• Prototyping & Interactivity Build interactive flows, transitions, and realistic user journeys directly in your design files.
• Design Systems & Tokens Create reusable components, libraries, and standardized design tokens for consistency and scalability across projects.
• Plugin Ecosystem Expand Penpot’s capabilities with plugins, integrations, and custom solutions—tailored to your workflow.
• Self-Hosting & Privacy Deploy Penpot on your own infrastructure for complete data sovereignty, or use the cloud service for instant access.
• Open Standards All your work is stored in open formats (SVG, CSS, HTML, JSON), ensuring future-proof access and easy integration with other tools.

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Spotlight on Key Features

1. Powerful Interface Design

• Flexible layouts, custom fonts, and responsive design • Component libraries and design systems at scale • Real-time feedback and sharing for all stakeholders • Advanced prototyping with interactions and transitions

2. Developer-Centric Workflow

• Inspect mode for instant access to CSS, SVG, and HTML • Design tokens for seamless code integration • API and webhooks for toolchain automation • No more handoff drama—designs are already code

3. Collaboration Without Borders

• Live multi-user editing and commenting • Shareable links for feedback and review • Public and private projects for any team size • Community libraries, templates, and plugins

4. Customization & Extensibility

• Plugin system for new features and integrations • API access for custom workflows • Theming and branding for your organization • Self-hosting for full control

5. Open Community & Resources

• Active community with events, tutorials, and Penpot Fest • Libraries and templates for rapid prototyping • Multilingual support and global user base

Penpot vs. Closed-Source Alternatives

How does Penpot compare to the giants of design? Here’s a side-by-side look:

Beyond the Feature Matrix

• No Vendor Lock-In: Your designs are always accessible, exportable, and portable—no proprietary formats or forced subscriptions.
• No Data Privacy Worries: Self-host for full control, or use the cloud with confidence in open standards.
• No Feature Gating: All features are available to every user, with no upsells or premium tiers.
• No Handoff Drama: Developers get code-ready assets, not screenshots or PDFs.

Getting Started in Minutes

Penpot is designed for effortless setup and use:

☁️ Cloud (Quickest Start)

• Sign up for free at penpot.app
• Start designing and collaborating instantly

🐳 Self-Hosting

git clone https://github.com/penpot/penpot.git
cd penpot/docker
docker compose up -d

• Access your instance at http://localhost:9001

💻 Try the Demo

Explore Penpot’s features with the

Real-World Success Stories

"I’m honestly amazed at what the team has done to make this platform accessible. Such a game changer for open source design. Viva, open source and Penpot!" — Angela Oduor, Product Team Lead

"The controls felt very intuitive to me—way more intuitive! They map nicely to the mental models of actual CSS. I LOVE the wrapping options as well. I also really appreciate how developer-friendly this is, so hand-off becomes simple!" — Brett Haymaker, Developer

"Building a design tool on top of web & dev standards is super clever. Imagine autolayout behaving like CSS flexbox and no more design & dev back and forth." — Sil Bormüller, Designer

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Practical Applications

Product Design & Prototyping

Create, iterate, and share interactive prototypes with your team—no more endless exports or version confusion.

Design Systems & Tokens

Build scalable design systems with reusable components and standardized tokens for consistent branding and rapid development.

Developer Handoff

Empower developers with code-ready assets, inspect mode, and open standards—eliminating the friction of traditional handoff.

Open Collaboration

Invite stakeholders, clients, and contributors to collaborate in real time, with full transparency and control.

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Join the Penpot Community

With over 38,000 GitHub stars and a vibrant contributor base, Penpot is one of the fastest-growing open-source design projects:

• Contribute Code: Help enhance features or fix bugs via GitHub
• Share Libraries & Templates: Publish your creations for the community
• Join Events: Attend Penpot Fest and community meetups
• Sponsor Development: Support the project via GitHub Sponsors

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Final Thoughts

Design should empower, not constrain. Penpot represents a new era of creative collaboration—open, flexible, and truly yours. Whether you’re a designer, developer, or product leader, Penpot offers a compelling alternative to closed, subscription-based platforms—putting you back in control of your creative process.

Ready to design without limits? Explore penpot.app or dive into the code on GitHub.