Why This Debate Matters

Figma, since its 2016 breakout, has transformed collaborative product design by offering real-time, multiplayer editing in the browser. Its acquisition by Adobe in 2022 (pending regulatory twists) only cemented its dominance.

But Penpot, an open-source, browser-based design tool built by Kaleidos, has been quietly gaining traction — especially among engineering-heavy teams looking for a truly open and vendor-independent alternative.

So, is open source finally credible enough to challenge Figma’s dominance?

Feature Head-to-Head

Why Penpot Is Resonating

✅ Open data formats — No vendor lock-in, assets are standard SVG/JSON.

✅ Self-hosting — Teams in regulated industries (healthcare, defense) see this as a compliance win.

✅ Open governance — Community contribution gives some confidence against sudden shutdowns or pricing changes.

✅ Engineering culture alignment — Dev-centric organizations appreciate Penpot’s openness, especially since many engineers already prefer open source stacks.

Where Figma Still Holds a Strong Lead

✅ Polish and stability — Figma’s five-year lead in UX smoothness is still huge.

✅ Scale — Massive enterprises with thousands of designers and PMs are deeply committed to Figma-based design systems.

✅ Plugin network — Designers depend on complex plugin workflows that Penpot can’t yet match.

✅ Mindshare — Figma has become the standard for hiring, onboarding, and cross-team collaboration.

Even Penpot’s own community acknowledges it is still catching up on animation, advanced variants, and hyper-sophisticated interactions.

Expert Opinions

“Penpot is a legit open source alternative, but a true Figma challenger will need years of maturity.”
— Pablo Ruiz-Múzquiz, CEO of Penpot (Penpot 2024 AMA)

“Open-source design tools have historically struggled because designers demand polish. That’s changing, but slowly.”
— Fabricio Teixeira, UX Collective (uxdesign.cc)

“The question isn’t if open source will catch up, but when.”
— Brian Lovin, Staff Designer, GitHub (brianlovin.com)

Strategic Takeaways for Teams

✅ If you’re fully invested in Figma design systems:

• Switching is costly today. Figma’s stability, performance, and ecosystem remain best-in-class.

✅ If you’re privacy- or compliance-sensitive:

• Evaluate Penpot’s self-hosted option. It gives you a level of sovereignty Figma cannot match.

✅ If you’re building a long-term design engineering culture:

• Open formats and code-aligned workflows with Penpot may future-proof your stack.

✅ If you have hybrid teams:

• Consider running a pilot with Penpot on less-critical projects to explore its roadmap and community.

Broader Context

Open source is slowly infiltrating design tools the way it already did for dev tools (think Git, Docker, Kubernetes).

Penpot represents a new, viable phase of that trend. Its roadmap includes advanced prototyping, better plugin architectures, and tighter design-to-code pipelines — all aimed squarely at the enterprise.

Final Takeaway

Penpot is not replacing Figma overnight — but for the first time, a credible open-source alternative is on the field.

If your team cares about open governance, data portability, and alignment with open-source values, keep a close eye on Penpot.

If you want polished, enterprise-proven workflows today, Figma is still the benchmark.

The real story? For the first time in years, design tool choice feels exciting again.