head to head · open source
Affine vs Penpot
Affine has 74,063 GitHub stars, 5,446 forks, 732 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Penpot has 61,969 stars, 4,353 forks, 777 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Affine leads on adoption by 20% (74,063 vs 61,969 stars). Affine is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Penpot is written in Clojure under MPL-2.0. Affine has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Penpot 7%. Penpot was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Affine | Penpot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 74K | ★ 62K |
| License | Custom / other | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Clojure |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 4.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Affine if
- You weight community size — 74K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Penpot if
- You want the Penpot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Clojure
- You evaluated both and Penpot fits your workflow better
About Affine
AFFiNE.Pro Write, Draw and Plan All at Once A privacy focused, local first, open source, and ready to use alternative for Notion & Miro. One hyper fused platform for wildly creative minds. Home Page Discord Live Demo Blog Documentation [![All Contributors][all contributors badge]]( contributors) [![TypeScript version icon]]( Docs, canvas and tables are hyper merged with AFFiNE just like the word affine (əˈfʌɪn a fine). Getting started & staying tuned with us. Star us, and you will receive all release notifications from GitHub without any delay! What is AFFiNE AFFiNE is an open source, all in one workspace and an…
read the full Affine overview →
About Penpot
[uri license]: [uri license image]: Website • User Guide • Learning Center • Community Youtube • Peertube • Linkedin • Instagram • Mastodon • Bluesky • X Penpot video Penpot is the open source design platform for teams that build digital products at scale. Penpot’s key strength lies in giving you full ownership of your design infrastructure . Built on open source and designed for self hosting, it puts teams in complete control of their design environment supporting strict compliance and governance requirements. Whether used in the browser or deployed on your own servers , Penpot works with open standards like…
read the full Penpot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Affine or Penpot more popular?
Affine has 74,063 GitHub stars and Penpot has 61,969. Affine has the larger community by that measure.
Are Affine and Penpot free?
Both are open source. Affine has no licence declared in this registry, and Penpot is licensed under MPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Affine and Penpot?
Affine is written in TypeScript and Penpot in Clojure. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Affine or Penpot?
Choose Affine if you want the larger community (74,063 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Penpot if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.