head to head · open source
Affine vs Penpot
Affine has 72,715 GitHub stars, 5,283 forks, 732 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Penpot has 60,094 stars, 4,108 forks, 777 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Affine leads on adoption by 21% (72,715 vs 60,094 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 | ★ 73K | ★ 60K |
| License | Custom / other | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Clojure |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 4.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Affine if
- You weight community size — 73K 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 is an open source, privacy first workspace that merges documentation, whiteboarding, and databases into one hyper fused platform. It lives in the productivity and knowledge management ecosystem, positioned as a direct alternative to Notion and Miro. Built with local first principles, it ensures users retain full control of their data while supporting real time collaboration across web and desktop clients.
read the full Affine overview →
About Penpot
Penpot is an open source design and prototyping platform for product teams that need scalable real time collaboration, self hosting, and full ownership of their design infrastructure.
read the full Penpot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Affine or Penpot more popular?
Affine has 72,715 GitHub stars and Penpot has 60,094. 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 (72,715 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.