head to head · open source
Penpot vs OpenPencil
Penpot has 61,995 GitHub stars, 4,361 forks, 777 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenPencil has 9,551 stars, 1,004 forks, 46 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Penpot leads on adoption by 549% (61,995 vs 9,551 stars). Penpot is written in Clojure under MPL-2.0; OpenPencil is written in TypeScript under MIT. Penpot has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, OpenPencil 11%. 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
| Penpot | OpenPencil | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 62K | ★ 9.6K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Clojure | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Penpot if
- You weight community size — 62K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Clojure
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenPencil if
- You want the OpenPencil feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and OpenPencil fits your workflow better
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 →
About OpenPencil
OpenPencil Open source design editor. Opens .fig and .pen design files, includes built in AI, and ships as a programmable toolkit with a headless Vue SDK for building custom editors. Status: Active development. Usable today, with some rough edges as features evolve. Try it online → · Download · Documentation · Roadmap · llms.txt Installation macOS (Homebrew): Or download from the releases page, or use the web app — no install needed. What it does Opens .fig and .pen files — read and write native Figma files, open supported Pencil documents from the app or OS file browser, copy & paste nodes between apps AI…
read the full OpenPencil overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Penpot or OpenPencil more popular?
Penpot has 61,995 GitHub stars and OpenPencil has 9,551. Penpot has the larger community by that measure.
Are Penpot and OpenPencil free?
Both are open source. Penpot is licensed under MPL-2.0 and OpenPencil under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Penpot and OpenPencil?
Penpot is written in Clojure and OpenPencil in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Penpot or OpenPencil?
Choose Penpot if you want the larger community (61,995 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenPencil if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.