vioscaleAI
Comparison

Affinity Designer vs Penpot

No clear leader: Affinity Designer (65.3) and Penpot (62.7) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Affinity Designer full profile →Penpot full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
Affinity Designer65
Penpot63
Score
vioscaleAI score
Affinity Designer65 / 100medium · 52%
Penpot63 / 100medium · 68%
Pricing
Free tier
Affinity Designer✓
Penpot✓
Model
Affinity Designerfree
Penpotfreemium
Price level
Affinity Designerfree
Penpotlow
Starting price
Affinity Designer–
Penpot$7
Transparent
Affinity Designer✓
Penpot✓
Integrations
Count
Affinity Designer1
Penpot5
Security
Gdpr
Affinity Designer✓
Penpot✓
Scorecard
Affinity Designer–
Penpot4.9
Trust center
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Status page
Affinity Designer–
Penpot✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
Affinity Designer–
Penpot0
Github stars
Affinity Designer–
Penpot60,714
Activity
Commits last 30d
Affinity Designer–
Penpot100
Release
Cadence days
Affinity Designer–
Penpot9
History
Affinity Designer–
Penpot20 items
License
Spdx
Affinity Designer–
PenpotMPL-2.0
Language
Primary
Affinity Designer–
PenpotClojure
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
Affinity Designer5 items
Penpot8 items

Features

The capabilities each product documents. These tools do not share a category taxonomy, so this aligns what each vendor states rather than a normalised feature set.

Declared feature comparison
FeatureAffinity DesignerPenpot
Advanced interactions-✓
Ai design-✓
Architecture model-managed_cloud_saas_browser
Auto layout-✓
Clickable prototyping-✓
Component libraries-✓
Component variants and property overrides-✓
Css flexbox based auto layout engine-✓
Design token variable mapping colors spacing typography-✓
Dev handoff-✓
Digital painting✓-
Dtp layout✓-
Free available✓-
Platform breadthDesktop (macOS, Windows) and mobile (iOS)Web-based; self-hosted on Linux with Docker; cloud-hosted with data residency op
Plugin ecosystem-Open plugin API with community contributions and MCP Server for multi-directiona
Pricing model-open_source
Raster editing✓-
Realtime collaboration-✓
Self hostable-✓
Stateful interactive prototyping with variables and logic-✓
Third party plugin ecosystem api-✓
Vector design-✓
Vector editing✓-
Vector illustration✓-

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Affinity Designer

A comprehensive design tool that integrates vector drawing, photo editing, and layout capabilities with real-time performance, precision controls, non-destructive editing, and broad export support.

Independently observed

Penpot

A web-based design and prototyping tool built on open web standards (SVG, HTML, CSS) that facilitates real-time collaboration between designers and developers. It supports responsive UI design with CSS-based layouts, design systems with components and tokens, interactive prototyping, and integrates with AI workflows through an extensible plugin ecosystem.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Affinity Designer

FreeFree tier

Completely free with all features included

  • AffinityFree
    • Vector design with pen precision, snapping, and alignment
    • Symbols and constraints for UI component consistency
    • Non-destructive editing
    • Real-time pixel previews
    • Raster and photo editing tools
    • +8 more
as of verify ↗

Penpot

from $7/editor/mofreemiumFree tier14-day trial

Free Professional plan with full features. Unlimited plan at $7/editor/month (capped at $175/month) with 14-day trial. Enterprise at $25/member/month. Private Server at $50k/year.

  • ProfessionalFree
    • No file limits
    • Unlimited teams
    • Open source
    • Unlimited team size (8 members + unlimited viewers)
    • 10GB storage
    • +2 more
  • Unlimited$7/editor/month (capped at $175/month). 14-day free trial.
    • All Professional features
    • Extra storage
    • Extended history
    • Early access to features
    • 30 days autosave versions
    • +1 more
  • Enterprise$25/member/month
    • All Unlimited features
    • Advanced governance
    • Centralized administration
    • Team permissions
    • Secure collaboration
    • +4 more
  • Private ServerContact sales
    • Dedicated infrastructure
    • Custom hosting
    • Advanced security
    • Enterprise-grade support
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Affinity Designer✗
Penpot✓
macOS
Affinity Designer✓
Penpot✗
Windows
Affinity Designer✓
Penpot✗
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Affinity Designer–
Penpot✓
Self-hosted
Affinity Designer–
Penpot✓
On-premise
Affinity Designer–
Penpot✓
Air-gapped
Affinity Designer–
Penpot✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

Affinity Designer

1 total
  • Canva
Independently observed

Penpot

5 total
  • Open API
  • MCP Server
  • Webhooks
  • Access tokens
  • Plugins
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Affinity Designer or Penpot: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.