vioscale
Comparison

Balsamiq vs Penpot

No clear leader: Balsamiq (69.0) and Penpot (65.2) 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.

Balsamiq full profile →Penpot full profile →
Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
Balsamiq69
Penpot65
Score
Vioscale score
Balsamiq69 / 100medium · 69%
Penpot65 / 100medium · 68%
Pricing
Free tier
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Model
Balsamiqcommercial
Penpotcommercial
Price level
Balsamiqmid
Penpotfree
Transparent
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Integrations
Count
Balsamiq5
Penpot5
Security
Gdpr
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Scorecard
Balsamiq–
Penpot5.4
Soc2
Balsamiq✓
Penpot–
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Sla pct
Balsamiq99.9
Penpot–
Status page
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
Balsamiq–
Penpot0
Github stars
Balsamiq–
Penpot59,213
Activity
Commits last 30d
Balsamiq–
Penpot100
Release
Cadence days
Balsamiq–
Penpot9
History
Balsamiq–
Penpot20 items
License
Spdx
Balsamiq–
PenpotMPL-2.0
Language
Primary
Balsamiq–
PenpotClojure
Market
Availability

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for ui/ux & prototyping tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Design
Vector UI design
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Component / design-system libraries
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Auto layout / responsive
Balsamiq-
Penpot✓
Prototyping
Clickable prototyping
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Advanced interactions (variables / conditions)
Balsamiq-
Penpot✓
Collaboration
Real-time multiplayer collaboration
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Handoff
Dev handoff / spec export
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Platform
Platform breadth (Web / macOS / Windows / Linux / self-hosted)
BalsamiqWeb (Cloud), Desktop, Confluence, Jira
PenpotWeb-based; self-hosted on Linux with Docker; cloud-hosted with data residency op
Licensing
Self-hostable / open-source
Balsamiq-
Penpot✓
AI
AI design assist
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Pricing
Pricing model
BalsamiqSubscription
PenpotOpen-source
Ecosystem
Plugin / community ecosystem
BalsamiqSlack, Jira, Confluence, Notion, MCP server for Claude/Cursor
PenpotOpen plugin API with community contributions and MCP Server for multi-directiona

What each one is

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

Balsamiq

A wireframing and prototyping platform that combines AI-assisted design with real-time collaboration to help teams turn rough ideas into validated, interactive prototypes before handing off to developers.

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.

Balsamiq

from $16/moSubscriptionFree tier14-day trial

From $16/editor/month. Free 14-day trial. Save 30% with annual billing.

  • Starter$16/editor/month billed annually ($192/year)
    • Up to 10 projects
    • Unlimited reviewers
    • 500 monthly AI credits per editor
    • Balsamiq MCP server
    • Slack integration
    • +2 more
  • Teams$24/editor/month billed annually ($288/year)
    • Up to 100 projects
    • Unlimited reviewers
    • 1,000 monthly AI credits per editor
    • Balsamiq MCP server
    • Billing admin role and permissions
    • +3 more
  • Enterprise$35/editor/month billed annually ($420/year)
    • Everything in Teams, plus:
    • Up to 400 projects
    • 2,500 monthly AI credits per editor
    • Balsamiq MCP server
    • SSO with SAML
    • +3 more
as of verify ↗

Penpot

from $25/moOpen sourceFree tier

Free self-hosted (open-source) or $25/user/month for Enterprise with advanced governance

  • Professional (Self-Hosted)Free
    • Complete control over data and infrastructure
    • Unlimited users, teams and files
    • All design and prototyping features
    • Community support
    • 100% open-source
  • Enterprise (Self-Hosted)$25/user/month, minimum $950/month; 25% discount if pre-ordered before July 31st
    • Everything in Professional
    • Centralized admin console
    • Create and manage multiple organizations
    • Advanced team and user permissions
    • Single Sign-On (SSO) & identity governance
    • +6 more
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platforms
Web
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Balsamiq✓
Penpot✓
Self-hosted
Balsamiq✗
Penpot✓
On-premise
Balsamiq✗
Penpot✓
Air-gapped
Balsamiq✗
Penpot✓

Integrations

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

Balsamiq

5 total
  • Slack
  • Jira
  • Confluence
  • Notion
  • MCP server (Claude, Cursor)
Independently observed

Penpot

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

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