# Balsamiq vs Penpot

| Attribute | Balsamiq | Penpot |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 69 (69% (medium)) | 65.2 (68% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 0 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 59,213 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"air_gapped":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | 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. |
| features.capabilities | `{"ai_design":true,"dev_handoff":true,"pricing_model":"subscription","vector_design":true,"platform_breadth":"Web (Cloud), Desktop, Confluence, Jira","plugin_ecosystem":"Slack, Jira, Confluence, Notion, MCP server for Claude/Cursor","component_libraries":true,"clickable_prototyping":true,"realtime_collaboration":true}` | `{"ai_design":true,"auto_layout":true,"dev_handoff":true,"pricing_model":"open_source","self_hostable":true,"vector_design":true,"platform_breadth":"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","component_libraries":true,"advanced_interactions":true,"clickable_prototyping":true,"realtime_collaboration":true}` |
| integrations.count | 5 | 5 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Jira"},{"name":"Confluence"},{"name":"Notion"},{"name":"MCP server (Claude, Cursor)"}]` | `[{"name":"Open API"},{"name":"MCP Server"},{"name":"Webhooks"},{"name":"Access tokens"},{"name":"Plugins"}]` |
| language.primary | - | Clojure |
| license.spdx | - | MPL-2.0 |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"ES","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Starter","summary":"$16/editor/month billed annually ($192/year)","features":["Up to 10 projects","Unlimited reviewers","500 monthly AI credits per editor","Balsamiq MCP server","Slack integration","Custom UI components","Export to PDF or image"],"minSeats":1,"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"editor","amount":16,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Up to 10 projects, 500 monthly AI credits, Slack integration","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"projects":"10","reviewers":"unlimited","ai_credits_monthly":"500"}},{"free":false,"name":"Teams","summary":"$24/editor/month billed annually ($288/year)","features":["Up to 100 projects","Unlimited reviewers","1,000 monthly AI credits per editor","Balsamiq MCP server","Billing admin role and permissions","Custom UI components","Export to PDF or image","Priority support"],"minSeats":1,"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"editor","amount":24,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Up to 100 projects, 1,000 monthly AI credits, priority support","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"projects":"100","reviewers":"unlimited","ai_credits_monthly":"1000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"$35/editor/month billed annually ($420/year)","features":["Everything in Teams, plus:","Up to 400 projects","2,500 monthly AI credits per editor","Balsamiq MCP server","SSO with SAML","Legal and security review support","Data storage in the US or EU","Premium support"],"minSeats":1,"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"editor","amount":35,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Up to 400 projects, 2,500 monthly AI credits, SSO, premium support","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"projects":"400","reviewers":"unlimited","ai_credits_monthly":"2500"}}],"summary":"From $16/editor/month. Free 14-day trial. Save 30% with annual billing.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://balsamiq.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-01T15:33:44.068Z","freeTrialDays":14,"startingPrice":{"amount":16,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` | `{"type":"open_source","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Professional (Self-Hosted)","summary":"Free forever (self-hosted)","features":["Complete control over data and infrastructure","Unlimited users, teams and files","All design and prototyping features","Community support","100% open-source"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For individuals and teams with technical infrastructure knowledge that want to run their own Penpot server","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"files":"Unlimited","teams":"Unlimited","users":"Unlimited"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise (Self-Hosted)","summary":"$25/user/month, minimum $950/month; 25% discount if pre-ordered before July 31st","features":["Everything in Professional","Centralized admin console","Create and manage multiple organizations","Advanced team and user permissions","Single Sign-On (SSO) & identity governance","Plugins Allowlist, including Agentic AI","Audit logs","180 days of autosaved versions","180 days of deleted file recovery","Exclusive early access to upcoming features","50% discount on Penpot official merch and events"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"seat","amount":25,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For organizations needing advanced governance, workflows, and user management","contactSales":false}],"addOns":[{"name":"Audit logs & activity monitoring"},{"name":"Security compliance support (SOC2, HIPAA)"},{"name":"Air-gapped-deployment support"},{"name":"Two factor authentication"},{"name":"Custom plugins or integration"}],"summary":"Free self-hosted (open-source) or $25/user/month for Enterprise with advanced governance","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://penpot.app/pricing/self-host","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T16:42:28.774Z","startingPrice":{"amount":25,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | mid | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 9 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.17.1","date":"2026-08-17T10:40:41Z","type":"stable","version":"2.17.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.17.0","date":"2026-07-22T06:59:59Z","type":"stable","version":"2.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.16.2","date":"2026-07-01T13:11:49Z","type":"stable","version":"2.16.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.16.1","date":"2026-06-24T09:37:20Z","type":"stable","version":"2.16.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.16.0","date":"2026-06-11T13:07:01Z","type":"stable","version":"2.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.15.4","date":"2026-06-02T08:41:29Z","type":"stable","version":"2.15.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.15.3","date":"2026-05-14T14:30:44Z","type":"stable","version":"2.15.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.15.2","date":"2026-05-13T05:30:29Z","type":"stable","version":"2.15.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.15.1","date":"2026-05-12T17:21:59Z","type":"stable","version":"2.15.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.15.0","date":"2026-05-12T09:33:25Z","type":"stable","version":"2.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.14.5","date":"2026-05-06T12:56:41Z","type":"stable","version":"2.14.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.14.4","date":"2026-04-27T11:17:28Z","type":"stable","version":"2.14.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.14.3","date":"2026-04-16T08:35:57Z","type":"stable","version":"2.14.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.14.2","date":"2026-04-08T16:45:36Z","type":"stable","version":"2.14.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.14.1","date":"2026-03-30T13:29:06Z","type":"stable","version":"2.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.14.0","date":"2026-03-24T09:53:25Z","type":"stable","version":"2.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.13.3","date":"2026-02-16T14:30:41Z","type":"stable","version":"2.13.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.13.2","date":"2026-02-10T10:11:16Z","type":"stable","version":"2.13.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.13.0","date":"2026-02-03T11:57:37Z","type":"stable","version":"2.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/penpot/penpot/releases/tag/2.12.1","date":"2025-12-30T11:18:43Z","type":"stable","version":"2.12.1"}]` |
| reliability.sla_pct | 99.9 | - |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.scorecard | - | 5.4 |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fpenpot%2Fpenpot&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (UI/UX & Prototyping Tools)

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

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T14:46:44.898Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*