Comparison

Figma vs Paper vs pen.dev (Pencil) vs Penpot

Four design canvases for the agent era: the incumbent, the HTML/CSS-native canvas, the design-in-your-IDE canvas, and the open-source option.

Updated

FFigma from $3/moTry Figma
PPaper from $16/moTry Paper
ppen.dev (Pencil) from $16/moTry pen.dev (Pencil)
PPenpot from $7/moTry Penpot
Category
Design tool + AI
Design tool + AI
Design tool + AI
Design tool (open source)
Pricing tiers
Starter Free; Professional Full seat $16/mo, Dev $12, Collab $3; Organization (annual) Full $55, Dev $25, Collab $5
Free $0 (unlimited editors/viewers, 100 MCP tool calls/wk); Pro $16/editor/mo yearly ($20 monthly, 1M MCP calls/wk, video export); Team: contact sales (SAML/SSO, admin)
Free $0 (5 agent-days/mo, unlimited MCP calls while designing, 25 image/SVG gens); Pro $16/user/mo (3 parallel agents, 350 gens); Ultra $48/user/mo (6 agents, 750 gens, team workspaces); Enterprise: contact
Professional $0; Unlimited $7/editor/mo (cap $175/mo); Enterprise $25/member/mo; self-host free
Free plan
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Design-to-code
Design-to-code via Dev Mode, Figma Make (prompt-to-app) and MCP server
Design canvas built on real HTML/CSS; Copy as React CSS or Tailwind; MCP server lets agents read/write files and sync tokens with your codebase
Agentic design canvas in your IDE (extension), desktop app or headless CLI; open JSON .pen format; MCP for Claude Code/Codex/Cursor etc.; 1-click HTML + CSS/Tailwind export
Open-source design tool with CSS Flex/Grid layouts, design tokens, MCP
Last shipped
Oct 15, 2026 Changed <30d
Here's everything from Config India 2026 (Figma, Figma Make, Figma Specs, MCP)
Sep 30, 2026 Changed <30d
September 2026 build log: ~half memory use, one-click in-app agent (MCP) setup, Copy as React CSS/Tailwind/PNG from export panel, WebMCP in browser app
Oct 14, 2026 Changed <30d
@pen.dev/cli 0.3.12 published (no public release notes; recent posts: external MCP servers as context, Paste to Replace, 100% zoom in Present mode)
Oct 6, 2026 Changed <30d
Penpot 2.18.3 release

Verdict

Pick Figma if…

Figma if your team runs on its ecosystem: components, Dev Mode, Figma Make, plugins and the MCP server.

Visit Figma →

Pick Paper if…

Paper if you want a real HTML/CSS canvas in the browser or desktop, real-time multiplayer, free editor seats, and agents that read and write over MCP.

Visit Paper →

Pick pen.dev (Pencil) if…

pen.dev (formerly Pencil) if you want to design next to your code: IDE extension, desktop app or headless CLI, an open JSON .pen format in your repo, and parallel agents.

Visit pen.dev (Pencil) →

Pick Penpot if…

Penpot if you need open source and self-hosting, with CSS Flex/Grid layouts, design tokens and MCP.

Visit Penpot →

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