# 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.

Last updated: 2026-10-16. Page: https://designengindex.com/compare/figma-vs-paper-vs-pencil-vs-penpot

| | Figma | Paper | pen.dev (Pencil) | Penpot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Design tool + AI | Design tool + AI | Design tool + AI | Design tool (open source) |
| Pricing | 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 |
| Lowest paid plan | $3/mo | $16/mo | $16/mo | $7/mo |
| 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 | 2026-10-15: Here's everything from Config India 2026 (Figma, Figma Make, Figma Specs, MCP) | 2026-09-30: 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 | 2026-10-14: @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) | 2026-10-06: 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.
- **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.
- **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.
- **Pick Penpot if…** Penpot if you need open source and self-hosting, with CSS Flex/Grid layouts, design tokens and MCP.

More: [Figma](https://designengindex.com/tools/figma.md) · [Paper](https://designengindex.com/tools/paper.md) · [pen.dev (Pencil)](https://designengindex.com/tools/pencil.md) · [Penpot](https://designengindex.com/tools/penpot.md)