try_or_bye

Penpot vs Sketch

Share
Penpot

Penpot

Tool

62/100
Try with caution
Pick it if you are:
Developers and design-curious engineers; Teams needing self-hosted or on-prem design
Top complaint:
Why is Penpot so slow and laggy on large files?
Price:
Free plan, paid from $7/mo
10 Penpot errors & fixes →
Sketch

Sketch

App

62/100
Try with caution
Pick it if you are:
Solo Mac designers needing offline work; Freelancers working with Mac-only clients
Top complaint:
Mac-only platform excludes Windows users
11 Sketch errors & fixes →

Score Comparison

PenpotareaSketch
62
Overall
62
◀92
Pricing
65
68
Usability
72▶
45
Performance
60▶
◀60
Support
55
58
Reliability
75▶
65
Onboarding
65
15
Mobile
45▶
◀80
Security
75
40
Integrations
60▶

Signals Comparison

Performance

Penpot

  • Why is Penpot so slow and laggy on large files?(8/10)
  • Penpot freezes or says 'page not responding'(8/10)
  • New WebGL render engine slower for some migrated files(7/10)
  • Penpot is laggy in Safari and Firefox(6/10)

Sketch

  • Severe lag with large files and 50+ artboards(8/10)
Integrations

Penpot

  • Penpot has no Dev Mode and far fewer plugins than Figma(7/10)
  • Figma to Penpot import fails on large files(7/10)

Sketch

  • Plugin updates frequently break with Sketch updates(8/10)
  • Developer handoff is limited and incomplete(7/10)
Usability

Penpot

  • Penpot component variants arrived late and are still maturing(6/10)
  • Custom fonts will not upload or merge into one variant in Penpot(5/10)

Sketch

  • Mac-only platform excludes Windows users(9/10)
  • No real-time collaboration compared to Figma(9/10)
  • Recent updates made the app worse and less intuitive(7/10)
  • Limited prototyping requires third-party plugins(7/10)
  • Steep learning curve for beginners(6/10)
  • Object selection behavior frustrates users(6/10)
  • Limited vector illustration and photo editing(5/10)
  • EPS file import no longer supported on macOS Sonoma(4/10)
Reliability

Penpot

  • Penpot 2.0 broke existing designs(7/10)
  • Penpot PDF export is blank or has a huge white background(7/10)
  • Self-hosted Penpot breaks after an upgrade(8/10)

Sketch

  • Text rendering bugs at extreme sizes(5/10)
Mobile

Penpot

  • No mobile app for Penpot(3/10)

Sketch

  • iOS app has limited functionality and ads(4/10)
Pricing

Penpot

  • Penpot is free but paid plans add history, storage and SSO(4/10)

Sketch

  • Shift from one-time purchase to subscription frustrates long-time users(7/10)
Support

Penpot

No signals

Sketch

  • Billing disputes and trial charge complaints(6/10)

Pricing Comparison

Penpot

Professional (free)
Popular
Free

Users: Up to 8 team members on the compact table, unlimited viewers

Storage: Limited cloud storage, per the comparison table

Limits: Shorter autosaved version history and file recovery, less storage, no early-access features, no SSO or IP whitelisting

Shorter version history (about 7 days) than paid; unverified exact limits
Unlimited
$7.00/mo

Users: Per editor, capped at $175/month

Storage: More storage than free

Per-editor billing until the $175 cap
Enterprise
$25.00/mo

Users: Per member

14-day trial then billed per member
Private Server
$4166.67/mo
Listed at $50k per year (monthly equivalent shown)

Sketch

Standard (billed yearly)
Popular
$12.00/yr

Users: Per Editor; unlimited free Viewers

Storage: 50GB per Editor, 1 Workspace

Limits: No SSO, no permissions groups, no project archiving

Price shown is per Editor per month billed yearly; the pricing page does not list monthly-billed prices. Switching monthly to yearly charges the card immediately. Card payments only.
Professional (billed yearly)
$24.00/yr

Users: Per Editor

Storage: 50GB per Editor, 1 Workspace

Limits: No SCIM provisioning, no BYOK encryption, unlimited storage not included

Double the Standard price per Editor; SSO and permissions groups only start here
Enterprise (billed yearly)
$44.00/yr

Users: Per Editor

Storage: Unlimited

Limits: Single Workspace

Custom reviews and terms need 15+ Editors
Private Cloud
Free

Users: Contact sales

Storage: Unlimited

Limits: Sales-led only

One-time setup fee; price on request
Mac-only License
$120.00/mo

Users: 1 seat

Storage: Local files only

Limits: No collaboration, no online sharing, no iOS preview

Updates after the first year need a renewal; no free trial for the licence; card payments only

Feature Comparison

FeaturePenpotSketch
Collaboration
Real-time collaboration

Subscription plans only, not as seamless as Figma

Developer handoff

Free viewer access, basic CSS/HTML export

Version history

Subscription plans only

Native whiteboard
Layout
Flex and grid layout

CSS-style layouts

Usability
Offline mode

Full offline support, major advantage over browser tools

Design Systems
Components

Variants added later via releases

Design tokens
Platform
Windows support

Mac-only, no Windows version planned

Design
Built-in prototyping

Basic prototyping, advanced features require plugins

Symbols/Components

Powerful symbol system for design consistency

Auto-layout

Smart Layout for responsive design

Hosting
Self-hosting

Docker based

Prototyping
Prototyping
Handoff
Dev Mode equivalent

Inspect tab exists; not the same as Figma Dev Mode

Extensibility
Plugin ecosystem

Much smaller than Figma's

Pricing
One-time purchase

$120 Mac-only license available

Free tier

30-day trial only, no permanent free option

Platforms
Mobile app
Security
SSO/SCIM

Business plan and above

Have an app idea? Our small team builds any software: web and mobile apps, games, desktop, AI tools. Price agreed together.

Talk to us
Penpot vs Sketch 2026 - Problems & Comparison | Try or Bye