Canva Presentations
Penpot
| Feature | Canva Presentations | Penpot |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $12.99/mo | Free / from $8/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.4 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | non-designers, students, marketers, small-businesses | open-source-teams, privacy-focused-designers, developers, educational-institutions |
| Founded | 2013 | 2015 |
| Templates | ✓ | ✗ |
| Drag And Drop | ✓ | ✗ |
| Collaboration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Presenter View | ✓ | ✗ |
| Recording | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ai Design | ✓ | ✗ |
| Vector Editing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Prototyping | ✗ | ✓ |
| Components | ✗ | ✓ |
| Design Tokens | ✗ | ✓ |
| Real Time Collaboration | ✗ | ✓ |
| Css Output | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Hostable | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Canva Presentations Pros
- Thousands of templates
- Easy to use
- Real-time collaboration
- Built-in graphics
✗ Canva Presentations Cons
- Limited animations
- Less powerful than PowerPoint
- Internet required
✓ Penpot Pros
- Open-source and self-hostable for free
- CSS-based design outputs production-ready code
- Real-time collaboration (Figma-like experience)
- SVG-native (no proprietary formats)
✗ Penpot Cons
- Performance slower than Figma on complex files
- Smaller plugin and community ecosystem
- Missing some advanced design features
The Verdict
Canva Presentations is built for non designers and students, with a focus on templates and drag-and-drop. Penpot targets open source teams and privacy focused designers and leads with vector-editing and prototyping.
Pricing is close: Penpot starts at $8/mo versus $12.99/mo for Canva Presentations — not a deciding factor on its own.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, Penpot offers broader built-in capabilities (7 features vs 6), while Canva Presentations takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.