Penpot
Spline
| Feature | Penpot | Spline |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $8/mo | Free / from $9/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | open-source-teams, privacy-focused-designers, developers, educational-institutions | web-designers, product-designers, front-end-developers, creative-agencies |
| Founded | 2015 | 2020 |
| Vector Editing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Prototyping | ✓ | ✗ |
| Components | ✓ | ✗ |
| Design Tokens | ✓ | ✗ |
| Real Time Collaboration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Css Output | ✓ | ✗ |
| Self Hostable | ✓ | ✗ |
| 3d Modeling | ✗ | ✓ |
| Animations | ✗ | ✓ |
| Interactions | ✗ | ✓ |
| Web Export | ✗ | ✓ |
| Materials | ✗ | ✓ |
| Physics | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ 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
✓ Spline Pros
- Browser-based with no installation required
- Easy to learn compared to traditional 3D tools
- Real-time collaboration like Figma for 3D
- Direct export to web (React, iframe, vanilla JS)
✗ Spline Cons
- Limited to simpler 3D scenes (not production rendering)
- Performance issues with complex models
- Fewer modeling tools than dedicated 3D software
The Verdict
Penpot is built for open source teams and privacy focused designers, with a focus on vector-editing and prototyping. Spline targets web designers and product designers and leads with 3d-modeling and real-time-collaboration.
Pricing is close: Penpot starts at $8/mo versus $9/mo for Spline — 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.
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.