Penpot
Browser-based interface and prototype design tool, free to use and open source.
Our verdict
Penpot is a design and prototyping tool for screens, laid out much like the commercial tools designers use for app and website work. Because it runs in a browser, the Linux experience is the same as the Windows one, which is not something you can say about most design software.
Sign up at the hosted site and you can start with no installation at all. There is an unofficial desktop version on Flathub called Penpot Desktop that puts the same website in its own window with tabs. It works, but it is made by a third party rather than by Penpot.
Penpot is open source under the Mozilla Public Licence and can be installed on your own server. For a home user that is more trouble than it is worth, so stay with the hosted version.
What's good
- Runs in an ordinary browser, so Linux is treated exactly like Windows and Mac
- Free account on the hosted version, with no download or licence to manage
- Open source, and a business can run it on its own server if it needs to
What to know first
- Needs an internet connection, since the hosted version is where your files live
- Smaller plugin and community library than the commercial design tools
- The desktop app on Flathub is an unofficial wrapper around the website, not a Penpot release
The details
- Cost
- Free with paid extras
- Open source
- Yes (MPL-2.0)
- How you install it
- In your browser, App store (Flatpak)
Windows apps it can replace
Last checked . Sources: