Excalidraw vs Penpot
Learn how Excalidraw and Penpot differ in their key features, development activity, technology
stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these online design tools is best for you.
Learn how Excalidraw and Penpot differ in their key features, development activity, technology stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these online design tools is best for you.
Excalidraw
Stars
121,240Forks
13,306Last commit
12 hours agoRepository age
6 yearsLicense
MIT
Auto-fetched .
Penpot
Auto-fetched .
Detailed Comparison
Both Excalidraw and Penpot have their unique strengths and serve similar purposes effectively. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.
Both Excalidraw and Penpot have their unique strengths and serve similar purposes effectively. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.
Community & Popularity
Excalidraw leads in popularity with 121,240 stars vs 45,401 stars for Penpot. The 167% higher star count indicates stronger community adoption. In terms of developer contributions, Excalidraw has 13,306 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.
Development Activity
Both projects show recent activity, with Excalidraw last updated 12 hours ago and Penpot 11 hours ago.
Technology Stack
Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, CSS, Typescript, JSX, SCSS. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Excalidraw uses Next.js while Penpot leverages Bash, Python, Rust, Java, Lua, Clojure.
Project Maturity
Penpot has been in development longer, starting 10 years ago, compared to Excalidraw which began 6 years ago. This 4.1-year head start suggests Penpot may have more mature features and established processes.
Licensing
Excalidraw uses the MIT license, which is more permissive than Penpot's MPL-2.0 license, potentially offering greater flexibility for commercial use and integration.
Use Cases & Features
Both tools serve similar use cases in Online Design. However, they also have distinct specializations: Excalidraw also focuses on Collaborative Workspaces, Whiteboarding while Penpot extends into UI/UX Design.
Hosting & Deployment
Penpot provides self-hosting options for complete data control and customization, while Excalidraw may be primarily cloud-based or require different deployment approaches.
Logto – Modern auth infrastructure for developers.