Adminer vs Penpot

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted developer tools & git options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureAdminerPenpot
CategoryDeveloper Tools & GitDeveloper Tools & Git
LicenseApache-2.0MPL-2.0
LanguagePHPClojure
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 7,544★ 58,249
First released20262020
ReplacesFigma

Why pick each one

Choose Adminer if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Mature project with 7.5k GitHub stars
  • Written in PHP
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Adminer details

Choose Penpot if…

  • Released under the MPL-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 58.2k GitHub stars
Penpot details

Frequently asked questions

Is Adminer or Penpot better?

Neither is universally better. Penpot has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Adminer and Penpot free and open-source?

Yes. Adminer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Penpot under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Adminer and Penpot with Docker?

Adminer: check the project docs for container support. Penpot: yes.

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