Penpot vs cgit

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?
FeaturePenpotcgit
CategoryDeveloper Tools & GitDeveloper Tools & Git
LicenseMPL-2.0GPL-2.0
LanguageClojureC
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetesbare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 58,249★ 800
First released20202006
ReplacesFigmaGitHub

Why pick each one

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

Choose cgit if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Written in C
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
cgit details

Frequently asked questions

Is Penpot or cgit 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 Penpot and cgit free and open-source?

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

Can I run Penpot and cgit with Docker?

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

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