Penpot vs Manifest

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?
FeaturePenpotManifest
CategoryDeveloper Tools & GitDeveloper Tools & Git
LicenseMPL-2.0MIT
LanguageClojureTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM2,048 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetesdocker, source
GitHub stars★ 58,249★ 7,413
First released20202024
ReplacesFigmaFirebase, Supabase

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 Manifest if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 7.4k GitHub stars
Manifest details

Frequently asked questions

Is Penpot or Manifest better?

Neither is universally better. Penpot has the larger community, while Manifest is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Penpot and Manifest free and open-source?

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

Can I run Penpot and Manifest with Docker?

Penpot: yes. Manifest: yes.

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