Penpot vs Para
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?
Compare Penpot with
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Compare Para with
choose an app… Excalidraw lazygit Hoppscotch json-server Strapi NocoDB dive Windows lazydocker
Feature Penpot Para Category Developer Tools & Git Developer Tools & Git License MPL-2.0 Apache-2.0 Language Clojure Java Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 2,048 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, kubernetes docker GitHub stars ★ 58,249 ★ 573 First released 2020 2026 Replaces Figma —
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 Para if… Released under the Apache-2.0 license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Written in Java Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM Para details
Frequently asked questions Is Penpot or Para 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 Para free and open-source? Yes. Penpot is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Para under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Penpot and Para with Docker? Penpot: yes. Para: yes.