Best for
Best for UX specialists and business analysts who need prototypes with real logic and data to test complex flows before development.
- Enterprise
UI/UX Design & Prototyping Comparison
Axure RP vs. Penpot
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for teams that want an open-source design tool they can self-host, shared by designers and developers.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Axure RP | Penpot |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $29 / user / month Pro, billed annually; monthly subscriptions are also sold online. Team is $49 per user and month, Enterprise is priced on request. Reviewer accounts are free. | lower value Free; Unlimited $7 / editor / month Unlimited is capped at $175 a month, whatever the team size. Enterprise is $25 per member and month with a minimum of $950 a month; Private Server is $50,000 a year. Prices in USD. |
| Free trial | 30 days | Free plan; 14-day trial of Unlimited and Enterprise |
| Output | Interactive UX prototypes, wireframes, flow diagrams and specifications | UI designs, prototypes and design systems |
| API | Experimental MCP server for AI agents such as Claude Code, VS Code and Cursor | Yes, an open API with access tokens, webhooks, a plugin system and an MCP server |
| Hosting | Desktop app for Windows and Mac; prototypes on Axure Cloud, or on a private domain or on premises with Enterprise | Cloud, or self-hosted with Docker, Kubernetes or Elestio |
| Made in | USA (Axure Software Solutions, San Diego) | Spain (Kaleidos, Madrid) |
| What it makes | Functional UX prototypes with interaction events, conditional logic, variables, working forms and sortable, filterable data tables, alongside wireframes, flow diagrams, customer journeys and specification notes | UI and UX designs, wireframes, interactive prototypes and design systems |
| Fidelity | From low-fidelity wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes with native browser controls for realistic usability testing, in the same project | From lo-fi wireframes, with wireframing kits among the templates, to hi-fi UI designs and clickable prototypes in the same file |
| Interaction and logic | Mouse, touch and keyboard events trigger any combination of conditions and actions, variables carry values through the prototype, and multi-state dynamic panels build everything from popups to scrollable, swipeable mobile screens | Triggers on click, mouse enter, mouse leave and after a delay; actions navigate, open, toggle or close an overlay, go to the previous screen or open a URL; dissolve, slide and push animations with easing. Flows give several starting points. No variables or conditional logic are documented |
| Components and design systems | Reusable components, masters and widget libraries, including community widget libraries, with adaptive views for desktop, tablet and phone on one page | Components, shared libraries and built-in design tokens with themes for design systems, plus community libraries and templates |
| Collaboration and review | Prototypes are published to Axure Cloud, where an unlimited number of free reviewers leave feedback on screen, with notifications in Slack and Microsoft Teams. Co-authoring, revision history and team project hosting start on the Team plan; Enterprise adds user management, single sign-on and an internal company domain | Real-time co-editing with an indicator of who has the file open, comments with replies in the workspace and in View mode, a history panel of recent changes, and a shareable View mode link per flow that works without a Penpot account |
| Handoff and export | Publish to Axure Cloud for sharing, comments and developer inspect with automated redlines, design assets and CSS; generate a local copy as HTML files; embed prototypes in Jira and Confluence; copy designs in from Figma, Sketch and Adobe XD | Inspect mode gives ready-to-use SVG, CSS and HTML, layers export as PNG, JPEG, WEBP, SVG or PDF, and design tokens export to code |
| Platforms | Desktop app for Windows 10 or later and macOS 13 or later, and one subscription covers any number of the user's PCs and Macs. Published HTML prototypes open in Edge, Firefox and Chrome on Windows, and in Safari 18.4 or later, Firefox and Chrome on Mac | Runs in the browser on Windows, macOS and Linux, either in Penpot's cloud or on a team's own server |
| AI features | The product and pricing pages name no AI that generates screens or prototypes. Axure Cloud documents include an AI Chat with prebuilt snippets such as Business value, Feature description and Problem statement | No generation model of its own. The free, open-source Penpot MCP server connects any AI agent or LLM to a design file, hosted by Penpot or on your own server, to create elements, component variants and design tokens from a shared library and to move from design to code and from code to design |
| MCP-ready | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise |
| Support | Email helpdesk, Community forum | Email helpdesk, Community forum |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials | Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials |
| Company size | Enterprise | more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries Jira, Confluence, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD | Claude, OpenAI Codex, Cursor, Visual Studio Code, Storybook, Locofy |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Axure RP From $29 / user / month Penpot Free; Unlimited $7 / editor / month
- Free trial Axure RP 30 days Penpot Free plan; 14-day trial of Unlimited and Enterprise
- Company size Axure RP Enterprise Penpot Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Hosting Axure RP Desktop app for Windows and Mac; prototypes on Axure Cloud, or on a private domain or on premises with Enterprise Penpot Cloud, or self-hosted with Docker, Kubernetes or Elestio
- Made in Axure RP USA (Axure Software Solutions, San Diego) Penpot Spain (Kaleidos, Madrid)
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Axure RP
Strengths
- Conditional logic, variables and data-driven tables without writing code
- Unlimited free reviewers, who can comment and inspect CSS and assets
- Enterprise can host Axure Cloud on a private domain or on premises
- Free Team licences for qualified students and educators
- 60% discount for nonprofits and educational institutions, 25% for government agencies
Limitations
- No free plan, only a 30-day trial
- Perpetual licences are no longer sold
- AI is limited to chat in Cloud documents and an experimental MCP server
Penpot
Strengths
- Open source, with the core features promised to stay open
- Can be self-hosted, so design files never leave your own infrastructure
- The free Professional plan is fully featured
- The Unlimited plan is capped at $175 a month for any team size
- MCP server is free and works with any AI agent or LLM
Limitations
- The free plan is limited to 8 team members and 10 GB of storage
- Enterprise carries a minimum of $950 a month
- No built-in generative AI; generation depends on an external AI agent
- Self-hosting needs a Linux server with Docker and your own upkeep
Plans
Pricing
Axure RP
- Pro $29 Per user per month, billed annually. Unlimited prototypes, reviewers and Cloud projects, advanced prototyping, wireframes, diagrams and documentation.
- Team $49 Per user per month, billed annually. Adds co-authoring, revision history and team project hosting on Axure Cloud.
- Enterprise Custom Priced on request. Hosted or on-premises Axure Cloud, user management, SAML single sign-on and a company domain.
Penpot
- Professional $0 Free tier, fully featured. Up to 8 team members and unlimited viewers, 10 GB of storage, 7 days of version history.
- Unlimited $7 Per editor per month, capped at $175 a month whatever the team size. Unlimited team size, 25 GB of storage, 30 days of version history and early access to features.
- Enterprise $25 Per member per month, with a minimum of $950 a month. Adds single sign-on, audit logs, SCIM, a plugin allowlist and centralized administration.
- Private Server $50,000 Per year. Dedicated infrastructure with custom hosting, advanced security and enterprise-grade support.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Axure RP
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Penpot
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Reviews are not published yet. The form on a tool's page works and reaches us, but nothing from it appears on this site, so no score here is based on a review. The rules below are the ones that will apply once reviews go live.
Every review is read by a person before it appears. We require a working email address and use it to come back to the author, so a review has a reachable sender rather than being anonymous. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.
What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on what they tell us, plus the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.
A vendor cannot have a review removed, cannot buy one, and cannot have one changed. Paid placement and a paid listing have no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Axure RP https://www.axure.com · checked against the official source on 2026-10-04
Penpot https://penpot.app · no check date recorded yet
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.