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Both cover design & graphics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Canva | Penpot | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $14.99 | From $7 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14 days |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Web |
| Covers | Design & Graphics, Short-Form & Clipping | Design & Graphics |
| Works with | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | 1 |
Thumbnails, covers and posts without a designer
Canva covers thumbnails, channel art, carousels and short video with templates that look fine and are quick to change. Brand kits keep a team consistent. Anyone with real design skill will outgrow it, and that is fine.
Our note
Nearly everyone should be on the free plan until a brand kit is the thing they keep wanting. Pro earns its money for teams and for anybody publishing daily; for one person making a thumbnail a week it does not.
Only on this side
Open source design you can host yourself
Penpot does the job Figma does and is open source, which matters if you would rather keep design files on a server you control than on somebody else's. The free plan is fully featured rather than crippled, and paying mostly buys storage, version history and a bill that stops rising past a point. Files are standards-based, so what comes out is SVG and CSS rather than a format only one company reads.
Our note
The capped bill is the quietly good part of this: it removes the sting from adding the ninth person to a team. Take it seriously if you are choosing tools for an organisation that cares about lock-in, and stay on Figma if you just need to draw a thumbnail.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.