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Both cover design & graphics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Marq | Penpot | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $10 | From $7 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Not stated |
| Free trial | 7 days | 14 days |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Design & Graphics | Design & Graphics |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | 1 | 1 |
Brand templates with the logo locked down
Marq exists for the problem where somebody outside the design team has to make a flyer and must not be able to move the logo. Templates lock whichever parts carry the brand and leave the rest editable, so a franchise or a chapter can localise a poster without redrawing it. The product came out of Lucidpress and kept that job when it changed name.
Our note
This is bought for the lock rather than for the drawing, and if nobody is going to misuse your logo you do not need it. The former name, Lucidpress, is still what half the internet's tutorials call it.
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.