The best Design & prototyping
Every option ranked — open-source, self-hostable, and commercial — by our transparent Sovereignty Score, with honest trade-offs so you choose what fits you, not us.
Interface design, prototyping and diagramming. Priced per editor per month, which is how a design team of six becomes a four-figure annual line.
L5Applications — layer 5 of the AI stack- 1
Penpot
Top pickOpen sourceThe one open design tool that genuinely competes — and it self-hosts.
Free and open source, self-hosted or on Penpot's free cloud. Paid plans for hosted teams. · in our Figma comparison →
What is Penpot? →92sovereignty - 2
Inkscape
Open sourceProfessional vector editing, free for twenty years.
Free and open source. Desktop install, no accounts. · in our Figma comparison →
What is Inkscape? →96sovereignty - 3
Excalidraw
Open sourceDiagrams and whiteboarding, done better than Figma does them.
Free and open source. Excalidraw+ is an optional paid hosted tier. · in our Figma comparison →
What is Excalidraw? →95sovereignty - 4
Lunacy
CommercialFree desktop UI design that opens Sketch and Figma files.
Free. Paid Icons8 subscription only for premium asset libraries. · in our Figma comparison →
What is Lunacy? →48sovereignty - 5
Sketch
CommercialThe incumbent Figma displaced — still excellent, still Mac-only.
Around $12 per editor per month, or a one-time licence with a year of updates. · in our Figma comparison →
What is Sketch? →38sovereignty
Replacing a specific tool?
Head-to-head comparisons for each popular design & prototyping product.
Straight head-to-heads
Two design & prototyping tools, side by side — verified facts and a plain verdict.