Open-source alternative
Replace Canva with Penpot
The best open-source alternative to Canva is Penpot, self-hosted on Railway. Self-host the design file. Penpot is the open-source product-design tool: boards, components, prototypes — Figma and Canva without the seat.
Estimated save $1,920 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How Canva compares
| Canva | Penpot | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Hosted subscription | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Public list price not verified this run | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Penpot
Open-source design and prototyping platform
FAQ
- Is it free?
- The Penpot licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Canva seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Canva?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Penpot stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Canva links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Penpot stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Penpot (frontend + backend + Postgres + Redis + object storage). A volume for assets. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway.
- What does this replace?
- Figma / Canva. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $1,920 a year.
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