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Penpot

Free

Open-source design and prototyping tool — the Figma alternative that you can self-host. Vector editor, component system, interactive prototypes. Based on SVG standards, not proprietary formats.

Catalogued April 15, 2026 · Curated by PWA Directory team

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✏️Penpot

penpot.app

Penpot, as it opens in a browser tab.

Online Only

Installable

Cross-Platform

✓

Free

Not sure how to add Penpot to your home screen? Step-by-step for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge — it takes about ten seconds, and there is no app store involved.

Own Penpot? Have us re-run this measurement — we open it in a real browser, cut the network, and send you what survived.

How to install Penpot as a PWA

Chrome / Edge

Menu (⋮) → Add to Home screen

Safari (iOS)

Share (↑) → Add to Home Screen

Firefox

Menu (⋮) → Install

Screenshots

Are you the maker of Penpot? Claim this listing →

Penpot in our guides

Figma Alternative Free: Self-Host or Browser PicksPenpot and Graphite are the two free picks for a figma alternative free of subscription fees. They cover interface design and procedural vector work respectively. Penpot runs in the browser or self-hosted, with vector editing, components and prototyping built on open SVG files. Graphite is a free, node-based vector editor that works offline once installed, favoring a procedural, non-destructive workflow over Figma's direct-manipulation canvas.Read the answer →

Whiteboards that run in a browser tabExcalidraw is the one most people want: a hand-drawn whiteboard that installs from the browser, needs no account, and keeps working with the network cut. tldraw covers the same ground with a cleaner line. For interface design rather than sketching, Penpot is the open-source option. Whimsical handles flowcharts and wireframes. All of them open in a tab first — installing just gives them a window and an icon.Read the answer →

Do you need an account for Paper Critters?No. Paper Critters opens in the browser and starts working immediately — no account, no email, no sign-up wall between a child and the thing they came to do. Decorate a 3D paper toy with shapes and stickers, print the one-page sheet, fold it into a real critter. The studio also keeps working with no connection once it has loaded.Read the answer →

How do you make a printable paper toy?Decorate the toy in 3D first, then print. Paper Critters shows you the critter as a solid object you can turn while you add shapes and stickers, and only flattens it to a printable sheet when you are done — so you are never guessing how a flat template will look folded. One ordinary page, cut, fold, finished.Read the answer →

We read 386 PWA manifests. One was complete.We fetched the web app manifest of all 386 apps in the discovered catalogue: 373 responded. Of those, 41% declare a maskable icon, 11% declare an `id`, 8% declare shortcuts, and only 11% ship any screenshot at all. Exactly one manifest in 386 filled in every field we checked. The median manifest declares 3 icons, tops out at 512px, has no screenshots, no id, no shortcuts, and no language — which is enough to install, and not enough to look like software anyone maintains.Read the answer →

Your PWA looks wrong on AndroidAndroid rarely refuses to run a PWA; it runs it slightly wrong. The three causes we see most: no `maskable` icon, so your square logo sits in a white circle — 215 of the 373 manifests we read do this. A cached WebAPK, so a changed name or icon keeps showing the old one for days. And a service worker that registers but caches nothing, so the app installs and then shows nothing offline.Read the answer →

Your app icon sits in a white circle on AndroidAndroid does this when no icon in your manifest declares `"purpose": "maskable"`. Without one, Chrome treats your icons as legacy, refuses to crop them into the device's adaptive shape, and instead centres them on a white circle — which is why an installed PWA looks unfinished next to native apps. The fix is one extra 512×512 PNG with roughly 20% padding around the artwork, declared as maskable alongside your existing icons.Read the answer →

Why did PWAs fail?They did not fail — the promise that they would replace app stores did, and for two reasons that have nothing to do with the technology. Apple never shipped an install prompt, so on iPhone the user must know a hidden menu path. And nobody solved discovery: an app store is a place people already go, a web app has to be found. What the technology actually delivers, we measured: 151 of 386 installable apps keep working with the network off. The format works where someone did the work.Read the answer →

Excalidraw download: there is no installer — and you don't need oneThere is no official Excalidraw download. The Excalidraw team does not ship an installer for Windows, macOS, Linux or Android, and any .exe or .apk offered elsewhere is not from them. What you actually want exists though: install Excalidraw from your browser in one click and you get a real application window, a dock or taskbar icon, and full offline use — no download, no account.Read the answer →

Does Photopea work offline?No, not right now: Photopea runs client-side once the page has loaded, but our own browser check found no active service worker, so nothing is cached for reuse. Close the tab, lose the connection, or come back later with no network, and the editor has to reload from photopea.com before it opens again. What does stay local for that session: PSD, XCF and Sketch files are read and edited on your machine, not uploaded to a server.Read the answer →

Is Excalidraw free — including for commercial work?Yes, on both counts. Excalidraw is open source under the MIT licence, which explicitly permits commercial use: you can use it at work, in client deliverables, and in a commercial product without paying or asking. The [free version](/directory/excalidraw) has no feature lock and no watermark. Excalidraw+ is a separate paid, hosted product for teams that want persistent workspaces and managed collaboration — it is an addition, not an unlock.Read the answer →

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