Loora vs Penpot
Penpot is the credible open-source design tool: free, self-hostable, SVG and CSS underneath, with a plugin system and no seat pricing. Loora is hosted and paid above a free tier, and what you get for that is an MCP server that lets a coding agent author the document directly, plus branches, a transaction log, and code export. If control of your own data and infrastructure is the requirement, Penpot. If agent write access is, Loora.
Side by side
| Loora | Penpot | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 source, hosted service | Open source, and self-hosting is a first-class path |
| Self-hosting | Not a supported product path | Yes — Docker, on your own infrastructure |
| Agent access | Remote MCP server with 33 typed tools | A plugin API you can build against |
| Underlying model | Normalized canvas document, rendered as real DOM and SVG | SVG and CSS, close to what a browser draws |
| Branching | Branches with semantic merge, on every plan | Versions and history |
| Export | HTML/CSS, React/TSX, JSX, Tailwind, JSON, PNG | SVG, PDF, PNG, and inspectable CSS |
| Cost | Free tier, $20 / month for Pro | Free, including for teams |
Choose Penpot when
- Your data has to stay on infrastructure you control.
- Cost matters more than agent tooling — Penpot is free for teams of any size.
- You want to modify the tool itself, not just script it.
- You are already comfortable extending it through the plugin API.
Choose Loora when
- You want an agent that authors the design through a typed vocabulary, over a protocol clients already speak.
- You want branches, a transaction log, and rollback as ordinary parts of the tool.
- You want React/TSX and Tailwind output rather than SVG and CSS inspection.
- You would rather not operate the service yourself.
The honest summary
Penpot answers "who owns this". Loora answers "can my agent edit this". Both are real questions; they are just not the same one.
Claims about Penpot were last checked on 2026-08-02. Products change; check their documentation before deciding on the strength of a table.
Questions
Is Loora open source?
The source is AGPL-3.0 and public, but the product is a hosted service and self-hosting is not a supported path. If self-hosting is a requirement rather than a preference, Penpot is the safer choice.
Can Penpot be driven by an AI agent?
You can build against its plugin API, which means writing and maintaining the integration yourself. Loora ships the agent surface as the product: a remote MCP endpoint any compliant client can connect to.
Which exports better code?
They aim at different outputs. Penpot inspects to CSS and exports SVG. Loora compiles the document to standalone HTML/CSS, React/TSX, JSX, or Tailwind, deterministically — the same document always produces the same output.