Miro vs Penpot

Miro and Penpot are both European visual tools, but comparing them directly requires a caveat: they are not doing the same thing. Miro is a visual collaboration platform — an infinite canvas for brainstorming, planning, and workshopping. Penpot is a design and prototyping tool — a free, open-source alternative to Figma. Teams that need both whiteboarding and UI design might end up using both. But if you are choosing one, understanding the distinction matters.

At a Glance

| | Miro | Penpot | |---|---|---| | HQ | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Madrid, Spain | | Pricing | Freemium (Free to Enterprise) | Completely free | | Open Source | No (proprietary) | Yes (MPL 2.0) | | Self-Hosting | No | Yes (Docker) | | Primary Use | Visual collaboration, workshops, planning | UI/UX design and prototyping | | Best For | Distributed teams brainstorming and planning | Design teams needing a free, open alternative to Figma | | EU Data Residency | Enterprise plan only | Self-hosted or EU cloud | | File Format | Proprietary | SVG-native (open standard) |

The Core Difference

Miro is where teams think together. Product managers map user journeys. Scrum masters run retrospectives. Strategy teams build roadmaps. Workshop facilitators run ideation sessions with sticky notes, voting, and timers. Miro's canvas is deliberately unstructured — it is a digital whiteboard that adapts to whatever collaborative process you throw at it.

Penpot is where designers create. Vector graphics, component libraries, interactive prototypes, responsive layouts with CSS Grid and Flexbox, and developer handoff with code inspection. Penpot's canvas is structured — it follows the conventions of modern design tools where precision, consistency, and production-ready output matter.

Some overlap exists (Miro has basic diagramming; Penpot supports real-time collaboration), but their centres of gravity are different.

Collaboration Features

Miro is built around real-time collaboration. Multiple users can work on the same canvas simultaneously with cursors, comments, and reactions visible in real time. Facilitation tools — voting, timers, breakout frames — make it a genuine workshop platform, not just a shared canvas. Integration with video tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams means Miro often becomes the shared workspace during remote meetings. TalkTrack enables async video walkthroughs for distributed teams.

Penpot supports real-time multiplayer collaboration where multiple designers can edit the same file simultaneously. Commenting and version history are available. But Penpot's collaboration is design-focused — it is about working on a shared design file, not about facilitating group thinking sessions. There are no voting tools, timers, or workshop templates.

For collaborative brainstorming and planning, Miro is the clear winner. For collaborative design work, Penpot holds its own.

Design and Prototyping

Penpot is the winner for actual design work. It offers vector and raster design tools, component libraries, design systems, interactive prototyping with flows, and a grid and flex layout system that maps to real CSS. The SVG-native format means every design is valid SVG that renders in any browser — no proprietary file formats, no lock-in. CSS code inspection gives developers exact values to implement. Figma file import makes migration feasible.

Miro offers basic shapes, connectors, and diagramming tools that work well for wireframes, flowcharts, and visual planning. But it is not a production design tool. You would not create a polished UI component library or an interactive prototype in Miro. That is not what it is for.

Templates and Ecosystem

Miro has a massive template library with over 300 templates covering agile ceremonies, design thinking frameworks, strategy canvases, customer journey maps, and more. The integration ecosystem includes over 200 apps connecting Miro to Jira, Slack, Figma, Confluence, Asana, and other workflow tools. AI-powered features generate content and cluster ideas. The breadth of the ecosystem is one of Miro's strongest advantages.

Penpot has a growing plugin system and community-contributed templates, but the ecosystem is still developing. Integrations are limited compared to Miro. However, Penpot's use of open standards (SVG, CSS) means designs integrate naturally with web development workflows and Git-based processes. What Penpot lacks in marketplace breadth, it compensates for in standards-based interoperability.

Pricing and Openness

The pricing story is stark. Miro's free tier includes up to three editable boards with unlimited team members — sufficient for trying the product but limiting for active use. Paid plans carry per-member monthly costs that scale with team size. EU data residency is restricted to the Enterprise tier.

Penpot is completely free. Unlimited projects, unlimited files, unlimited collaborators, all features included. No paywall, no premium tiers gating essential functionality. Self-hosting via Docker is free. The project is funded through EU grants (including the European Commission's NGI initiative) and has a sustainable model that does not depend on monetising users. For budget-constrained teams, Penpot's economics are hard to argue with.

EU Compliance and Data Sovereignty

Both platforms are EU-headquartered and GDPR compliant.

Miro is based in Amsterdam with SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications. EU data residency is available but only for Enterprise customers — a meaningful limitation for smaller organisations with data sovereignty requirements.

Penpot is based in Madrid, backed by the European Commission, and built on open-source principles. Self-hosting gives complete data sovereignty regardless of your plan or budget. No tracking, no data monetisation, full code transparency via the MPL 2.0 licence. For organisations that need verifiable data sovereignty without an enterprise price tag, Penpot is the stronger option.

When to Choose Miro

• Your team needs a visual collaboration platform for brainstorming, planning, and workshops
• You run remote workshops, retrospectives, or strategy sessions regularly
• You need deep integrations with project management tools like Jira, Asana, or Confluence
• Template variety matters — you want ready-made frameworks for common business processes
• Your use case is collaborative thinking, not production design
• Your organisation can budget for per-member SaaS pricing

When to Choose Penpot

• You need a design and prototyping tool for creating UIs, components, and interactive flows
• Open-source and data sovereignty are priorities, not just nice-to-haves
• Your budget is limited and you need full design capabilities at no cost
• You want to avoid proprietary file formats and vendor lock-in
• Self-hosting is a requirement for your compliance framework
• Your workflow benefits from SVG-native output and CSS code inspection

The Verdict

Miro and Penpot are both excellent European tools, but they answer different questions. Miro answers: "How do we think and plan together visually?" Penpot answers: "How do we design and prototype interfaces without proprietary lock-in?"

If your team's pain point is collaboration — aligning on strategy, running workshops, mapping processes — Miro is the tool. If your team's pain point is design — creating interfaces, building component systems, prototyping interactions — Penpot is the tool. And if you need both (many product teams do), the good news is that Penpot is free, so adding it alongside a Miro subscription costs nothing.

For teams looking at Penpot as a Figma replacement: it is getting there, with real advantages in openness and cost. For teams looking at Miro as a Penpot replacement: it is not one. Use the right tool for the right job.