Penpot Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Penpot hosting gives your product team an open source Figma alternative on your own domain as a self-hosted design tool, with files and assets on a server you control. Deploy Penpot 2.17.0 with its frontend, backend, exporter, PostgreSQL and Valkey, generated secrets and two persistent volumes, published over HTTPS in minutes. Registration starts open, so create your team first and then close it.

Deploy your Penpot

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is Penpot?

Penpot is the open-source design platform for teams that build digital products. Upstream stresses full ownership of your design infrastructure, real-time collaboration, native design tokens, CSS Grid and Flex layouts, and a plugin system with an open API. A self-hosted Penpot is an alternative to Figma and Adobe XD for teams that want files on their own server, released under MPL-2.0.

On xCloud it is Penpot 2.17.0 with the frontend, backend and exporter, PostgreSQL 15 and Valkey 8.1, all pinned by digest, with accounts and files in postgres_data and uploads in assets_data. xCloud generates the secrets and serves the app over HTTPS. Registration is open at install, so close it after creating your team, and SMTP, SSO, MCP and external storage are not configured.

From Sign-Up to a Live Penpot In Just 3 Easy Steps

A Penpot stack needs five services, generated secrets, two volumes, a domain and a certificate before the first board. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick Penpot from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and a server with 4 GB of RAM or more; the install form has no fields.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We start the Penpot 2.17.0 frontend, backend and exporter, PostgreSQL 15 and Valkey 8.1, all pinned by digest, generate the secret key and database password, mount assets_data and postgres_data and publish it over HTTPS.
Step 03
Create Your Team, Then Close Registration
Open your HTTPS URL, create the first account and team at once, then add disable-registration to PENPOT_FLAGS in the Environment editor and Save and Redeploy. Until you do, anyone can register.

Everything Penpot Does, On Your Own Server

Penpot runs here as the full open-source platform, with your designs and assets on volumes you control.

Real-Time Collaboration
Designers and developers work in the same files at once, so feedback happens on the design instead of in a separate export.
Design Expressed As Code
Penpot builds on open web standards, so developers can read what was designed. CSS Grid and Flex layouts behave like real code from the start.
Design Tokens
Native design tokens give design and development a single source of truth for the values that make up a design system.
Plugin System And Open API
A plugin system and open API make the workspace programmable, for automation and integrations with other tools.
Private PostgreSQL And Assets
Accounts, teams and files sit in PostgreSQL, with uploaded images and SVGs in assets_data. Neither is exposed to the internet.
Template Limits Stated Plainly
SMTP, SSO/LDAP/OIDC, the MCP service and external object storage are not preconfigured, and email verification is off until you add SMTP.

Everything You Need To Run Your Design 24/7

Managed hosting for Penpot, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

Penpot 2.17.0 deployed instantly
Five services pinned by digest
Secret key and database password generated
PostgreSQL and Valkey kept private
Free SSL certificate
Files and assets on persistent volumes
Server backups and snapshots
Choose your server region
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With Penpot

Keep client designs on your own server
Host files for a studio or agency where contracts say designs must not sit on a third-party cloud.
Hand designs to developers as code
Let developers inspect layouts built with Grid and Flex and use design tokens, instead of redlining screenshots.
Run a shared design system
Keep tokens and components in one team library that designers and developers both open from your domain.
Automate with plugins and the API
Write a plugin or call the open API to generate boards or check designs as part of your own workflow.

Penpot vs Alternatives

Figma: As a self-hosted alternative to Figma, Penpot runs on your own server with open web standards underneath. Compare features before moving, as this page claims no parity beyond upstream's wording.
Adobe XD: Penpot is an open-source alternative to Adobe XD for prototyping, with files held in PostgreSQL and assets on a volume you control.
Open Design: Open Design has its own OneClick page. In an Open Design vs Penpot comparison, Penpot is a design canvas with real-time collaboration, design tokens and CSS Grid and Flex layouts.
Design handoff by screenshot: Without a shared design file, developers work from exported images. Penpot gives them the file itself, with layouts and design tokens they can inspect.

Ready To Own Your Design Platform?

Penpot on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Your files, your team, your domain.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

Hear what people are saying about us

See why agencies, developers, startups, and growing businesses choose xCloud to power their projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Is Penpot open source?

Yes. Penpot is released under MPL-2.0, so the software has no licence fee. You pay for the Cloud VPS that runs it, which makes this a Penpot cloud of your own rather than a hosted design account.

How do I self-host Penpot with Docker?

Penpot publishes an official production Docker topology, and this template is Penpot Docker hosting without the setup: five services pinned by digest, generated secrets, two volumes and HTTPS on your own domain, with no Compose file to maintain.

What are the system requirements for self-hosting Penpot?

The manifest asks for 4096 MB of RAM, 2 CPU cores and 50 GB of disk, which is why this page sells the 16 GB plan. Upstream guidance puts large teams at 4 CPUs and 16 GB, and database size grows with file complexity.

Is the self-hosted Penpot the same as the cloud version?

Not exactly. The self-hosted install runs the open-source services you see here, but SMTP, SSO, MCP and external object storage are not preconfigured, and you run backups and upgrades yourself rather than relying on upstream's hosted service.

Is Penpot as good as Figma?

Upstream positions Penpot as an open-source design platform with real-time collaboration, design tokens and code-friendly layouts. Whether it fits your team depends on your workflow, so trial it with a real project; this page claims no parity.

Who owns the data on a hosted Penpot instance?

You do. The files live in your own PostgreSQL database and assets volume on a Cloud VPS dedicated to you, not in a shared tenant. xCloud runs the server and deployment, while you own the application and its data.

Can anyone register on my Penpot server?

Yes, at first. Registration is open at install so you can create the first account and team. Then add disable-registration to PENPOT_FLAGS in the Environment editor and Save and Redeploy, or anyone reaching the domain can sign up.

How do I back up Penpot?

Back up PostgreSQL and assets_data as one recovery set, keep copies off the server and test a restore. A database-only backup is incomplete when designs reference uploaded assets. Keep the generated PENPOT_SECRET_KEY with it too, for sessions and invitations.

Backup and restore Docker apps

How do I update Penpot?

The install stays on its pinned 2.17.0 images until you adopt a newer template version. Back up PostgreSQL and assets first and read every intervening release note, upgrading in small increments. Nothing upgrades automatically, and PostgreSQL major versions need a separate migration.

Does Penpot send email?

Not until you configure it. The template omits SMTP because a partial block does not work. Add the full PENPOT_SMTP settings and enable-smtp in PENPOT_FLAGS; invitations and email verification need it, so set it up before inviting a team.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.