Head to head
Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.
Up to 4 tools, same rows for each: what it is, what it really costs, the trap, and how to wire it up. The URL carries your picks — send it to anyone.
PenpotFontshareGoogle Fonts
Quick read
- Free with no card: Fontshare, Google Fonts.
| Field | Penpotpenpot.app | Fontsharefontshare.com | Google Fontsfonts.google.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source design and prototyping tool under MPL 2.0 that stores work in open standards — SVG, CSS, HTML and JSON — rather than a proprietary binary. Ships native design tokens, an inspect tab that emits SVG and CSS, and deployment-agnostic self-hosting via Docker or Kubernetes. | Free font service from the Indian Type Foundry offering a small, tightly curated set of contemporary families — Satoshi, General Sans, Clash Display, Cabinet Grotesk and similar — many with variable versions. Serve from their CDN or download the files and self-host. | Library of open-source typefaces, almost all under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 with a handful under Apache 2.0. Serve them from Google's CDN, self-host the files, or bundle them into a native app. Includes variable fonts and the Material Symbols icon set. |
| Category | Design tools, color & type | Design tools, color & type | Design tools, color & type |
| Cost tier | mixed | free | free |
| Pricing | Free cloud tier (up to 8 members, 10 GB) · Unlimited $7/user/mo capped at $175/mo · self-host free | Free | Free |
| Why builders pick it | The only serious Figma alternative you can run on your own box, and its files are SVG underneath, so design work stays greppable and diffable instead of locked in a vendor format. | The quickest way to stop looking like every other Google Fonts site. A handful of these faces read as expensive typography while costing nothing, which is exactly the trade a solo builder wants. | Zero-cost, zero-friction type that is legally safe in commercial products, including ones you sell. Self-hosting a subset via Fontsource or next/font also kills a render-blocking third-party request. |
| Watch out for | Far smaller plugin and community-template ecosystem than Figma, and importing complex Figma files is imperfect — plan to rebuild rather than migrate. | The ITF licence covers personal and commercial use and embedding in sites and apps, but you may not resell or redistribute the font files themselves. Check the terms per family — some are free cuts of larger paid families. | Serving from Google's CDN sends visitor IP addresses to Google, which a German court ruled a GDPR violation — self-host the files if you have EU traffic. The OFL also bars selling the font files on their own and reserves certain names for modified versions. |
| How to wire it up | Self-host with the official Docker Compose file, then docker compose up -d | not logged | npm i @fontsource/inter, or import from next/font/google |
| Editor's pick | No | No | No |
Which one did you ship?
The grid says what these tools are. This says what builders did about it — one decision per person, changeable whenever you change your mind.
0/280Sign in to add yours.
Or try
Hand this to your Lovable agent
# Tool comparison — Penpot vs Fontshare vs Google Fonts Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects. Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code. ## Penpot (penpot) - URL: https://penpot.app - Category: Design tools, color & type - Cost: mixed — Free cloud tier (up to 8 members, 10 GB) · Unlimited $7/user/mo capped at $175/mo · self-host free - What it is: Open-source design and prototyping tool under MPL 2.0 that stores work in open standards — SVG, CSS, HTML and JSON — rather than a proprietary binary. Ships native design tokens, an inspect tab that emits SVG and CSS, and deployment-agnostic self-hosting via Docker or Kubernetes. - Why builders pick it: The only serious Figma alternative you can run on your own box, and its files are SVG underneath, so design work stays greppable and diffable instead of locked in a vendor format. - Trap: Far smaller plugin and community-template ecosystem than Figma, and importing complex Figma files is imperfect — plan to rebuild rather than migrate. - Wiring: Self-host with the official Docker Compose file, then docker compose up -d - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/penpot ## Fontshare (fontshare) - URL: https://www.fontshare.com - Category: Design tools, color & type - Cost: free — Free - What it is: Free font service from the Indian Type Foundry offering a small, tightly curated set of contemporary families — Satoshi, General Sans, Clash Display, Cabinet Grotesk and similar — many with variable versions. Serve from their CDN or download the files and self-host. - Why builders pick it: The quickest way to stop looking like every other Google Fonts site. A handful of these faces read as expensive typography while costing nothing, which is exactly the trade a solo builder wants. - Trap: The ITF licence covers personal and commercial use and embedding in sites and apps, but you may not resell or redistribute the font files themselves. Check the terms per family — some are free cuts of larger paid families. - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/fontshare ## Google Fonts (google-fonts) - URL: https://fonts.google.com - Category: Design tools, color & type - Cost: free — Free - What it is: Library of open-source typefaces, almost all under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 with a handful under Apache 2.0. Serve them from Google's CDN, self-host the files, or bundle them into a native app. Includes variable fonts and the Material Symbols icon set. - Why builders pick it: Zero-cost, zero-friction type that is legally safe in commercial products, including ones you sell. Self-hosting a subset via Fontsource or next/font also kills a render-blocking third-party request. - Trap: Serving from Google's CDN sends visitor IP addresses to Google, which a German court ruled a GDPR violation — self-host the files if you have EU traffic. The OFL also bars selling the font files on their own and reserves certain names for modified versions. - Wiring: npm i @fontsource/inter, or import from next/font/google - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/google-fonts ## Quick read - Free with no card: Fontshare, Google Fonts. ## Rules 1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is. 2. Read the full dossier before integrating. 3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.
Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=penpot,fontshare,google-fonts