Penpot vs Air
Side-by-side trajectory, velocity, and editorial themes.
Penpot pushes a WebGL canvas beta while deepening design tokens and MCP.
Penpot is the open-source, self-hostable design and prototyping platform built on web standards (CSS flex/grid), positioned as a Figma alternative. Recent releases have converged on three fronts: maturing design tokens, opening the product to automation via a plugin API and an MCP server, and now attacking canvas performance with a WebGL rendering beta. Development is visibly community-driven, with 50+ enhancements and 60+ fixes landing per release from outside contributors.
The arc is toward performance parity and standards-based design-to-code. WebGL rendering targets the canvas-speed gap that has long favored native competitors, while token access from plugins and the MCP server extend Penpot into agent and DesignOps workflows. Expect the next several releases to keep hardening these two pillars in parallel.
The most likely next move is graduating WebGL rendering from beta toward default and widening design-token type coverage exposed through the panel and MCP tooling.
Air keeps stacking generative models and sharper review tools onto its asset library.
Air is a creative-asset management platform that has grown a multi-model generation surface, Canvas, on top of its core library. Recent weeks added lower-cost model tiers (Nano Banana 2 Lite, Seedance 2.0 Mini), span-based video review comments, a Smart Resize overhaul, and a more capable mobile app. The product now spans storage, in-app AI generation, and review in one place.
The release cadence points at Air becoming a place teams both generate and manage creative, not just store it: every model added to Canvas widens that surface, and the Lite/Mini tiers lower the cost and latency of generating inside Air rather than elsewhere. In parallel, integration and distribution moves (Shopify, WordPress, Premiere Pro, Make.com, LinkedIn Verified Skill) push Air outward into the tools creatives already use. Review workflow keeps getting incremental polish alongside the generation push.
Expect the Canvas model roster to keep expanding with new speed and cost tiers, and continued refinement of the video review workflow — the two threads most visible across recent releases.
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