# pen.dev vs Sketch (slim)

> Sketch scores 53.5 (D) to pen.dev's 47.6 (D) for design files. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pen-dev-vs-sketch.md (~2,150 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pen-dev-vs-sketch.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pen-dev-vs-sketch
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Sketch scores 53.5 (D) on agent readiness against pen.dev's 47.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. pen.dev leads on payments & pricing. Both do design files.

- pen.dev: D 47.6, rank #832 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pen-dev.min.md
- Sketch: D 53.5, rank #707 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sketch.min.md
- pen.dev, good for A coding agent that designs screens beside the code and keeps them in Git, including in CI. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 38 against 30.
- Sketch, good for A designer or developer at a Mac who wants an agent to inspect, audit, export or edit an open Sketch document, or turn a frame into code. Ahead on Reliability, 53 against 33; Maintenance & community, 65 against 59; Transparency & trust, 65 against 53. Also No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card.

| Category | pen.dev | Sketch |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 33 | 53 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 61 | 64 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 66 | 70 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 33 | 34 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 38 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 59 | 65 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 53 | 65 |

| Fact (where they differ) | pen.dev | Sketch |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | High Agency, Inc. | Sketch B.V. |
| Transports | stdio | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Licence | Proprietary. The CLI package on npm carries a proprietary licence file, and the apps fall under the vendor's EULA | Proprietary Mac app under Sketch's End User Licence Agreement and Terms of Service. The connector in sketch-hq/agents is MIT and the skills are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 6 | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-09-14 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-06 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-06 | no date given |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 3.5k npm/wk | 97 stars |