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Design

Zeplin

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Zeplin, Inc. · zeplin.io

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Zeplin: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Zeplin: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Zeplin at a glance

Vendor
Zeplin, Inc.
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Zeplin 2.5/5, the mean of 6 judges. Zeplin is a handoff product you publish designs into from Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD or Photoshop. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 3 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 4 Nov 2026. all sources

Zeplin alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Brand Marketer

Weighted verdict

Keeps the brand consistent across twelve sales offices that make their own flyers. Wants locked templates non-designers can use, guidelines inside the tool, licence and expiry dates on every stock image, and a clear answer on whether a generated image may go on a trade-fair stand.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Brand Marketer

Panel median The Brand Marketer This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Brand Marketer
Design, prototyping & design systems 3 of 5 3 of 5
Collaboration, review & developer handoff 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Brand assets & governance 2 of 5 1.5 of 5
Files, formats & portability 2 of 5 2 of 5
AI features & rights to the work 3 of 5 3.5 of 5
European sovereignty 0.5 of 5 0.5 of 5

Design, prototyping & design systems

How this is scored

The making itself: vector and layout tools, interactive prototypes, and the shared components, styles and tokens that keep a company's products and materials consistent — judged on what the feature and help pages document, not on showcase images.

0 — Not a design tool: a file viewer, a stock library or a single-purpose converter in which nothing is laid out or drawn.

3 — A canvas or editor with templates, shapes, text and images; reusable components, shared styles and prototyping are basic or not described.

5 — Reusable components or styles shared across files, responsive or auto layout, and clickable prototypes or presentations linking screens.

8 — A design system managed in the tool: team libraries that update where they are used, variables or tokens for colour, type and spacing with modes or themes, component variants and properties, prototypes with transitions and conditional logic, and library changes published with versions.

10 — The design system is a governed product: library releases versioned and reviewable, token export in a documented format for development, usage analytics per component, and accessibility checks such as contrast built into the editor.

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The Brand Marketer

Zeplin is where designs land, not where they are made: frames are published in from Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD or Photoshop, and I found no public information on drawing, layout authoring or prototyping inside the tool itself. The design-system half is real, though — global styleguides with parent/child inheritance, colour, text-style and spacing tokens exportable as JSON, component and screen variants, and Version Diff to see what changed between versions. 1 3 4 6 9

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Collaboration, review & developer handoff

How this is scored

Working on the same files with colleagues, clients and developers: comments and review, permissions for internal and external people, and the handoff that gives engineering measurements, assets and code rather than screenshots.

0 — A single-user tool: files are worked on alone and passed on as exports.

3 — Files shared by link with comments or real-time co-editing; guest access, permissions and a developer view are basic or not described.

5 — Real-time co-editing, comments with mentions, sharing with view or edit rights per file or project, and an inspect or developer view with measurements and asset export.

8 — Guests and reviewers who comment without a paid seat, version history with restore, branching or review of changes before they reach the main file, a developer mode that links components to code, a documented API and plugins, and named integrations with issue trackers and code tools.

10 — Handoff is a contract between design and code: component properties mapped to code components, token and asset export automated through the API, an audit log of access and sharing, and external access governed by domain, expiry and admin policy.

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The Brand Marketer

Handoff is the whole product: auto-generated measurements, assets and code snippets in the inspect panel, Connected Components tying finalized designs to the codebase with code snippets visible on inspection, a documented API with webhooks, and named integrations with Jira, Azure DevOps, VS Code, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Storybook and GitHub. Comments and annotations with product-requirements pinning are documented too, but I found no public information on guests or reviewers commenting without a paid seat, on restoring from version history, or on branching or review before changes go live. 1 3 4 6 8

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Brand assets & governance

How this is scored

Keeping a brand usable and correct across a company: a central library for logos, images and templates, brand guidelines people can find, locked templates that let non-designers produce material, and rights and expiry metadata on every licensed asset.

0 — No shared assets of any kind; the product has no library, kit or template that a team uses together.

3 — A shared folder, brand kit or template set with logos, colours and fonts; locking, guidelines and asset metadata are basic or not described.

5 — A central brand kit or library with logos, colours and fonts, team templates that non-designers can fill, and the ability to lock brand elements or restrict who edits templates.

8 — Brand guidelines published in the tool, tagging and search across assets, approval workflows for new assets and template output, version control on assets, rights, usage and expiry metadata with warnings on expiry, and access per team, market or partner.

10 — Brand governance is auditable: every asset carries its licence, owner and permitted use, usage of each asset is tracked across files and channels, distribution to external partners is logged, and the whole library with metadata is exportable in a documented format.

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The Brand Marketer

A centralised styleguide holding colours, text styles, spacing and components, with parent/child inheritance across projects, is a proper brand-kit core and would help me keep twelve offices on one truth. But for my actual people — non-designers in sales offices — I found no public information on templates they can fill, on locking brand elements, on guidelines published inside the tool, or on licence, rights and expiry metadata for any asset, so this stays at kit level rather than governance. 4 6 8

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Files, formats & portability

How this is scored

Whether the work can leave: open or documented file formats, export that keeps layers, vectors and components, offline or self-hosted options, and what happens to files after a downgrade, a removed seat or a cancelled contract.

0 — Work cannot leave the product: no export or download of designs is offered.

3 — Export of designs as images or PDF per page or frame; export of whole files with structure and access after cancellation are basic or not described.

5 — Export to PNG, PDF and SVG with vectors and text kept, whole files downloadable to a local copy, and files of a downgraded or cancelled account addressed in the help centre or terms.

8 — An open or publicly documented file format, import from and export to other named tools documented, bulk export of a team’s files, an API that reads full file structure, files of removed users transferred to the organisation by policy, and a stated retention and deletion timeline after the contract ends.

10 — Portability is built in: an open-source or openly specified format, self-hosting or a local-first option, round-trip export without loss of components and prototypes, and the customer’s ownership of all files and their export rights written into the terms.

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The Brand Marketer

Design tokens can be exported as a zip package or individual JSON files for colour, text-style and spacing, React Native code snippets can be generated from layers, colours and text styles, and an API accesses the data in Zeplin. I found no public information on downloading whole files with their structure, on exporting screens as images or PDF, or on what happens to files after a downgrade or a cancelled contract. 6 9 10

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AI features & rights to the work

How this is scored

What the vendor's AI does with the customer's files and what the customer may do with the AI's output: training on customer content and the opt-out, the models and where they run, commercial use of generated images, stock licences and indemnity.

0 — The terms state that customer files train the vendor’s models with no opt-out, or that generated output may not be used commercially.

3 — AI features described on an AI or help page with a general statement on responsible use or data handling; training on customer files, admin controls and output rights are basic or not described.

5 — A statement on whether customer content trains the models (excluded, or with a documented opt-out), AI features that an admin can switch off for the organisation, and commercial use of generated output addressed in the terms or AI page.

8 — Training excluded by default for business plans, model providers and the processing location of AI features stated, generated content labelled or carrying content credentials, stock and template licences stated per asset type, and an IP indemnity for generated output on a named plan.

10 — AI is governed in writing: a per-feature list of models, providers and locations, admin controls per team and feature, a log of AI use, training exclusion and output ownership in the contract terms, and indemnity and licence limits published in full.

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The Brand Marketer

The AI terms answer my trade-fair question in writing: Zeplin does not use Customer Data to train its models, third-party AI providers are contractually barred from training on input or output, the features are opt-in, and Input and Output are the customer's own Customer Data — and since Zeplin AI reviews designs and organises screens rather than making images, there is no generated-image risk to clear. I found no public information on organisation-level admin controls, on the models and providers behind the features and where they run, or on any indemnity; the terms themselves note output may not be unique and is not verified by Zeplin. 11 12

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity is, where design files, brand assets and AI prompts are stored and processed, and which subprocessors touch them. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline.

0 — Proven non-EU on every dimension the evidence covers: non-EU contracting entity and non-EU hosting, with no EU option stated.

3 — One European element proven: an EU contracting entity or EU representative, EU data residency (even if only on an enterprise plan), or a published DPA, with the rest of the chain unstated.

5 — EU hosting stated for files as standard or selectable and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, with a DPA offered; the subprocessor chain (AI, rendering, support) is unstated or partly non-EU.

8 — EU contracting entity, files, assets and backups stored in the EU on named infrastructure, subprocessor list published with locations and purposes, and the processing location of AI features stated.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, EU entity, every hosting, AI and support subprocessor European or optional, self-hosting or a European cloud offered, and certifications published.

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The Brand Marketer

The contracting entity is Zeplin, Inc. governed by California law, the service transfers data to the United States, and personal information may be stored anywhere in the world on Amazon Web Services; I found no public information on a committed EU hosting option. The only European-facing elements I can point to are the EU Standard Contractual Clauses governing transfers and a published subprocessor list. 2 11

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the annual cost for their team from public pages alone — which seat types exist and what each may do, how viewers and guests are billed, how seats are added and trued up, AI credits, and the plan where SSO, admin controls and brand features begin.

0 — No public prices at all; every plan is a sales conversation.

3 — A public "from" price or one priced plan, per seat or flat.

5 — Per-seat prices public for the main plans with the billing period stated and the main features per plan listed.

8 — Every plan and seat type priced, free viewers and guests stated with their limits, how and when added seats are billed explained, AI credits and storage priced or included explicitly, the plan that unlocks SSO and admin controls named, and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete cost computability: annual cost derivable for a given mix of editors, viewers and guests, true-up and auto-upgrade rules published, every add-on priced publicly, and contract term, renewal and downgrade conditions stated.

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The Brand Marketer

The captured pages show only a "Try for free today" offer and payment processed through Stripe; I found no public information on seat prices, plan tiers, how viewers or guests are billed, where single sign-on and admin controls begin, or VAT treatment. A buyer cannot begin to compute an annual team cost from what was captured. 2 4

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Zeplin

Is Zeplin European?

Not determined: the vendor’s pages as captured do not say where Zeplin is based.

Where does Zeplin store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026.

Does Zeplin have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Zeplin?

As of 4 Nov 2026, the panel rates Penpot (3.5/5), Sketch (3/5) and Collaboard (3/5) highest among the other 21 Design products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Penpot (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Zeplin alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

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Sources (12)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor page zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Privacy policy — found from the homepage zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Design, prototyping & design systems — found from sitemap zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Design, prototyping & design systems — found from sitemap zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Collaboration, review & developer handoff — found from sitemap support.zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Collaboration, review & developer handoff — found from sitemap support.zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Brand assets & governance — found from sitemap support.zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Brand assets & governance — found from sitemap support.zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Files, formats & portability — found from sitemap support.zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Files, formats & portability — found from sitemap support.zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  11. 11 AI features & rights to the work — found from sitemap zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  12. 12 AI features & rights to the work — found from sitemap support.zeplin.io Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →