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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 Frontend Engineer

Weighted verdict

Turns the designs into code and gets the ticket when they disagree. Wants an inspect mode without a paid seat, tokens exported in a documented format, components mapped to the code ones, and an API that reads the whole file rather than a screenshot of it.

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

Scored by The Frontend Engineer

Panel median The Frontend Engineer 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 Frontend Engineer
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 2 of 5
Files, formats & portability 2 of 5 2 of 5
AI features & rights to the work 3 of 5 3 of 5
European sovereignty 0.5 of 5 0 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 Frontend Engineer

Nothing is drawn in Zeplin — frames are published in from Figma, Sketch, XD or Photoshop — but the design-system half is real: global styleguides with parent/child inheritance, colour, text-style and spacing tokens exportable as JSON, and component variants that collapse into one component developers can cycle through, with version diff between published versions. What keeps it below the top band is the making itself: we found no public information on prototypes with transitions or conditional logic. 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 Frontend Engineer

The inspect panel auto-generates measurements, assets and code snippets, and Connected Components genuinely map design components to the ones in the codebase, with Storybook and GitHub links and snippets visible during inspection. There is a documented API with webhooks, buildable extensions, and named Jira, Azure DevOps and VS Code integrations, plus version diff between published versions. I hold it below the top band because I found no public information on whether guests and reviewers can comment without a paid seat, on restoring versions, or on any access audit log. 1 6 8 9

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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 Frontend Engineer

Styleguides are a real shared library — components, colours, text styles and spacing held centrally with parent/child inheritance across projects — but that is a design-system library rather than a brand asset one. We found no public information on logos, fonts, locked templates non-designers can fill, or rights and expiry metadata on assets. 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 Frontend Engineer

Tokens leave in a documented JSON form — a zip package, individual files for colour, text-style and spacing, or a fetch through the API — and React Native code snippets export across platforms, which is more than screenshot handoff. But we found no public information on exporting whole projects with structure, on a documented file format, or on what happens to files after a downgrade or cancelled account. The Mac and Windows apps appear as downloads; we found no public information on offline or self-hosted options. 1 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 Frontend Engineer

The AI terms are unusually clear: Zeplin does not use customer data to train its models, third-party AI providers are contractually barred from training on input or output, and input and output remain the customer's data. The features are opt-in — design review that catches layout issues and token mismatches, and screen organising, with custom prompts — though the terms disclose output is not verified and may not be unique. We found no public information on named model providers or processing locations, organisation-wide admin switches, content credentials, or indemnity. 2 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 Frontend Engineer

Zeplin, Inc. is the contracting entity under California law, and the policy states plainly that using the services transfers data to the United States, where personal information may be stored anywhere in the world on Amazon Web Services. EU transfers rest on standard contractual clauses rather than an EU entity, EU hosting option or stated EU residency — every sovereignty dimension the captured pages cover points to the US. 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 Frontend Engineer

The only pricing signal on the captured pages is "Try for free today". We found no public information on plan prices, seat types, how viewers or guests are billed, true-ups, VAT treatment, or which plan unlocks SSO — a buyer cannot compute an annual cost from these pages. 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 →