Pensil alternatives
TL;DR: 12 companies doing similar work to Pensil in B2B, ranked by how closely they match what Pensil actually does — not just by category.
How this list was built: every company here is Y Combinator-backed and shares at least one category with Pensil. They are scored on how closely their own description overlaps with Pensil's, and all facts shown come from the YC company records — nothing is estimated.
What are the best alternatives to Pensil?
| Alternative | What it does | Batch | Team | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eivod | — | Summer 2007 | 51 | Inactive |
| Stackq | — | Summer 2009 | — | Inactive |
| BitSample | — | Winter 2008 | — | Inactive |
| Brushes | iPad drawing software. | Summer 2010 | — | Inactive |
| Fithub | — | Winter 2010 | — | Inactive |
| Insoshi | — | Winter 2008 | — | Inactive |
| Algolia | A developer-friendly and enterprise-grade search API. | Winter 2014 | 810 | Active |
| Kimono Labs | Create APIs where they don't exist. With kimono you can quickly… | Winter 2014 | 11 | Acquired |
| Disqus | Add comments to your website. | Summer 2007 | 11 | Acquired |
| Wit.ai | Natural Language for Developers --Wit is an API that makes it easy… | Winter 2014 | 11 | Acquired |
| Bytebot | Bytebot is the open source container for AI desktop agents. | Summer 2021 | 3 | Acquired |
| Embedly | — | Winter 2010 | 2 | Acquired |
Is Pensil still active?
Pensil is no longer listed as active, so anyone still relying on it should plan a migration to one of the alternatives above.
How was this list put together?
Every company here is Y Combinator-backed and shares at least one category with Pensil. They are then ranked on how closely their own description overlaps with Pensil's, so the closest matches come first rather than whoever happens to share a tag.