How many times have you heard of a platform called 99designs? Probably, more than 99 times if you listen to Tim Ferriss’s podcast, watch YouTubers, or just have their ad popping up in your feed. But is 99designs the only way of getting a decent design?
Surprise, surprise, it’s not. There are plenty of 99designs alternatives which can bring you a better, faster, and cheaper result. In this article, we’ll focus on six competitors that you might consider for your next project. But first, let’s clear up what this advertised platform is.
99designs is a creative platform that offers design services throughout the world. Since its funding in 2008, the platform has worked with thousands of users and completed more than a million requests. 99designs became popular due to its innovative approach to hiring a designer, where people can start contests and have numerous designers work on the project.
The platform offers more than a hundred types of graphic design services. You can choose between such categories:
However, if you’re in need of animation, you won’t find such a service on 99designs. Moreover, you can forget about getting a UX/UI design as the platform doesn’t offer it either.
The platform has the option of working with a designer personally. You can go through the accounts and see the portfolios presented on the pages. To start working with one, simply send them a design brief to specify your request, deadline, and price.
Once your offer is accepted, 99designs requires you to pay the negotiated price upfront, which guarantees your seriousness for a designer. But the money won’t be transferred to the designer until you’ve reached the end of the project and you’re satisfied with the result.
The other option of finding a designer on 99designs is starting a design contest. You can select the type of design you want and a contest package according to your budget. Before the contest starts, you’ll fill in a design brief that will guide participants.
The contest itself can last from 24 hours to 7 days. During this period, you’ll receive concepts from designers and let them know if they’re moving in the right direction. You can do this with the help of comments or star ratings. Then, you’ll select the winner and get the finalized files of your request.
99designs cost depends on the approach you take to hiring a designer. Working 1-on-1 doesn’t have a set price, and you need to negotiate it with the designer. However, the platform suggests approximate ranges which let you know what to expect:
On the other hand, contests have clear pricing. You can select among four tiers that differ by the number and expertise of the designers participating. Here are the examples of prices for some design categories:
If you’ve followed the link to this article, it means you’re considering choosing a 99designs alternative. And it’s obvious as no matter how much it’s influencers advertise it, the reality is not always beneficial to you.
To not be unsubstantiated, we’ve made a list of 99designs cons based on the real reviews of its users. Want to see why you should consider a 99designs alternative? Here you go.
The platform promises you 30 up to 90 design concepts in a single contest. However, the quality of submissions isn’t checked in any way. Most designers submit simple clip art not to waste too much time on a concept as there is a high chance of not winning.
When you pay the money for a contest, you can only hope that a qualified designer sees it and decides to participate. Otherwise, it’s money wasted on primitive visuals. For this reason, the platform even has an option of not guaranteed price. It means you can back off the contest if you don’t like the submissions and get your money back.
But most of the designers are reluctant to participate in such unsafe contests. So you have no choice but to risk your money and time.
99designs has designers that come from around the world. This cultural diversity often becomes a disadvantage as many designers simply don’t speak one language ― English. Sometimes this fact is manageable but quite often leads to miscommunication. As a result, more revisions, more time, or even a concept completely missing the point.
The platform advertises some of its designers as “Top Level.” However, the reality of 99designs users is that these “professionals” are not that different from mid- or junior-level designers. Some may lack professionalism, others ― simply communication skills. But the price for their services is indeed on the “top level.”
Working with a designer 1-on-1 requires you to pay the price upfront. Once you’ve started the 1-on-1 project, you can’t get a refund even if the designer brings horrible results. The only option of getting it is if the designer approves your refund request. But as it turns out, hardly anyone would give away the money.
Honestly, there is no universal choice that fits any customer’s needs. You may want several professional designers working for you or just an inexpensive junior-level. Whatever your need is, we’ve made a list of eight 99designs alternatives that you should consider.
Awesomic is a flat-rate design subscription platform that matches its customers with professional designers. Having been launched in 2020, Awesomic has already worked with more than 700 businesses and completed over 4000 tasks as of December 2021.
Designers available
1 Light Task Every
Work Day
Banner & Digital Ads
Print & Packing
Book & Magazine
Emails & Signatures
Photo & Image Design
Any Other Graphics
Slack integration
Designers available
2 Tasks (1 Light &
1 Pro) Every Work Day
Logo & Identity
Landing Page & Web sites
No-code web development
Mobile & Web App
Animations
Custom Illustration
Any Graphics Tasks
Slack integration
Designers available
1 Light or Pro Task
Every Work Day
Logo & Identity
Landing Page & Web sites
No-code web development
UI email templates
Mobile & Web App
Animations
Custom Illustration
Any Graphics Tasks
Slack integration
Upwork is an impressively large freelance community that counts over 12 million active vendors. Since 2015, the service has covered nearly any outsourcing task you can think of, from software development to financial assistance.
Upwork offers both fixed price and hourly contracts. The latter is relevant for designers. The prices vary from $5/hour up to over $250/hour, but the final cost depends on your project. But no worries. The platform controls what your seller is doing at the moment by counting keystrokes and taking screenshots, so they have no chance
to trick you.
Design Pickle has provided design services on a flat-rate subscription basis since 2015. The platform is home to over 700 creators specializing primarily in graphic and video design. Vendors working on the service have already finished more than 1 million design projects.
Fiverr is a huge freelance platform similar to Upwork and other outsourcing bases. It has been on the market since 2010. It embraces the service spectrum from digital marketing to software development. Under graphic and design alone, there are over 40 niche subcategories.
The various pricing options starting from $5 are one of the biggest advantages of the platform. However, the quality of the job will often depend on the price you pay. You can also use Fiverr Pro to choose from top sellers that are 100% verified but whose service is more expensive. For instance, you can get a logo design from an expert there for $300, but also over $3,000.
Kimp is a platform where you can hire a graphic or video design expert and get unlimited access to their services for a set price. It appeared on the market in 2019 as a graphic design platform. Just in a year, Kimp expanded its expertise and is now also offering video design.
Similar to 99designs, DesignCrowd connects its customers with designers through contests. Besides that, it also includes an online logo maker where you can create a simple design for free.
Dribbble is an online designer community and hiring platform that has been since 2009 on the market. It can boast of a customer base of 60,000 brands, including giants like Google, Apple, Shopify, Airbnb, Slack, and many more.
Dribbble is an online designer community and hiring platform that has been since 2009 on the market. It can boast of a customer base of 60,000 brands, including giants like Google, Apple, Shopify, Airbnb, Slack, and many more.
CrowdSpring is a crowdsourcing marketplace for designers of over 30 niches. It unites over 220,000 designers who work primarily for businesses. The platform appeared on the market in 2008 and since that time has been serving over 60,000 clients looking for a professional designer.
Crowd projects cost mostly from $299, and the starting price for 1-to-1 work is $200. However, the final cost depends on the type of project and the package you choose. You can choose a Silver, Gold, Elite, or Platinum set, and each of them includes specific features.
For instance, the Silver package for logos offers about 60 designs, full intellectual property rights, unlimited designs and designers, etc. With Platinum, you will get about 75 premium designs, priority customer support, project privacy, and other additional features.
So, which platform is the best 99designs alternative? Truth be told, this question has no specific answer, as it’s up to you as a customer to decide which service suits you best.
You can choose a freelance or portfolio website like Upwork or DesignCrowd. There, you’ll get a huge talent pool of both entry-level and professional designers. However, experts are a rarety on such platforms which means you’ll have to spend a great deal of time to find one.
On the other hand, design subscription platforms, like Awesomic, have already done this stage for you. The designers aren’t accepted there unless they have enough expertise. Besides that, such professionalism allows them to work faster and deliver you first results within 24 hours. However, you won’t be able to hire an in-house designer as the platform offers only remote freelance experts.
So which alternative are you going to choose?
99designs is good at providing you with an easy and fast way of getting a design. However, its business model allows it to accept a lot of designers without checking their expertise level. This leads to many cases of 99designs users spending their money and not getting anything of quality in return.
Moreover, the platform doesn’t guarantee you a good result which means it’s your own risk to use it or not.
If you’re looking for a platform that provides design services, here are the 10 biggest ones you can choose from:
• Awesomic
• Upwork
• Kimp
• DesignCrowd
• Fiverr
• DesignPickle
• Dribbble
• Crowdspring
• Penji
• Flocksy
Your choice depends on the business model that’s more suitable for you. If you’d like to use a flat-tare subscription platform, you can choose either of these:
• Awesomic ― offers only designers with high expertise level that bring first results in 24 hours.
• Design Pickle ― has different services like graphic design, illustration, presentation design, and motion graphics.
• Kimp ― simple solution for tight budgets.
• Penji ― besides graphic design, it also offers copywriting, video, and voice-over services.
On the other hand, you might want to choose a freelance or portfolio platform like one of these:
• Fiverr ― has millions of designers that work for as little as $5 per project.
• Upwork ― just like Fiverr, has a solution for any budget from $5/hr to $250/hr.
• Dribble ― includes designers’ portfolios that you can check directly on their account pages.
• DesignCrowd ― has an option of working with a designer 1-on-1 as well as creating a contest to reach out to several dozens of designers.
If you're looking for budget-friendly flat-rate subscription service as a place for hiring a designer, you might consider Designster. As of December 2021, the lowest price for a monthly subscription is $149. However you’ll get basic graphic design from entry-level designers with a turnaround of up to two days for this price.
The same goes for freelance websites, the lowest price for which projects is $5. But just like on Designster, you can only expect a newbie designer with clip-art quality results. More qualified experts charge at least $600 per project.
Each of these alternatives has its pros and cons. If you consider flat-rate subscription services, like Awesomic, here’s what can make you choose it:
Similarly, freelance platforms, like Fiverr, have their own advantages and disadvantages that may influence your choice: