Design Pickle was founded in 2015 by Russ Perry. The idea was simple: to provide unlimited graphic design services for a flat monthly fee. The system worked, and over the years, grew. Now, Design Pickle helps small businesses centralize and automate their creative workflows more efficiently than ever before — and we’ve got competition.
But hey, we can tell you about our world-class service all day. Still, it’s important to explore your options, so we’ve rounded up a list of tried-and-true companies that offer similar services at an affordable price, to help you make an educated decision. Let’s start at home, shall we? 😉
Table of Contents
An Overview of Design Pickle
All our plans include unlimited graphic design requests, unlimited revisions, and Adobe source files. You can be assured that Design Pickle’s global design team is working on the projects in your unlimited design request queue every business day. And if you want to make changes to your designs, then no sweat — revisions are unlimited, too.
Once upon a time, marketers had limited choices for fulfilling their creative needs — in-house designers, freelancers, agencies, and online marketplaces. Design Pickle was the first subscription graphic design service to hit the market, introducing the concept of a subscription workforce for small creative teams and small business owners who felt that getting design work was either too expensive or too unreliable.
Today, Design Pickle has expanded to include a full suite of creative services: Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, and Motion Graphics Design.
Price
With Design Pickle, research shows that companies save an average of $37K USD annually on professional creative help. Plans start at $499 USD per month and range up to $1695 USD per month, depending on the plan selected. View Design Pickle’s competitive pricing for a complete breakdown.
Interested in exploring quarterly or annual subscriptions? Connect with the sales team to inquire about custom pricing for long-term unlimited graphic design service plans.
Onboarding Process
With Design Pickle, your creative requests begin immediately. Upon setting up your account, you will be prompted to submit your very first request, guided through a simple questionnaire gathering design details, and then matched with a dedicated designer to fit your needs.
That’s right! Say goodbye to hunting through marketplaces or chasing down designers – Design Pickle does the matching legwork for you within the first two days on the platform.
Next, you will be guided through the process of creating personalized Brand Profiles. With Brand Profiles, you can save important brand information such as logo files, fonts and colors, mood boards, and more — the best part? You can store unlimited brand profiles. So, if you manage multiple projects for multiple brands, this is a lifesaver.
Automation has also been a hot topic! Leverage Zapier integrations to connect your favorite productivity apps with the Design Pickle Platform. This way, you can stay in the applications and workflows you already use and further automate your design process.
Looking for some hands-on guidance as you get familiar with Design Pickle? No problem! All new customers have the option to schedule an onboarding call with a Customer Success Coach.
Design Team
We introduced a new way to get design help: the Subscription Workforce. This model offered businesses and marketing teams the ability to break free from traditional contracts and outsourcing of creative help with no contracts and minimal risk.
The Subscription Workforce at Design Pickle is built of over 500 creative designers, including graphic designers, trained illustrators, and skilled motion graphics artists.
For Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans, customers are assigned designated designers. With this, a Pro customer can expect to work one-on-one with the same graphic designer for most requests. Designated designers are assigned based on their inherent skill and experience, and customers are encouraged to give them the time and feedback that will allow them to grow creatively with their assigned company. Exploring your brand’s creative possibilities can be challenging, so customers may request designer changes as needed.
Communicating with Designers
There are a few communication options when working with Design Pickle.
- Via guided request forms and email or comment threads within the Platform
- Real-time communication on Slack
Design Pickle is the only subscription creative services company to offer direct collaboration with a designer via Slack! There is also 24/5 access to customer support.
With a Graphics Pro subscription, you get direct access to a dedicated Slack workspace where you can communicate with your designer in real-time.
Expected Turnaround Time
The average turnaround time for most Design Pickle requests is 1-2 business days.
However, Design Pickle provides creative services that range from simple graphics like banner ads and logo design to complex illustrations, animated explainers, video editing, and full slideshow presentations. The type of service and the complexity of each request will affect turnaround time.
Same-day turnarounds are available for Graphics Pro plans, but for complex projects and specialized services like Motion Graphics, Custom Illustrations, and Presentation Design, you can expect to see an initial concept within 24 hours. The turnaround time for full completion will again depend on the complexity of the request.
Stock Asset Libraries
All our plans come with access to Premium Stock libraries. Level up creative requests with professional assets from Adobe Stock or FreshStock, Design Pickle’s own collection of premium stock vectors.
Customers can search for stock assets right from the guided request form, then include notes about how they’d like the assets to be used. They can also opt to have their designer “Find Stock Assets For Me.” This is a significant advantage we offer our customers and it’s all included in the flat fee they pay each month.
While Design Pickle is not known to be the least expensive option on the market, we’ve focused heavily on creating an all-in-one solution that eases the stress of design work by centralizing all creative activities. In the past years, we’ve further globalized our pool of creatives, increased our tech stack, improved our platform, and expanded the scope of our services. You may already know that, which could be why you’re exploring Design Pickle alternatives! Read on to learn more about a few other companies similar to Design Pickle which compete in the subscription graphic design game. We’ve gone ahead and helped you with the research.
5 Design Pickle Alternatives for Your Marketing Team
1. Design Pickle vs. Penji
| Design Pickle | Penji | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $399 USD per month |
| Support | Chat directly with designers in real-time on Slack. Support is also available via the Help Center or 24/5 Live Chat with Customer Success Coaches | Available via the Help Center, Learning Center, and live chat |
| Services Offered | Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, Motion Graphics | Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Website & App Design, Infographics |
| Turnaround Time | 1-2 business days for Graphics Plans. Same-day turnaround for Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans | 24-48 hours |
Penji’s graphic design plans start at $399 USD per month. Like other Design Pickle alternatives, they offer unlimited requests and revisions at a flat rate without binding customers to a contract.
While some other subscription design companies choose to have separate packages for different services, Penji offers a three-tiered pricing structure with additional services available as you upgrade. While the base plan (Pro) offers graphic design, the Team and Agency plans offer more output and include custom illustrations and UI/UX web and app design.
Both Design Pickle and Penji enable users to upload assets and information for multiple brands to ease the request process. Similarly, users can annotate revisions directly on designs.
But while Penji’s upgraded plans offer prioritized support, Design Pickle’s upgraded plans allow users to collaborate with designers in real-time via Slack.
2. Design Pickle vs. ManyPixels
| Design Pickle | ManyPixels | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $449 USD per month |
| Support | Chat directly with designers in real-time on Slack. Support is also available via the Help Center or 24/5 Live Chat with Customer Success Coaches | Available through the Help Center or via email, phone, and live chat |
| Services Offered | Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, Motion Graphics | Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Web Design, Brand Design, Presentation Design |
| Turnaround Time | 1-2 business days for Scale plans. Same-day turnaround for Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans | 1-2 business days |
ManyPixels is an on-demand creative service that starts at $449 USD per month. Like Design Pickle, they offer unlimited requests and revisions at a flat rate, also without binding customers to a contract.
ManyPixels’ plans and pricing are more similar to Penji than to Design Pickle. Like Penji, ManyPixels offers services that expand as you upgrade, with two designers assigned per account for the highest-tier Business plan. Upgraded plans include other services: Custom Illustrations, Web Design, Logos & Branding, PPT & Google Slides Decks, and 2-3 second GIFs.
Design Pickle, on the other hand, ramps up design quality by offering separate plans per service. But, similar to Design Pickle’s ability to stack and scale subscriptions as needed, ManyPixels offers to build customized solutions for users upon request.
One interesting feature of the ManyPixels website is their Free Illustration Gallery where anyone can download simple, ready-made vector art, with the ability to customize a key color right from the browser. This is similar to FreshStock, Design Pickle’s proprietary library of premium stock vectors. FreshStock is only available to active Design Pickle subscribers, so you know the drill!
3. Design Pickle vs. Kimp
| Design Pickle | Kimp | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $399 USD per month |
| Support | Chat directly with designers in real-time on Slack. Support is also available via the Help Center or 24/5 Live Chat with Customer Success Coaches | Available through #KimpTips or via email, phone, and live chat |
| Services Offered | Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, Motion Graphics | Kimp Graphics, Kimp Video |
| Turnaround Time | 1-2 business days for Graphics Plans. Same-day turnaround for Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans | 24 hours for graphics; 2-4 days for video |
Kimp’s creative plans start at $399 USD per month. Like Design Pickle, they offer unlimited design projects and requests and revisions at a flat rate without binding customers to a contract.
Kimp has three plans based on their two main services of Graphics and Video: Graphics at $399 USD per month, Video at $599 USD per month, and Graphics + Video at $899 USD per month. The Graphics + Video plan also includes custom illustrations and landing page design.
Like Design Pickle, Kimp offers Zapier integrations to help users blend the creative service more easily with their existing workflow.
Kimp’s customers use the Trello productivity platform to manage projects intuitively. Design Pickle uses their Platform for everything from request management to feedback, while Pro services allow real-time collaboration between customers and designers via Slack.
4. Design Pickle vs. Flocksy
| Design Pickle | Flocksy | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $495 USD per month |
| Support | Chat directly with designers in real time on Slack. Support is also available via the Help Center or 24/5 Live Chat with Customer Success Coaches | Available through the Resource Center or via email, phone, and live chat |
| Services Offered | Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, Motion Graphics | Graphic Design, Copywriting, Illustrations, Video, Voice-Overs |
| Turnaround Time | 1-2 business days for Graphics Plans. Same-day turnaround for Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans | 24-48 hours |
Flocksy’s services are separated into two tiers: the Team Plan at $495 USD per month and the Access Plan at $995 USD per month. Like Design Pickle, they offer unlimited requests and revisions at a flat rate without binding customers to a contract.
Unlike Design Pickle, which has separate plans for unique services, Flocksy combines multiple types of services per plan. Flocksy’s basic plan produces graphics, video, and copy for customers, while the upgraded plan adds voice-over services, GIF creation, custom illustrations, and website and app design.
Customers can leave creative feedback directly on images in Flocksy’s native interface, similar to the way in which customers use the Design Pickle Platform. Flocksy users can save brand information in Brand Buckets, with base plans limited to five brands and upgraded plans allowing unlimited brands. This is similar to Design Pickle’s Brand Profiles feature, which allows unlimited Brand Profiles for all plans.
When Flocksy customers upgrade, they can initiate projects and reply to project comments via email. For Design Pickle customers with upgraded (Pro) subscriptions, communication is likewise made more flexible with real-time chat via Slack.
5. Design Pickle vs. Kapa99
| Design Pickle | Kapa99 | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $249 USD per month |
| Support | Chat directly with designers in real-time on Slack. Support is also available via the Help Center or 24/5 Live Chat with Customer Success Coaches | Available through the Help Center or via email, phone, and live chat |
| Services Offered | Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, Motion Graphics | Graphic Design, including custom illustrations, advanced infographics, animated GIFs, presentation decks |
| Turnaround Time | 1-2 business days for Graphics Plans. Same-day turnaround for Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans | 24-48 hours |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 14-Day Satisfaction Guarantee for quarterly and annual plans | 15-day free trial + 30-day money-back guarantee |
Kapa99’s graphic design plan costs $399 USD per month, but new customers start at $249 USD per month for the first two months. Like Design Pickle, they offer unlimited requests and revisions at a flat rate without binding customers to a contract.
With just one plan for all customers, Kapa99 keeps things simple. Custom illustrations, advanced infographics, blog images, animated GIFs, and presentation design are packaged into their Business plan.
Like Kimp, Kapa99’s users submit and manage requests with Trello, or through email. Their Help Center includes a step-by-step guide to using Trello for Kapa99.
While Kapa99 doesn’t have as many plan options and features as most of the other companies on this list, it does stand out as the most affordable option — a key consideration for many would-be customers. Also, apart from a flat-rate subscription, Kapa99 offers an affordable one-time project service with a 48-hour turnaround and unlimited revisions.
Who’s Your Top Pickle?
Everyone on this list offers flat-rate creative subscriptions with an average of 1-2 day turnaround times. However, it should be noted by potential subscribers that most, if not all, of these companies, do not promise the same speed for all types of requests. As a rule, complex projects will take longer to produce or revise.
All Design Pickle alternatives on this list also offer customer support systems that usually operate via live chat or email. Free trials or money-back guarantee periods are a common feature of subscription creative services, too.
Let’s get this out of the way: If you’re looking for a subscription creative service that will fix your creative bottleneck (guaranteed!) — we recommend Design Pickle, of course. 😎
Because we believe in cutting costs, not quality, we’ve developed solutions that set us apart from other unlimited design service providers. Graphic Design plans are now separate from Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, and Motion Graphics. This means that when you sign up for a plan, you get access to creative specialists: fantastic graphic designers, talented illustrators, first-rate presentation designers, and professional motion graphics designers.
But you don’t need to absolutely take our word for it. That’s why we compiled the above information as accurately as possible so that you can make an objective decision. We encourage you to explore all Design Pickle alternatives with care, because in the end, only you can tell which service offers the right balance of price, quality, and ease of use for your brand.
So, whose service will you choose when you find yourself in a creative dead end? Since we’ve already got you here, go on and watch a demo or find out why our clients love us!
