Design Pickle was founded in 2015 by entrepreneur, Russ Perry. The idea was simple: to provide unlimited graphic design services for a flat monthly fee and reduce headaches of the existing creative process . The system worked, and over the years, Design Pickle grew. Today, Design Pickle helps businesses centralize and automate their creative workflows more efficiently than ever before and our success parked competition.
Honestly, we can tell you about our world-class service all day. Yet we understand it’s important to explore your options, so we’ve rounded up a list of companies that offer similar services at an affordable price, to help you make an educated decision. Let’s start at home, shall we?
When you maximize your Design Pickle subscription, you get access to a best-in-class platform to support your creative workflows, as well as 24/5 Customer Success support, talented designers, unlimited revisions, AI tools solutions, stock photography, source files, and so much more. Your designer(s) f work on the projects in your unlimited design request queue every business day for a set number of hours.f you want to make changes to your designs, then no sweat revisions are unlimited, too. We get it, priorities change. We’re here for you.
Table of Contents
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 creative teams and 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 servicesGraphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, Motion Graphics Design, and Video Editing.
Price
With Design Pickle, research shows that companies save an average of $37K USD annually on professional creative support. This occurs in part because in-house design salaries are on the rise, and it’s costly to hire, train and keep in-house design teams. What’s more, Design Pickle clients boast how they’ve escaped overage charges and enjoy the predictability of their flat-rate subscriptions. Our plans start at $499 USD per month, depending on your needs . View Design Pickle’s competitive pricing for a complete breakdown.
You won’t see hidden costs and fees like onboarding charges, designer selection fees, additional overage fees for design time or additional revisions, stock photography, storage, or anything like that. The rate you see is the rate you pay, and we think that’s a pretty big dill.
If we’ve piqued your Interest and want to explore quarterly or annual subscriptions – . Connect with our team to inquire about custom pricing for unlimited graphic design service plans – you can save up to 20% by selecting an annual subscription plan!
Onboarding Process
With Design Pickle, your creative requests begin immediately! Our clients don’t wait to sift through portfolios or get stuck haggling prices. Upon setting up your account, you will be prompted to submit your very first request, with an optional guide to help you organize your design details and build your creative brief. Then we match you with a designer to fit your needs, your brand, and any other nuances you may have.
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. (And if you’re unhappy with that designer for any reason, we’ll make a swap, NBD!)
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’re actually the OGs of the CaaS model, and we introduced a new way to get design help over 9 years ago with our subscription design workforce. This new 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. We’ve tackled the hard work of finding the best talent around the globe, and solved the workflow challenges that plague design teams, so you’re left with the best part: amazing, talented creative resources on-demand and at your fingertips.
The Subscription Workforce at Design Pickle is built of over 500 creative designers, including graphic designers, trained illustrators, skilled motion graphics artists, and now, video editors!
For Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans, customers are assigned with 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. Penji as an alternative to Design Pickle
Design Pickle provides a flexible and accessible design resource for a wide range of client needs, while Penji offers graphic design support to clients who may not have the capacity for an in-house designer.
| Design Pickle | Penji | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $499 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 | Offers 100+ design services, custom illustrations, presentation designs, custom illustrations, and motion graphics |
| Turnaround Time | 1-2 business days for Graphics Plans. Same-day turnaround for Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans | 1-2 days |
2. Kimp as an alternative to Design Pickle
Design Pickle offers a more robust all-in-one creative platform that streamlines your creative workflow, while Kimp offers a limited range of graphic and video design services.
| Design Pickle | Kimp | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $599 USD per month $299.50/mo. for new clients |
| 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, Video Editing, Canva file delivery, Figma file delivery | Kimp Graphics, Kimp Video, Kimp Graphics+Video, Canva graphics, Canva video |
| Turnaround Time | 1-2 business days for Graphics Plans. Same-day turnaround for Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans | 1-4 business days |
Kimp‘s creative plans start at $599 USD per month. Like Design Pickle, they offer unlimited 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 $599 USD per month, Video at $699 USD per month, and Graphics + Video at $995 USD per month. The Graphics + Video plan also includes custom illustrations and landing page design. They also offer different pricing for custom designs made with Canva.
Like Design Pickle, Kimp offers Zapier integrations to help users blend the creative service more easily with their existing workflow.
With Kimp, its users can communicate with a Project Manager to manage their requests and creative team. With Design Pickle, users can communicate directly with their designer.
3. Superside as an alternative to Design Pickle
In an ever changing world, Design Pickle offers flexible and comprehensive plans that cover a robust scope of services where you get everything you need on one affordable plan, while Superside offers rigid yearly plans that separate out common use cases.
| Design Pickle | Superside | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $5,000 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 | Communicate with the Creative Project Manager or Customer Success Manager |
| Services Offered | Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, Motion Graphics, Video Editing, Canva file delivery, Figma file delivery | Graphic Design, Illustration Design, Presentation Design, Motion Design, Video Production, AR/3D Design |
| Turnaround Time | 1-2 business days for Graphics Plans. Same-day turnaround for Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans | 50% of monthly hours can be fast turnaround within 12-24hrs |
Superside‘s creative plan starts at $5,000 USD per month billed annually. Instead of unlimited design requests, each plan has an allocated number of creative hours that can be used on any of the services in that plan.
Superside has three plans for different design needs. The Design Essentials plan starts at $5,000 per month and offers basic graphic design services including illustration and presentation designs. The Digital Advertising plan starts at $7,500 per month and as its name suggests, it offers design services specific to digital advertising. In the uppermost tier is their End-to-End Creative plan that starts at $9,000 per month and offers a full set of creative services.
Like Design Pickle, Superside allows its users to collaborate with their designers inside their platform. However, they only have limited AI tools for project management, unlike Design Pickle that has generative AI to assist with creating briefs.
Superside requires its users to adhere to their workflow process and undergo training sessions to learn it while Design Pickle has Zapier integrations to help users blend its creative service more easily with their existing workflow.
4. Flocksy as an alternative to Design Pickle
Flocksy assigns a project manager right to speak with regarding requests, while Design Pickle allows direct collaboration with its designers for a faster design turnaround.
| Design Pickle | Flocksy | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $499 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, Video Editing, Canva file delivery, Figma file delivery | Graphic Design, Video Editing, Copywriting, Virtual Assistance, Motion Graphics, Illustration, Voice-Over, Web Design |
| 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 3 tiers: the Silver Plan at $499 USD per month, the Gold Plan at $995 USD per month, and the Platinum Plan at $1,695 USD. 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 Pro and Premium subscriptions, communication is likewise made more flexible with real-time chat via Slack.
5. Awesomic as an alternative to Design Pickle
With Design Pickle, you get everything you need in one affordable plan, whereas Awesomic mostly offers UI/UX design.
| Design Pickle | Awesomic | |
| Price | Starts at $499 USD per month | Starts at $699 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 | 24/5 Customer Success Manager or book a call with designers |
| Services Offered | Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Presentation Design, Motion Graphics, Video Editing, Canva file delivery, Figma file delivery | Graphic Design, UI/UX Design, Custom Illustration, Presentation Design, Motion Design |
| Turnaround Time | 1-2 business days for Graphics Plans. Same-day turnaround for Graphics Pro and Graphics Premium plans | 24-hour turnaround but dependent on the complexity of the task |
Awesomic’s Light plan costs $699 USD per month and only includes the basic graphic design services. Its Pro plan costs $1,995 USD per month that includes all tasks from the Light plan plus other services like UI/UX Design. Awesomic offers a 1 to 1 plan that gets its subscriber its own specially dedicated designer.
Similar to Design Pickle, Awesomic’s workflow is simple: create a task, work with your designer, and expect the designs back within 24-48 hours. While Awesomic allows users to schedule a 30-minute call with their designer, Design Pickle keeps it succinct by having them communicate via Slack. The designers get to focus on the important tasks at hand.
If a user is unsure on how to write a creative brief, Awesomic suggests communicating with their designer until it all becomes clear. Design Pickle, on the other hand, provides its users with AI assist tools to expedite that process.
Marketplaces as an alternative to Design Pickle
In the last several years, new creative marketplaces have popped up as a direct answer to the “hire anything as a service” demand. However, unpredictable costs, lack of creative management systems, slow onboarding processes, and time-consuming sourcing make marketplaces more clunky, more expensive, and sometimes slower than CaaS like Design Pickle. Plus, marketplaces are typically not a long-term solution with high churn (which sounds like a hassle in comparison to Design Pickle’s average designer tenure of over 4 years)!
- Fiverr is a non-traditional freelance marketplace, meaning freelancers offer their services and subscriptions on select project types and clients purchase them. They target entrepreneurs and SMBs looking for creative talent.While there’s a lot of designers you can check out in Fiverr, finding and onboarding one may be a slow process and can hinder you from starting on your project right away. With Design Pickle, we not only assign you a talented, pre-vetted designer according to your brand and your design needs, we can get you up and running in 1 day, and your first request delivered within days of signing up (depending on complexity).
- Upwork is a traditional freelance marketplace where freelancers bid on projects that clients post. They position themselves as the world’s work marketplace for hiring independent professionals and agencies. It offers tier-based pricing and hourly options, targeting businesses of all sizes.Think you can save a lot by hiring a designer or a team of creatives from Upwork? Think again! Joeboo Manufacturing, an events company, hired freelancers using Upwork. The team did a good job and finished one “haunted house” design project in 6 weeks, with a total project price tag of over $27k. Meanwhile, Design Pickle was able to finish four “haunted house” designs of the same magnitude in the same 6 weeks with only a monthly cost of $5k (totaling $7.5k for all 4 houses). Design Pickle saved the company over $100k (had they gone with Upwork for all 5 houses). Joe Jr., the company’s Creative Director told us, “it’s the same quality, but I had a better experience and a way better price tag with Design Pickle.” Design Pickle offers flat-rate pricing that simplifies budgeting of creative work.
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 — 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.
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!
