Outsourced design services have gained popularity with new options rising in ranks, promising to solve the stresses of ongoing design demands.
One such solution showing no signs of slowing is the design subscription. A system based on Design-as-a-Service, offering flexible support for businesses looking to scale their creative output without the overhead of hiring in-house.
But with many companies launching versions of these subscriptions, finding the right one takes time and effort. Businesses must consider the design bandwidth, quality, and alignment to their brand vision before onboarding an outsourced team.
To make the process smoother, this blog looks at the pros and cons across the on-demand design subscription market, with a handy list of 9 industry-leading subscriptions compared on price, design quality, and overall offering.
The outsourced design landscape
Put simply, outsourced design services are any paid-for design completed by someone (or some team) outside your organization. It’s a fuss-free way of elevating your business’ design assets, which are essential to the success of any company.
According to StudyFinds, 60% of consumers avoid brands with unappealing logos. But if you don’t have a brand designer on your team, for example, outsourcing means your business won’t fall short.
There are three main areas you’ll find such services:
Freelancers/freelancer marketplaces
One of the classic design solutions for SMBs and startups, freelancers are often highly skilled in specialized areas of design. They can be onboarded and offboarded for specific design projects.
Agencies
A popular choice for many enterprises in previous years, agencies offer big-scale design project services. Their respected reputations usually come with hefty price tags, but quality is (usually) a given.
Subscription services
The newer kid on the block, subscription models are a hybrid of flexible design services and top-level skill, month on month. They allow wiggle room to mitigate issues caused by overflow.
As Andy Milligan, Ohio Visual Designer, says; “It creates consistency, reliability, and requires less touch and headspace throughout the buying cycle.”.We summarize the key points of design outsourcing, including the pros and cons of each model, in more detail in a recent blog post we published all about outsourcing graphic design in 2024. You’ll find a useful table for easy comparison, covering pricing, client relationships, technology integration and more.
Key considerations when choosing a design partner
When finding the right design partner for your business, if a design subscription is your chosen direction, there are six key factors to consider before onboarding anyone into your workflow.
- Scalability
How easy is it to upscale your design output within your subscription package?
This is a vital cog in the subscription machine, as this is where the flexibility for a design team to grow alongside your business steps into its own. You’ll want to consider a company that can not only scale up but scale down the design output, as and when you need to.
- Quality
How do the designers match up with your in-house team? Or how about with the vision of your creative project?
Unfortunately, not all designers are created equal. When choosing a creative partner, it pays to check how the company sources their designer talent and the level and variation on offer. Some subscription models have limitations on the variations of design styles (animation, UX, web design, etc.) available within the package – check that the one you’re looking to invest in covers all bases.
Here at Design Force, our global team of designers are individually vetted by our big sister company, the award-winning 500 Designs.
- Onboarding process
Is the process smooth and comprehensive? Or drawn out with potentially endless back and forth?
Look for a company willing to get under the skin of your brand, listen to your needs, and react accordingly with a team that’s the right fit. As a guideline, we do extensive onboarding to understand the brand guidelines of our customers and their target personas, to work as an extension of their in-house team.
You’ll benefit from a company that provides you with one key person to communicate with – like a Project Manager, in our case – who’ll take on the responsibility of briefing an entire design team on your behalf so that you only need to onboard one person, once.
- Turnaround times
How long will it take to get design work completed?
Some companies may have different lead times for different design applications, so it’s worth checking the capabilities for your specific need. You’ll want to ask how reactive they can be during times when design need unexpectedly increases – do they have the resources to support you at short notice?
We’re proud that our speedy turnaround times never affect the design quality, but be cautious not to forfeit quality in exchange for quick results.
- Communication
How will you communicate with the designers during your subscription period?
This is essential to define, as different companies have different preferences for discussing briefs, providing feedback, or generally providing support.
Our Project Manager becomes a single point of contact between a brand and our designers, ensuring that no feedback gets lost in the chain. Some will opt for over-the-phone conversation while others will manage workloads digitally using project management tools like Asana, ClickUp or Notion.
Consider time zones here, too, as most subscription services work remotely making response times variable. You might prefer a global team, like Design Force, giving the potential for around-the-clock response.
- Cost-efficiency
What’s your budget, and what’s included in the monthly/annual fee?
You’ve likely experienced scope creep at least once, but for an outsourced design team to be a cost-effective choice, a clear definition of what’s included and what’s not is necessary for both peace of mind and your bottom line.
Consider the deliverables available within the package you’re interested in – does it cover your needs? You’ll also want to determine the additional costs for anything required outside of the initial subscription inclusions. Overall, if you’re looking to onboard outsourced design services, you need a partner to act as an extension of your in-house team. One that offers flexibility and a deep understanding of your brand’s guidelines and vision.
Detailed comparison of subscription-based design services
Here are 9 of the top design subscription services/companies available at the moment, in no particular order. Let’s take a closer look at each one so that you can find a solution that’s right for your business design needs.
Design Force
Pricing: Starts at $1,300 a month, as well as customizable plans tailored to specific business needs, with pricing available upon request.
Capabilities: Offers a wide portfolio of design services, across 15 core areas; ranging from graphic design to UI/UX, video animation, AI-enhanced design (including audio enhancement), ad design, web and digital design and more. Specializes in impressive on-demand collaboration processes to work with SMBs, enterprise teams, and agencies as a white-label partner.
Talent: Hires top-tier designers from every corner of the globe, vetted by 500 Designs, to ensure high-quality outputs for every project.
Features: Provides a dedicated project manager, an art director, and as many designers as needed for the workload. Includes rapid onboarding and seamless integration with client workflows.
Headquarters & Company Size: HQ in California, US, with a global presence that includes a diverse and scalable team.
Notable Customers: TikTok, HubSpot, UFC GYMs.
Superside
Pricing: Starts at $5000 per month (charged annually) for Level 1, works on a credits system. Custom plans available within their ‘Enterprise’ package, with pricing on request.
Capabilities: Offers a varied range of design mediums, from packaging and merch to web design, motion design to AR/3D design and more.
Talent: Hires top 1% designers with no limitation on location, each rigorously tested before they’re hired.
Features: Offers turnaround times as quick as 12 hours, and uses a digital project management platform to house project progress and communications.
Headquarters & Company Size: Global team of 650+ members, fully remote.
Notable Customers: Amazon, Google, Reddit.
See Superside vs Design Force.
Penji
Pricing: Starts at $499, rising to $1497 – split into 3 categories: Startups & SMBs, Marketer, Agency. They also offer a $1/month package for certified non-profits.
Capabilities: Offers a wide range of design styles, weighted towards illustration. They cover t-shirt design, social media graphics, packaging, mascot design and more.
Talent: Hires top 2% creative talent, across the US, Philippines, Indonesia, Latin America and Vietnam.
Features: Uses an ‘Ai matchmaker’ to build you the perfect design team, and manages design projects digitally through their project management platform. First drafts promised in 24-48 hours and a money-back guarantee if you don’t love working with them after 30 days.
Headquarters & Company Size: Based out of Philidelphia, US, with remote designers in multiple locations.
Notable Customers: Uber, Reebok, Kohl’s.
Design Pickle
Pricing: Starts at $999 per month but offers ‘Power Plans’ for a custom package.
Capabilities: Offers a variation of design solutions across 5 areas: graphic design, custom illustrations, motion design, video editing and presentation design.
Talent: Hires a “talented global design production workforce”.
Features: Offers AI-powered request forms to submit creative briefs and same-day turnaround times on certain projects. Allows for integration with existing project management platforms via Zapier.
Headquarters & Company Size: HQ in Scottsdale Arizona, with a “global creative network spanning 12 countries”.
Notable Customers: Yahoo!, Amazon, 7Eleven.
See Design Pickle vs Design Force.
Many Pixels
Pricing: starts at $549 per month. $1299 per month for a designated designer.
Capabilities: Offers a wide variety of graphic design outputs from web design to motion design, ad design and packaging.
Talent: Hires vetted, “battle-tested” designers.
Features: Uses a digital project management platform to keep track of projects and communications, promises turnaround times of 1-2 days, and offers the flexibility to scale up or down output within the flat rate monthly fee.
Headquarters & Company Size: HQ in Singapore.
Notable Customers: Decathlon, Buffer, Teach:able.
Kimp
Pricing: Offers 50% off for the first 2 months, making fees start at $299.50 – $599 per month after that on the lowest subscription package.
Capabilities: Offers a variety of design services split across 3 areas: graphics, motion, and Canva design. Their Canva support includes custom designs using Canva’s AI technology, allowing you to edit the work yourself as necessary. They promise to offer over 100 types of graphic and video design.
Talent: Recruits and hires top graphic designers and motion designers.
Features: Projects are managed using their own digital system; Kimp360. They offer access to premium stock imagery, 24/7 support, 24 hour turnaround times, and the ability to invite multiple team members to collaborate on a project at no extra cost.
Headquarters & Company Size: A global team spanning 5 continents.
Notable Customers: Harley Davidson Motorcycles, Market Health Affiliate Network, 1&1.
Designity
Pricing: Starts at $3,495 per month.
Capabilities: Offers an extensive range of services across design, marketing, strategy and copywriting. Graphic design services cover 2D and 3D design, gifs, pattern design and more.
Talent: Hires US-based creatives who are “joyfully disruptive” to make designs more impactful.
Features: Offers a tech-enabled platform to make collaboration a priority, with a Creative Director to lead the project.
Headquarters & Company Size: HQ in New York, with a team of US creatives and directors.
Notable Customers: Marriott International, Audible, Memphis Zoo.
DesignJoy
Pricing: Pricing starts at $4995 per month for the Standard package, and $7995 for Pro, which doubles design requests. As a smaller operation, packages are based on limited availability.
Capabilities: Offers a range of design services for apps and websites, including logos, landing pages, brand guides and more.
Talent: The majority of design work is done by the founder, with animation or custom illustrations outsourced to partner designers.
Features: Projects are managed via the management tool Trello, with a promise of no meetings. DesignJoy offers fixed rates, options to scale up or scale down, and turnaround times of a few days on average.
Headquarters & Company Size: A remote team of one, operating from the US.
Notable Customers: Memberstack, CometChat, Xfinity.
DotYeti
Pricing: Monthly costs start at $399 per month if billed per 6 months, or $499 per month otherwise.
Capabilities: Offers a variety of solutions for startups, e-commerce, agencies and more, spanning advert design, branding, NFT artwork and more.
Talent: Hires only the top 5% of designers with extensive training.
Features: Offers a 14-day money-back guarantee, alongside turnaround times of 48 hours and any time cancellation.
Headquarters & Company Size: HQ based in Delaware, US.
Notable Customers: WWF, The Hive, G4S.
Comparison Matrix: Design Quality vs. Pricing Flexibility
To visualize how these subscription-based design services stack up in terms of affordability and quality, we’ve created a comparison matrix. It’ll help you assess, at a glance, which services offer the best balance of cost-effectiveness and high-quality output, tailored to your business needs.
The matrix plots services on two axes:
The X-axis represents the flexibility within the cost, ranging from less to more wiggle room to make changes month on month. Those placed further right, have monthly fees alongside custom packages, whereas those on the left have more limitations, like Superside, whose minimum contract is one year.
The Y-axis represents the overall range in design results, from standard to high-quality outputs. Ranging from simple Canva designs at the lower end, to highly detailed design elements and technical capabilities at the higher.
This visual representation aims to simplify your decision-making process by highlighting where each service falls within these critical dimensions. Whether you’re looking for something that’s exceptional quality, and have a sizable budget, or need the best quality you can afford on a tighter, more flexible budget.
Is a design subscription service the right choice for your business?
The landscape of outsourced design services is evolving, with demand for subscription models continuing to attract impressive clientele.
With flexibility ingrained in its model and often unlimited access to global, high-quality design talent, Design-as-a-Service is a risk-free way to drastically increase your design output without increasing your headcount.
We know that design is integral to the success of a brand, but that not all brands have the design talent in-house to bring it to life. As an example, Forrester found that UI/UX design can increase site conversion rates by up to a massive 200% – outsourcing on-demand design talent means that increase is accessible to all.
At Design Force, we’re proud of our scalable, flexible model – we can effortlessly integrate our designers to become a valuable extension of your in-house team. We’ll bust through your design roadblocks with on-demand design tailored to your business needs.
Fancy a walk though? Book a call and our friendly team will show you the inside scoop – no strings attached.
Disclaimer: the information provided in the blog is correct at the time of writing. While we aim to be accurate in any information shared, the companies mentioned could change their prices and offerings at any time. This blog is intended as a guideline to support your own research.
