Fitsmallbusiness.com has had some experience with business logo design. We recently re-designed our logo using 99designs and had a great experience. In this article we will discuss that experience and compare 99designs to its main competitor, DesignCrowd, and the Do-it-yourself logo design service, Logo Garden. Once you have finished reading, you should have a pretty good idea of which logo design service will fit your business needs.
Best Business Logo Design Service: 99designs
We recommend 99designs for several reasons. First, we have done several logo competitions through them ourselves and have always had good experiences. Second, they have the highest pool of qualified designers. And third, they have a $99 low-cost template option for businesses that cannot afford the $500 price-tag.
99designs vs. DesignCrowd vs. Logo Garden Comparison Table:
Best for Businesses that Want: | To work with the largest pool of high-quality designers to develop a lasting business logo and ongoing designer relationship | A good logo design option if you want to work with quality designers but go a bit cheaper (or bid a custom amount) than 99 Designs | A Do-it-yourself logo creation service that is quick, easy, and cheap. Good for small businesses that do not need a fancy/original design, one-time event logos,and/ or marketing campaign logos |
Cost | $99 for template logo or $499 for Silver level competition (our recommended level) | $440 Standard level Plan (our recommended level) | $19.99 - $49.99 for high-resolution logo images |
How Logos are Created | Competition, Crowdsourcing or pre-configured templates | Competition or Crowdsourcing | DIY Logo Creation |
Quality of Logo Design/Concept | High | High | Average (generally unoriginal) |
Overall Quality and Size of Designer Network | Large Designer Network that is high-quality (950,000 designers) | Medium Designer Network that is medium to high quality (450,000 designers) | N/A |
Timeline to Create Logo/Total Time Invested | 1-2 weeks from start to finish and 4-10 hours of invested time | 1-2 weeks from start to finish and 4-10 hours of invested time | 2-4 hours of invested time |
Overall Quality of User Reviews | High | High | Average |
Other Services/Options | Web design, packaging design, t-shirt design, car wrap design, business card design, infographic design, and much more | Web design, t-shirt design, brochure design, flyer design, business card design, and more | Logos, business cards, websites, phone cases, t-shirts, signs, and more |
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99Designs
DesignCrowd
Logo Garden99 Designs: Best Overall Logo Design Service
99designs is pretty much the industry standard when it comes to logo competitions. The site has over 1,020,000 designers, more than twice as many as DesignCrowd and other similar sites/competitors. The quality of designers is high as well and the site consistently has a 4 star rating and higher from its users. Fitsmallbusiness.com has used 99designs for several of our own logo design competitions and have been very pleased with our experience as well as the logos we have ended up with. Also, 99designs has just recently created a new $99 template logo service, which is an awesome option for businesses on a budget. You can buy a custom-designed template/logo, tell 99designs what you want changed (name, color, etc), and have your logo within 24 hours, for only $50-$60 more than a DIY logo builder.
When To Use DesignCrowd
In a lot of ways, DesignCrowd is similar to 99designs. It is a crowdsourcing/competition site where designers bid for business design jobs. But, unlike 99designs, DesignCrowd lets you set your own budget, although they do have a minimum budget of $220 for logo design. So, if you could not afford to pay $500 but want a little better quality than a $250 contest could get you, DesignCrowd lets you set a budget/prize of $375 to split the difference. DesignCrowd has a solid designer base of around 450,000 designers. Although their user reviews are not quite as solid as 99designs, most customers express satisfaction with their DesignCrowd experience.
Logo Garden: Create Your Logo Yourself in Less than a Day for Under $50
Logo Garden is a different animal altogether from 99designs or DesignCrowd. Instead of running a competition/contest so that a designer can create a logo for you, you create the logo yourself using Logo Garden’s database of images and their logo editing software. This really is a case of the old saying, “You get what you pay for.” The designs are basic and not too original. But, it can be perfect for a business that just needs a basic logo on the cheap. Also, it can be a great option if you just need a cheap one-time logo for an event, non-profit, or marketing campaign.
Business Logo Design Service Pricing
There are a variety of different costs associated with each logo design/logo creation service. Logo Garden is the cheapest, with DesignCrowd and 99designs being more expensive, although higher in quality. We break down the costs below.
How Logos are Created
Overall Quality and Size of Designer Network
Timeline to Create Logo/Time Invested
User Reviews
99designs and DesignCrowd are pretty similar, both with high user reviews and ratings (4 stars or above). Logo Garden has pretty average user reviews.
Other Logo Design Services/Options
Conclusion
All in all, 99designs is definitely the way to go for the average business owner, providing both the cheap template logo option and the design contest for more original and customized logos. However, if you want to be able to set your own budget or prefer a cheap DIY option, then DesignCrowd or Logo Garden might be more your speed.
Marsha Kelly
I have used both Designcrowd and 99designs and grade DesignCrowd – B and 99designs – A, based on the number of submissions, design quality, pricing, and customer service. Check out this comparison table of 12 important features comparing 99designs to DesignCrowd – you should consider before launching your design contest. 99designs vs DesignCrowd vs CrowdSpring Review: Best? best4businesses.com/designcrowd-vs-99designs/
Amanda Norman
Hi Marsha,
Thank you for sharing your experience. We really appreciate the feedback our readers give about software we recommend. If you’d like to leave a personal review in the reviews section, you can click here and here.
Thanks for stopping by.
Mandy, Moderator
densus
contest logos harming ch and designers ….. they are just looking for profit not to care about designers
Ivan
Internet is full of articles (with good reason) on why crowdsourcing logos is a bad idea. Two of the three options suggested in the article are crowdsourcing sites. And third one too is a logo maker, not a proper logo design service.
If you take your business seriously then you have to use a professional logo designer or a company which specialize in custom logo design. New businesses and startups on a tight budget can try companies like 40 Dollar Logo, which provide custom logo design services though you won’t get as many concepts as you get on crowdsourcing sites but what you get is originally designed for your business which is what you want.
Jeremy Marsan
Hi Ivan,
Thanks for dropping in. I think crowdsourcing can be effective when you know what– at least enough to describe it in text. The main benefit is that you can see so many different interpretations of your concept, whereas a single designer may only provide 2 or 3.
On the flipside, you can have a more in-depth conversation with a single designer. If you aren’t really sure what you want, and are struggling to put it into words, a good designer will pick your brain and figure it out. This isn’t quite possible with a crowdsourcing platform.
Scott Nicolas
Hi, if your looking for descent, original logos, go on http://www.logogenie.net. I know it’s an online service but these guys are raising the bar. I was thinking of doing a contest site but it ended up being a little to pricy for me. I opted for this site and the outcome was great! No glitches in the files. Everything was just clean and flawless.
Roger Talkit
Our company’s experience with crowdSPRING was not so good. We are not a small business, but we have spent plenty on graphic design in recent years and wanted to see if we could get a new logo without spending a whole lot more. For that reason, we went with crowdSPRING’s express logo package. The idea behind this package is that the buyer gets 5 Platinum creatives with a 5-day term for the contest. Now, for $200, this sounds really great. There is the potential to get 25 different design entries, assuming the buyer takes an active role and provides feedback and guidance to each designer. In principle, it should be great. But, in reality, there are several downfalls. The first is that when the first five designers take their places in your project, in the first 24 hours, you are stuck with those folks. We created a very complete brief for the designers to work from. No stone was left unturned. We stated exactly what we wanted and several things we did NOT want. The first entry in our project was something that was on our “do not do” list. In terms of design, it was pitiful. It was a word typed out in a script font- that’s it. We gave feedback to this person immediately and then heard nothing. We then got another similar entry and another. We gave feedback and an assessment of the logo design and how it could be changed or a reminder of what we were looking for, but it didn’t matter. Two of the designers, who were taking up the positions in our contest, didn’t even respond to multiple private messages. We brought this to the attention of crowdSPRING and they basically said “tough luck.” The rules are the rules. We explained that it looked like there would be no design that had anything to do with our brief, but that didn’t matter. In this situation, what they try to do is to up-sell you. Apparently, for just another $100, you can convert to a silver project contest and get many more entries. We were not convinced that we would get a resolution to our problem this way since we were not seeing any designs that were suitable. In the end, we awarded our project to a design that was not what we wanted and we never used it. We have used other services in the past, including 99designs, and were much happier. Can’t speak to crowdSPRING’s other levels of contests, but this is only about the express level. If some deadbeat, who only intends to make a single design submission and then disappear, enters your contest, you are out of luck. When you get two people like that, and you watch the clock ticking away, then you realize you could have thrown $200 out the window and it would have been faster. I know there will be people who say that you can’t expect much for that amount of money, but this is crowdsourcing and there is a lot of talent around the world. Our company is always interested in making the customer happy. If it looks like the customer is getting a raw deal, even because it is about our policy, we will make an exception to make sure the customer is satisfied. That doesn’t seem to be the case with express projects from this provider.