99designs
Reviews and Complaints

As someone who has been a designer on 99designs for several years, I have had mixed experiences with the platform. While I have won many contests and had successful collaborations, I have also faced challenges. The platform's criteria changes have been frustrating, and the reduced number of contests is concerning. The design support can be cruel and unprofessional at times. Overall, I recommend caution when using 99designs, as it may not be the best option for all designers or clients. It's essential to explore other platforms for a more positive experience. Wishing you the best in your design endeavors!

I was recommended the site by a neighbor and liked the concept, the process seemed simple. I was a little hesitant committing money for a logo that I didn't know how it would turn out, but within 24 hours had some great designs and after 48 hours had my 3 favorite designs.

After that during the initial phase I did get a few entry level designers pumping out design and design that did not hit the mark ad just kept submitting, but still there was no harm in seeing alternatives.

The final stage was a little confusing as I thought I was choosing the final designer not the final design, but the designer was very understanding and we hashed out the final design with a couple of text fonts, different colors and different layouts. All provided in 5 different file formats including layered Photoshop files so as a photographer I am able to make various selections of various parts of the logo as needed.

With a time difference of 8 hours between me and the designer did slow down the communication somewhat but we got there in the end. Happy to have a pool of design skills to select from as opposed to one designer with a narrower design scope.

We just ran our first 99Designs contest, and the results were wonderful. Before going to 99Designs, we spent a lot of money with two professional book design firms recommended by the Independent Book Publishers Association. The problem with a single design firm is you only get what is in their heads and you pay them whether they come up with anything useful or not. With 99Designs, we started at $299 and then after seeing that the designs were worthwhile, we guaranteed the prize and then extended the contest twice (which adds money to the prize each time). We received 129 entries from 25 designers. The end result was 4 great designs, any of which would have worked for us. We then used the POLL technology within 99Designs to poll some potential readers to help us pick the final design.

Please note that you have to guide the designers actively by giving feedback on what you do or don't like and what you are trying to accomplish, but I would definitely do this again.

BTW, I would take any negative comments that say they never heard back from 99Designs as completely bogus. We called them three times and emailed once during this process and they were always immediately responsive.

My company has used 99designs for 6 different logo projects and 5 out of 6 times the designs were amazing and the end result perfect. One time was very good, but probably not well thought out on our end. I have found that you get what you pay for, and I always go for the Gold package and am never disappointed. Don't know what is wrong with the 1-star reviewers--possibly they didn't have a good brief, or wanted a great design for little money. We have had nothing but great experience and I could not recommend this company higher. Make sure you give feedback to the designers. If you don't like something, tell them why so they don't keep going the wrong direction. Give feedback every few hours--don't waste the designers time allowing them to go a certain direction that you don't like without giving them direction. If you need to, send a message to all designers to tell them "stop using red", or "don't use any versions of human symbols" etc so they have direction. There are some amazing designers here and you will get out of it what you put into it. Give timely feedback and you will be amazed at the quality of the work you will get. And it comes very quickly and at a price that cannot be beat.

I use 99 Designs for all of my design work. I run a small business and their service enables me to showcase myself as a large corporation with high quality designs on a budget. I've been using them for years and they've designed for me... flyers, banners, brochures, car wraps, t-shirts... just about anything you can imagine, they can do. I've had only one issue over the years which was with not getting many designs after starting a contest... which is a rarity. I contacted 99 Designs, they gave me some recommendations on what to do then restarted the contest for me. After implementing their recommendations, I had no other issues. For the designers, I can see some challenges because a lot of designers like to copy other designers work, make a few changes and pass it off as their own in an effort to win the contest. I will never award a contest to a designer that copies another's design... I pay for originality, not copies. However, their selection of designers are some of the best you will find. To date, I haven't found any place I can go to online or locally that would produce better results for the price and quality of work than 99 Designs. I hope they keep investing in the company to make it even better because they're a lifeline for small businesses like mine.

I started on 99designs two years ago from scratch. I was a big 0 in design. In just two years the awesome staff and the amazing community of designers helped to create a great portfolio, wherever I show it, people are amazed by it, not speaking about my little overall experience.
I really learned a lot and everybody was ready to help even when I failed. So thank you 99d, you are amazing.

I had no job and no profession, 99d helped me to feed my family for 2 years and then I was able to get a nice job in design. (and I can still use 99d for extra income)

As a designer it's an awesome place. I do not recommend it however for those who are not willing to learn, who don't like to play fair and be nice and for those who are dumb. These people will most probably get themselves a ban for good reason.

For customers I can safely say that there a ton of really really good designers and it is impossible to not find a man for the job. You just have to know at least partly what you want and invite the right man to your contest or for 1to1.

But rule of the dumb applies here as well. If you are dumb don't come, you will be disappointed most likely and just make designers waste their time. If you are normal guy with more then 80 iq you can come safely, you will get what you want. And if you have questions just ask the customer support they are awesome and happy to help.

Cheers to the normal people ;)

99designs is leagues ahead of its competitors for clients and designers alike. For clients, 99designs is a focal point for some of the best freelance designers in the world. The same cannot be said of any of its competitors, where overused concepts dominate. The contest model brings scores, sometimes hundreds of designers to the client. No design agency anywhere can leverage a comparable sum of skill, experience and creative talent. For designers, 99designs is a tough environment. But this is what makes it great. Prices are set. There is no bidding war to the bottom. What is tough is the competition from other designers. For any serious designer, this situation is ideal. You get to hone your skills, break bad habits, and learn from the best, albeit through many defeats. Over time, the benefit is demonstrable. Persisting, learning and working hard on 99designs will for sure make you a better designer, no matter what your level of experience, including senior designers in the non-freelance industry. Meanwhile, you'll be responding to real world briefs, and if you're good enough you can score wins. Meanwhile, 99designs attracts some of the most interesting branding projects available, and the diversity is great, so you can develop different styles and try new approaches. Is the platform without problems? No. But there is a great community of designers who discuss matters daily and can offer insight and support. In short, for clients and designers alike, 99designs is highly recommended.

It literally changed my life for a better!

As a designer, being able to pick projects that I like, from clients from all around the world, that otherwise I would never had chance to meet, is absolutely amazing!

It all started several years ago while I was working in an advertising agency. A friend of mine have told me about 99designs and I decided to gave it a go. One by one, I've entered 15 contests with some visually amazing work, but with no single win.

After some time I tried to think of what I was doing wrong and changed my strategy. My new designs were not anything better than the previous ones, but were more client-centric.

Finally, I started winning contest. Today, my stats are: 67% finals (50% of that wins) On average, I'm winning every 3rd contest. All those wins also generated me a lot of 1-to-1 projects and long term collaborations with several clients that consider me as a reliable member of their teams, and I love working with them.

Of course, that personal success gave me wings to quit my daily job and start freelancing exclusively. Im getting enough of work from my regular clients, so lately I participate contest on 99designs only for fun.

P.S.

Im noticing a lot of reviews here that are totally unfair / wrongly addressed. 99design is open service, meaning anyone can create contest, and anyone can participate as a designer. In real life there are two types of people, of course there will be some not so great clients and some not so great designers on 99design too, but it's not fair to blame it on 99designs.

I'm sure that 99designs among other awesome things, makes real effort of increasing quality of designs by suspending accounts of low quality designers, and limiting number of contest that new designer can participate.

I used a company that my interior designer was raving about. This company helped her get a great logo for her company. 99designs.com is a really fantastic online design company. They have designers all over the map that go to their website and sign up to do these "design contests" and they start to actually submit design concepts right online for the customer to actually choose from. There is a reward of money that the customer sets the amount for the winning designer. What a great idea and a really great way to get the perfect design that you really want.

I went to the website and really read up on the information that they have available for you. I was impressed with the list of products that they offer. I was in need of a really clever 2 page web design. I was having a diffuclt time finding the right person to do the job for me until I went to this site. They offer 100% money back guarantee for any reason that you are not happy with the design or designs. They also have really great packages that you can choose from too. I was impressed with the great quality that they also provide to customers. I was able to see other design contests and see the designers concepts. Amazing and so many to be able to choose from. I was sold hook, line and sinker.

I chose a perfect package that would allow me to see many designers concepts for my 2 web pages. I wanted to give a great reward to the winning designer also. My package was under $2500. 00 total. I had to give them information as to what I wanted my web pages to basically look like and then they would be able to start designing from that. They had 7 days to do the designs but in the meantime I was also able to give them feedback on the designs they were submitting to the site for me to look at so that they could do any modifications if needed. I was blown away as to how many I was able to choose from. Over a dozen designers with multiple designs! I was very excited and really happy with the outcome. They are a great place to go to and have really professional people care for your business and the pride they show. Quality work and quality designers! I will definitely come back as soon a repeat customer and I will spread the good word of this great company!

99design is a company you go to outsource your design work. It is held to the highest standard. I believe you can get the BEST designers there. I have used it for YEARS and I know other professionals have used them as well with great results. There are drawbacks and things to be cautious of as there are anywhere you go. The

PROs. Their UI is upgraded and you can interact with your designers at the highest level. So you can either contact designers directly by looking at profiles or run a contest either blind or so all the designers can see the designs. Blind you will not get the designers copying each other. If you do not run it blind I suggest not rating the designs until you choose the finalists, because then you will get a bunch of similar designs. The UI is precise so you can leave a "brief"(your order) with examples, of art, colors, feelings, styles, (easily within their UI or upload your own) and descriptions you want to be portrayed in your art. It gives the designers a good idea of what you want. Also when a design is submitted you can interact with it by clicking on it and drawing on the design or commenting on specific elements and talking to the designer in private right there! Makes for a great collaboration! You can talk to all the designers, and integrate with slack if you choose to. Stock images used in the design are displayed when you select the design so you know what stock is used and where it is from.

CONs to be aware that if you choose a contest you can get designers who don't do original art. Some just put a stock image and text and will do 12 different designs. Nothing more than that so the art is not original. But you WILL get designers who spend 2-3 days making some amazing original art using a stock image and photos or freestock integrated all photoshopped together with text to make that AWARD WINNING DESIGN you came for. SO beware of the designers who are not original and just slap it up there in mass amounts. Otherwise, THIS IS where you will find the PREMIUM DESIGNERS. Be willing to talk and say yes I like this no I don't like that YOU ARE THE BOSS! Its a collaboration! :) Hope this helps you get the design of your dream. The image of the cover design for my Latest Book is attached done via a contest on 99designs.

There are some nasty reviews written by clients who had bad experience for a reason or another, but let me point some things out:

- You can't complain if you don't get good results for mediocre prizes ($300 ~ $500), top designers won't even bother looking at such contests.

- While, let's say $500 is deemed fair enough for some kind of design in case of a one to one project, but in a contest it should be 200% of the amount or more for the same design. Do you want many designers to compete and give it their best shot? Give them a reason!

- Some people said that the Money Back Guaranteed is a scam, [censored]s!
Initially when a contest is created, they could get their money back at any moment during the qualifying round BUT NOT AFTER THE FINAL ROUND, did they seriously think that they will be dragging many designers to work on their contests for many many days then at end ask for a refund?! These are people working, not slaves who have nothing else better to do.
If you decide to make the contest guaranteed before the final round, you can't get your money back afterwards but chances that more designers will be entering the contest and working seriously on it will be significantly increased. The rules are clear and logical here.

- If you're going to create a contest, MAKE it "Blind", preferably not "Private" as designers tend to not be fond of Private contests because they cannot add submissions to their portfolio from such contests.

- These are contests, designers won't go all-out and give it everything they have (We're talking many hours of work) while they have no guarantee of winning. Probably they will submit an alpha version and work on improving it if the client is showing interest.

- Write a good and complete design brief, provide assets and resources.

- In many cases, contests don't attract designers because the brief is insufficient, vague, lacking specifics or just too demanding for the amount of its prize.

- Give feedbacks and communicate your ideas, designers cannot read your mind and know exactly at first glance how you want the design to be like.

- You may need to extend the deadline if not enough designers are entering your contest.

- Don't send those dumb generic contest invitations to designers, such as "Hello, I like your portfolio, please join my contest". Designers won't even reply or check the contest as this invitation message is clearly a copy pasted text and have sent repetitively to other designers God knows how many times before. At the very least address the designer by his/her first name when saying hello.
Attached is an example of such dumb copy pasted generic invitations I receive on regular basis. Don't make the same mistake if you're going to invite designers to join your contest.

- DON'T end a contest before its deadline, there might be designers who are still working on their submission and probably going to submit it minutes before the deadline.

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There are also some reviews from designers who claim to have years of experience and bla bla bla who were banned or suspended from 99Designs because their work was deemed mediocre, below average or not meeting the standards, well, most probably, it must have been so, with all due respect.

If you are good, you can make a decent living out of this platform, if you are not, you may be working everyday for years and not winning a dime.

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Of course not 100% of the members are professional designers (as any other marketplace), there are some amateurs and punks. Same goes for clients, there are professional and thoughtful clients as they are some [censored]s who assume that all designers are mind-reader slaves and all of them should be interested in their contest asking for a logo, branding identity, packaging and website for their miserable $700.

"We can have 1,000 happy people not say a word online and 10 unhappy people making an awful lot of noise."

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There are some very talented designers out there, but they won't bother entering contests with mediocre prizes. Have an eye on their profile, portfolio and reviews, then invite them to 1-to-1 projects, results tend to be better when working directly with one designer.

As a designer with over 35 years of experience working in the design-for-print industry and with a Degree in Design I can honestly say I was 'slapped with a damp squid' today by them. I decided I would give them a try as I am now freelance. Don't get me wrong, my last position for 20 years was Creative Director. I know my job and history has proved me a great designer. My experience is vast. Being freelance gave me the ability to move to another country and marry the woman I loved. My choice, otherwise I would still be in the UK working 10 hours a day. Today they wrote to me and said...
You've been suspended
Your account has been suspended forever for the following reason:
Hello, Thanks for your interest in 99designs. Unfortunately the current quality of your work does not fit our site standards. As a result, we have put your account on hold. We encourage you to improve your design skills. You can find design tutorials and inspirational work here: http://99designs.com/designer-blog/category/design-tips-and-resources/ After you have spent 3 months on your designs, please create a portfolio of 4 to 5 of your new designs in vector pdf file format based on contests from our site: 99designs.com/contests Please send this portfolio to ***@99designs.com with the subject line "Portfolio review: (Your 99designs username)". When submitting your portfolio, please zip the files and include the link to each contest from which the designs were created in the body of your email. We will review your submissions and determine if your account will be reactivated. We will not review your portfolio if you send it in before three months. Do not attempt to create a new account while yours is on hold. This is against our Code of Conduct and we will close the account without notice. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask."...

Honestly '... current quality of your work does not fit our site standards. As a result, we have put your account on hold. We encourage you to improve your design skills"...

My skills have been honed over 40 years! And well paid!

ALL I CAN SAY IS 'AGEISM'! Other designers beware - well at least experienced designers be wary:-(

I paid $431.91 for what suppose to be professional experience designers to design a logo, what I paid for was very new and inexperience designers offering me logos, The model is to offer a bid like system where designers compete and you pick a "winner" upon which that stage you are locked in financially to that designer. It was not a good group to select from in the beginning and did not like any of the designs, I finally went with one that still wasn't satisfactory, upon presenting the logo to my business partner we all agreed that this was definitely not worth the above monies we paid. We are seeking a full refund as the services provided were not of quality experienced designers as advertised. The below attached is what they charged me $431.91, any reasonable and rational person with limited experience in business can see this is way over priced and unfair.

Hii this is rigzin Chedon

You might be wondering why am I writing this letter to this company.

Recently I have made 20 logos for my client that I got from Upwork. I did and design 20 logo for him/her.

After finishing he/she said that for the payment method I have to give my password and verification code for the payment process. So the main reason to write this letter is, the person I worked must be with the 99design because I have design 20 logo with name as 99design which I thought it was be real until he told me to pay fee of 80 dollar for the linking process with the company. I am scared if this not true and becoming a victim of scam.

So if the company read my letter please tell me that it is not or true

Hope the company would response due to my concern.

Hello,

a few days ago my account was suspended for practically no reason after spending over 2 days submitting relentlessly to different projects. I just joined one of their competitors- designcrowd.com and thought their courtesy statement could be applied to their website so you're not to be blamed by Designers for being rude. See their note below after I submitted my first design:

Your account has not been verified.
We need to verify that your designs will meet our Quality Standards. To verify your account, submit to any design contest.Read more...

It's that simple! It's rude and disheartening to have Designers submit relentlessly not knowing they have specific Quality Standards set out and then after two days send me an impolite email about suspension. At least these guys have some manners.

I am one of those people who was banned for not fitting their standards, that is very blurred and nobody knows what criteria they have.
Moreover, I have an excellent rating, my customers left no negative reviews and there are no complaints against me, but all of a sudden the website decided to ban me for an unknown reason. I am still trying to understand what reason it was. Ok, I mentioned I didn't fit their standards, but recently I did a great job and got the highest rates from clients and the design was made with the same patterns.
I understand those poor designers who think they did something wrong and even illegal to be banned.
Trust me, guys, people on this website are [censored]s, don't take it too seriously.

I had a bad experience with 99designs and I do not recommend this site to anyone, especially if you are a serious designer. Better avoid this site.
For several years now I'm working as a professional designer and one day I accidentally found 99designs and decided to participate in one of their contests. I had submitted 5 designs and customer really liked what I did. But one day I received a message stating my account was deleted for poor quality work! I contacted 99designs right away and demanded some detailed explanations but they refused to tell anything. Such a terrible service and total waste of time.

I am a professional designer and have a very inspiring portfolio. A friend of mine told me about 99designs website and said that it seemed like a nice place to earn some extra cash. Well I had some spare time, so I decided to try it. As a professional and as a human I do not recommend this place! These people are cheaters, they will use you, get what they want and will never pay you for your hard work. They scam their designers and their customers. Many designers mentioned there are fake or their names were used without their permission. In my opinion this site should be shut down.

Buyer beware - don't trust 99designs. You will see the 'money back guarantee' sign on their front page, but that is a lie. This company has a terrible business model and its customer service is a real nightmare. I had an awful experience that has dragged on for over a year! The designs they provide are horrible, designers are creepy and don't want to communicate at all! And you will never get the final product. Don't use this website and don't give them your money!

Don’t hire the company www.99designs.com, because these people could finish the job on time. I paid $1, 000 for the design, and we signed the agreement 4 months ago. I was sick of their promises and blah-blah about the job and problems. They simply couldn’t finish the job and provide what I really wanted. I just share this information with other people, and I hope that it would help.

I paid money for the website design to the company 99 Designs. It was big scam, ‘coz they took money and promised to provide design, but after several days no news from them. I was a little bit disappointed, ‘coz I wasted money and time, but got completely nothing. As well as it was mentioned that they return money back, but it was lie. I can’t reach them; therefore I can’t get money back. So be careful with this website and post comments about your experience with them.

So I began my foray into 99 Designs. What a load of BS. I had a hand drawn horse and rider stolen - could PROVE it was mine with a layered .pds and the "powers that be" determined it was acceptable for someone to take my horse and rider and use it in their own design?

That, my good people, is the reason you don't have better offerings on contests. Those of us who do our own work are tired of those who don't stealing and getting away with it.

Though this websites proposal includes website design, they refer only to graphics and NOT coded pages. When you take into account that 99% of 99Designs graphics are free templates floating around the net, the charge of $945.00 US (more than 20% of which is kept in house) is quite unrealistic for two pages. Before signing on to this greatly over priced service, check locally in your own community and you may find local coders who can create the graphical look and coding for considerably less. They also employ some deceptive marketing practices. When I questioned the establishment about the lack of coded pages, the very next day one of the "artists" sent me a private message offering to code for free which is clearly inside favouritism so the rest of the poor artists can potentially be left out despite their efforts. Don't buy into the hype of this operation.