What DesignCrowd does

DesignCrowd is an online marketplace that connects businesses with a global community of freelance designers for custom logo, graphic, web, print, and merchandise design work. Founded in 2007 in Surry Hills, Australia, the platform operates a crowdsourcing model in which clients post project briefs and receive multiple competing submissions from a network of 1,331,889 designers across countries including the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, and Indonesia; clients typically receive 25-100+ design concepts per project and select a winning work to purchase. The technology stack is a self-serve web platform hosted on Amazon Web Services with SSL encryption via DigiCert, PCI-compliant payment processing through third-party gateways (PayPal, Stripe, Skrill, Payoneer), and a structured legal framework governing intellectual property assignment, confidentiality, and infringement indemnification.

The company monetizes via transaction fees on project budgets, posting fees, and upgrade fees, and offers two primary project models: Multiple Designer Contests (guaranteed and non-guaranteed) and One Designer Projects. Cumulative platform metrics include 534,501 completed projects, 100,000+ businesses served, and a 4.9/5 average rating from 3,059 reviews. Distribution is entirely self-serve through the web platform, with marketing driven by PR/earned media (Yahoo, TechCrunch, Mashable, TNW, SmartCompany), SEO across a portfolio library of 1,529,821+ browsable logos, social channels, customer testimonials, and an affiliate program.

DesignCrowd Pty Ltd (ABN 26 127 272 315) operates as the parent entity and also trades as BrandCrowd (brand identity focus) and Design.com (self-service logo maker, website builder, and AI-powered design features). The company has raised approximately $29.97M across eight funding rounds from 2009 through January 2026, with institutional backers including Airtree Ventures, Alium Capital, CVC Capital Partners, Ellerston Capital, Perennial Partners, Regal Funds Management, and Starfish Ventures; the company acquired Brandstack in December 2011. Headcount is in the 101-250 range, and the founder/CEO Alec Lynch and co-founder/CTO Adam Arbolino remain in leadership roles.

Name

DesignCrowd

Legal name

DesignCrowd Pty Ltd

Website

https://designcrowd.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

DesignCrowd is an online crowdsourcing marketplace connecting businesses with a global network of 1.3 million freelance designers for logo, graphic, web, and print design projects. It serves SMBs and enterprises through self-serve contests and direct designer engagements.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Surry Hills

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Client Project Posting Fees and Project Budgets: Clients pay project posting fees and fund the project budget (prize pool for designers) to launch design contests or one-on-one projects on the platform. DesignCrowd retains fees and commissions from the project budgets. The platform offers Guaranteed and Non-Guaranteed contest types, with guaranteed contests being non-refundable.
2. Upgrade Fees: Clients can purchase optional upgrades (e.g., non-public project visibility) for additional fees beyond the base project posting fee.
3. Designer-to-Client Commission (DesignCrowd's Take Rate): DesignCrowd takes a commission from designer payouts, as indicated in the Fees Schedule and Service Terms and Conditions. Designers are paid the project budget amount minus DesignCrowd's fees upon winning work selection.
4. One-on-One Designer Projects: For one-on-one designer/creative projects, clients invite or are assigned a specific designer and pay the project budget, with payment processing and designer compensation handled by DesignCrowd minus platform commissions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

DesignCrowd operates an online crowdsourced design marketplace where clients post project briefs and receive 25-100+ competing design submissions from a global community of 1,331,889+ freelance designers. Clients select and pay for a winning design, with the platform handling contest management, secure payment processing, and IP assignment from designer to client. The platform also offers one-on-one direct designer engagement as an alternative project model.

Product overview

DesignCrowd is a design crowdsourcing marketplace operated by DesignCrowd Pty Ltd (ABN 26 127 272 315) headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with a US subsidiary (DesignCrowd LLC). The platform operates as a unified marketplace connecting clients who need custom design work with a global community of 1,331,889+ freelance designers. The core platform is the DesignCrowd crowdsourcing marketplace, which offers two project models: Multiple Designer Contests (where clients receive competing designs from many designers) and One Designer Projects (direct engagement with a single designer). The platform spans design service categories organized across Logo & Identity, Graphic Design, Web Design, Digital Marketing, Outdoor & Signage, Print Design, Product & Merchandise, and Art & Illustration — covering approximately 80+ specific design sub-categories. The company also operates two sub-brands, BrandCrowd and Design.com, the latter offering self-service tools including a logo maker, business cards, website builder, and AI design features. The DesignCrowd platform itself does not offer a public API, has no documented AI capabilities, and has no stated security certifications in the provided sources.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• DesignCrowd Platform (Crowdsourcing Marketplace) Online marketplace connecting clients needing custom designs with a global community of 1,331,889+ freelance designers. Supports contest-based projects where clients receive multiple competing submissions, plus one-on-one direct designer engagement. Handles project posting, submission management, payment processing, and IP transfer.
• Multiple Designer Contest Project model where clients post a creative brief and receive 25-100+ competing design submissions from different designers, then choose a winning work to purchase. Available as non-guaranteed (optional selection, refund eligible) or guaranteed (required selection, non-refundable) contest types.
• One Designer Project Project model where clients invite or are matched with a single freelance designer to complete a paid design project directly, as an alternative to the crowdsourced contest approach. Project budgets vary by package selection.
• DesignCrowd Design Jobs Board Job board at jobs.designcrowd.com connecting freelance designers with design work opportunities posted by clients, organized across design categories with both open and closed job listings. Supports enterprise and SMB hiring needs.
• BrandCrowd Related brand operated by DesignCrowd Pty Ltd focused on brand identity and logo design services. Shares infrastructure, privacy policy, and corporate governance with DesignCrowd.
• Design.com Related brand operated by DesignCrowd Pty Ltd offering self-service design tools including a logo maker, business cards, website builder, domain names, posters, flyers, letterheads, menus, email signatures, and social media post templates, with AI-powered design features. Shares infrastructure and privacy policy with DesignCrowd.
• DesignCrowd Freelance Designer Network Global community of 1,331,889+ freelance designers organized by design type (logo, graphic, web, flyer, t-shirt, etc.), country, and city. The supply side of the marketplace, enabling clients to browse and select designers for contest and direct engagement work.

Quantifiable outcome

• 50% cost savings compared to traditional creative agencies (per HI-TEC testimonial)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• PayPalcoreOthersPCI-compliant payment gateway provider used by DesignCrowd to process client payments and designer payouts. DesignCrowd outsources transaction processing to reputable, secure, PCI-compliant payment gateway providers including PayPal, Stripe, Skrill (Paysafe), and Payoneer. DesignCrowd does not store or handle complete credit card data.
• StripecoreOthersPCI-compliant payment gateway provider. Stripe processes credit card transactions for DesignCrowd's marketplace payments, enabling clients to fund projects and designers to receive payouts.
• Skrill (Paysafe)minorOthersPCI-compliant payment gateway provider used as one of DesignCrowd's payment processing options for clients and designers on the platform.
• PayoneerminorOthersPCI-compliant payment gateway and international payment service used by DesignCrowd to facilitate cross-border payments to freelance designers worldwide.
• DigiCertcoreTechnology or IntegrationDigiCert supplies DesignCrowd's SSL certificate for encrypting information sent between users and the platform using SSL protocol and 128-bit encryption (the highest level commercially available).
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationDesignCrowd's technology stack is fully secured and hosted on Amazon Web Services. Databases are only accessible to certain IP addresses, locations, and servers. DesignCrowd has implemented parts of the SANS security guidelines for securing its database servers.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• 99designs: 99designs (acquired by Vista in 2019) is the most direct competitor to DesignCrowd, operating an identical crowdsourced design contest model for logos, graphic design, and web design with multiple competing submissions per brief. Both platforms target SMBs and enterprises seeking affordable, fast custom design with global designer pools.
• CrowdSpring: CrowdSpring offers a nearly identical crowdsourced design marketplace with 1-to-1 projects and contests across logo, web, and graphic design. It competes head-to-head with DesignCrowd for SMB and startup customers seeking multiple design options at fixed price points.
• Designhill: Designhill is a direct competitor running a design crowdsourcing marketplace for logos, graphics, web design, and print, plus an AI logo maker and design store. It targets the same SMB and enterprise customer base as DesignCrowd with a similar contest-based model.
• Fiverr: Fiverr is a broad freelance services marketplace that includes substantial overlap with DesignCrowd in logo design, graphic design, and web design. While Fiverr uses a 1-to-1 gig model rather than contests, it competes for the same SMB design budget and offers a larger global freelancer pool.
• Upwork: Upwork is a horizontal freelance marketplace where businesses hire designers directly for logo, graphic, and web design projects. It overlaps with DesignCrowd's one-on-one designer project offering and competes for the same freelance design dollar, though with a project-based rather than contest-based delivery model.

Broad incumbents

• Canva: Canva is a broad design platform with a massive user base offering DIY templates, AI design tools, and increasingly on-demand design services (Canva Pro, Canva for Teams). It competes with DesignCrowd's self-service Design.com offering and is an emerging threat to the SMB design services market via AI-driven design automation.

Emerging players

• Tailor Brands: Tailor Brands is an AI-powered branding platform focused on automated logo design, brand identity kits, and LLC formation. It competes with DesignCrowd at the low end of the logo design market by offering instant AI-generated logos versus human-submitted crowdsourced designs.
• Looka: Looka (formerly Logojoy) is an AI-driven logo and brand identity generator targeting startups and small businesses. It overlaps with DesignCrowd's logo design offering by delivering instant AI-generated brand assets at price points below traditional crowdsourced contests.
• Designs.ai: Designs.ai is an AI-powered creative platform offering logo makers, video makers, and design tools that automate asset creation. It competes for the same DIY/SMB customer segment as DesignCrowd's Design.com sub-brand with AI-generated design outputs.

Others

• Hatchful (Shopify): Hatchful is Shopify's free AI logo maker aimed at merchants and ecommerce entrepreneurs. While it does not directly compete in the crowdsourced design space, it serves the same startup/SMB logo design need at the zero price point, providing a free alternative to DesignCrowd's paid logo contests.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/designcrowd
• Facebookfacebook.com/DesignCrowd
• Pinterestpinterest.com/designcrowd
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/designcrowd

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds8 records

Investors8 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about DesignCrowd