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99designs Reviews Summary
The company has garnered a mixed reputation, with many customers praising the platform for its ability to connect them with a diverse pool of talented designers and for facilitating a creative contest process that often yields satisfactory results. However, significant concerns have been raised regarding the quality of designs, with accusations of reliance on stock imagery and lack of originality. Additionally, customer service appears inconsistent, with reports of inadequate support and difficulty in resolving issues, including refunds and communication problems. Overall, while the platform offers valuable opportunities, the execution and support may require improvement to enhance customer satisfaction.
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The 99D idea is bright. Many possibilities to promote your self as designer for the whole world. Good opportunities to improve yourself as a designer.
I dont like 2 things:
1. Millions of delineates spamming every contest with generic works.
2. Newcomers filter is missing.
Cool service.
I've already recommended this to a friend of mind.
I got the logo that I needed.
Before I have created logos many times and results were not constant.
That as 99designs works I'm sure, every time I will get the logo I want.
Hi Alexey,
Thank you for sharing your experience with us! We are glad to hear that you were able to find the logo that you want and for your recommendation!:)
We appreciate you coming to us for your design needs and we look forward to working with you again.
- Jerlyn from 99designs
They treat designers with total contempt, put your account on hold for no reason (probably a decision made by their algorithms), take forever to reply you and, when/if they do, all you'll get will be a generic email that has nothing to do with what you have asked.
Hi Jessica,
I understand how disappointing it is to see your account placed on hold. We certainly did not mean to demean you in any way, shape or form. Hopefully, you can see by our email correspondence that this is not a permanent hold. We only ask that you submit a portfolio because your current entries do not appear to represent our minimum quality standards.
99designs is a professional marketplace, and we are dedicated to cultivating a community of designers who are consistently creating unique, well crafted designs. To this end, each designer account is reviewed personally by a 99designs staff member. In order to remain objective, we do not judge quality on things like education, certifications, or even contest ratings but rather on the actual quality of the entries themselves. We use these basic, universal graphic design principles as our forms of measurement: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204862935-What-are-99designs-quality-standards-
During this period of absence, we encourage you to work on your designs skills. Your suspension is *not* permanent, please make note of this. You will be able to re-apply once we open the application period, so you have a chance to reinstate your account.
Best of luck - we hope to see you in the next application period. Feel free to contact our support team with any further questions: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
This was my first experience and I am very pleased with the final results. The artist were all very talented and professional. The customer service available and very helpful.
Thank you so much!
Hi Diana,
Thank you for sharing your experience with us! We are glad to heat that it has been a pleasant one and you've received the support that you're looking for.
We thank you for going to us for your design needs and we look forward to working with you again.:)
- Jerlyn from 99designs
This was my second time to use 99 Designs for book covers but not my last! I received 104 designs for my most recent book. At least a dozen of those would have been wonderful covers. The hard part was picking the best out of all the choices!
Hi Patrick,
We are very excited to hear that you had a pleasant experience. Thank you for coming to us for your design needs and we look forward to working with you again!:)
- Jerlyn from 99designs
They suspend and ban my account for unclear reason, after years of hard works and win many contest they just close my account forever without any warning or tell my mistake. We must provide valid ID/Passport to create account, so closed account mean i will never join the contest forever because multiple account is not possible. If you plan to freelance just find others sites that fair to your original hard work and not just close your account for "doesn't meet their standard" reason or even no reason at all. Even you won a contest you can be banned because you don't meet their standard. Very unjustified reason when the contest holder is interested in your design and you still banned anyway because your work still under standard for 99design's crew
Hi Jack,
We understand how disappointing it is to see your account placed on hold.
99designs is a professional marketplace, and we are dedicated to cultivating a community of designers who are consistently creating unique, well crafted designs. To this end, each designer account is reviewed personally by a 99designs staff member. In order to remain objective, we do not judge quality on things like education, certifications, length of experience, or even contest ratings but rather on the actual quality of the entries themselves. We use these basic, universal graphic design principles as our forms of measurement: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204862935-What-are-99designs-quality-standards-
We also have a strict Designer Code of Conduct that we expect all of our designers to adhere to (https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204761605-Guidelines-and-policies-at-99designs). If this is breached, 99designs reserves the right to suspend their account.
If your account has been suspended, you will have received an email explaining the issue. Feel free to contact our support team with any further questions: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I am a contest holder and paid over £400 to hold a competition
After a couple of days I tried to log in to leave the hard working designers reviews and feedback, so they could modify their designs before the end of the competition (in 2 days)
I was shocked to find out that 99designs had blocked my account and wanted me to upload a copy of my passport (no way), before I can access my account
I checked with my credit card company to see if there was an issue with the payment, no there is not the money has been taken
I am now waiting for a response from their customer support department, who appear to be non existent
In the meantime time is running out for me to leave feedback and get the designs modified
Hi there,
I am sorry to hear about your experience so far with 99designs. We'd be happy to help and look into your concern further. Please feel free to contact our Support Team with your best contact number and time, and we'll be happy to reach out: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I had the account for 3 years, but didn't login, last week I submitted 2 logos and both of them are in the final round (with 5 stars from clients), today I couldn't login and got a mail with: "The current quality of your work does not fit our site standards. As a result, we have put your account on hold."
Hi Michael,
I understand how disappointing it is to see your account placed on hold. We certainly did not mean to demean you in any way, shape or form. Hopefully, you can see by our email correspondence that this is not a permanent hold. We only ask that you submit a portfolio because your current entries do not appear to represent our minimum quality standards.
99designs is a professional marketplace, and we are dedicated to cultivating a community of designers who are consistently creating unique, well crafted designs. To this end, each designer account is reviewed personally by a 99designs staff member. In order to remain objective, we do not judge quality on things like education, certifications, or even contest ratings but rather on the actual quality of the entries themselves. We use these basic, universal graphic design principles as our forms of measurement: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204862935-What-are-99designs-quality-standards-
During this period of absence, we encourage you to work on your designs skills. Your suspension is *not* permanent, please make note of this. You will be able to re-apply once we open the application period, so you have a chance to reinstate your account.
Best of luck - we hope to see you in the next application period. Feel free to contact our support team with any further questions: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Hi i recently just won a $500 Contest threedays ago and today my account got hold. Like wtf? My account is 100% verified and my designs are totally juiced from my brains. Srsly 99Design? Is this how you treat designers when theyve won your money? Guess what, YOU ARE $#*!.
Hi Dan,
Our support team is happy to look into your account to see why you have not yet received payment for a won contest if you could let us know your username.
https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
This website has absolutely no respect for the designers who make it happen. I have been wasting my time with this website for the past week. I only submitted 4 contests and they already banned my account because my designs do not fit their quality standards, even though it fit the standards of the customers I was making them for.
For 2 out of the 4 contests I entered, one of them messaged me right away and said it was exactly what they were looking for, and the other said they liked mine a lot and I kept making changes that they specified. For the one I kept making the changes for, I submitted a creative design that one would not normally associate with the name of the podcast. It got rated 5 stars, so all the other designers after me copied my idea. This happened in almost every contest I saw. Designers just copy other highly rated designers.
While I was working on designs of other contests I was going to enter, I suddenly got an email saying that my designs do not meet their quality standards and that my account was on hold. I cant log in anymore, meaning all the contest submissions I spent so much time with just disappeared without warning. Alarmed, I called the help number. Apparently, there is a customer support number, but no designer support number. I was told they cant help me. I emailed the design support that Im sure doesnt exist and I will probably never get a response. Even if I did, it would be too late as these contests are ending. Never use this website if you have any sort of respect for yourself as a designer, or if you respect designers. The most awful experience Ive had in my life.
Hi Jaclyn,
I understand how disappointing it is to see your account placed on hold. We certainly did not mean to demean you in any way, shape or form. Hopefully, you can see by our email correspondence that this is not a permanent hold. We only ask that you submit a portfolio because your current entries do not appear to represent our minimum quality standards.
99designs is a professional marketplace, and we are dedicated to cultivating a community of designers who are consistently creating unique, well crafted designs. To this end, each designer account is reviewed personally by a 99designs staff member. In order to remain objective, we do not judge quality on things like education, certifications, or even contest ratings but rather on the actual quality of the entries themselves. We use these basic, universal graphic design principles as our forms of measurement: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204862935-What-are-99designs-quality-standards-
During this period of absence, we encourage you to work on your designs skills. Your suspension is *not* permanent, please make note of this. You will be able to re-apply once we open the application period, so you have a chance to reinstate your account.
Best of luck - we hope to see you in the next application period. Feel free to contact our support team with any further questions: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Like so many others have said, then frequently ban your account if the site owners think your standards are not up to scratch. Even if you were a finalist among contests. Their support team is non existent, yet they sit and police people's submissions. Its nonsense. Im sure they scam more people and there are a lot of fake reviews here. Stay away from them. Bunch of idiots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFss5cTlIl0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlpy0ESmBgQ. A quote from the video above """""A good number of "clients" on these crowdsourcing sites are associates working for large corporate ad/imaging/graphics firms... What they look for are either ideas or designs for the smaller non-contractual "penny ante" clients on a limited budget (usually $5K and less), and then go to these crowdsourcing sites, and hold contests in order to get their pick of a cache of designs, and either pay the winner pennies on the dollar, or (more often) not at all... Then the associate re-works the project to make it feasible for print, or for the web, and then sells the finished project to the actual client at market price, and is still able to devote all their creative time towards the large scale big money contractual clients, while making extra money for the company, or for themselves on the side..."""""
UPDATE: As usual those morons copy/paste a generic reply below. Dont use their site or give them any business.
Hi San,
I understand how disappointing it is to see your account placed on hold. We certainly did not mean to demean you in any way, shape or form. Hopefully, you can see by our email correspondence that this is not a permanent hold. We only ask that you submit a portfolio because your current entries do not appear to represent our minimum quality standards.
99designs is a professional marketplace, and we are dedicated to cultivating a community of designers who are consistently creating unique, well crafted designs. To this end, each designer account is reviewed personally by a 99designs staff member. In order to remain objective, we do not judge quality on things like education, certifications, or even contest ratings but rather on the actual quality of the entries themselves. We use these basic, universal graphic design principles as our forms of measurement: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204862935-What-are-99designs-quality-standards-
During this period of absence, we encourage you to work on your designs skills. Your suspension is *not* permanent, please make note of this. You will be able to re-apply once we open the application period, so you have a chance to reinstate your account.
Best of luck - we hope to see you in the next application period. Feel free to contact our support team with any further questions: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I am not a creative type so when it came time to create a logo I was panicked! A friend of mine recommended 99designs and said "I'd love it." I was skeptical at first but wow, as each design came in they were better than the next. They even give you the option to "email friends" and ask them for opinions of the designs submitted. Wow, that is extra special service.
If you need something creative made, this is the place! And it's all online. What could be better than that!
Hi Carlene,
We are very excited to hear that you had a pleasant experience. Thank you for coming to us for your design needs and we look forward to working with you again.
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Easy to use, great selection of choices given from designers that listened and wanted to help you get what you wanted
Hi Theresa,
We are very excited to hear that you had a pleasant experience. Thank you for coming to us for your design needs and we look forward to working with you again.
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Bad Form! 99designs, I also entered a few contests, one I was invited to enter by the books author, I was a finalist in two contests and was also put on hold by email before the end of a contest that I was a finalist in. The email I received even had do not reply to this message, u can't even get an answer to what happened to the last contest I was entered in, I can't even log in!
Sucks!
Hi Shannon,
I understand how disappointing it is to see your account placed on hold. We certainly did not mean to demean you in any way, shape or form. Hopefully, you can see by our email correspondence that this is not a permanent hold. We only ask that you submit a portfolio because your current entries do not appear to represent our minimum quality standards.
99designs is a professional marketplace, and we are dedicated to cultivating a community of designers who are consistently creating unique, well crafted designs. To this end, each designer account is reviewed personally by a 99designs staff member. In order to remain objective, we do not judge quality on things like education, certifications, or even contest ratings but rather on the actual quality of the entries themselves. We use these basic, universal graphic design principles as our forms of measurement: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204862935-What-are-99designs-quality-standards-
During this period of absence, we encourage you to work on your designs skills. Your suspension is *not* permanent, please make note of this. You will be able to re-apply once we open the application period, so you have a chance to reinstate your account.
Best of luck - we hope to see you in the next application period. Feel free to contact our support team with any further questions: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I have several companies. This was my second time using 99designs and I couldn't be happier. I am completely satisfied with the winning designs. I am very disturbed by the negative comments of the designers. I can understand a designer being disappointed or angry when their designs get 5 stars and then the client chooses a different design. When you get 3 designs that are all spectacular or one just fits your company a little better, even though it didn't score as high--we just have to pick. If your not getting paid for a win. Well that's just wrong! I experienced designers copying other designers and taking stuff right off the internet. As the client, I called them out on it through private comment and that ended that.
Hi Carol,
We are very excited to hear that you had a pleasant experience. Thank you for coming to us for your design needs. We love your tips for other future customers as well!
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Fortunately, I found 99designs. Their process is simple. The designers who responded to my project were quick to react. The final selection was really a hard one because I liked all the designs. I highly recommend using 99designs. Great job and keep it up!
Hi Will,
We are very excited to hear that you had a pleasant experience. Thank you for coming to us for your design needs and we look forward to working with you again.:)
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I got a really top notch, excellent design, among many very good entries. I have tried cheaper design services in the past but got no good designs. I am disturbed to read the bad reviews from designers, as I do not wish to use a service that does not treat its designers well. As a customer, I was very happy with the results. I found some of the instructions confusing, as to timing, which is why I gave 4 instead of 5 stars. I would use 99designs again.
Hi Claudia,
We are very excited to hear that you had a generally pleasant experience. Thank you for coming to us for your design needs and we look forward to working with you again. If you need assistance in managing your design contest, please feel free to contact our support at https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
We've done 2 design contest and are really impressed with the quality of designs and the ease of process. The most difficult part has been choosing a final winner from so many quality designs.
Hi Jeff,
We are very excited to hear that you had a pleasant experience. Thank you for coming to us for your design needs.
- Jerlyn from 99designs
As a first time Kindle self-publisher, I was worried about finding a design website that could fill my cover design expectation. Fortunately, I found 99designs. Their process is simple. The designers who responded to my project were quick to react. The final selection was really a hard one because I liked all the designs. I highly recommend using 99designs.
Hi Cresencio,
Thanks for your review. We are always happy to hear such positive feedback!
-Rosalie from 99designs
They are always quick to respond and very supportive with your questions. I've run a few contest using 99designs and I'm always pleased with the designs submitted. Designers are great to work with and will work until you are fully satisfied with the finished product.
Hi Rebecca,
Thanks so much for your great review! We're so glad you found our support quick and helpful, and you were pleased with the designs in the contest! Thanks again for choosing 99designs for your design needs:)
-Rosalie from 99designs
From the business
99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers + clients to work together to create designs they love.
- Sitejabber’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- Sitejabber has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members
- Sitejabber’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- Sitejabber has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members
Hi Eva,
Thank you for your thoughtful review!
We do understand your concern and we do have a great designer support team that addresses any designer issues that our customers mer have. We are constantly making the site better and rest assured that more features will be available in the future to make your experience better.:)
- Jerlyn from 99designs