Why you can trust TechRuther
We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Learn more about how we test.
Ever wanted to have a graphic design team at your fingertips to help your business with branding, marketing and outreach, but can’t afford to hire more people? How about a custom AI service instead? Amazingly, the name “design.com” has to offer (can’t believe the URL was still available).
Design.com: Pricing and plans
- Hardly any free templates, but at least you can try all the tools before choosing a subscription plan.
While you can explore all that Design.com has to offer, and experiment with all of its tools to your heart’s content, you’ll find that the service is primarily a paid one. Sure, you’ll see the odd free design here and there, understandable by the left-hand side of a template’s thumbnail, but sadly they’re few and far between.
When it comes to choosing the paid tier that best suits your needs, I found the choice to be somewhat confusing, as the plans offered vary depending on your services.
For example, working in the logo section will bring a ‘Premium Logo Pack’ or ‘Premium Logo Pack + Website’, ranging from €3 to €6 per month, billed annually (monthly payments on a month-to-month basis are significantly more expensive: from €9 to €14).
However, if you come from the YouTube banner, Instagram post or T-shirt sections, say, you have only one option: ‘Premium account’, annual bill for 5 dollars a month, or 9 € 9 on a monthly basis, yet the ‘Premium account’ and the ‘Premium logo pack’ allow you to edit posts, because contrast, symbol and more?
I should note that as I spent time experimenting with the service, these options changed: there were three different levels coming from the logo service, and two from the others, so it’s possible they’ll change again once you try the service for yourself.
Design.com: Categories and Templates
- A wealth of variety, with hundreds of templates for each. It is very easy to navigate through all of them.
Design.com is definitely feature packed. It’s definitely a logo maker, but it also offers you the ability to create YouTube and LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram posts and stories, email signatures, entire websites, t-shirts, and more.
The platform’s focus is on letting AI do most of the work for you, with customization available further down the line if needed. The goal here is to present you with such a great design, you don’t need to do anything with it, except enter your business information.
The way it works is incredibly simple: there’s a menu bar at the top of the page, broken down by category, with a fairly wide range of options within each category. If that feels too clinical for you, scroll down the main page instead of browsing through the usual list of services, with big friendly photos and descriptions of what to expect.
Remember: the majority of templates are paid for. Only a handful are available for free, and as you’d expect, they won’t be the fastest, best-looking ones. Still, free is free. You’re able to explore and customize all the templates, even the premium ones, because you only get to the paywall when you’ve finalized your design, giving you a good chance to try out every feature.
If you’re looking for a free logo and don’t want to scroll through a long list hoping to find a handful of free templates, click here to see free designs and not premium ones.
Design.com: The Choice
- Too many choices increases the odds you’ll find the perfect AI creation for you. You’re given some basic customization options, saving more in-depth changes for another part of the service.
Searching Design.com’s vast selection can be overwhelming, although the developers have gone to great lengths to keep the results focused in their search.
To make this work, once you’ve chosen the type of service you’re after (poster, website, post, business card, logo, etc.), you’ll need to enter a list of keywords so the website’s AI can work. There are exceptions, such as the business card or logo section, for example, which request your business name instead.
If you already have a design, you can upload it at once, and it will be integrated into the results.
Once you click on the Big Blue ‘Start Now’ button, you’ll be instantly presented with dozens of variations based on your business name and/or keywords. Actually scratch that: this is just the first page: scroll down and you’ll find hundreds of additional pages waiting for you, which means you have thousands of templates to choose from, leaving you exhausted with filters, additional keywords and search options.
Click on the one you like best to select it and be taken through the next steps, which include changing the template’s default colors, changing the text (or let the AI write something for you), and finally choosing a layout from a choice of six, if the original wasn’t to your liking.
If that’s as much editing as you have the time or inclination, click Download to claim your prize… or so I would have hoped. I’ve already covered that most templates aren’t free, but if you’re working on one, you’ll have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it. How many pages have I been offered special (paid) deals to be able to download my file?
Design.com: Customization and Export
- The level of customization is high, giving you complete control over your creation – while it’s completely safe for paying users. When it comes to exporting your work, the number of options on offer is vast.
Keeping it simple is great and a very useful time saver, but if you have specific ideas that aren’t reflected by the AI results, you’ll be happy to know that these designs are fully customizable, though be aware that this feature is only for paying users.
You have full layout access, able to move and resize and even rotate any object on the template. You can even bring in new shapes and clip art if you want.
Changing the color of an object is just a click away, you have complete control over text boxes, from styling to formatting. It’s all fun and easy to use. If you’re familiar with Canva, you’ll feel right at home here.
Whether you’ve customized your layout or not, it’s time to download it. The choices you have are refreshingly wide, and that also applies to the free templates you can choose to use.
Being able to download complete designs is a given, but you also have the option to export a version with a transparent background, or just to get the icon, grab the text entirely, or convert the entire creation to grayscale. You even have a choice of format from JPG, PNG, SVG, EPS or PDF.
This level of choice is most welcome because it allows people to modify the design elsewhere, if they wish.
Should I buy Design.com?
If you buy it…
You’re looking for a service that uses AI to create designs for your business at a fraction of what it would cost to retain a creative team. There are a handful of free templates as well as reasonable subscription rates to get access to all templates and full customization controls.
If you don’t buy it…
You want full creative control over your designs without AI input. And the free options feel very modest compared to the more lavish premium templates.
For more options, we’ve tested and reviewed Best logo maker And Best Free Logo Makers.
