99designs alternatives
Contests solve one problem well and another badly. Knowing which is which saves you a wasted month.
In a design contest you post a brief and a prize, many designers submit concepts, and you pick one. You see lots of directions quickly, and you only pay for the one you choose.
What contests are good at
- Logos and single visual assets. Self-contained work where seeing twenty options is genuinely useful.
- Breaking a creative deadlock when you cannot articulate what you want.
Where they fall short for websites
- No discovery. Designers work from a written brief without asking questions, so nobody probes what the site is actually for.
- You get a picture, not a site. The winning entry is usually a homepage image that still needs building.
- Speculative work attracts a particular market. Experienced designers rarely work for free on the chance of winning.
- Judging is hard. Choosing between forty homepages on aesthetics alone is not the same as choosing what will work.
What to consider instead
Hire one designer directly and pay for a discovery conversation before any design. More expensive up front, and usually cheaper overall because you get one considered direction rather than forty guesses.
Use a marketplace with interviews. Upwork lets you assess people before committing. See Upwork vs Fiverr.
Buy a good template and pay someone to adapt it. Often the best value for a small business site. You get proven structure and spend your budget on making it yours.
Use a contest for the logo only, then hire a designer for the site. This plays to what contests are genuinely good at.
Common questions
01Are design contests unethical?
Views differ. Most designers dislike speculative work because the majority are unpaid for real effort. As a buyer that is worth knowing mainly because it shapes who enters — experienced designers usually do not.
02Do I own the winning design?
On the major platforms, yes, once you pay and the transfer completes. Read the specific terms, particularly about the non-winning entries and any stock elements used.
03Is a contest cheaper?
For a logo, often yes. For a website, usually not once you add the cost of actually building what you chose, which the contest fee does not cover.
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