COMPARE:

Flocksy or Design Pickle for subscription design

Flocksy and Design Pickle both do getting design work done on a flat monthly fee, and this page puts them on the same seven questions. Mamba Labs builds Apify actors, and neither of these is one of them, so there is no third column on this page.

The verdict

Design Pickle is graphic design done well, with a designer who learns your brand. Flocksy adds video, copy and illustration to the same queue. If design is the whole need, Design Pickle. If it is one of several, Flocksy.

The same questions, both tools

FlocksyDesign Pickle
What it actually doesYou submit briefs to a queue and a dedicated team returns graphic design, video edits, copy and illustration on a set turnaround.Unlimited graphic design requests through a portal, returned by a dedicated designer, with motion and presentations on the higher plans.
Coverage and hit rateDesign, motion, video editing, copywriting, illustration and web work, with more parallel requests on the higher plans.Graphic design first, with custom illustration, presentations and motion graphics as plan upgrades.
What it costsA flat monthly fee per plan, sized by how many requests run at once and how fast they come back.A flat monthly fee per plan, with faster turnaround and more designers as the price rises.
How it fits a workflowBriefs in a portal, revisions in the same thread, files out. A marketing manager runs it without hiring anyone.Requests in, revisions in the same thread, a Slack connection if you want it. A team lead reviews the work before it ships.
Where the data comes fromIts own vetted creative team, assigned to your account, so the same people learn your brand.A large in house design team, with one designer assigned to you and a backup when they are out.
What it takes to set upA day to load brand assets and write the first brief. The first deliverable comes back within the turnaround window.An hour to load brand guidelines. The first request comes back the next business day on the standard plan.
Where it stopsA queue is not a studio. Strategy, big campaigns and anything that needs a workshop sit outside a subscription.It is design. Video editing and copy are not on the menu, so a team that needs all three is running two vendors.

The same seven questions are asked on every compare page here, in this order, so two of these pages can be read against each other.

What each is actually better at

  • Flocksy wins on coverage and hit rate, where the data comes from. A flat rate creative team: design, video, copy and illustration on a monthly subscription.
  • Design Pickle wins on how it fits a workflow, what it takes to set up. The flat rate graphic design subscription most people have heard of, with a designer assigned to your account.
  • Nobody wins on what it actually does, what it costs, where it stops. Flocksy and Design Pickle give the same answer on those, and we are not going to invent a difference.

The honest answer

A marketing team that mostly needs social graphics, ads and decks will be happier with Design Pickle. A dedicated designer and a review lead produce more consistent work than a broader team. A small company that needs a video edited this week and a landing page written next week should take Flocksy and run one vendor instead of three. Both are queues with turnaround windows. Neither is a creative director, and if what you need is a campaign idea, a subscription is the wrong purchase.

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