Design Pickle vs Penji: Which Should You Choose?

Can’t decide between Design Pickle vs Penji? Here’s a head-to-head comparison to help you choose.

Elaine Anderson

May 1, 2024

Table of Contents

What is Penji?

What is Design Pickle?

Pros and Cons of Design Pickle

Pros and Cons of Penji

Final Thoughts

Unlimited graphic design service is a convenient way for businesses to get great visual assets. However, finding one that fits your brand can be a huge challenge. To find out which one you should go for, we’re doing a head-to-head review of Design Pickle and Penji. Let’s take a closer look at two of the most popular options out there to help you make an informed decision.

What is Penji?

A subscription-based graphic design service, Penji was founded in 2017. Its focus is making graphic design accessible and affordable for all business sizes. Penji distinguishes itself through its "Penji for Nonprofits," wherein it provides design services to nonprofit organizations for only $1 a month.

Penji also takes pride in hiring only the top 2% of its creative talent to ensure that you get nothing but the best. They offer transparent pricing, no contracts, and no strings attached.

What is Design Pickle?

Another subscription-based graphic design service, Design Pickle, was founded in 2015. Since then, it has completed over 1.5 million requests, spanned its creative network globally in 12 countries, and was included in Inc.'s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Design Pickle's platform connects its clients with a dedicated designer for a quick and straightforward design process. As with Penji, it also believes in giving back to its community and helping others through its products and services.

Feature Comparison

Most graphic design services offer the same services. Let’s run a comparison of features for both Penji and Design Pickle to help you see which one you should get at a glance.

Design Process

Design Pickle

Workflow and Communication: Design Pickle clients communicate with their designated designers through its platform. It has an AI-powered request form where you'll write your project details. The designer will then start working on the project and submit it depending on its complexity and the client's plan.

Revisions: Should there be revisions on your project, Design Pickle designers will revise them until you're happy with it.

Turnaround times: Design Pickle offers to complete a project typically from one to two business days. This depends on the client's plan and the project's complexity.

Penji

Workflow and Communication: Penji designers communicate with clients through its platform but will send emails to update them on the project's progress. This is also where clients send design requests and download the finished designs. Once you send a request, the system automatically assigns the project to the most suitable designer. If you have a logo design request, it will go straight to Penji's logo designers, and so on.

Revisions: Like Design Pickle, Penji provides unlimited revisions and won't stop until you get your desired design.

Turnaround times: Penji has a one to two-day turnaround time, but this will depend on the project's complexity.

Design Offerings

Design Pickle

Graphic design: Social media graphics, banner ads, display ads, brochures, packaging and labels, trade show marketing materials, t-shirt graphics

Custom Illustrations: Animals, caricatures, floor plans, custom typography, icons, coloring books, comic strips, children's storybooks, illustrated manuals, landscapes/backgrounds, portraits, etc.

Presentation design: landing pages, book graphics, apparel, brochures and flyers, packaging design

Motion graphics: animated typography, animated logos, animated titles, product animations, animated ads, graphic loops, UI/UX animation, etc.

Video editing (Power Premium Plans): color correction/grading, transition effects, video clipping/trimming, titling/subtitling/captioning, etc.

Penji

Advertisements: Billboards, magazine/newspaper ads, digital ads, print ads, retargeting ads, Facebook ads, Google ads

2D animation: animated ads, animated cover photos, animated logos, animated graphics

Branding and logos: logos, wordmarks, typography, business cards, labels, letterheads, packaging, stationeries, brand guidelines

Books and magazines: magazine covers and internal pages, book covers and internal pages, ebook covers and internal pages

Illustrations: character and mascot illustrations, custom illustrations, icons, book covers, album art, comics, concept art, custom infographics, graphic novels, portraits and caricatures, etc.

Merch: clothing and apparel, popsockets, custom merch, mugs, t-shirts, etc.

Marketing: presentations, slide decks, brochures, email templates, infographics, signages, etc.

Print and promotion: greeting cards, custom trade show designs, flyers, certificates and awards, invitations, menus, catalogs, etc.

Social media: YouTube banners and thumbnails, social media banners, posts, Instagram stories, Facebook cover photos, Twitch banners, etc.

UX/UI: app design, landing pages, website design, UX/UI, wireframing, etc.

Website graphics: blog graphics, hero images, slider images

Pricing Plans

Penji has three tiers of pricing plans: the Starter ($499/month), the Marketer ($995/month), and the Agency ($1,497/month) plans.

Design Pickle, on the other hand, offers three standard plans: the Graphics ($649/month), the Graphics Pro ($1,249/month), and the Graphics Premium ($1,949/month), and its Power Plans for bigger businesses.

Pros and Cons of Design Pickle

Here is a list of Design Pickle's pros and another of its cons:

Pros:

Unlimited graphic design: as many design requests for a flat, monthly rate, offering a cost-effective design solution for businesses
Dedicated designer: a dedicated designer is assigned per client for a more personalized design process.
Fast turnaround times
Simple pricing structure
Versatile

Cons:

Limited personalization: the fixed rate model can be a bit limiting
Communication challenges: efficiency with communication can sometimes be slow when you communicate with only one person directly

Pros and Cons of Penji

On the other hand, here are Penji’s pros and cons:

Pros:

Unlimited design and revisions: gets you the exact design you want
Versatile design services: offers a wide array of services
High level of customization options: clients have more control over the creative process, making it ideal for those with specific branding guidelines
Collaborative platform: provides real-time collaboration between clients and designers
Transparent pricing: the pricing is easier for clients to understand
Quick turnaround times

Cons:

Not suitable for businesses that only need a few designs
No options to speak to your designer via the phone

Final Thoughts

The choice between Design Pickle vs Penji can be confusing as these two seem to offer very similar services. If you have consistent design needs and would do well with a dedicated designer, then Design Pickle is for you. However, if you want more varied design offerings, then Penji is an excellent and more affordable choice.

About the author

Elaine Anderson

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Design Pickle vs Penji: Which Should You Choose?

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