Photutorial’s take
Superside aims to be a replacement for in-house designers, but they are considerably more expensive. Thus due to long commitment requirements and high prices, we don’t think Superside is a good choice for graphic design—at least not for most businesses.
Pros
- Very high quality
- Quick turnaround time
Cons
- Clunky interface
- Long onboarding process with too many meetings
- Only annual commitments
Superside is a design agency that lets you buy monthly creative hours of work through subscriptions. You can order various graphic design tasks and pay for them during work hours. Superside is meant to be an online substitute for in-house designers, so it’s only available with yearly commitments. They offer high-quality results, however, their pricing structure is not very flexible, as you must subscribe for a minimum of 12 months. The platform is user-friendly, but the interface could benefit from an update because it feels outdated. The onboarding process is quite lengthy, and it can take up to three months for your first design to be submitted.
As a result, Superside lacks both real advantages for online design services compared to in-house designers: it’s more expensive, and the onboarding takes very long. Thus it’s a poor choice for anyone else other than corporations. If you’re a solopreneur or an SMB, you’re better off with cheaper yet high-quality alternatives, such as Awesomic, ManyPixels, or 99designs for one-time projects.
How Much Does Superside Cost?
Superside offers four types of plans, each with four sizes, which differ in the number of creative hours you get and the type of designs you can order. It’s worth noting that all Superside plans can be bought only annually, so there are no monthly plans. Their pricing ranges from $4,000 to $95,000 per month with an annual commitment, which equates to between $66 and $87 per hour. The plan you choose will depend on the type of designs you need and the number of hours of work required.
Plan | Communications | Full Stack Design | Digital Advertising | End-to-end Creative |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hours of work | 60 / 105 / 180 / 360 | 65 / 105 / 235 / 470 | 95 / 150 / 250 / 500 | 160 / 265 / 480 / 1,100 |
Price/month | $4,000 / $7,000 / $12,000 / $24,000 | $5,500 / $9,000 / $20,000 / $40,000 | $7,500 / $12,000 / $20,000 / $40,000 | $15,000 / $25,000 / $45,000 $95,000 |
Price/hour | $66.67 | $85.11 | $80.00 | $86.36 |
Presentations | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
eBooks & Digital Reports | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Emails | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Ads | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Social Media | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Landing Pages | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Packaging & Merch | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Branding | ✓ | |||
Illustrations | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Motion Design | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Concept Creation | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Video Production | ✓ | ✓ |
The Communications plan includes services such as presentations, print, eBooks and digital reports, and emails. The Full Stack Design plan, also includes ads, social media, landing packages, packaging & merch, nad motion design. The Digital Advertising plan includes services such as ads, social media, landing pages, and packaging and merch. The End-to-end Creative plan includes all of the services offered by Superside, including presentations, print, eBooks and digital reports, emails, ads, social media, landing pages, packaging and merch, branding, illustrations, motion design, concept creation, and video production.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is Superside Worth It?
At very high monthly costs which are available only with yearly commitments, Superside is not a great choice for small and even medium-sized businesses. Although they boast being 2x cheaper than hiring an in-house designer, at $80/hour they are definitely more expensive.
It’s true that great freelancing alternatives like Toptal cost between $60 and $160 per hour for the same work, they are meant to be temporary substitutes for an in-house designer. Superside, on the other hand, promises to be a long-term replacement. However, since they are more expensive than a senior-level in-house designer, we don’t think Superside is worth it.