BrandCrowd Logo Maker Review: Worth the Price in 2024?

One of the Simplest Logo Makers

1

BrandCrowd Pros, Cons, & Things That Could Be Better

BrandCrowd was founded over a decade ago, at the exact same time as its sister-site DesignCrowd, and yes, brought to you by the same people. The general idea is to provide quality logos, as fast as possible… but can they pull it off?

This logo maker is available only in English, and it does not support non-Latin characters. At least, it doesn’t work with the simplified Chinese characters I tested. Accent marks and the tilde (in the Spanish letter “ñ,” for example) do work just fine, though. So if you want to make a logo for that French-Mexican fusion cafe you’ve always dreamed of, you’re good to go.

No, it wouldn’t have French food. Just Mexican food, with French wine. And, ideally, Cuban coffee. Just in case you were wondering.

You can create a logo by customizing one of the professional designs from BrandCrowd’s logo library or let the AI do the work for you. That said, the AI suggestions are pretty much the same as the designs you get when you manually filter the logos based on your industry and keywords. Given BrandCrowd’s custom-made, DIY philosophy, its AI tool is a bit redundant.

With or without AI, BrandCrowd lets you edit and save as many logos as you want. There’s even a small selection of free logo designs you can customize and download at no cost.

In addition to making logos, BrandCrowd offers customized web design services with hosting and graphic printing services. Everything is focused on bringing your logo to life with minimal fuss.

Does that make for a good logo, though? Keep reading to find out.

BrandCrowd Does What It Set Out To Do

Even though it has an AI logo generator, BrandCrowd is not about generating the perfect logo based on numerous questions, and it’s not about AI or machine learning. (So when our robot overlords take over, BrandCrowd will likely not be to blame.) It’s about you building a logo, fast, with the help of a fairly large library of pre-made icons and layouts. And well, it does that successfully.

I’ve criticized other logo generators in the past that used this same approach, but that was because their logos were outdated and they had a very small selection. By contrast, BrandCrowd currently has over 206,000 designs (in multiple formats) to pull from, and they’re (mostly) quite good.

There is a fairly wide selection of fonts, and you can pick from a variety of preset colors for each element. Or, you can use the color picker to get just about any color you want, which isn’t as common a feature as it should be. Some of the logos support gradients, but not all.  Also, your final download comes with a PNG file that has a transparent background.

You can easily change the layout by using the preset layouts or by using the drag-and-drop feature. Logo icons are logically categorized, and you can customize the color for each.

As far as I can tell, there’s no functional limit on the number of characters in your company name or slogan. However, if your company name is 129 characters long, I would strongly suggest abbreviating it.

Every Logo Is Partially Handcrafted

So yeah, those 206,000 icons? I thought I’d specify that they aren’t from an icon set or anything. Each was designed on its own by a professional logo designer, even the ones that are free to download. I saw plenty that didn’t meet my needs, but none that I thought were actually bad or too “basic,”  like the stuff you’d find in an app menu. There’s quality there.

If you try out the AI logo generator, you’ll see that BrandCrowd’s AI-suggested logos were specifically created by designers to work with AI algorithms. But, as I’ve already mentioned, the results are largely the same as the ones produced by manual search.

You Can Buy Premade Identities

Don’t want to go to the trouble of customizing everything about your own logo? Want a logo no one else is going to have? BrandCrowd also sells pre-made identities and logos that can only be sold once. If you buy one, it’s yours and only yours. These are naturally a bit more expensive than logos from the logo maker, but you can make an offer to the designer that’s lower than the listed price.

There’s no guarantee they’ll agree to your offer, but you can try.

Social Media Templates

All BrandCrowd plans allow access to a wide range of social media designs, from Instagram posts and profile pictures to Zoom backgrounds and Twitch banners. These ready-made templates look decent, and you can create some quite unique designs with the available customization tools.

You Can Get a Professional Involved

A fairly reasonable payment will get you access to a professional designer. If you’ve got a logo almost where you want it, or you’ve reached the limits of what BrandCrowd’s editor can do, this might be a good option for you. It won’t be necessary for most users, but it’s a good benefit to have access to.

This service comes courtesy of DesignCrowd, so you’ll have access to a huge pool of professionals to reach out to.

Pretty Straightforward Overall With a Few Hiccups

BrandCrowd is very focused on getting you up and running with a logo in minutes when possible. Sure, picking out your base logo and customizing it to your liking can take a while, especially if you’re picky like me. But the process itself is simple and quick, and if you’re not as particular as I am, getting a logo in ten minutes is entirely possible. It shouldn’t take you more than an hour or so if you take it slow.

Heck, you can get it done in about three minutes if you click on the first logo you see, don’t change much, and are quick with your credit card details. Again, I wouldn’t recommend doing it like that, but you can.

My Experience With BrandCrowd

Overall, the interface is mostly self-explanatory, and you’ll catch on quickly. I just browsed around for a few logos I liked, then narrowed down my choices and played with the design until I liked it.

Ultimately, I ended up making this logo here:

I didn’t have any major issues, but I do wish there was a way to get more precise spacing between elements rather than manually dragging and dropping them.

The website can be a tiny bit confusing to navigate at times. I would encourage new users to click around at will. There is an undo button, after all.

You Can Save Your Projects (But Not Delete Them?)

And once again, it’s time for me to reiterate how the ability to save your projects and return to them later is so crucial. On BrandCrowd, your logo drafts are weirdly resilient and I haven’t actually found a “delete” button yet.

You Can Search through All Logo Options First

Not only can you start building a logo before you log in, but you can also see all 206,000+ logos, browse, and search them. You can find out if BrandCrowd has what you need before even typing in your company name. I have to appreciate that sort of transparency when so many of their competitors will try to throw you straight into the process of building a logo and hope you’ll be too invested to leave.

Think about if those shops where you can create your own teddy bears started to push hard on selling you more. BrandCrowd does attempt to sell you more, but it’s not as annoying as that.

You Can Get Your Logo Printed Easily

Like many other logo generators, and indeed like its sister website DesignCrowd, BrandCrowd offers you many things to print your logo on: hats, T-shirts, mugs, business cards, mousepads, and stickers. So yeah, you can do all of that with minimal effort – when you’re ready to buy your logo, you can order the printed products during the checkout process.

The prices are pretty reasonable, so long as you’re not buying in bulk. Plus, the shipping is free.

Limited Support Channels but Responsive

Support for BrandCrowd is… reasonable. Though you can only reach them via email, the support staff is friendly and responds relatively quickly. You’ll usually get your questions answered on the same day unless you ask your questions really late at night.

Since BrandCrowd doesn’t disclose its pricing upfront, I sent an email inquiring about its packages. I got a lengthy and helpful reply about available pricing options in a few hours.

The second email I sent was to inquire about free shipping for printed products. Again, I got a pretty lengthy reply detailing all the products I can print my logo on before they actually answered my question – yes, they offer free shipping. Well, at least it shows dedication.

You also have a helpful, albeit basic, FAQ section at your disposal. Additionally, you’ll find a blog that regularly publishes logo design tips and inspiration articles. While the information provided may not be extremely detailed, it can still assist you in getting started more quickly.

You Can Get a Good-Looking Logo Without Breaking the Bank

BrandCrowd offers a limited selection of logos you can download for free. That said, the free designs can be somewhat basic, so I’d suggest getting a premium logo even if you’re on a tight budget.

The prices for almost everything are perfectly reasonable. The Premium package, in particular, is affordable while giving you everything you need to use the logo in both digital and print products. It also provides infinitely scalable formats to edit in a vector graphics program like Adobe Illustrator. If everything looks good, remember to cancel your subscription after purchasing your logo.

If you purchase the Premium + Website pack, BrandCrowd will also help you launch a mobile-friendly website to feature your new logo. It’s not a complete website but more of a landing page your followers can land on after clicking your link in bio.

The previously mentioned add-on grants you access to a service offered by a professional designer, who will make edits to your logo. If you are in search of unlimited logo edits, we encourage you to consider opting for any of our substantially discounted annual plans.

If you’re using BrandCrowd because you don’t want to deal with a regular graphics editor and you intend to create numerous social media posts with your logo, the platform’s plan might be worth considering.

Usage Rights

When you buy a logo from the logo generator, there are four licenses you can opt for. The Free and the Standard Licenses give you non-exclusive rights to use it anywhere you want. The Buy-Out License removes the logo from the store, ensuring you’re the last person to use it. (Though people who bought it before you still get to use it.) The Exclusive License removes the logo from the store and gives you all intellectual rights, forever.

Most people will probably only need the Standard license. But if you have the cash to spend, and you really want to make sure no one “steals” your BrandCrowd-made logo, you have the option.