The Design Project Review and Alternatives in 2026

The core question: When does paying $3,290-$5,990 monthly for UX/UI design subscription make sense versus alternatives at $1,000-$2,500?

This isn't about whether The Design Project delivers quality work - their portfolio includes companies acquired by Slack, NVIDIA, and MrBeast, plus startups that raised significant funding and received FDA approval. They clearly produce results.

The real question is whether your startup needs what they specialize in: strategic UX/UI design with product strategy, user research, and fractional Chief Design Officer access. Or whether you need broader design execution - marketing materials, video content, website development - without the premium product development positioning.

What The Design Project actually specializes in

The Design Project is a Miami-based UX/UI design subscription service founded in 2019 by Dianne Eberhardt and Alex Prioni. They employ 11-50 people and position themselves as design partners rather than vendors, focusing exclusively on product design for startups.

Here's what makes them different from typical design subscriptions:

They don't do general graphic design. Their focus is UX/UI design, product strategy, user research, and product development. They're solving for product-market fit, user experience optimization, and converting user insights into design decisions that drive revenue.

They provide fractional leadership. Depending on tier, you get design leads or fractional Chief Design Officers providing strategic guidance - not just executing design requests. Weekly meetings run 60+ minutes discussing product strategy and business goals.

They specialize in specific product types. Their teams focus on AI bots, e-commerce, B2C apps, education platforms, dashboards, and real estate applications. This specialization means designers understand domain-specific user expectations.

They run a venture arm. Providing equity-based design services to early-stage startups demonstrates their integration into startup ecosystems and understanding of venture-backed growth dynamics.

This positioning explains their pricing. You're not just buying design execution - you're buying product design expertise, strategic guidance, and fractional leadership integrated into your product development process.

Three tiers, all premium

Essential: $3,290/month Product designers working with 4 customers simultaneously. Basic UX/UI design needs, customer success support, unlimited requests processed one at a time.

Pro: $4,580/month End-to-end product design with designers working across 2-3 customers. Design lead involvement, strategic thinking workshops, enhanced focus.

Turbo: $5,990/month Complex design capabilities with designers focused on 1-2 customers. Fractional Chief Design Officer access, enhanced strategic support, maximum attention.

All tiers include weekly meetings, Slack integration, unlimited revisions, dev-ready Figma files, user research, and prototyping. Turnaround targets weekly delivery, with 24-48 hours for urgent requests.

Who this pricing makes sense for

The Design Project's premium positioning works for specific startup contexts:

Venture-backed startups with product-market fit challenges. When you're burning $200K+ monthly on engineering but struggling with user adoption, spending $3,290-$5,990 on product design expertise that could unlock growth makes complete sense. The Design Project's focus on user research and product strategy directly addresses product-market fit.

Companies building complex SaaS products. If you're developing enterprise dashboards, AI applications, or education platforms, domain-specific design expertise justifies premium pricing. Designers who understand your product category reduce costly redesigns and improve user metrics.

Startups needing fractional design leadership. When you can't justify a $180K+ full-time Chief Design Officer but need strategic design guidance, fractional CDO access at $5,990 monthly ($72K annually) provides leadership without full-time overhead.

Teams with strong engineering but weak design. If your product works technically but users struggle with experience, strategic UX/UI focus addresses the gap. The Design Project's emphasis on solving user problems while driving revenue through design targets this specific challenge.

The premium pricing reflects specialization value. For startups where design quality directly impacts funding rounds, user acquisition costs, or enterprise sales, the investment often returns multiples through improved product metrics.

When the premium doesn't make sense

Early-stage pre-product startups. If you're still validating concepts and building MVPs, spending $3,290+ monthly on premium product design exceeds most bootstrapped budgets. You likely need faster, cheaper execution to test hypotheses.

Marketing-focused design needs. The Design Project doesn't position for social media graphics, marketing materials, or brand assets. If your primary needs are marketing execution rather than product development, you're paying premium pricing for capabilities you won't fully utilize.

Businesses needing video editing and motion graphics. Product design specialization means limited video capabilities. Companies requiring video content for marketing, demos, or social media need different providers.

Companies needing functional website development. The Design Project provides design files and prototypes, not implementation. If you need working Webflow or Framer sites built and launched, you'll need separate development resources.

Startups with inconsistent design needs. The one-request-at-a-time processing with weekly turnarounds works for ongoing product development but creates bottlenecks for businesses with multiple concurrent urgent needs across different categories.

Alternatives serve different needs

For broader marketing and execution needs

Renlar provides unlimited graphic design, video editing, and website development at $1,295-$2,495 monthly (approximately £1,000-£1,925). The focus is execution across graphics, video, and functional Webflow/Framer development rather than strategic product design.

This works better when you need marketing materials, social media content, video editing, and working websites without product strategy specialization. The concurrent project capacity (2-4 projects) accommodates multiple simultaneous needs rather than one-at-a-time processing.

The pricing reflects execution focus versus strategic partnership. You get professional design and development work without fractional CDO access, user research, or product strategy workshops.

For product design with different structure

Design Pickle focuses on graphic design with hours-based allocation starting at approximately £1,475 monthly. While not UX/UI specialized, it provides design execution at lower pricing for businesses not needing strategic product development focus.

ManyPixels offers unlimited graphic design and illustrations starting at approximately £425 monthly. Again, not product-focused, but substantially more accessible for marketing execution needs.

The strategic product design premium

The Design Project charges 2-3x typical design subscription pricing because they're solving different problems. Typical subscriptions provide design execution - create this graphic, build this website, edit this video. The Design Project provides strategic product design - research user needs, optimize experience, guide product decisions, provide fractional leadership.

For startups where product design quality impacts:

• User activation and retention metrics

• Enterprise sales conversion

• Funding round success

• Product-market fit validation

• Competitive differentiation in crowded markets

.
..the premium often justifies itself through improved business outcomes. A 10% improvement in user activation from better UX design returns far more than the $3,290-$5,990 monthly investment.

For businesses needing marketing execution, brand materials, video content, or website development without strategic product focus, the premium pays for capabilities you don't need. Better to access execution-focused alternatives at $1,000-$2,500 monthly.

Making your decision

Ask yourself what problem you're actually solving:

Are you trying to improve product experience, user metrics, and product-market fit? The Design Project's specialization directly addresses this. Their user research, product strategy, and fractional CDO access target these challenges specifically.

Are you trying to execute marketing campaigns, create social content, or build marketing websites? Execution-focused alternatives provide these capabilities without product development premium. You'd be paying for specialization you won't utilize.

Can your business justify $39K-$72K annually on design? Venture-backed startups with product development budgets can. Bootstrapped companies often can't. Be honest about your budget reality.

Do you need strategic guidance or execution capacity? The Design Project provides strategic partnership. Alternatives provide execution capacity. Both are valuable - they just serve different needs.

The Design Project excels at strategic UX/UI design for venture-backed startups building complex products needing user research and fractional design leadership. Their premium pricing reflects this specialization and the business outcomes it enables for companies where product design quality directly impacts growth metrics.

For broader marketing needs, video content, functional website development, or businesses not requiring strategic product development focus, execution-focused alternatives at $1,000-$2,500 monthly provide professional work without premium product development positioning.

Choose based on whether you need strategic product design partnership or execution across marketing and development capabilities. The Design Project optimizes for the former. Alternatives optimize for the latter. Both serve real needs - just for different business contexts and budget realities.