Dribbble
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
Dribbble is a platform where designers post their work ("shots") and where clients come looking for it. Since 2024 it has been more than a showcase: inside it runs a marketplace for projects, with escrow, paid subscriptions and fees charged to both sides of a deal.
The platform tells its own history: launched in 2009 as an invitation-only community, invitations dropped in 2021, the marketplace launched in 2024, and a move from an advertising model to a revenue-sharing model. The same page gives the size of the team and how it works — 22 people, fully remote; that is the company's statement about itself.
The key difference from an ordinary portfolio service: the terms explicitly prohibit taking a client you found here off the platform, and a fee is charged to the designer and to the client alike.
Who's here
There are no public audience figures for Dribbble on the pages we checked: the platform publishes neither a registered-user count, nor a monthly audience, nor a breakdown by country and language. The "About" section is limited to the founding year and the size of the company's own team. The interface of the home page is in English, and that is the only thing we can state about languages.
The professional mix is described in the terms: the platform divides users into «Designers» and «Clients», and the whole transaction mechanism is built around that pair of roles. Team profiles exist separately: the community guidelines specify that team profiles are meant only for design agencies and in-house design teams, all team members must actually work in the team, and the team owner may not charge for a seat in it.
Getting started
Registration is open; the age threshold is named in the terms — use of the site by anyone under 13 is explicitly prohibited.
The account rules are stricter than on most platforms: a personal account is only for the work of a single designer, an account may not be shared with anyone, one person may have only one personal account, and creating separate accounts for different design disciplines is not allowed. The same document prohibits replacing your profile name with a website address, an e-mail or a string of keywords — the platform gives an example of the violation right there in the text.
There is no separate "business account" with document verification: companies that need to hire buy a subscription.
What you can publish
The subject matter is tightly limited. The guidelines require you to post design work only, and explicitly prohibit advertising clips, commercial video, tutorial material and generally anything that is not graphic design.
Then comes a list of prohibitions worth reading before your first post: you may not upload work with watermarks or other overlaid marks; you may not use shots to advertise your own product or service; you may not use shots to promote a job opening; you may not post content generated entirely by AI, and if you use AI as a supporting tool you are advised to say so in the description.
Descriptions are policed especially strictly. The platform prohibits putting e-mail addresses and website links in a shot's description or inside the image itself, sending people to your own portfolio or another community for details, and placing links to social networks and contact forms in the description — their only place is the "About" tab. Tags must be accurate: shots with irrelevant tags are demoted in search results.
Rights in what you upload
This is the key clause of the terms for an author. Formally the right stays with you: «While you maintain all rights, including copyrights, that you own or control in User Content». But what follows is the licence you grant the platform: a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide licence to use, reproduce, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, syndicate, publicly perform, publicly display and create derivative works from all of your content, and to use your name, voice and likeness — in any form, medium and technology now known or later invented, including to promote the service. The same document states that Dribbble may, but is not obliged to, credit you as the author, and that you grant every user of the service a non-exclusive licence to access your content within the functionality of the service.
Commissioned work follows a different rule: on completion of a project the final deliverables, together with copyright and trademark rights, pass automatically to the client unless the accepted proposal says otherwise. Tools and prior work the designer created earlier stay theirs, but the client receives an irrevocable, fully paid, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable and sublicensable licence to them insofar as they ended up in the deliverables.
How to grow
Dribbble does not publicly describe how ranking works. There are two confirmed levers — tagging (irrelevant tags demote you in search) and a paid subscription: the plan page promises a higher position in search and in recommendations to clients, access to briefs available only to Pro subscribers, and inclusion in InstantMatch results.
Inflating metrics is prohibited outright: the guidelines require you to use likes, follows and other social gestures only for genuine interaction, and prohibit automation — bots and scripts for likes, saves, follows and faked activity. Comments "to draw attention to your own account", links to your own work in other people's comments, and knowingly false information in a profile description, including statistics and follower counts, are prohibited there too.
Advertising exists on the platform as a separate product: the terms mention the status of «Designer Advertiser» — a designer who pays for Dribbble's advertising products. It lifts part of the restrictions on communicating with a client — more on that below.
Path to monetization
Dribbble does not pay for views. The money here comes from the client, and the platform takes a share from both sides.
Fees
The payment terms are stated in numbers. The client is charged a tiered fee: 5 % on the first 500 USD of the project value, 3.5 % on the next 500 USD and 2 % on anything above 1000 USD; for example, a payment of 2000 USD produces a client fee of 62.50 USD. Small orders cost more: a project under 100 USD adds a flat 2 USD for the client. On top of that comes payment processing — 2.9 % plus 0.30 USD on the project amount together with the client fee.
The designer is charged separately: 10 % on the first 500 USD, 7 % on the next 500 USD and 4 % on anything above 1000 USD — on a 2000 USD project that is 125 USD; the fee is withheld from the payout and applies to designers without Pro, with Pro Lite and with monthly Pro Standard, but does not apply to annual Pro Standard or to Pro Plus. For packaged services ("Dribbble Services") the rate is different: a flat 3.5 % of the designer's payout, and zero for annual Pro subscribers.
Escrow and disputes
The platform holds the money itself: Dribbble retains the project value until the client accepts the deliverables or releases the payment, or until Dribbble decides at its own discretion that the designer has met their obligations. A support decision in a dispute is final, and Dribbble bears no liability for it under any circumstances.
The ban on going around the platform
The harshest part of the terms. Viewing a designer's profile or messaging them through the site counts as an "introduction" of the parties to each other, and for twelve months afterwards it is prohibited to agree on work, hiring or the provision of services outside the service and its payments. Communication before payment is allowed only through the built-in messaging and video calls. Neither restriction applies if the designer holds "Designer Advertiser" status. For a breach the terms promise the right to audit your operations and financial records, recovery of costs and interest at 12 % per annum on the amount owed.
Tools and automation
The official API
Programmatic access exists: register an application and authenticate over OAuth. The version 2 documentation describes access over HTTPS to api.dribbble.com/v2/, responses in JSON, pagination of 30 items with the option to raise it to 100, and a limit of 60 requests per minute and 1440 requests per day per user. The API gives you listing shots, and getting, creating, updating and deleting a shot, plus attachments, projects, the user and job listings.
The restrictions on API use are described without euphemism. You may not build a site that replicates the substantial user experience of dribbble.com; a community or social network for designers; a search for designers or for designers to hire; tools for hiring and contacting designers; a jobs service; a site that displays members' profiles and portfolios. Automation is prohibited separately: you may not act on users' behalf without their explicit request — a client may not automatically like or follow. And further: the only Dribbble data you may use is what the API returns; scraping, copying and storing the platform's data are explicitly prohibited.
The practical conclusion: scheduling and analytics services here either work through the API within narrow bounds, or breach the terms.
Limits and rules
- Plans. Pro Lite — 48 USD per year or 8 USD per month; Pro Standard — 96 USD per year or 16 USD per month; Pro Plus — 1188 USD per year or 199 USD per month; a job board subscription — 150 USD per month for one listing; Hiring Suite with a pinned listing — 300 USD per month; all subscriptions renew automatically.
- Refunds. Subscription fees are paid in advance and are non-refundable; all refunds are entirely at Dribbble's discretion.
- Hiring and moderation. All work enquiries must be about paid work only; contests and "spec work" are prohibited; the platform may suspend access temporarily or permanently, without warning and without cause.
- Robots. The robots.txt file closes service sections to crawling — follower and following lists, tags, messages, recommendations, uploads, and shot pages by day, week, month and year. We respected these prohibitions.
Who it's for
It suits designers ready to work by the platform's rules: post pure design only, with no links or advertising in descriptions, and run the deal inside the service. If you take projects of 1000 USD and above, an annual Pro Standard subscription at 96 USD pays for itself on the first project — it zeroes out the designer's fee.
It is not for you if Dribbble is a showcase with a link to your own site: links in shot descriptions are prohibited. It is not for you if you plan to find a client here and move them to a direct contract: the twelve-month ban and the audit right make that expensive. It is not for an AI portfolio: fully generated work is prohibited. And it is not for developers who would like to build their own designer search on the platform's data — that is a separate item in the API prohibitions.
Tools for this platform
The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.
Automation:
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself like this: «Find Top Designers & Creative Professionals on Dribbble. We are where designers gain inspiration, feedback, community, and jobs. Your best resource to discover and connect with designers worldwide.»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform states: launched in 2009 as an invitation-only community, invitations dropped in 2021, the marketplace launched in 2024, a move from an advertising model to a revenue-sharing model; the team is 22 people, working fully remotely
The company's statements about itself
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform is operating: on the date of the check the home page returned code 200 with a working catalogue; there is no farewell page or placeholder
A separate check for service shutdown
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
a personal account is only for the work of a single designer, it may not be shared, one person may have only one personal account, and separate accounts for different design disciplines are prohibited; team profiles are only for design agencies and in-house design teams, and the team owner may not charge for a seat in the team
source, checked 2026-07-28
use of the site and the services by anyone under 13 is explicitly prohibited
source, checked 2026-07-28
Content
only design work is allowed; prohibited are advertising clips, commercial video, tutorial material, work with watermarks, using shots to advertise your own product or service and to promote a job opening, and content generated entirely by AI (where AI is used as a supporting tool, saying so in the description is advised)
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the client fee is tiered: 5 % on the first 500 USD of the project value, 3,5 % on the next 500 USD, 2 % on anything above 1000 USD (on 2000 USD — 62,50 USD); a project under 100 USD adds a flat 2 USD for the client; on top of that comes payment processing of 2,9 % plus 0,30 USD
The client fee is added to the project value
source, checked 2026-07-28
the designer fee on projects: 10 % on the first 500 USD, 7 % on the next 500 USD, 4 % on anything above 1000 USD (on 2000 USD — 125 USD); it is withheld from the payout and applies to designers without Pro, with Pro Lite and with monthly Pro Standard, but does not apply to annual Pro Standard or to Pro Plus. For packaged services (Dribbble Services) the rate is flat — 3,5 %, and zero for annual Pro subscribers
An annual Pro Standard subscription at 96 USD zeroes out the designer fee
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform retains the project value until the client accepts the deliverables or releases the payment, or until Dribbble decides at its own discretion that the designer has met their obligations; a support decision in a dispute is final, and Dribbble bears no liability for it
source, checked 2026-07-28
Pricing
Pro Lite — 48 USD per year or 8 USD per month; Pro Standard — 96 USD per year or 16 USD per month; Pro Plus — 1188 USD per year or 199 USD per month; all subscriptions renew automatically · the source is dated 2026-02-03
The payment terms page is dated 3 February 2026
source, checked 2026-07-28
a job board subscription — 150 USD per month for one listing; Dribbble Hiring Suite with a pinned («featured») listing — 300 USD per month
source, checked 2026-07-28
Limits and restrictions
there are no exact limits on the size and format of an uploaded shot on the public pages; the API documentation gives the sizes of the copies served: the normal image is usually 400×300, hidpi is always 800×600, the teaser is usually 200×150
The upload page is closed in robots.txt and requires signing in
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
in a shot's description and inside the image it is prohibited to give e-mail addresses and website links, to send people to your own portfolio or another community for details, or to place links to social networks and contact forms — their only place is the «About» tab; shots with irrelevant tags are demoted in search results
The self-promotion rule
source, checked 2026-07-28
likes, follows and other social gestures are acceptable only for genuine interaction; prohibited are bots and scripts for likes, saves, follows and faked activity, comments made to draw attention to your own account, links to your own work in other people's comments, and knowingly false information in a profile description, including statistics and follower counts
source, checked 2026-07-28
subscription fees are paid in advance and are non-refundable; there is no refund for partial months or for an unused period; all refunds are entirely at Dribbble's discretion; if a payment is disputed with the bank, the platform may close the account without warning
source, checked 2026-07-28
robots.txt closes service sections to crawling: follower and following lists, tags, messages, recommendations, uploads, and shot pages by day, week, month and year
The file contains no prohibitions for AI agents
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
the author keeps all rights in their content, but grants Dribbble a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide licence to use, reproduce, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, syndicate, publicly perform and display and create derivative works, and to use the author's name, voice and likeness in any form, medium and technology now known or later invented; Dribbble may, but is not obliged to, credit the author · the source is dated 2025-03-17
Terms dated 17 March 2025. In addition, every user of the service is granted a non-exclusive licence to access the content
source, checked 2026-07-28
on completion of a project the final deliverables, together with copyright and trademark rights, pass automatically to the client unless the accepted proposal says otherwise; the designer's previously created work stays theirs, but the client receives an irrevocable, fully paid, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable and sublicensable licence to it
source, checked 2026-07-28
viewing a designer's profile or messaging through the site counts as an «introduction» of the parties; for 12 months afterwards it is prohibited to agree on work, hiring or the provision of services outside the service and its payments; a breach carries the right to audit operations and financial records, recovery of costs and interest of 12 % per annum on the amount owed
The restriction does not apply to designers with «Designer Advertiser» status
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
API v2 is available over HTTPS at api.dribbble.com/v2/, responses in JSON, OAuth authorisation; pagination of 30 items with the option to raise it to 100; a limit of 60 requests per minute and 1440 requests per day per user, with code 429 when exceeded
Available are shots (list, read, create, update, delete), attachments, projects, the user, job listings
source, checked 2026-07-28
the API terms prohibit building a site that replicates the substantial user experience of dribbble.com, a community or social network for designers, a search for designers or for designers to hire, tools for hiring and contacting designers, a jobs service, or a site that displays members' profiles and portfolios; automating actions on a user's behalf without their explicit request is prohibited; only data returned by the API may be used — scraping, copying and storing the platform's data are prohibited
A practical consequence: scheduling and analytics services operate within narrow bounds
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: en
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
Catalogue section: all similar See also: catalogue index · region: USA and Canada · scheduler comparison · find by situation · platform restrictions