Reviews
99Designs: An Honest Review From a Non-Designer
Published
1 year agoon
99Designs is one of the go-to graphic design services online. It’s a platform full of professional designers that will make branding easier for you. Here’s an honest 99Designs review of the service from a non-designer.
99Designs: Overview
99Designs is a graphic design service that helps clients connect with various web and graphic designers worldwide. The platform offers the following design services:
- Logos
- Websites
- Stationary
- Business Cards
- Postcards
- Posters
- Clothing
- Brochures
How Does it Work
#1 Brief Your Requirements
First, you need to create a simple design brief to help graphic designers visualize your requirements.
#2 Connect with a Designer
Second, you need to choose how you’ll connect with a designer. In99Designs, you have two options:
- Work Directly
You can choose to work with a graphic designer directly.99Designs will help you find the designer that matches your preferred design style. This option allows you to review the portfolio and request the designer’s quotes.
- Start a Contest
For this option, you’ll open your design brief to the99Designs community. After that, designers will submit ideas to you, providing you multiple styles to choose from.
#3 Collaborate
Lastly, after choosing your preferred design process, you’ll collaborate with your graphic designer. Once satisfied with the output, you can release the payment securely to the designer. Take note that all copyright and ownership entirely belongs to you.
99Designs Review: The Pros and Cons
Pros of99Designs
- Built-in design process
It guides the non-designers to organize their design requirements. The platform provides questions that help clients define their requirements to help designers visualize what is needed. So if you also have a hard time translating the creative path you want your designer to take,99Designs’ platform will help.
- 100% Money-back warranty
99Designs offers a 100% guarantee within 60 days of payment. The warranty is available for all types of contests. However, it does not apply to contests with a guaranteed prize. When we say “guaranteed prize,” it means that the contest already proceeded to the final round.
- Estimated quantity of submissions
As you pick a package for your design requirement,99Designs will provide an estimated quantity based on the budget. Each bid will have a fixed amount of price. So, it’s safe to say there are no hidden fees.
- Large Marketplace
99Designs is one of the best graphic design services on the internet. Its popularity is evident by the number of bids a client receives on a single project. Although it’s a disadvantage for the designers, as the client, you have more gains.
Cons of99Designs
- Limited Options
As you scroll through several design proposals for your contest, you can’t research more about the designers. It’s impossible to dig deeper about the designer’s portfolio, resume or feedback from previous customers.
- Misleading Pricing
According to99Designs, “you can set your price.” However, there are minimum prices for each design category. Although the minimum fee is reasonable, the claim of setting your rate as a client is somewhat misleading.
- Newbie Designers
There are a handful of people who believe newbie designers often join design contests. For some, this claim is valid, but seniority is not an issue as long as they produce quality works.
- Unpaid Efforts
This is the advantage for designers when joining contests. Of course, designers are aware of this downside. However, they often take it as a learning experience.
99Designs Review: Monthly Plans
The following are the fixed pricing for contest packages. Using the contest option in99Designs, you’ll receive creative concepts from multiple designers around the world.
Logo Design
- Bronze, 30 designs at $299
- Silver, 60 designs at $499
- Gold, 90 designs at $899
- Platinum, 60 designs at $1,299 (Top-level designer entry requirement)
Web Page Design
- Bronze, 15 designs at $599
- Silver, 25 designs at $899
- Gold, 35 designs at $1,599
- Platinum, 25 designs at $2,499 (Top-level designer entry requirement)
Other Pricing Includes:
- 3D
- Album cover
- App design
- Banner ad
- Book cover
- Business card
- Car, truck, or van wrap
- Character or mascot
- Landing page design
- Merchandise design
- Graphic illustrations
- Other Branding assets
Maximizing Your Experience with 99Designs
Here are several expert tips to help you utilize 99Designs effectively:
- Define Your Vision Clearly: Begin with a comprehensive and clear design brief. The more details you provide about your vision, the better designers can align with your expectations.
- Choose the Right Engagement Model: Decide whether direct collaboration with a designer or launching a contest fits your project better. Each has its benefits, with direct hires offering personalized engagement and contests providing diverse creative options.
- Engage Actively with Designers: Whether you opt for a direct hire or a contest, actively engaging with the designers is crucial. Provide feedback promptly to refine designs closer to your vision.
Final Note
In the end, this99Designs review proved that the platform is one of the best graphic design services on the internet. If you’re still contemplating if you need their service, you can explore the99Designs website. However, if you’re searching for a design service that’s perfect for non-design,99Designs is worth considering.
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Looking to get a boost on PR? Help OM out by signing up for Prowly with this link.
SEO work involves various elements, and understanding how each one functions is crucial for success. While many of the best all-in-one SEO tools come with a hefty price tag and require a monthly subscription, they are often only accessible to larger companies that can justify the expense. For smaller businesses, investing in an expensive SEO package can be challenging.
That’s why we’ve gathered a list of the best free SEO tools available today, including Prowly, which can help you enhance your search engine optimization efforts without breaking the bank. Start optimizing your website today by exploring the most effective free tools you can use right away.
Getting started with Prowly
As mentioned in my Demio review, the convenience of SaaS allows you to quickly use software through your browser. Signing up for Prowly is as simple as clicking the “Try it for free” button in the upper right corner of the site.
Prowly pricing
Prowly offers a 7-day free trial so users can try before they buy. Beyond that, they offer an Essential plan for smaller-scale users and a Professional plan for agencies.
The most basic form of the Essential plan starts at $119/mo, while the Professional plan starts at $189/mo. You can add features to your plan—including media monitoring and access to Prowly’s media contact database—for an additional cost.
What can Prowly do?
Remember that thing I said about customer experience? Prowly clearly got the memo, because as soon as you sign up, they invite you to schedule a meeting with them. This shows a real dedication to customer support that you don’t see every day. But since I’m only trying out the product for a review, I opted out.
Dashboard
Prowly’s dashboard maintains a simple, inviting design. This is especially helpful since the choices you’re presented with are a bit overwhelming. As someone with limited PR experience, the very idea of starting a press release feels daunting.
Still, front and center on your home page is a simple timeline you can use to wrap your head around Prowly. It breaks it down into four easy steps: creating press releases, finding media contacts, setting up a newsroom, and sending email pitches.
Let’s take a look at each of those features.
Making press releases with Prowly
Prowly has a wide array of options for crafting press releases. You can upload a .docx file, start from scratch, or choose from various templates like event announcements and new hires.
These templates are designed to get your mind jogging, rather than filling in the blanks Mad Libs-style. The text editor is fairly simple with limited font and formatting options. Still, you generally don’t want to get too wild with a press release.
Make sure not to hit “Publish” before it’s fully done, as you can’t go back and change it.
Finding media contacts
Like with the press release tool, there are a few ways to get started with finding media contacts. You can import or manually add your existing contact list, but you can also peruse Prowly’s extensive database.
Media contacts range from entertainment to politics, business to beauty. They include some of the biggest names and publications in journalism. Just keep in mind, you’ll have to buy an upgraded plan to get access to the contact database.
If you just want to get started, importing existing contacts makes for much less hassle. At the bare minimum, you can put in a few emails and move on to the next step…
Creating a Prowly newsroom
A Prowly newsroom is a custom webpage designed to compile your brand’s content, press releases, and other news. While it’s less customizable than your own website, it allows your media contacts to easily find all of your content in one place.
This can be a useful tool for shaping your narrative. You can organize your PR output into tabs and categories, and customize the design to suit your brand. Still, I’d argue you could probably do better making a media tab on your own website.
Sending an email pitch
Finally, the main event. You’ve made your press release, your newsroom, and compiled all your contacts. Time to pitch!
You can choose to select certain recipients or email your whole contact list. Prowly gives you the tools you need to create an engaging email, with a dozen professional fonts and a bevy of text options.
Where the newsroom layout is fairly one-size-fits-all, you have much more customization options with your pitches. This makes sense since the email pitch is the thing that gets your media contacts hooked.
You can add images, tables, files, and links to your pitch, as well as additional press releases and a call-to-action button.
Like many CRMs, Prowly includes personalization tokens. These are variable text elements that can be tailored to specific recipients. For example, you can add a Greeting token that inputs different greetings for different recipients. Then, by applying values to people in your contact list, you can ensure they each get a greeting that’s specific to them.
After that, simply review your email and send it off! Prowly recommends you sort your emails into campaigns, which makes it easier to keep track of different releases and review their success.
Monitoring and reports
One of Prowly’s more impressive features is its media monitoring dashboard. Above and beyond keyword research, this tool includes widgets to track sentiment, reach, domain authority, and much more.
While easily sending out and keeping track of pitches is great, this tool makes Prowly worth your while. Every tool at your disposal from WordPress to Google Ads has some flavor of monitoring, but this is the rare dashboard that synthesizes every metric a PR agency needs. Just as important, the custom widgets also let you exclude the data you don’t need.
Prowly is teasing a forthcoming feature that lets you view stats on your campaigns through PR reports. As advertised, these reports go above and beyond, compiling data to show the complete picture of your PR work.
As it currently stands, the lack of specific stats on a campaign’s success is one area where Prowly could improve. For PR workers, the ability to compile deliverables makes a big difference, so I hope this feature gets rolled out sooner rather than later.
Is Prowly worth it?
For companies, agencies, and entrepreneurs working in PR, Prowly (wait a sec… PR owly!) promises an easier way. It highlights the ability to easily create, release, and track press releases online.
Prowly’s most impressive features are its media monitoring tools and contact database. I was somewhat less impressed with the press release tools themselves, but I acknowledge the utility of having a simple online dashboard to keep track of them.
Prowly is definitely a strong PR tool; the contacts and monitoring tools alone are enough to make it worthwhile. Still, it faces a common SaaS problem: how much ownership will you give up for convenience?
For that purpose, I like the fact that Prowly also lets you import releases, contact lists, and more. You can choose whether you want a convenient experience or a custom one, which is an attitude more SaaS programs should have.
Prowly is sort of the Canva of PR software. It’s shiny, accessible, and gets the job done, with a few impressive tools that put it over the top. But if you want something fully custom, you’ll still have to make it yourself.
Final rating: 7.9/10 ✅
Like what you see? Sign up for Prowly today.
Business
Bit.ai Review for Businesses in 2025: Is It Still Worth It?
Published
1 month agoon
July 23, 2025When you’re collaborating on documents with other writers or co-workers, how do you keep everyone on the same page?
Truth be told, for most of you, the answer is probably Google Docs. It’s quick, efficient, and easy to share. But what if there was a better way?
Bit.ai professes to be “the world’s most powerful workplace and document collaboration platform.” In this Bit.ai review, we’ll put that claim to the test.
Bit.ai Review: What is Bit.ai?
Co-founded by Raj and Saje Sandhu, Bit.ai has been offering document collaboration to companies like Canon and Harvard University since 2007. The company employs a global team with headquarters in San Francisco.
What does Bit.ai offer?
Bit.ai has grown into a smart documentation and knowledge management platform tailored to businesses of all sizes.
With the release of Bit 3.0 and the built-in AI Genius Writer in time for other tech players’ version of AI boom, the tool is now as much about content intelligence as it is about collaboration.
Features include:
- Collaborative document editor with AI assistance
- Smart content library with internal linking
- 100+ file type support and embed options
- AI-powered writing and content structuring
- Automated themes, templates, and formatting
- Cloud integrations (Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, etc.)
- Document tracking and engagement insights
- Branded, interactive documents
- Customizable workspaces and guest access
- SSO, 2FA, and admin-level security controls
We’ll explore some of the key features in the next section.
How much does Bit.ai cost?
Individual users and Bit.ai offers a flexible pricing model suited for individuals, teams, and growing businesses. Here’s a breakdown of the current subscription plans (based on annual billing):
- Free Plan – $0/user/month. Includes up to 10 documents per user, 5-user limit, single document import, access to integrations and collaborative workspaces. Exporting, version history, and AI tools are not included.
- Pro Plan – $8/user/month (billed annually). Offers unlimited documents and users, bulk document import/export, access to version history, and 20,000 AI Genius Writer words (with add-on). Also includes advanced permissions and external sharing features.
- Business Plan – $15/user/month (billed annually). Includes everything in Pro plus more advanced collaboration features like guest access, embed options, and extended AI capabilities. Also includes top-tier permissions and document management features.
Monthly billing is available at higher rates. Bit.ai also provides custom enterprise plans and continues to offer discounted rates for education, startups, and nonprofits.
Bit.ai Review: How to sign up
Getting started with Bit.ai is as simple as inputting your email and receiving a six-digit verification code.
After that, you’re asked to fill out information like your name, your job title, and your department at your company, as well as create a password. Right off the bat, Bit puts businesses first, setting itself apart from Google Docs before you even log in.
But it doesn’t stop there. When you sign up, you create a profile for your whole company, getting a custom subdomain for your team to access your library.
And there you have it! Once you’re logged in, you have the option to see a tutorial. If you want to upgrade to a paid plan, use the handy “Upgrade” button in the lower left corner of your dashboard.
Bit.ai Review: Features
The Bit.ai web app includes tabs for your dashboard and a list of all your workspaces.
The Bit.ai dashboard
Your Bit.ai homepage allows you to view recent activity, featured templates, tutorials and updates, as well as see how close you are to your document limit if you’re a free user.
Free users get access to most core collaboration features but not premium functions like AI, exporting, or advanced version tracking.
You can open documents directly from the dashboard, but only using a featured template or a recently-opened one. To create something from scratch, you’ll have to head over to Workspaces.
The Workspaces tab
First thing’s first: create a workspace. Workspaces are where your documents are created, saved, and shared. Once you’ve made one, you can create a new document, either by using a template, importing an existing document, or starting from scratch.
Creating a document with Bit.ai
When you create a new document in Bit.ai, you’re taken to a bare-bones writing editor similar to Notion. In addition, AI Genius Writer is now integrated into the editor to assist with outlines, rewriting, or prompts. I always find it hard to start writing when you don’t have anything visual to guide you, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fairly intuitive.
I think the reason for this no-frills approach is to make it easier to take meeting notes and write down quick thoughts about a project. For more in-depth functions, however, you can highlight your text after you’ve written it to change the formatting. There’s also a + icon next to your cursor that lets you add links, embeds, files, code blocks, and more.
One neat feature of this text editor is the ability to link directly to other documents and content in your Bit.ai library. It makes it much easier to cross-reference documents than it is in Google Docs, Word, Notes, etc., another great benefit for businesses.
There’s no need to save your documents in Bit.ai—that happens automatically. When you’re done, however, you can share it with collaborators and others, lock it to prevent further edits, change its associated colors, view stats and version history. Note: exporting, version history, and AI writing are reserved for Pro and Business plans.
Bit.ai writing templates
Bit offers a huge range of templates, with themes geared towards managers, marketers, designers, educators, and much more. Some of these are designed to function as static documents, such as thesis papers. Others can be hubs for entire business processes, like the video production template.
After trying out a few of these templates, they’re great at showing off all of Bit.ai’s functionality, but they’re useful even if you don’t use Bit for everything. They offer great templates for outlining your processes, making it easier to set a roadmap and including things you might not have thought of.
Importing documents into Bit.ai
While Bit.ai professes to support a massive range of file types, their import menu is a little peculiar. You can choose to import from “Word” (which just allows you to import .docx files from your computer), from a number of cloud-based sources, or Markdown, .txt, and .pdf files.
The strange thing is, you can’t click on “Word” and then upload a .txt file, nor can you click on “PDF” and upload a Word doc. I have no idea why it’s formatted like this, but it made my upload attempts very confusing.
Not to mention, formatting isn’t included when you upload, and the first two uncommon file types I tried (Pages and Final Draft) were both incompatible.
As of 2025, Bit.ai also includes AI Genius Writer in its paid plans—an AI assistant built into the editor that helps generate content, rewrite sections, and build outlines based on your input.”
Bit.ai Review: Final thoughts
So, how does Bit.ai live up to its thesis statement? Is it really “the world’s most powerful document collaboration platform”?
It may not be the most powerful, but it’s certainly grown into one of the smartest options for teams and businesses. While it’s still not a traditional writing tool—you won’t get full font customization or a rich formatting toolbar—it now offers much more under the hood.
With features like AI Genius Writer, smart internal linking, advanced templates, and built-in document analytics, Bit.ai shines as a modern content hub for collaboration, documentation, and knowledge management.
The platform still has room to improve when it comes to document organization and formatting flexibility, but it’s made impressive strides since its earlier versions.
Final grade: 8/10
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I kind of hate the word “webinar.”
I’m not alone, either. You can find it in several lists of the English language’s biggest travesties. It’s a holdover from the heyday of lame Web 2.0 portmanteaus, alongside “webisode,” “netizen,” and “listicle.”
However you feel about the word, the webinar itself is anything but dated. The more work moves online, the more vital webinars become for drawing new clients (and keeping the old ones).
Yet, despite their importance, many platforms still haven’t nailed the experience. Some are clunky, others unreliable.
In this updated Demio SaaS review, we take another look at the browser-based webinar tool by Banzai to see if it still strikes the right balance between simplicity and functionality in 2025. Can Demio stay ahead of the curve—or is it time to move on?
Let’s find out.
What is Demio?
Demio is a browser-based webinar platform designed to make hosting and attending online events as frictionless as possible. Founded in 2014 and now part of the Banzai ecosystem, it was built in response to the clunky, download-heavy webinar tools that dominated the early 2010s.
As this Demio SaaS review shows, that original mission still holds up in 2025. While the pandemic era pushed dozens of companies to improve their virtual tools, many platforms still require attendees to install software or jump through technical hoops just to join a session.
Demio’s solution? Keep it in the browser. No downloads. No plugins. Just clean, streamlined webinar tech that anyone can use right away.
It’s positioned squarely in the SaaS space, with subscription plans that scale from solo creators to enterprise teams. And while it’s optimized for marketing and lead generation, the platform’s ease of use makes it appealing across industries.
Looking for other video communication tools? Check out our Loom review.
Getting started with Demio: Free Trial and Pricing
No Demio SaaS review will be complete without the pricing tier. To sign up for a 14-day free trial, just create an account, and you’re ready to explore the platform.
When you’re ready to upgrade, Demio offers three main plans tailored to different business needs:
- Starter – $45/month per host (paid yearly). Perfect for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs getting started with webinars. This tier is for one host for up to 50 attendees. It also comes with core features to launch live webinars easily.
- Growth – $80/month per host (paid yearly). Ideal for growing companies that need more flexibility and brand control. This tier accommodates multiple hosts, with attendee rooms from 150 up to 3,000. This plan also comes with custom branding and enhanced integrations, and reporting.
- Premium – $196/month per host (paid yearly). Designed for larger teams and enterprise use. This tier comes with dedicated CSM and priority support, premium integrations and custom domains, Demio AI, and access to beta features. With this plan, you can have up to 10 people on stage, with attendee rooms of 150, 500, 1,000, or 3,000.
Demio’s free trial requires no commitment or credit card details. Just sign up, fill out a brief survey on how you plan to use the app, and you’re golden.
Demio Features
Demio keeps things simple without skimping on functionality. Once you’re signed in, you’re welcomed by a clean, intuitive dashboard that puts your upcoming events front and center.
Here’s a breakdown of the core features that make Demio a standout in the crowded webinar space:
Dashboard
Demio’s dashboard is built for clarity. You can quickly scroll through upcoming sessions, monitor your events, and navigate between tabs like Schedule and Events. It’s functional, but still has room to improve,especially when switching between creating and managing events. A unified view would make it even smoother.
Events
Demio lets you create three types of events, each tailored to different use cases:
- Standard Events – Traditional live webinars where attendees register for a single session at a specific time.
- Series Events – Great for multi-part webinars or training sessions. When users register for one, they’re automatically signed up for the entire series.
- Automated Events – Pre-recorded sessions that run on autopilot. Perfect for lead nurturing or delivering evergreen content without going live.
Automated events continue to be one of Demio’s strongest features, letting you scale your content while staying hands-off.
Customization
Before your webinar goes live, the Customize tab lets you tweak everything from registration forms to event visuals. You can upload slide decks, create interactive polls, set up handouts, and even brand your webinar pages to match your company’s look.
For Growth and Premium users, custom domains and branding take things even further—ideal for marketing teams or agencies.
Once you’re ready to get started, you can join your session in the Schedule tab. The layout is familiar, with speakers’ video taking up the left and center while the chat tab takes up the right side.
Only one person can be “on stage” at a time, but you can also add and access materials like slides and videos with the middle button on the bottom toolbar. Meanwhile, the + icon next to the chat box lets users access polls, links, and handouts.
Reports
After your session ends, head to the Activity tab to access attendance reports. You’ll see who registered, who actually attended, how long they stayed, and what they engaged with during the session.
Downloadable CSV files make it easy to follow up with participants or segment your leads—an especially useful feature for marketers.
While the data is useful, the reporting could be more advanced (think engagement heatmaps or behavioral trends). Hopefully, that’s in Demio’s roadmap for the near future.
Integrations
I’d honestly like to see a little more variety from Demio’s integrations. On the one hand, their tilt towards martech integrations makes sense. Webinars are generally used for marketing, and being able to connect with Keap, Mailchimp, or your CRM of choice has obvious benefits.
Still, I think there’s a lot more potential to be had with connecting different software to a video conferencing tool. Translators, editing tools, OBS… the sky’s the limit.
Perhaps the most useful integration is with Zapier. Their micro-integrations let you connect to PayPal, Gmail, Slack, and more.
Conclusion: Is Demio worth it?
If you’re seeking a platform to create engaging webinars, Demio is a great place to look. It’s as intuitive as they come, with a number of unique features that set it apart from the competition. Even among browser-based video tools, the fact that it works on any browser puts it ahead.
As of now, Demio is completely focused on webinars. It’s a leader in that market, so they’re clearly doing something right. Where it disappoints, however, is where it feels too laser-guided towards marketing. By just slightly expanding a few features (integrations, reports, in-call elements), I think Demio’s potential could be that much greater.
PROS
- No-download, browser-based platform
- Quick, user-friendly setup
- Supports live, automated, and series events
- Clean, customizable interface
- Great for marketing and lead generation
- Solid integrations with CRMs and email platforms
- Zapier access unlocks thousands of app connections
- Custom branding and domains (Growth & Premium plans)
- Strong customer support and onboarding
- Scalable plans for teams of any size
CONS
- Limited native integrations outside of marketing tools
- Reporting could be more robust (e.g., engagement insights, AI summaries)
- Dashboard navigation could be more streamlined
- Higher-tier pricing may be steep for very small teams
Overall rating: 8.9/10
Ready to give Demio a try? Sign up here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is demio.com safe?
Yes, demio.com is a secure and reputable site owned by Banzai, using encryption and standard security protocols to protect user data and webinar content.
Is Demio like Zoom?
Demio and Zoom both support video communication, but Demio is specifically built for webinars and marketing events, while Zoom is designed primarily for meetings and general video conferencing.
Is Demio easy to use?
Yes, Demio is known for its clean interface and intuitive setup, making it easy for both hosts and attendees to run or join webinars directly from a browser.