Dedicated team, not freelancers

Superside vs. Toptal

Superside gives you a dedicated design team, collaborative tech-enabled platform and high-quality creative outputs without any of the headache—all for the price of a single designer.

Comparing Superside as the Toptal Alternative

Services offered

Services offered

Specializes in creative services such as graphic design, motion graphics, illustration, custom production (video, sound, photo), and campaigns and concepts for marketing and creative teams.

Specializes in creative services such as graphic design, motion graphics, illustration, custom production (video, sound, photo), and campaigns and concepts for marketing and creative teams.

Over 260 “specialized” skills for specific requirements with a primary focus on design for product teams.

Pricing

Pricing

Transparent, subscription pricing starts at $5,000 per month that can easily scale up (or down) to support the design needs of an entire enterprise organization.

Transparent, subscription pricing starts at $5,000 per month that can easily scale up (or down) to support the design needs of an entire enterprise organization.

Based on skill level, market fit, and demand. Hourly wages start at $70 per hour to $6,000 per month. You must hire more freelancers for other specializations as needs change.

Onboarding

Onboarding

Collaborative onboarding process to understand your brand, current team structure, existing skills, and ongoing team needs. With a dedicated creative project manager, there is nothing lost between projects.

Collaborative onboarding process to understand your brand, current team structure, existing skills, and ongoing team needs. With a dedicated creative project manager, there is nothing lost between projects.

Limited onboarding through a director of design who will work with you to understand goals, technical needs, and team dynamics before handing you off to your designer. New projects may require bringing new designers up-to-speed.

Turnaround time

Turnaround time

12 to 48 hours

12 to 48 hours

24 hours

Communication

Communication

Stay in close contact with your dedicated creative project manager through the Superside platform, email, or Slack integration.

Stay in close contact with your dedicated creative project manager through the Superside platform, email, or Slack integration.

Directly with design freelancer over email and phone. You'll need to train them on your project management platform of choice.

Number of requests / revisions

Number of requests / revisions

Unlimited revisions based on hours available in your selected plans which can scale up or down based on needs. Several simultaneous projects are possible. Any unused hours roll over into the next month.

Unlimited revisions based on hours available in your selected plans which can scale up or down based on needs. Several simultaneous projects are possible. Any unused hours roll over into the next month.

Based on the availability of freelancer and design skillset.

Talent

Talent

Full-time employees and contractors, carefully vetted from over 57 countries in 19 time zones.

Full-time employees and contractors, carefully vetted from over 57 countries in 19 time zones.

You can choose whether they live in your timezone or not (resulting in price fluctuations).

An antidote to the legacy agency model

Superside's Creative-as-a-Service solution is built for ambitious marketing and creative teams. It helps you save time on hiring and career laddering, and avoid the hassle of dealing with multiple slow and expensive agencies. Want the full story? The video on the right is ready to spill the beans. 👉

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A DesignOps Process That Scales, Not Just a Roster of Freelancers

Superside’s DesignOps process gives you a dedicated design team that helps with your immediate needs and scales as you grow. Operationalize design for reliable, high-quality assets with predictable pricing.

Toptal relies on its freelancers to communicate with you over email, or you can onboard them to a system of your choosing.


A Collaborative Creative Partner, Not a Recruiting Agency

Superside gives you a creative production manager (CPM) who knows your brand, from fonts to logos and colors. They assemble the design specialists you need (e.g., motion designers, illustrators, etc.)  to get the creative assets you want.

Toptal features over 260 “design skills” on their page meaning you can get a WordPress designer to build your site, and then a motion graphic designer to help build out your ad inventory. However, therein lies the hidden costs of onboarding. Your WordPress designer isn’t an ads specialist, so even though you spent 2 weeks in a free trial onboarding the right candidate, you have to spend another 2 weeks hoping you can repeat the process with a motion designer.

Predictable Pricing, Not Extra Admin Work

Superside offers flexible subscription-based pricing customized to your unique needs. Get started with a full design team for the price of a junior designer. Unused subscription hours roll over into the next month. Got a big campaign coming up? Ramp up your Superside design team to suit your demands—from a simple infographic to an entire guide with promotional ads on every social channel.

With Toptal, you can hire hourly, part-time or full-time—and they charge a hefty commission thanks to their “rigorous” vetting process. However, the cost varies based on what you need.
Much Faster

20x

Faster than hiring creatives in-house
cut costs

50%

Reduction in average cost per asset
ship faster

70%

Lower turnaround time for digital assets
stress free

9.6

Average NPS rating from customers
Social Media Creative
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Video Production
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eBooks & Reports Design
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Packaging & Merch
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Print Design
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Web Design
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Concept Creation
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Email Design
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Illustration Design
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Branding Services
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Presentation Design
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AR & 3D Design
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Ad Creative
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Digital Marketing Consulting
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AI-Enhanced Design
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Motion Design
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Your Superside team plugs into your existing teams to increase output, faster.

Superside is made for

Creative Directors

DesignOps Managers
Dare to Compare

Frictionless, Delightful Design Starts Here

Book a demo and discovery call to learn:

  • How you can achieve design at scale.
  • Why we’re different from agencies, freelancers and in-house design teams. (Hint: We’re 20x faster than hiring!)
  • Which ways we can support you.

Trusted by 450+ fast-growing companies and enterprises

Ethan Duff
Ethan DuffGlobal Head of Creative, Salesforce/Vlocity
Rob Carberry
Rob CarberrySr. Creative Ops Manager, STRAVA
Corey Pomkoski
Corey PomkoskiDirector of Creative Operations, DocuSign
J. Henrickson
J. Henrickson Creative Operations Manager, Amazon
Amir Jaffari
Amir JaffariGrowth Lead, Shopify
Tatjana Milnovic
Tatjana MilnovicGlobal Brand Strategist, Infobip
Justin Rands
Justin RandsDirector of Brand, Oyster
Myriam Malinge
Myriam MalingeHead of Marketing and Comms, SATAIR/AIRBUS
Billy Schneider
Billy SchneiderDirector of Digital Marketing , Oportun
Marc Vitulli
Marc VitulliVP, Marketing, S&S ACTIVEWEAR
Joseph Bradley
Joseph BradleyGlobal VP of IoT & Digital Services, Cisco
Xander Shapiro
Xander ShapiroChief Marketing Officer, ZEA BIOSCIENCES
Jessica Gelzer
Jessica GelzerDir. of Strategic Mkt and Comms, Curative
Monica Benson
Monica BensonHead of Brand Creative Production, Reddit

Compare Superside vs. Other Alternatives

Rocketium | Design Pickle | Kimp | Lightboard | Many Pixels | Shuttlerock | SketchDeck | Penji | Upwork | Fiverr | 99Designs

While we’ve worked diligently to ensure the accuracy of the information in this post, as we all know too well things can change quickly. As you’re making your choice, check each company’s website and reach out to them directly for the most up-to-the-moment information. If you’re Toptal, and we’ve made an error, reach out to us for corrections.
See Superside in action

Get a demo and discover how 450+ ambitious companies and 2,500 energized fans use Superside to free themselves from the shackles of limited budgets, broken processes and stretched in-house teams.

Superside is a revolutionary way for businesses to get good design done at scale.Trusted by 450+ ambitious companies, Superside makes design hassle-free for marketing and creative teams. By combining the top 1% of creative talent from around the world with purpose-built technology and the rigor of design ops, Superside helps ambitious brands grow faster. Since inception, Superside has been a fully remote company, with more than 700 team members working across 57 countries and 13 timezones.
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