8 Graphic Design App Success Stories [2024]
A graphic design application is a SaaS application that allows users create online graphics. Examples of graphic design applications include Snappa, adobe Photoshop, and GIMP.
Modern businesses need digital branding, holograms, and poster designs, to maximize the customer reach abilities. Therefore, graphic designers are becoming the most in-demand professionals.
The high demand is a good basis for choosing graphic design applications as one of the best app business ideas in 2022. Before you kick start the graphics design app business idea, here are technical skills you may consider:
- Design principles
- Idea generation
- Branding skills
- Typography
- Print designing
- UX and UI Design
While coding skills and cross-platform development skills are important to start developing applications, you can hire developers online.
Here are some real life success stories of starting a graphic design app:
1. Snappa ($1M/year)
Christopher Gimmer, the co-founder of Snappa, came up with the idea for the business after struggling to create graphics for his blog posts. As he searched for a simple and powerful graphic design tool, he realized there was a need for one geared towards marketers and entrepreneurs. He leveraged his viral blog post about free stock photos to market Snappa and collected feedback from potential users before building the prototype.
How much they make: $1M/year
Current team size: 4
Learn how two friends bootstrapped a SaaS business to $55k monthly recurring revenue (MRR) by creating a simple graphic design tool for non-designers and focusing on content marketing for customer acquisition.
2. SP-Studio ($1.2K/year)
Janina, the founder of SP-Studio.de, came up with the idea for her business in 2002 when she wanted to create a website where anyone could create their own cartoon characters without any drawing skills. Inspired by the TV show South Park, she wanted to offer a tool that was easy to use but also allowed for creative freedom. Through word of mouth and international growth, SP-Studio.de became one of the biggest and most popular avatar creation websites, attracting over 60,000 visitors per day at its height.
How much they make: $1.2K/year
How much did it cost to start: $150
Current team size: 0
This case study is about Janina, the founder of SP-Studio, a popular website with over 60,000 visitors per day that allows anyone to create unique cartoon characters for free without drawing skills, and how she built the website without focusing on generating revenue for many years.
So... can you actually make money with a graphic design app?
Of course. There are millions to be made in this industry.
But how?
- Research real, profitable businesses and see exactly how much money they make.
- Study exactly what works, and what doesn’t.
- Take action, because now you have the roadmap.
Join Starter Story and build your next big thing:
3. Designious ($180K/year)
Alex Dumitru, along with his colleagues Viorel Popescu and Ciprian Dragut, started Designious as a side project in 2008. They initially created a website to publish the unused designs from their design studio, and it quickly gained traction, making a few hundred dollars in the first month. Since then, Designious has grown into a profitable business, generating around $12-13k per month, and they are now expanding their product offerings and opening up the platform to other designers.
How much they make: $180K/year
Current team size: 2
Designious co-founder Alex Dumitru shares how the graphic design library generates $12-13k in monthly revenue by creating digital products that appeal to print-on-demand entrepreneurs and graphic designers, while also offering a flat-rate membership and useful resources that solve little problems.
4. Aucoin Analytics, LLC ($166K/year)
Kervin Aucoin, a 15-year Army veteran and 20+ year Intelligence analyst, came up with the idea for Aucoin Analytics after realizing the need for an unbiased and well-informed travel security platform. Through blogging about his travel experiences and witnessing the detrimental effects of sensationalized news, Kervin developed a subscription-based private intelligence community that focuses on defeating fake news and providing accurate information. With a low overhead, Aucoin Analytics has seen profits of $10,000/month and offers specialized risk assessments and intelligence reports tailored to customers' needs.
How much they make: $166K/year
How much did it cost to start: $25K
Current team size: 1
Aucoin Analytics, LLC is a private intelligence company that delivers highly specialized risk assessments and intelligence reports, while also offering a subscription-based private intelligence community that provides access to subject matter experts in government intelligence, with profits at $10,000/month.
So... can you actually make money with a graphic design app?
Of course. There are millions to be made in this industry.
But how?
- Research real, profitable businesses and see exactly how much money they make.
- Study exactly what works, and what doesn’t.
- Take action, because now you have the roadmap.
Join Starter Story and build your next big thing:
5. Plasfy ($180K/year)
The idea for Plasfy, a revolutionary graphic design software, emerged from recognizing the unmet needs and frustrations of graphic designers in the market.
How much they make: $180K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
Current team size: 0
Plasfy is a graphic design software that offers a user-friendly platform with powerful features, allowing anyone to unleash their creativity and design eye-catching graphics; the company has gained tremendous traction, with over 200,000 designs created by its users, and has collaborated with freelancers from various countries to develop advanced features and thousands of templates.
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
