Flaticon vs Icons8 Comparison 2026
Flaticon gives away 18 million icons and stickers free with attribution, then Premium removes that credit line for $8.25 a month on the twelve-month plan or $12.99 paying monthly, opening vector formats. Icons8 has no free tier at all: the cheapest access is $6.50 a month for AI-generated icons only, with hand-drawn graphics, illustrations and photos arriving on the $24 Icons Included tier. Flaticon is a deep icon library with a real free option. Icons8 is a broader multi-asset subscription with no free door in at all.
At a glance
- Icons8 starts cheaper, at $6.50.
- Only Flaticon has a free tier.
Side by side
Flaticon | Icons8 | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $8.25 | From $6.50 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
Flaticon
Icons free with credit, or paid without
Flaticon is an icon and sticker library where the free tier is genuinely usable and the paid one removes the credit line. Free downloads arrive as PNG and require attribution; paying opens SVG, EPS, PSD and base64, which is what matters when an icon has to be recoloured or scaled rather than pasted. An editor in the browser handles the recolouring without a round trip to another application. Collections are capped at three on the free tier, so anybody organising a large set will hit that before they hit a download limit.
Our note
Take the twelve-month plan if you expect to need icons more than four times in a year, because the break-even against the monthly price arrives that quickly. Compare against The Noun Project if the licence matters more than the volume, since that one states its licences never expire and this one is a subscription you keep paying to stay clear of attribution.
Icons8
Icons, photos and AI generators on one plan
Icons8 sells one subscription across icons, illustrations, photos, music and a set of AI generators, which is a wider spread than an icon library usually covers. The cheapest plan is the AI tools on their own and buys credits rather than downloads. Hand-drawn graphics begin on the tier above that. There is an API, a desktop app and a design tool called Lunacy in the same account.
Why people weigh these two
- Icons8 instead of Flaticon
- Icons8 at $7 bundles icons with photos and AI generators on one plan, where Flaticon trades attribution for the icons alone.
- Flaticon instead of Icons8
- Flaticon offers icons free with credit or paid without from $8.25 a month, an icon-only swap for anybody who does not need Icons8's photos, music and AI tools bundled in.
Which one should you pick
Pick Flaticon for depth in one category, icons and stickers, with a free tier that genuinely works if attribution is not a problem. Premium is $8.25 a month on the twelve-month plan, or $99 billed once for the year, opening SVG, EPS and PSD formats and removing the credit line. Take the annual plan if icons are needed more than four times a year; the break-even against the monthly $12.99 rate arrives that quickly.
Pick Icons8 when icons need to sit beside illustrations, photos and AI-generated images in one account, and a credit-based generation workflow is wanted. The AI tools alone are $6.50 a month for 10,000 credits, about fifty generated icons, with hand-drawn graphics starting at $24 on Icons Included. There is no free tier at all, so read the credit cost of a generated icon, 200 credits, before assuming a plan covers real volume.
Common questions
- Is Flaticon cheaper than Icons8?
- For icons specifically, Flaticon's free tier costs nothing at all, which Icons8 has no equivalent of. On paid tiers, Flaticon Premium at $8.25 a month undercuts even Icons8's narrowest AI-only tier at $6.50, though that Icons8 tier excludes hand-drawn icons entirely.
- Does Icons8 have a free tier like Flaticon does?
- No. Icons8 has no free tier at all; the cheapest access is $6.50 a month for AI-generated icons only. Flaticon's free tier covers 18 million icons and stickers as PNG, with attribution required.
- Which one includes photos and illustrations alongside icons?
- Icons8 does, across icons, illustrations, photos, music and AI generators in one subscription. Flaticon is scoped to icons and stickers only, with no illustration or photo library described.
- Does Flaticon's free tier require attribution?
- Yes, on every free download, which is the main thing removed by paying for Premium. Icons8 has no comparable free tier to weigh an attribution requirement against, since access starts at $6.50 a month.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.