Icons8 vs The Noun Project Comparison 2026
Both cover design & graphics and stock footage & assets. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Icons, photos and AI generators on one plan
Icons on a licence that never expires
At a glance
- The Noun Project starts cheaper, at $3.33.
- Only The Noun Project has a free tier.
Side by side
Icons8 | The Noun Project | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $6.50 | From $3.33 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Yes |
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.
Our note
Read the credit costs before the plan prices, because a generated icon is 200 credits and that arithmetic decides which tier you actually need. Envato Elements is the better buy if you want video and audio in the same subscription.
The Noun Project
Icons on a licence that never expires
The Noun Project sells icons and photos on a royalty-free worldwide licence that the page says never expires, which is the part that matters for work shipped once and left alone for years. Contributors are paid from subscriptions, and the library is moderated rather than open, so quality is more even than an open marketplace. Plugins for Figma, Adobe and Office plus a Mac application mean an icon can be dropped in without a download step. A single icon can be bought outright for those who need one thing and not a subscription.
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.