The Noun Project vs Vecteezy Comparison 2026
The Noun Project sells icons, and now photos, on a royalty-free licence stated to never expire: Noun Pro is $3.33 a month paid yearly for unlimited icon downloads, or buy one icon outright for $4.99 with no subscription at all. Vecteezy leans toward vectors and illustration for thumbnails and banners, with a genuinely downloadable free half and Image Only from $9 a month billed annually, more than double Noun Project's entry price. Pick Noun Project for icons on a licence built to outlast the project. Pick Vecteezy for a broader illustration library.
Icons on a licence that never expires
Stock vectors with a usable free tier
At a glance
- The Noun Project starts cheaper, at $3.33.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
The Noun Project | Vecteezy | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $3.33 | From $9 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
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.
Our note
This is the one to pick when the licence outlives the project, since the page commits to worldwide rights that never expire and most competitors sell a subscription you have to keep paying. Flaticon is the better volume deal if you are downloading constantly and the attribution rules are the only thing you care about.
Vecteezy
Stock vectors with a usable free tier
Vecteezy is a stock library weighted towards vectors and illustration rather than photography, which is what a thumbnail or a channel banner usually needs. The free half of the catalogue is real and downloadable with attribution, so a project can start before anybody pays. Pro removes the attribution requirement and opens the licensed collection. Plans are split by what you download: images alone are cheaper than a plan that includes video, and both are quoted per month billed annually.
Why people weigh these two
- Vecteezy instead of The Noun Project
- Vecteezy carries stock vectors with a usable free tier and $9 paid plans, when the icon is part of a bigger illustration.
- The Noun Project instead of Vecteezy
- The Noun Project licenses an icon once on a licence that never expires, from $3.33, a one-off download instead of an ongoing subscription mindset.
Which one should you pick
Choose The Noun Project if icons are the actual need and the licence has to survive years untouched: the page states its royalty-free worldwide licence never expires, unlike a subscription you must keep paying to keep the rights. Noun Pro is $3.33 a month paid yearly for unlimited icon downloads, and a single icon can be bought outright for $4.99 with no plan at all. Photos need Noun Pro Plus at $9.99, so for photography alone the price gap with Vecteezy narrows.
Choose Vecteezy if the need is vector art and illustration more broadly, for a thumbnail, a channel banner or a bundle beyond icons: the free half of the catalogue is real and downloadable with attribution before any money changes hands. Image Only is $9 a month billed annually for five image downloads and one bundle, and Unlimited All Access is $15 for the whole library including video with a 7-day trial. Both cost more than Noun Project's icon-only entry tier, the price of a wider catalogue.
Common questions
- Is Noun Project cheaper than Vecteezy?
- At the entry tier, yes, by a wide margin: Noun Pro is $3.33 a month paid yearly against Vecteezy's Image Only at $9 a month billed annually, more than double. Noun Project's cheap tier only covers icons, though; photos need Noun Pro Plus at $9.99, which closes most of the gap.
- Can I buy just one icon without a subscription?
- Yes, from The Noun Project: a single icon is $4.99 and a single photo is $10.99, both on the same royalty-free commercial licence as the subscription. Vecteezy's listing does not describe an equivalent single-asset purchase outside its free and paid plans.
- Does either licence expire if I stop paying?
- The Noun Project states its royalty-free worldwide licence never expires, which matters for work published once and left alone for years. Vecteezy's listing does not make the same claim either way about assets already downloaded once a subscription ends.
- Which one has video, not just images?
- Vecteezy, on its Unlimited All Access plan at $15 a month billed annually, which covers the whole library including video. The Noun Project sells icons and photos only, with no video in its catalogue.
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.