Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

The Noun Project VS Icons8

Compare The Noun Project VS Icons8 and see what are their differences

The Noun Project logo The Noun Project

Creating, Sharing and Celebrating the World's Visual Language

Icons8 logo Icons8

Free app for Mac & Windows already containing 39,800 icons. Allows to search and import icons…
  • The Noun Project Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-28
  • Icons8 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-03

The Noun Project features and specs

  • Extensive Library
    The Noun Project offers a vast collection of over 3 million icons, covering a wide range of themes and styles, which can be used across various projects.
  • Quality & Consistency
    Icons in The Noun Project are designed by professional designers, ensuring high quality and visual consistency across different icons.
  • Ease of Use
    The platform has a user-friendly interface, making it easy to search, download, and integrate icons into projects.
  • Community Contributions
    The platform allows designers from all over the world to contribute their work, encouraging a diverse range of design styles and cultural representations.
  • Cost-Effective
    Offers both free and premium options, allowing users to access a wide range of icons even with a limited budget.
  • Customizable Icons
    Many icons are customizable in terms of color, size, and format, allowing users to tailor them to their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of The Noun Project

  • Premium Pricing
    While there are many free icons, access to the entire library and some premium icons may require a subscription which could be costly for some users.
  • Attribution Requirement
    Free icons often require attribution to the designer, which might not be practical or desirable for all users or projects.
  • Limited Uniqueness
    Since the icons are openly available, the same icons might be used by many people, reducing the uniqueness of a project.
  • Overwhelming Choices
    The sheer volume of available icons can be overwhelming, making it difficult for users to find the perfect icon quickly.
  • Dependent on External Platform
    Relying on an external platform means that changes, downtime, or disruptions in The Noun Project's service can affect users' access to icons.
  • Limited Integration
    While there are plugins for some design tools, The Noun Project might not seamlessly integrate with every software or platform designers use.

Icons8 features and specs

  • Large Collection
    Icons8 offers an extensive array of icons and illustrations, catering to a variety of themes and styles.
  • Customization
    Users can alter the design, color, and size of icons, making it versatile for different project needs.
  • Quality
    Icons8 maintains high design standards, ensuring that the icons are aesthetically pleasing and pixel-perfect.
  • Subscription Plans
    Various payment options are available, including a free tier and affordable premium plans with additional features.
  • Additional Resources
    Besides icons, Icons8 provides other resources like photos, music, and illustrations.
  • Easy Integration
    Icons can be easily integrated into various software tools like Adobe XD, Photoshop, Figma, and more.

Possible disadvantages of Icons8

  • Limited Free Plan
    The free tier has constraints on downloads and access to certain premium icons.
  • Account Requirement
    Users need to create an account to access even the free resources, which can be cumbersome.
  • Watermark
    Free downloaded icons come with a watermark, pushing users towards paid plans for unwatermarked versions.
  • Subscription Cost
    While reasonably priced, the subscription fees might still be a barrier for freelancers or small businesses with tight budgets.
  • Search Functionality
    Some users have reported that the search function could be improved for better accuracy and ease of finding specific icons.
  • License Restrictions
    Even with paid plans, certain license restrictions may apply, limiting the use in commercial projects or redistribution.

The Noun Project videos

The Noun Project review: using icons in your slides - The Good, the Bad and the Tip

More videos:

  • Review - The Noun Project: Brian's Go-To Catalog of Over 1 Million Icons!

Icons8 videos

Icons8 Review

More videos:

  • Review - ICONS8 is NOT an icon's Planet It’s EVERYTHING's Planet | The A.I. Review Show | Ep 7
  • Review - Icons8 2020: Year in Review. Happy New Year, Creative People!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to The Noun Project and Icons8)
Web Icons
43 43%
57% 57
Vector Icons
47 47%
53% 53
Design Tools
20 20%
80% 80
Icon Fonts
51 51%
49% 49

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare The Noun Project and Icons8

The Noun Project Reviews

12 Best Free FontAwesome Alternatives in 2023 
The Noun Project is another excellent pack of font icons that you can go for. This pack contains icons for practically everything under the sun. You can find more than 5 million curated icons in this pack that have been created by a global and culturally diverse community. All these icons are royalty-free, and you can get them easily in your workflow.
Source: lineicons.com
7 Best Free Icon Libraries
The Noun Project's web icons library offers integrations with Adobe, Mac, Office, and Google apps. This might make you assume spending for a yearly plan. Remember, you can download and use it for free and without attribution.
Source: www.atatus.com
10 Best Fontello Alternatives 2021
Designers and photographers from all walks of life can submit their original designs and images on The Noun Project, under the Creative Commons Zero license. This way, anyone can freely use these designs or photos without restrictions or the need for attributions.

Icons8 Reviews

10 Best Fontello Alternatives 2021
Other powerful features that you can enjoy on Icons8 include HTML embedding, icon recoloring, multiple categories, edible icons, single style, fonts generator, and support for different languages. Icons8 is also free to use anytime and from anywhere just like Fontello.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, The Noun Project should be more popular than Icons8. It has been mentiond 143 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

The Noun Project mentions (143)

  • IcôNES
    If you’re looking for icons http://thenounproject.com (no affiliation) has a huge collection. - Source: Hacker News / 5 days ago
  • The Best 100 Free UI/UX Resources for Every Designer & Developer
    The Noun Project Thenounproject.com Free icons with attribution (CC license). - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • How to make mix-blend-mode round to black or white only
    Relying on backdrop-filter has one issue: even if you have a transparent background behind your blending element, the rectangle behind it will look black or white too. This is fine for rectangular elements such as the simple scroller inside the CodePen example, but not for complex shapes such as the planet logo from the Noun Project shown in the same example. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Show HN: LogoMVP – Generate quick, professional logos for your MVP
    Hey, great work! You could easily add the Bootstrap Icons library to this. And then perhaps the Noun Project. https://icons.getbootstrap.com/ https://thenounproject.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Useful Websites for Cheat Sheets and Programming Resources
    Content: The Noun Project offers a vast collection of icons that can be used in various projects, providing a wide range of icons for different purposes. Benefits: Access to high-quality icons for use in design and development projects, enhancing visual communication and design. Link: https://thenounproject.com/. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
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Icons8 mentions (57)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing The Noun Project and Icons8, you can also consider the following products

Flaticon - A database of free vector icons.

Font Awesome - Font Awesome makes it easy to add vector icons and social logos to your website. And version 5 is redesigned and built from the ground up!

Iconfinder - Iconfinder is the leading search engine and market place for vector icons in SVG, PNG, CSH and AI format..

Feather Icons - Simply beautiful open source icons

Iconscout - Design Resource Marketplace.

IcoMoon - IcoMoon is an icon management tool that is build to provide iconography.