Dribbble has completely banned dozens of designers from its platform following a brand new effort to pivot to a market and chase monetization. This contains one of many platform’s most well-known designers, Gleb Kuznetsov, founding father of the San Francisco-based design studio Milkinside.
Dribbble deleted his account with its over 210 million followers as a result of he shared his contact info with potential shoppers by means of the platform in violation of its new guidelines.
Remarked Kuznetsov in a submit on X, “I introduced 100,000+ month-to-month customers. 15 years of labor. 12,000+ photographs. All immediately deleted, as a result of a consumer requested for my e-mail. One warning. No enchantment.”
Fed up with the adjustments on the firm, which helps product, UX, internet, and different digital designers showcase their portfolios and discover new shoppers, Kuznetsov says he’s been speaking to buyers about launching a competitor.
Completely agree with @jondschubert . I liked @dribbble. I introduced 100,000+ month-to-month customers. 15 years of labor. 12,000+ photographs.
All immediately deleted, as a result of a consumer requested for my e-mail. One warning. No enchantment.
They didn’t care concerning the group. Simply their 3% minimize.
Dribbble is… pic.twitter.com/ujzvhkLoXO
— Gleb Kuznetsov (@glebich) July 29, 2025
Shortly after his social media submit, Dribbble customers expressed their shock and anger over the choice, crediting Kuznetsov as being certainly one of their largest inspirations and lamenting that the platform would make such a misguided transfer.
Dribbble, in the meantime, says Kuznetsov was truly warned a number of instances that he was violating the brand new guidelines and the e-mail was the ultimate discover.
Dribbble’s pivot to a market
The difficulty has to do with a more moderen coverage change first introduced on March 17, 2025.
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In an e-mail shared in March with Dribbble’s some 750,000 authorized designers — that means those that are approved to speak with others on the platform — the corporate stated it was not permitting designers to share their contact info with potential shoppers till after their consumer despatched cost by means of its platform.
The corporate positioned this variation as one meant to guard designers from non-payment, in addition to one that permits Dribbble to proceed to maintain its enterprise.
The announcement was additionally posted to social media and the corporate weblog.
Picture Credit:Dribbble
Nonetheless, Kuznetsov claims that non-payment isn’t a quite common drawback, and actually, this replace is about Dribbble trying to take a bigger minimize of designers’ enterprise.
Dribbble doesn’t dispute that.
Earlier than the coverage change, Dribbble made cash in certainly one of two methods. Beginning in September 2024, Dribbble started pivoting to a market that linked designers and shoppers. Designers might talk freely on the platform after which both share a 3.5% income minimize on shoppers they transformed, or they may pay for a Professional subscription to skip the rev share. In March, the corporate tightened the foundations additional, saying that anybody discovering shoppers on Dribbble would want to supply the platform a minimize of their income.
“It went from it was non-compulsory to make use of our transactional options to it was required for non-advertisers to make use of our transactional options, in the event that they have been on Dribbble, to seek out shoppers,” explains Dribbble CEO Constantine Anastasakis, in an interview with TechCrunch. “If a person is on Dribbble to seek out inspiration or to get suggestions on their work, or to speak store with their friends, none of this impacts them,” he added.
Picture Credit:Dribbble
The exec, who joined the corporate after working at direct-to-consumer lender Decrease, video market Pond5 (exited to Shutterstock), and freelancer market Fiverr, was employed final April to pivot Dribbble right into a market. Whereas the corporate is worthwhile underneath dad or mum firm Tiny, it’s nonetheless a small 20-person workforce and isn’t reliant on enterprise backing to serve its 7.5 to 10 million month-to-month distinctive guests.
“Dribbble was one thing that basically accelerated our enterprise dramatically again within the day,” Kuznetsov advised TechCrunch. Earlier than Dribbble, there was no platform the place designers might share their work with others, he says. It helped designers obtain suggestions that got here particularly from their friends and allowed newer designers to be taught from these on the high of the trade.
Kuznetsov is now a part of the latter group.
At Milkinside, Kuznetsov has labored with corporations like Apple, Google, Amazon, Scandinavian Airways, United Airways, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, and different massive corporations within the Bay Space.
In consequence, he possible didn’t really feel that Dribbble would danger banning him for not abiding by the brand new phrases.
Anastasakis primarily confirmed this to be true.
He advised TechCrunch that Kuznetsov obtained 83 work inquiries for the reason that new phrases rolled out in March, and responded to 61. In every message, the positioning exhibits a warning that reminds customers that contact particulars shouldn’t be shared earlier than undertaking cost. Nonetheless, Kuznetsov shared his contact info in six messages, which might have displayed a stronger warning at the moment.
Picture Credit:Dribbble
Picture Credit:Dribbble
The corporate then adopted up with a warning e-mail on July 22 about his repeated terms-of-service violations, which knowledgeable him he was risking everlasting suspension.
Kuznetsov advised us he didn’t see this e-mail initially, however Dribbble says it tracked that the e-mail was opened thrice earlier than his suspension.
“I consider that Dribbble — it was their aim to harm me so I can unfold that [news] to allow them to give a harsh lesson to everybody who tries [to break the rules],” Kuznetsov says.
Anastasakis confirmed as a lot to TechCrunch.
“There’s actually no conceivable approach through which he didn’t understand that what he was doing risked everlasting suspension of his accounts,” Anastasakis advised us.
“I feel that finally it was that he believed that we wouldn’t take motion in opposition to a designer of his caliber,” he continued. “As a facet word, I truly assume that he’s accomplished us an enormous favor so far as getting the phrase out about how severely we take the phrases.”
For Kuznetsov, or any designer who was banned for comparable causes, the one choice to come back again to Dribbble is by becoming a member of as an advertiser, which requires a minimal marketing campaign price range of $1,500 per 30 days for at the least three months.
A brand new competitor to Dribbble emerges?
Kuznetsov has determined to forge his personal path, saying that he’s harm by Dribbble’s change.
“It’s not going to be a copycat of Dribbble,” he says of his pending startup. As an alternative, it will likely be a useful resource for designers that will even leverage AI.
Whereas there was a whole lot of backlash about AI fashions coaching on creatives’ work with out compensation, Kuznetsov believes there’s a use case for the know-how when it comes to inspiration, creation, and design.
Picture Credit:Gleb Kuznetsov
“It’s an enormous gap proper now out there … All people’s doing AI startups, however no one’s actually doing AI startups for designers,” Kuznetsov notes. “AI is one thing that basically can elevate our capability to create, and make it on a a lot increased stage of high quality. It’s going to assist us to not solely earn more cash and develop, but additionally create one thing we by no means even thought was attainable to create and not using a particular talent set.”
Kuznetsov says he expects to have an MVP (minimal viable product) prepared in three or 4 months.
Nonetheless, he notes the aim is to not “kill” Dribbble, although buyers supplied him cash to take action.
“It’s not like that. I’m making an attempt to do one thing good for the group as a result of I’m a designer. So I understand how painful it’s to be a designer on this world,” says Kuznetsov.
“We must be actually sensible about how we make investments our time — how we give our greatest and provides our life to different platforms. Diversification of that funding needs to be one thing that everybody needs to be enthusiastic about,” he provides.
