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 data with potential shoppers by the platform in violation of its new guidelines.
Remarked Kuznetsov in a put up on X, “I brought 100,000+ monthly users. 15 years of work. 12,000+ shots. All instantly deleted, because a client asked for my email. One warning. No appeal.”
Fed up with the modifications on the firm, which helps product, UX, net, and different digital designers showcase their portfolios and discover new shoppers, Kuznetsov says he’s been speaking to buyers about launching a competitor.
Shortly after his social media put up, Dribbble customers expressed their shock and anger over the choice, crediting Kuznetsov as being one in all their largest inspirations and lamenting that the platform would make such a misguided transfer.
Dribbble, in the meantime, says Kuznetsov was really warned a number of occasions that he was violating the brand new guidelines and the e-mail was the ultimate discover.
Dribbble’s pivot to a market
The problem 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 accredited designers — which means those that are approved to speak with others on the platform — the corporate stated it was not permitting designers to share their contact data with potential shoppers till after their shopper despatched cost by 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 firm weblog.
Nonetheless, Kuznetsov claims that non-payment isn’t a quite common downside, and actually, this replace is about Dribbble making an attempt to take a bigger lower of designers’ enterprise.
Dribbble doesn’t dispute that.
Earlier than the coverage change, Dribbble made cash in one in all two methods. Beginning in September 2024, Dribbble started pivoting to a market that related designers and shoppers. Designers may talk freely on the platform after which both share a 3.5% income lower on shoppers they transformed, or they may pay for a Professional subscription to skip the rev share. In March, the corporate tightened the principles additional, saying that anybody discovering shoppers on Dribbble would wish to supply the platform a lower of their income.
“It went from it was optional to use our transactional features to it was required for non-advertisers to use our transactional features, if they were on Dribbble, to find clients,” explains Dribbble CEO Constantine Anastasakis, in an interview with TechCrunch. “If a user is on Dribbble to find inspiration or to get feedback on their work, or to talk shop with their peers, none of this affects them,” he added.
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 beneath guardian firm Tiny, it’s nonetheless a small 20-person staff and isn’t reliant on enterprise backing to serve its 7.5 to 10 million month-to-month distinctive guests.
“Dribbble was something that really accelerated our business dramatically back in the day,” Kuznetsov instructed TechCrunch. Earlier than Dribbble, there was no platform the place designers may share their work wth 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 prime of the business.
Kuznetsov is now a part of the latter group.
At Milkinside, Kuznetsov has labored with firms like Apple, Google, Amazon, Scandinavian Airways, United Airways, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, and different giant firms within the Bay Space.
Consequently, he probably 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 instructed 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 reveals a warning that reminds customers that contact particulars shouldn’t be shared earlier than undertaking cost. Nonetheless, Kuznetsov shared his contact data in six messages, which might have displayed a stronger warning at the moment.
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 instructed us he didn’t see this e-mail initially, however Dribbble says it tracked that the e-mail was opened 3 times earlier than his suspension.
“I believe that Dribbble — it was their goal to hurt me so I can spread that [news] so they can give a harsh lesson to everyone who tries [to break the rules],” Kuznetsov says.
Dribbble’s CEO Anastasakis confirmed as a lot to TechCrunch.
“There’s there’s really no conceivable way in which he did not realize that what he was doing risked permanent suspension of his accounts,” Anastasakis instructed us.
“I think that ultimately it was that he believed that we wouldn’t take action against a designer of his caliber,” he continued. “As a side note, I actually think that he’s done us a big favor as far as getting the word out about how seriously we take the terms.”
For Kuznetsov, or any designer who was banned for related causes, the one possibility to come back again to Dribbble is by becoming a member of as an advertiser, which requires a minimal marketing campaign finances of $1,500 per thirty days for at the very 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, will probably 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.
“It’s a big hole right now in the market…Everybody’s doing AI startups, but nobody’s really doing AI startups for designers,” Kuznetsov notes. “AI is something that really can elevate our ability to create, and make it on a much higher level of quality. It’s going to help us to not only earn more money and grow, but also create something we never even thought was possible to create without a specific skill set.”
Kuznetsov says he expects to have an MVP (minimal viable product) prepared in three or 4 months.
Nonetheless, he notes the purpose is to not “kill” Dribbble, although buyers supplied him cash to take action.
“It’s not like that. I’m trying to do something good for the community because I’m a designer. So I know how painful it is to be a designer in this world,” says Kuznetsov.
“We need to be really smart about how we invest our time — how we give our best and give our life to other platforms. Diversification of that investment should be something that everyone should be thinking about,” he provides.
