
Envato Elements Review - My Biggest Designer Secret
Is Envato Elements worth investing in? Find out my honest thoughts on this design subscription service and how it's useful to bloggers and entrepreneurs.
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Okay, lean in.
Listen close.
Iâm about to tell you all about my biggest secret as a designer and entrepreneur!
This âsecretâ (not so much of a secret since itâs in the article title) has saved me so many times, especially since I started blogging. And it just keeps getting better and better.
Itâs Envato Elements. And I love it.
My Honest Review of Envato Elements
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What is Envato Elements?
Envato Elements is a subscription service for design resources. It features content from creators who have uploaded resources for sale on a few of the Envato Marketplace websites. You can find resources from GraphicRiver, PhotoDune, and ThemeForest, which was just recently added.
This means you have unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of graphic templates, photos, and design assets for just one low monthly price. Youâre able to download and license whatever you want as long as youâre subscribed. Your licensed products are still valid even if you unsubscribe, you just wonât be able to download any new products or add new licenses.
Unless you find yourself not needing any new fonts, stock photos, or WordPress plugins, I donât think youâll be wanting to unsubscribe anyway. This is one of those subscriptions I canât ever see myself without.
Why You Need Envato Elements
Based on my personal experience, there are at least three types of people who will benefit from a subscription: designers, non-designers, and entrepreneurs. And people who collect fonts. This is amazing if you use lots of fonts!
Great for designers
As a sometimes totally broke designer, this is the #1 resource for me that I somehow find a way to pay every month. Itâs just that good.
I have peace of mind knowing that if I need a new font, effect, or texture that I can usually find exactly (or close to) what I need on Envato Elements.
This is also a great resource to have if you have clients because you can license out any assets to any projects without having to buy a whole new resource. This means a higher profit margin for your projects. Elements is potentially infinitely valuable to you.
Great for non-designers
Even if youâre not a designer, perhaps ESPECIALLY if youâre not, Envato Elements can help you. All you need is some basic Photoshop knowledge and you can be editing templates up a storm.
You also wonât be spending loads on various resources that you may only use once. Buying everything separately can really add up.
Great for entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur who needs about 50 more hours in her day, Elements is a lifesaver. Itâs been really difficult for me, but Elements has been there for me as I realize that I canât do everything myself and that itâs OK to accept help or delegate tasks.
In this case, itâs from somewhat anonymous designers whose work I edit to fit my brand. Even though thereâs still some work on my part, itâs still hours saved coming up with ideas on my own.
Font collectors
If you spend at least $33 (or $16.50 if you wanna go yearly) on fonts every month, sign up for Elements right now! Youâll save so much money. There are thousands and thousands of fonts available for download.
Iâve even done up a post featuring over 100 script and brush fonts that are available for download. Say each one of these fonts costs $15 on average to purchase separately, youâll save over $1400 just by having an Envato Elements subscription.
The licensing is easy since you can license by seat. In other words, you download it once per machine that you want to install the font on.
How I Use Envato Elements
Ok, so, thatâs great and all, but letâs take a look at a use case. The simplest out there: me! Iâve already said that I use this all the time, but showing is best so here are some ways I use Envato all the time.
You can click on any of these to see a full sized version.
This Blog
Several fonts and graphic elements have been used on this blog directly. If you look at any of my blog or Pinterest graphics, youâll see something made with an Elements resource.
Other Blogs
I also run some other blogs, one that Iâm still working on building and another for my store in SecondLife. Iâve used some elements to create blog graphics and product ads for me SL store as seen below.
Store and Event Posters
Iâve also use resources for posters for my SL store to promote special events or announce brand news to my social media followers.
Product Ads
And finally, Iâve used Elements resources to create product ads and mockups as well.
My Favorite Resources
Okay, this is actually my favorite resource categories rather than any single resources. There are a lot of products on Elements and I donât use them ALL, but as a blogger and 3D artist who sells virtual goods, here are the categories I find most useful and how I use them:
- Stock Photos â Blog and social graphics
- Graphics â Textures for 3D items and elements for blog and social graphics
- Graphic Templates â For ads, posters, and social media graphics
- Fonts â I love fonts so much and now I have access to tons I can use commercially
- Add-ons â Things like brushes, actions, styles, etc. for Photoshop and Illustrator
- WordPress â WordPress themes and plugins
- Music â For videos and maybe the future podcast I want to do
- Stock Video & Video Templates â For future tutorial and course videos
Best Envato Elements Features
Tons of resources
When I originally wrote this post, there were over 410,000 products available for download. Now there are over 840,000. In just a year, the library has more than DOUBLED. Iâm really excited because they just added stock Music and Sound Effects, so I know Iâll have stuff for my future videos.
602,000 available products are stock photos. As a blogger, this is amazing because youâll have access to a much larger pool of photos. Much.
Thereâs also WordPress themes and plugins if you purchase an annual plan. I canât wait to get access to this myself!
New items added weekly
If youâre not happy with having only 840,000 resources thatâs okay. There are new items added every week.
Every now and then there are huge updates where a lot of new content from other Envato sites are added, such as the addition of video templates and stock video a few months ago and sound effects and music a week or two ago (as of November 2019).
Unlimited downloads
uNlImItEd DoWnLoAdS!!!!!!! (What was that? I donât know either. I just feel this is how I should say this.)
There are no caps on how many products you can download or license each month. No download credits or anything like that. As long as you add licenses for each project youâre working on, you can download as much as you want.
Simple licensing
Envatoâs licensing is simple and applies to all products that are good for personal and commercial use. Whenever you have a project, you simply add a license to the product and youâre good to go.
If you unsubscribe, licenses for products registered before you ended your subscription are still valid, but you canât download items or license any new projects.
Envato includes this video that explains it all to you:
You can read the exact license here. If youâre at all familiar with graphic licenses, itâs got some typical things you see in just about every license:
Clear guidelines on whatâs not allowed
Some common-sense limitations do apply, as set out below:
- You canât re-sell, or re-distribute items;
- You canât use items in on-demand services; and
- You generally canât use items as the basis for merchandising. For example, printing a logo from Elements straight onto a T-shirt is not allowed. See clause 13 below for the relevant terms and conditions.
Amazing price
You canât beat this pricing. Envato Elements is only $33 per month or $198 paid once a year. Considering how many graphic assets are worth at least this much for a single purchase, thatâs worth paying to me.
Tuts+ included
Tuts+ is an Envato site with thousands of tutorials and ebooks for graphic design, video, coding, and a lot more, even music.
So even if you feel like your design skills arenât up-to-par, youâll have access to the entire Tuts+ site to learn more.
What I Donât Like About Envato Elements
Honestly, thereâs not much I donât like about Elements! My only gripes have been that thereâs no way to bookmark resources I might want to come back to later and that WordPress resources used to only available under yearly subs, which they changed so it isnât an issue anymore.
No Favoriting or Bookmarking
Okay so Iâm on Elements a lot for various projects and sometimes I see things I like but donât need right now. Yeah, sure, I can bookmark it in my browser, but Iâd really love to have the option somewhere on the website so I can access them from wherever I am, even if itâs not a PC Iâm logged in to.
It would also be nice to be able to create lists to group resources so I can easily come back to the website to either register another license or to plan for future projects.
Update: When I first wrote this post, there was no way to favorite or otherwise save products you wanted to come back to. Now, they have Collections, which allows you to create lists of products. So now thereâs really nothing I donât like, I guess!
Download Some Free Products Now
If youâre not convinced this is right for you or you want to try Elements before signing up, you can sign up for a free account now and grab some free resources each month. Remember, these are available under the Envato Free Files Single Use Policy license.
Youâre also still able to browse all the resources available when you have a free account. You wonât be able to download anything, but you can see if anything you want or need is there.
Get Envato Elements Now
Donât miss out on this awesome deal, sign up with Envato Elements now.