Envato Elements Review - My Biggest Designer Secret

Okay, lean in.

Listen close.

I’m about to tell you all about my biggest secret as a designer and entrepreneur!

This “secret” (not so much of a secret since it’s in the article title) has saved me so many times, especially since I started blogging. And it just keeps getting better and better.

It’s 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. You’re able to download and license whatever you want as long as you’re subscribed. Your licensed products are still valid even if you unsubscribe, you just won’t 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 don’t think you’ll be wanting to unsubscribe anyway. This is one of those subscriptions I can’t 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. It’s 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 you’re not a designer, perhaps ESPECIALLY if you’re 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 won’t 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. It’s been really difficult for me, but Elements has been there for me as I realize that I can’t do everything myself and that it’s OK to accept help or delegate tasks.

In this case, it’s from somewhat anonymous designers whose work I edit to fit my brand. Even though there’s still some work on my part, it’s 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! You’ll save so much money. There are thousands and thousands of fonts available for download.

I’ve 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, you’ll 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, that’s great and all, but let’s take a look at a use case. The simplest out there: me! I’ve 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, you’ll see something made with an Elements resource.

Other Blogs

I also run some other blogs, one that I’m still working on building and another for my store in SecondLife. I’ve used some elements to create blog graphics and product ads for me SL store as seen below.

Store and Event Posters

I’ve 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, I’ve 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 don’t 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 – Blog and social graphics
• Graphics – Textures for 3D items and elements for blog and social graphics
• Graphic Templates – For ads, posters, and social media graphics
• Fonts – I love fonts so much and now I have access to tons I can use commercially
• Add-ons – Things like brushes, actions, styles, etc. for Photoshop and Illustrator
• WordPress – WordPress themes and plugins
• Music – For videos and maybe the future podcast I want to do
• Stock Video & Video Templates – 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. I’m really excited because they just added stock Music and Sound Effects, so I know I’ll have stuff for my future videos.

602,000 available products are stock photos. As a blogger, this is amazing because you’ll have access to a much larger pool of photos. Much.

There’s also WordPress themes and plugins if you purchase an annual plan. I can’t wait to get access to this myself!

New items added weekly

If you’re not happy with having only 840,000 resources that’s 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 don’t 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 you’re working on, you can download as much as you want.

Simple licensing

Envato’s 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 you’re good to go.

If you unsubscribe, licenses for products registered before you ended your subscription are still valid, but you can’t 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 you’re at all familiar with graphic licenses, it’s got some typical things you see in just about every license:

Clear guidelines on what’s not allowed

Some common-sense limitations do apply, as set out below:

• You can’t re-sell, or re-distribute items;
• You can’t use items in on-demand services; and
• You generally can’t 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 can’t 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, that’s 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 aren’t up-to-par, you’ll have access to the entire Tuts+ site to learn more.

What I Don’t Like About Envato Elements

Honestly, there’s not much I don’t like about Elements! My only gripes have been that there’s 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 isn’t an issue anymore.

No Favoriting or Bookmarking

Okay so I’m on Elements a lot for various projects and sometimes I see things I like but don’t need right now. Yeah, sure, I can bookmark it in my browser, but I’d really love to have the option somewhere on the website so I can access them from wherever I am, even if it’s not a PC I’m 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 there’s really nothing I don’t like, I guess!

Download Some Free Products Now

If you’re 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.

You’re also still able to browse all the resources available when you have a free account. You won’t be able to download anything, but you can see if anything you want or need is there.

Get Envato Elements Now

Don’t miss out on this awesome deal, sign up with Envato Elements now.