Dribbble He permanently banned dozens of designers from his platform after a latest effort to show to the market and monetize Gonda. This includes one of the most famous platform designers, Kuznetsov soilsFounder of a design studio based in San Francisco Milkinside.
Drybbble deleted his account his account Over 210 million Observers, because he has provided its contact details with potential customers through the platform in violation of its latest rules.
Noticed Kuznetsov In the post on x“I brought over 100,000 monthly users. 15 years of work. Over 12,000 shots. All immediately removed, because the customer asked for my e -mail. One warning. Without an appeal.”
It might be a change in a company that helps the product, UX, Web and other digital designers present their wallets and find latest customers, Kuznesov says that he talked to investors about the launch of a competitor.
Shortly after their social media post, Drybbble users expressed a shock and anger because of the decision, recognizing Kuznesov as one of their best inspirations and lamenting that the platform would make such a unsuitable move.
Meanwhile, Dribbbble claims that Kuznetsov has actually warned many times that he violated the latest rules, AE -Mail was the last notification.
Pivot Dribbble on the market
The problem concerns a newer change in politics for the first time announced on March 17, 2025.
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In E -Mail made available in March with about 750,000 approved Dribbble designers – which implies that those that are authorized to speak with others on the platform – the company said that the designers not allow designers to offer their contact details with potential customers until the customer sent payments through his platform.
The company has set this transformation as such, which goals to guard designers against a lack of payment, in addition to one that permits dribbble to proceed to keep up operations.
The announcement was also published on social media and Company blog.
However, Kuznetsov claims that the lack of payment is not a quite common problem and in fact this update applies to a dribbble attempting to undertake a greater cutting of designers’ activities.
Drybbble does not query this.
Dribbble earned money in two ways before changing the policy. From September 2024, Dribbble began to maneuver to the market, which connected designers and clients. Designers could communicate freely on the platform, and then either divide revenues by 3.5% on clients they converted or pays PRO subscription To ignore the participation of Rev. In March, the company tightened the rules much more, saying that everybody who finds customers on Dribbble will have to supply the platform to scale back their revenues.
“It turned out that it was optional to use our transaction functions to him, so that the non -eligible were required to use our transaction functions if they were on dribbble to find customers,” he explains Constantine Anastasakis, CEO DribbbleIn an interview with TechCrunch. “If the user is on dribbble to find inspiration or get feedback about his work or talk to purchases with peers, none of them affects,” he added.
Execor, who joined the company after work at the lender on to the Consumer Lower, Video Marketplace Pond5 (abandoned to Shutterstock) and Freelancer Marketplace Fiverr, was employed in April last yr to show Drybbble on the market. While the company is profitable under the parent company TinyIt is still a small 20-person team and is not involving the support of the undertaking to serve their 7.5 to 10 million unique visitors.
“Drybbble was something that really accelerated our activities during the day,” said Kuznetsov from Techcrunch. He says that there was no platform before Dribbble where designers could share their work. This helped the designers receive feedback that got here especially from their peers and allowed newer designers to learn from people at the top of the industry.
Kuznetsov is now a part of the latter group.
In Milkinside, Kuznetsov cooperated with corporations reminiscent of Apple, Google, Amazon, Scandinavian Airlines, United Airlines, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz and other large corporations in Bay Area.
As a result, he probably didn’t think that Dribbble would risk banning him for not observing the latest conditions.
Anastasakis principally confirmed that this is true.
Techcrunch said that Kuznetsov received 83 working queries since the introduction of recent conditions in March, and answered 61. In each message, the page shows a warning that it reminds users that contact details shouldn’t be made available before the project fee. However, Kuznetsov provided his contact details in six messages that might show a stronger warning at that point.
Then the company followed the warning by e-mail on July 22 about his repetitive violations of services, which informed him that he risked a constant suspension.
Kuznetsov told us that at first he didn’t see this e -mail, but Dribbble claims that he followed that E -Mail was opened three times before his suspension.
“I imagine that dribbble – their goal was to harm me so that I could spread it [news] so that they can provide a difficult lesson to anyone who tries [to break the rules]Says Kuznetsov.
Director General Dribbbble Anastasakis confirmed the same for TechCrunch.
“There is really no sight to see that he did not realize that what he did, risked the permanent suspension of his bills,” Anastasakis told us.
“I think he finally believed that we would not take action against the designer of his caliber,” he continued. “In the margins, I really think that he did a great favor to us when it comes to how we take terms seriously.”
For Kuznetsov or every designer who was banned for similar reasons, the only choice to return to Dribbble is to connect as an advertiser who requires a minimum campaign budget of USD 1,500 per 30 days for at least three months.
Is the latest Dribbble competitor appear?
Kuznetsov decided to create his own path, saying that he was wounded by changing Drybbble.
“It will not be a dribbble follower,” he says about his waiting startup. Instead, it’s going to be a resource for designers who also use artificial intelligence.
Although there was a lot of slack about the training of AI models about the work of creation without compensation, Kuznetsov believes that there is a case of using technology in terms of inspiration, creation and design.
“This is now a big hole on the market … Everyone is doing a start -AI, but nobody really does startups AI for designers,” notes Kuznesov. “AI is something that can really increase our ability to create and do it at a much higher level of quality. It will help us not only earn more money and development, but also to create something that we have not even considered a possible creation without a specific set of skills.”
Kuznetsov says he expects to have MVP (minimal profitable product) Ready in three or 4 months.
However, he notes that the goal is to not “kill” Drybbble, despite the indisputable fact that investors offered him money.
“It’s not like that. I’m trying to do something good for the community because I am a designer. So I know how painful it is to be a designer in this world,” says Kuznetsov.
“We must be really wise in how we invest our time – how we give our best and give our lives to other platforms. Diversification of this investment should be something that everyone should think about” – he adds.