Dribbble has permanently banned dozens of designers from his platform after turning new efforts to a marketplace and a chase hunting monealization. This includes one of the best -known designers of the platform, Gleb Kuznetsov, founder of the Milkinside design studio based in San Francisco.
Dribbble deleted his account with over 210 million followers because he shared his contact information with potential customers against the new rules with potential customers.
Kuznetsov noticed in a post on X: “I brought more than 100,000 monthly users with me.
Kuznetsov, who are fed up with the company's changes in which product, UX, web and other digital designers present their portfolio and find new customers, spoke to investors about the start of a competitor.
Shortly after his social media contribution, Dribbble users pressed their shock and anger about the decision and wrote Kuznetsov as one of her greatest inspiration and complaint that the platform would take such a misguided step.
Dribbble meanwhile says that Kuznetsov was warned several times that he violated the new rules and the e -mail was the last message.
Dribbble's Pivot to a marketplace
The topic has to do with a recent change in directives, which was first announced on March 17, 2025.
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In an e -e -mail that was shared by Dribbble in March with 750,000 approved designers -which means that those who are authorized to communicate with others on the platform -said the company that the designer no longer allowed the designer to share their contact information with potential customers until their customers had sent payment via their platform.
The company positioned this change as one to protect designers from non -payment, as well as one that enables dribbble to continue to maintain its business.
The announcement was also published on social media and in the company blog.
However, Kuznetsov claims that non -payment is not a very common problem, and this update is really about dribbble tries to make a larger cut on the business activities.
Dribbble does not deny that.
Dribbble earned money in two ways before changing the guidelines. From September 2024, Dribbble started a marketplace where designers and customers were connected. Designers could communicate freely on the platform and then either share a sales reduction of 3.5% for the customers they are converted, or they could pay a pro subscription to skip the REV share. In March the company tightened the rules and said that everyone, the customer at Dribbble, would have to offer the platform to reduce their income.
“It was optional to use our transaction functions so that non-adverts use our transaction functions if they were on dribbble to find customers,” explains the CEO of Dribbble, Constantine Anastasakis, in an interview with techcrunch. “When a user is on dribbble to find inspiration or to receive feedback on his work or to speak to her colleagues, none of it affects it,” he added.
The Exec, which followed the company after working on Direct-to Consumer Lender Lower, the video marketplace Pond5 (exuberant to Shutterstock) and Freelancer Marketplace Fiverr, was set to a marketplace with Dribble last April. While the company is profitable under the parent company Tiny, it is still a small team of 20 people and is not dependent on venture backing to serve its 7.5 to 10 million monthly visitors.
“Dribbble was something that our business earlier dramatically accelerated,” Kuznetsov told Techcrunch. In front of Dribbble there was no platform on which designers could share their work with others, he says. It helped designers to get feedback that came especially from her colleagues and could learn newer designers from those at the top of the industry.
Kuznetsov is now part of the latter group.
At Milelside, Kuznetsov worked with companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Scandinavian airlines, United Airlines, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz and other large companies in the Bay Area.
As a result, he probably did not feel that dribbble would risk ban on him because he did not stick to the new terms.
Anastasakis essentially confirmed as true.
He announced Techcrunch that Kuznetsov received 83 work inquiries since the new conditions were introduced in March and responded to 61. In every message, the website shows a warning that reminds users that contact details should not be released before the project payment. However, Kuznetsov announced his contact information in six messages, which would have shown a stronger warning at that time.
The company then followed with a warning email on July 22 about its repeated violations of the service, which informed him that he was permanently suspended.
Kuznetsov told us that he did not see this e -mail initially, but Dribbble said she had followed that the e -mail was opened three times before his suspension.
“I think dribbble – it was her goal to hurt me so that I can spread it [news] So you can give everyone who tries to give a tough lesson [to break the rules]“, Says Kuznetsov.
Anastasakis confirmed Techcrunch as much.
“There is really no conceivable way that he did not notice that what he did risked a permanent suspension of his accounts,” said Anastasakis.
“I think he ultimately believed that we would not take measures against a designer of his caliber,” he continued. “As a marginal note, I actually think that he did a big favor to us, what the word comes out, how seriously we take the conditions.”
For Kuznetsov or every designer who was banned for similar reasons, the only option to return to Dribbble by joining as an advertiser, which requires a minimum campaign budget of $ 1,500 per month for at least three months.
A new competitor of Dribbble is being created?
Kuznetsov has decided to close his own way and said that he was injured by dribbbles.
“It won't be a copycat by Dribbble,” he says of his upcoming startup. Instead, it will be a resource for designers who will also use AI.
While there have been a lot of counter -reactions in relation to AI models that train the work of creative without compensation, Kuznetsov believes that there is an application for technology in terms of inspiration, creation and design.
“It's a big hole on the market at the moment … Everyone is doing AI startups, but nobody really makes AI startups for designers,” notes Kuznetsov. “Ai is something that can create our ability and to create it at a much higher level of quality. It will help us not only earn more money and grow, but also to create something that we never thought that he can create without certain skills.”
Kuznetsov expects he to prepare an MVP (minimally viable product) in three or four months.
However, he realizes that the goal is not to “kill” dribbble, although investors have offered him money for it.
“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 have to be really smart how we invest our time – how we do our best and do our lives to other platforms. Diversification of this investment should be something that everyone should think about,” he adds.