The Best Value Designer Icon Sets
Once a small market with limited candidates, there are now many different paid icons sets available to designers and developers. The icons cater to web, app and mobile (iOS, Android) design. But how do you choose which one to fork out for? Well we have looked at some of the most popular paid icon sets and looked at which of them are the best value for your money.
Winners
- Best Value Icon Set – IconSweet 2
- Largest Icon Set – IconBeast Pro
- Biggest Free Icon Set – Iconic
Provider 1 – Glypish
Glypish Pro 3 – $25 / 460 Icons + 40 Toolbar Icons
Value
Cheap high quality icons, a nice free set and lots of formats.
Great Value
Formats
- @1x
- @2x
- PNG
- PSD
- AI
Free Set
Glyphish Pro 4 – $25 / 200 Icons
Value
A smaller set than the Pro 3 (and thus a little more expensive – 13c/icon), but its still good value and high quality.
Good Value
Formats
- @1x
- @2x
- PNG
- PSD
- AI
Free Set
None
Provider 2 – Glyphicons
Glyphicons Pro – $59 / 420 icons + 160 Tiny Icons + Future Updates
Value
High quality, and great value, this is a nice icon set with extra toolbar icons included.
Great Value
Formats
- @1x
- @2x
- FONT
- SVG
- AI
- PSD
- PNG
- CSS
Free Set
Glyphicons Free – 420 Icons + 160 Minis Icons
Glyphicons All – $25 / 420 Icons + 160 Minis Icons
Value
Half the price (4c/icon) of the Glyphicon Pro set, but with less formats. This might be for you if you don’t require all the vector or font formats.
Great Value
Formats
- @2x
- PSD
- PNG
Free Set
Provider 3 – iconSweets
iconSweets2 – $8 / 400 Icons + 292 Mini Icons
Value
IconSweets2 is the best value icon set on the list at only 1c per icon. At that price, its probably worth giving them a look.
Great Value
Formats
- CSH
- PSD
- FONT
- PNG x 3
Free Set
Provider 4 – Iconic
Iconic – FREE / 171 Icons
Value
Iconic is the only completely free set available. The icons are high quality and a nice quantity so who can complain.
Great Value
Formats
- PNG
- SVG
- SWC
- FONT
- Omnigraffle
Provider 5 – Ikonic
Ikonic – $9 / 150 Icons (25 Icons In Future Update)
Value
At 6c/icon Ikonic is a nice set of icons, plus its only $9 to get all 150 so why not.
Great Value
Formats
- @2x
- PNG
- PSD
Free Set
Provider 5 – Icon Beast
Icon Beast Pro $75 / 1700 Icons
Value
By far the biggest icon set on the list, and at 4c/icon its actually pretty good value too. The icons might not be suitable if you want to resize them down though, as some are quite detailed.
Great Value
Formats
- @2x
- PNG
- EPS
- PSD
- SVG
Free Set
Provider 6 – Pictos
Pictos 1 – $29 / 324 Vector Icons, $49 / 324 PNG Icons
Value
Pictos are the only company splitting out vectors from raster icons. Its around 15c/icon for the PNG pack. They also do not offer a free set so you can try out the quality of these icons. This brings down the value of the set down.
Good Value
Formats
- EPS
- AI
- CSH
- PNG
Free Set
None
Pictos 2, Pictos 3, Pictos 4 – $19 / 162 Vector Icons, $39 / 162 PNG Icons
Value
These PNG icon sets is nearly 25c per icon, around 5x the price of the Glyphish icon set (and you get vectors and PNGs). This icon set also does not offer a free set.
Good Value
Formats
- EPS
- AI
- CSH
- PNG
Free Set
None
Provider 7 – Billy Barker
Billy Barker – $20 / 350 Icons
Value
This icon set only offers PNGs, but there are a lot of sizes and it specifically caters for iOS and Android sizing which is nice.
Great Value
Formats
- @2x
- PNG
Free Set
Provider 8 – Hlvticons
Basic $279 / 245 Icons
Value
While no one will argue that the icons are high quality (and they are), they are also ridiculously expensive when compared to the other icons sets – at $1.13 per icon! At this price, I would suggest just using The Noun Project and buying the icons you really need at $1.99 per icon.
Poor Value
Formats
- @2x
- PNG
Free Set
None
Extras $259 / 232 Icons
Value
Another very expensive icon set. Unless you have the dough to fork out, I would steer away from this set.
Poor Value
Formats
- @2x
- PNG
Free Set
None
Additional $159 / 123 Icons
Value
Around $1.29 / icon making it the most expensive icon set on the list. I’d suggest a don’t buy unless you really need it.
Poor Value
Formats
- @2x
- PNG
Free Set
None
Complete $499 / 600 Icons
Value
As all good combined packages should be, this package is cheaper than the individual prices. Still very pricey though at 83c/icon.
Poor Value
Formats
- @2x
- PNG
Free Set
None
Provider 9 – The Noun Project
The Noun Project – Individually Priced
Value
The noun project has a large collection of icons. Each icon is individually priced, generally sitting at most around $1.99. However, lot of the icons are free with various creative commons licenses (attribution etc). If you are looking for a one off icon, this might be the site for you.
Summary
Thats a lot of icons. So to do a quick summary, IconSweets2 is the best value set at 1c/icon or if you are looking for the creative commons route, try out Iconic. If you find any icon sets I’ve missed post them in the comments below and I’ll add them to the post.
