DesignJoy vs Mountain Thirteen: A Founder-Led Alternative at a Different Price Point

If you’re shopping for a DesignJoy alternative in 2026, you almost certainly already know the DesignJoy story. Brett Williams started it in 2017, runs it solo to this day, and built one of the most influential design subscription services in the entire category. The aesthetic is distinctive, the work is senior-level, and the model has inspired a wave of imitators. For a specific kind of buyer, particularly funded SaaS startups that want a senior product designer’s voice without going through a hiring process, DesignJoy is the benchmark.

For other buyers, the math doesn’t work. Usually that comes down to one of two things. The price tag is too high for the stage of business you’re at. Or the single-person model means capacity is constrained to whatever Brett can personally produce, and you need something that can move multiple workflows in parallel.

This post is an honest comparison of DesignJoy and Mountain Thirteen Media (M13). We’re a Canadian, founder-led design subscription service that lands in a different part of the market than DesignJoy, and we’re going to be transparent about that. The goal isn’t to convince you DesignJoy is wrong. It’s to help you figure out whether a more accessibly-priced founder-led DaaS like ours is a better fit, or whether DesignJoy is still the right call for what you need.

We’ll cover:

• The DesignJoy model in plain language
• A side-by-side comparison of pricing and capacity
• Where DesignJoy is genuinely the better choice
• Where Mountain Thirteen fits differently
• A clear answer to “which one should I pick?”

Let’s get into it.

The DesignJoy model in plain language

DesignJoy is what happens when one designer decides to productize themselves and refuses to scale beyond what one person can personally handle. That’s not a criticism. It’s the entire pitch.

When you sign up for DesignJoy, the work is done by Brett. Not a junior designer overseen by a creative director. Not an offshore production team coordinated by a project manager. Brett. You drop a request into a Trello board, Brett picks it up, and you typically get a design back within 48 hours.

The pricing reflects exactly what that model is selling. The Standard plan runs $5,995 per month for one active request at a time. The Pro plan runs $7,995 per month for two active requests at a time. Both plans include Webflow development, unlimited brands, async communication via Trello, and the ability to pause your subscription when your needs slow down.

For funded startups that want senior design talent without committing to a full-time hire, the math actually works. The cost of bringing on a senior product designer in-house, including salary, benefits, equipment, and software, runs $150,000 or more per year in most North American markets. DesignJoy’s Standard plan annualized comes to about $72,000. You’re getting one of the most respected names in productized design at less than half the cost of hiring the equivalent role.

The trade-off is that you’re betting on one person being available. If Brett is at capacity, you wait. If Brett takes a week off, the queue stops moving. The single-person model is the source of both the quality and the constraint.

Quick comparison: DesignJoy vs Mountain Thirteen

Here’s the side-by-side. Pricing is in USD as of April 2026.

The headline is the price difference. M13’s DaaS plan starts at $1,099 per month against DesignJoy’s $5,995 per month. That’s roughly a 5x difference at the entry tier. The two services aren’t pricing the same thing the same way, but the gap is real and the math of who can afford which is genuinely different.

The second thing worth noticing is the workflow models. DesignJoy’s Standard plan handles one active request at a time. M13’s Workbench handles two active projects at all times, with an unlimited queue waiting behind them. For businesses that need parallel work to keep moving, that capacity difference matters even before the price comes into the conversation.

Where DesignJoy is genuinely the better choice

Let’s be fair about this. DesignJoy isn’t a category leader by accident, and there are several scenarios where Brett’s model is exactly what you need.

If you’re a funded SaaS startup that wants senior product design. DesignJoy’s reputation in the SaaS world is real. Brett has shaped landing pages, brand identities, and product UI for companies that go on to raise serious money, and the aesthetic he’s developed is recognizable enough that it’s become its own design language. If you’re a Series A startup that needs senior design help and your budget can absorb $6,000 per month, DesignJoy is the benchmark.

If you want Webflow as your development platform. Webflow development is included in every DesignJoy plan. For startups that have committed to Webflow as their stack, that’s a meaningful inclusion. M13 specializes in WordPress and custom web apps in Next.js and React, but we don’t compete in the Webflow space the way DesignJoy does.

If you specifically want to work with one person. There’s a real value in having one designer do all your work. Brand consistency is automatic. Communication overhead is minimal. There’s no “wait, who designed this one?” question because the answer is always the same. If continuity with a single human is the most important thing to you, DesignJoy’s model is built for that and ours isn’t quite the same.

If you can absorb the wait when capacity gets tight. Brett is one person. When demand spikes or he needs personal time, the queue slows down. For startups with flexible timelines and patient teams, that’s a fair trade for the quality. For businesses with hard deadlines, it can be a problem.

If the brand cachet matters to your story. “We work with DesignJoy” lands a certain way in startup circles. It signals taste, signals you can afford it, and signals you’re paying attention to the design subscription category at the high end. That intangible matters more for some businesses than others.

These are real strengths. If any of them describe your situation, DesignJoy is probably the right call.

Where Mountain Thirteen fits differently

Now for the cases where M13 fits better. We built our service for a different kind of buyer than DesignJoy targets, and these are the situations where we tend to be the right answer.

You want founder accountability without the founder-only price tag. M13 is founder-led. Every project is overseen by Lyndon, the founder, which means the same person is involved in your kickoff call, your strategy, and your delivery. The accountability is direct. What’s different from DesignJoy is that the production capacity isn’t constrained to a single person’s hours, so we can move multiple projects in parallel without making you wait when one piece of work hits a snag.

Your design budget is closer to $1,000 per month than $6,000. This is the most important difference for most buyers. DesignJoy targets funded startups and established businesses with senior design budgets. M13 targets small and mid-sized businesses where $1,099 per month is a real but reasonable line item. If your stage of business doesn’t support a $72,000 annual design subscription, the comparison answers itself.

You need parallel work, not sequential work. DesignJoy’s Standard plan handles one active request at a time. The Pro plan handles two, but it’s $7,995 per month. M13’s Workbench plan handles two active projects at all times for $1,099. If your workflow includes brand work happening alongside marketing collateral happening alongside ad creative, parallel capacity matters and M13 builds that into the base plan.

You’re Canadian and you want a Canadian partner. M13 is based in Alberta, Canada. Same time zones as most of North America, same currency for Canadian businesses, same regulatory context. We understand CASL, Canadian tax considerations, and the cultural norms of working with Canadian businesses. DesignJoy operates from Arizona and works with clients globally, but the Canadian context isn’t part of how the relationship is structured.

You want a stack that includes WordPress, not just Webflow. If your business runs on WordPress, DesignJoy’s Webflow-only development inclusion doesn’t help you. M13’s primary stack is WordPress with Bricks Builder, and we also build custom apps in Next.js and React when projects call for something more bespoke. For WordPress-based businesses, that stack alignment is the entire game.

You want quality protection through focused capacity. The Workbench model is M13’s core difference from most design subscription services. You can submit as many requests as you want with no monthly cap. We work on two projects at a time in focused blocks, and the rest of your queue waits in line.

The two-slot focus isn’t a limitation. It’s a quality choice. It means nothing slips through the cracks, nothing gets rushed, and every project gets the attention it deserves before we move to the next one. The structure is similar in spirit to what DesignJoy does (focused work over volume bragging) but at a price point and capacity model that fits a much broader range of businesses.

What you actually get with M13’s DaaS plan

The DaaS plan at $1,099 per month is M13’s most popular subscription. Here’s what’s included.

Design work covered:

• Brand identity and brand guidelines
• Logo design and iterations
• Marketing collateral, including one-pagers, brochures, and sales decks
• Social media graphics and templates
• Ad creative across platforms
• Presentation design
• Print-ready files including flyers, posters, business cards, and packaging
• Email design and templates
• Infographics and data visualization
• Custom illustration

File delivery:

• Adobe source files (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign)
• Canva templates and brand kits when requested
• Print-ready PDF, web-ready PNG, JPG, and SVG
• Figma files for digital projects

Workflow:

• Workbench model with 2 active projects at a time
• Unlimited queue with no monthly cap
• Founder-led project oversight on every request
• Direct communication, not project manager handoffs
• Mountain Time business hours

What’s not in the basic DaaS plan:

Video editing, motion graphics, social media management, and website development are all available through M13, but they’re separate add-ons or part of higher-tier plans. If your work is mostly static design and brand collateral, the DaaS plan covers everything you need. If you know you’ll also need video or website work, we’ll build a custom package.

The website and development question (an extra value-add)

DesignJoy includes Webflow development in every plan, which is a meaningful inclusion for buyers who’ve committed to Webflow as their stack. M13 takes a different approach. Web development is available, but it isn’t bundled into the basic DaaS plan, and the stack we focus on is different.

M13’s primary web stack is WordPress with Bricks Builder. We also build custom applications in Next.js and React for clients who need something more bespoke than a content-managed site can deliver. For businesses where WordPress is the right call (and that’s most small businesses with content-heavy needs, e-commerce that doesn’t need a custom checkout, and marketing sites that benefit from a CMS), our stack is a much better match than Webflow.

The trade-off is that DesignJoy clients get web development bundled into one subscription, while M13 clients add it on when they need it. For buyers who already know they need a website built, M13’s add-on model is usually still cheaper than DesignJoy’s bundled approach, but it’s worth doing the math on your specific project before committing.

If you don’t need website work at all, this difference doesn’t matter. If you do, the question is whether Webflow or WordPress is the right platform for your business, and that determines which service makes more sense.

Pricing breakdown: what you actually get for the money

Let’s translate the prices into what each subscription delivers each month.

DesignJoy Standard ($5,995/mo):

• One active request at a time, sequential delivery
• All design work done personally by Brett Williams
• Webflow development included
• Brand, web (Figma plus Webflow), UI/UX, presentations
• 48-hour average turnaround on most requests
• Unlimited revisions
• Pause anytime
• Asynchronous Trello-based workflow

DesignJoy Pro ($7,995/mo):

• Same as Standard, but with two active requests at a time
• Useful for teams that need parallel work moving forward

Mountain Thirteen DaaS plan ($1,099/mo):

• Workbench model with 2 active projects at a time
• Unlimited queue with no monthly cap
• Full graphic design scope including brand, marketing, social, print, and presentations
• Adobe source files and Canva delivery
• Unlimited revisions
• Direct founder access throughout every project
• Canadian-based, Mountain Time business hours
• Optional add-ons for video, web development (WordPress, Next.js, React), and social media management

The price difference between DesignJoy Standard at $5,995 and M13’s DaaS at $1,099 is $4,896 per month, or about $58,752 per year. That’s the cost of a junior in-house designer’s full salary. For some businesses, that’s a meaningful difference. For others, the senior product design quality DesignJoy provides is worth the premium. The right answer depends on the work you actually need done.

Which one should you pick?

Here’s the short version.

Pick DesignJoy if:

• You’re a funded SaaS startup with a senior design budget
• You want to work directly with one of the most respected names in productized design
• Webflow is your committed development platform
• You can absorb capacity wait times when needed
• The brand cachet of working with DesignJoy matters to your story
• Your monthly design budget is comfortably above $6,000

Pick Mountain Thirteen if:

• Your design budget is closer to $1,000 per month than $6,000
• You want founder accountability without the solo-designer capacity constraint
• You need parallel work happening on multiple projects at once
• You’re Canadian and want a Canadian partner
• Your stack is WordPress, Next.js, React, or some combination
• You think you might eventually want video, social, or web development from the same partner

Try both if:

• You’re not sure which model fits your stage of business
• Your needs are mixed between premium senior design and broader DaaS support
• You want to test M13 first as a more accessible entry point and graduate to DesignJoy later if your budget grows

There’s no wrong answer here. DesignJoy and Mountain Thirteen target different buyers with different needs. The question is which one fits your business right now.

Frequently asked questions

How much cheaper is Mountain Thirteen than DesignJoy?

M13’s DaaS plan is $1,099 per month compared to DesignJoy’s Standard plan at $5,995 per month. That’s a difference of $4,896 per month, or about $58,752 per year. The two services target different buyers, so the price difference reflects the difference in positioning rather than a like-for-like service comparison.

Does Mountain Thirteen offer the same quality as DesignJoy?

Both services deliver senior-level design work, but the comparison isn’t quite apples-to-apples. DesignJoy’s positioning is built around one person (Brett Williams) personally doing all the work, which produces a very specific aesthetic that’s been influential in the SaaS world. M13’s positioning is built around founder-led oversight on every project with the production capacity to handle multiple workflows in parallel. Different models, different fits, both producing professional work.

Can Mountain Thirteen do Webflow development?

M13’s primary web stack is WordPress with Bricks Builder, and we also build custom apps in Next.js and React. We don’t focus on Webflow as a core competency the way DesignJoy does. If Webflow is the platform you’ve committed to, DesignJoy is a better fit on the development side. If you’re choosing a platform now or already on WordPress, M13’s stack alignment is stronger.

Is Mountain Thirteen really founder-led if it can handle multiple projects at once?

Yes. Founder-led means Lyndon, the founder, is personally involved in every project, including kickoff, strategy, and delivery oversight. It doesn’t mean Lyndon is the only person who ever touches a file. The Workbench model handles two active projects at a time with focused attention, and the founder is accountable for the work that ships. The accountability structure is direct without being capacity-constrained the way a true solo operation is.

Can I pause my Mountain Thirteen subscription like I can with DesignJoy?

Pause is available on request. M13 doesn’t have a self-serve pause button the way DesignJoy does, but if your needs slow down or you have a quiet stretch coming, we’ll work something out. The subscription is monthly with no long-term contract, so you can also simply cancel and resume later if that’s easier.

Can I switch from DesignJoy to Mountain Thirteen?

Yes, and the onboarding is straightforward. We work with whatever brand assets, Figma files, and previous project files you already have from DesignJoy. Most clients switching from another design subscription service are submitting their first M13 project within 48 hours of signing up.

Ready to talk?

If you’re shopping for a DesignJoy alternative because the price doesn’t fit your stage of business, or because you need parallel work moving on multiple projects at once, or because your stack is WordPress instead of Webflow, book a discovery call with M13 and we’ll have a real conversation about your project.

If we’re not the right fit, we’ll tell you. DesignJoy is a great service for the businesses it’s built for, and we’d rather point you back to them than oversell our own model.

Related reading:

• Best Design Subscription Services in 2026: Side-by-Side Comparison
• M13 vs Design Pickle: A Founder-Led Alternative for 2026
• M13 vs Kimp: Two Canadian Design Studios Compared
• M13 vs Penji: A Founder-Led Alternative for SMBs
• M13 vs ManyPixels: Daily Output vs Workbench Model
• M13 vs Reel Unlimited: Direct vs White-Label Design
• M13 vs Superside: Enterprise Scale vs SMB-Friendly Subscription
• How the Workbench Works: M13’s Approach to Design Subscription