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These two land in the same search results and they are not the same kind of product at all. LogoNerds assigns a human designer to your brief and emails you concepts in three to five business days. SmashingLogo is a generator that assembles a mark from a font and an icon library while you watch, in about the time it takes to make coffee. One is cheap labour. The other is no labour.
That is the obvious difference and it is not the one that should decide it. The decisive difference is what each company says about who owns the design afterwards, and on that question they are not just different, they are opposite. SmashingLogo’s terms of use state plainly that the company retains the copyright and licenses the logo to you. LogoNerds gives two different answers on two different pages of its own site. If you are selling $1,000 to $5,000 products and that logo is going on a dealer application, on packaging, and possibly on a trademark filing, that is the paragraph you should be reading, not the price comparison.
There is one more thing you need before the comparison makes sense. Only one of these companies publishes a price. LogoNerds puts three numbers on its order page where anybody can read them. SmashingLogo publishes no consumer price on any public page, and I will show you exactly which pages I opened looking for one. That asymmetry shapes the whole article, because I can tell you what LogoNerds costs and I genuinely cannot tell you what SmashingLogo costs.
Everything below was read on the vendors’ own live pages on 15 September 2026 and linked to the page it came from. This is general business information and not legal advice. Copyright and trademark rules vary by jurisdiction, so take anything consequential to an attorney.
Get a human designer and a published price for $47
LogoNerds’ Professional Business Logo is $47 for six concepts with print ready formats, delivered in three to five business days. Its FAQ says scalable vector files in AI, EPS and PDF are included at that tier.
Only one of them publishes a price
Start here, because it changes how you read everything else. LogoNerds publishes three prices where anyone can read them without an account. All three sit on the LogoNerds order page.
| Package | Price | Concepts | Formats | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional Web Logo | $27 | 3 | Web ready only | 3 to 5 business days |
| Professional Business Logo | $47 | 6 | Web plus print ready | 3 to 5 business days |
| Character Mascot Design | $97 | 3 poses | Web plus print ready | 7 business days |
SmashingLogo publishes no consumer price anywhere I could reach. That is a strong claim, so here is the evidence rather than an assertion. I opened its English homepage, the URL at /en/pricing/, the FAQ, the logo maker page and the terms of use. None of those five pages carries a price figure for buying a logo. The numbers exist, but they live inside the generator, on a package screen you only see after entering a company name and building a mark.
I am not going to quote you those in-generator numbers, and you should be suspicious of any article that does. A figure a reader cannot go and verify is not a published figure, and a screen behind a build flow can change between my session and yours with nobody able to prove it did. Generate one yourself if you want your numbers. It takes about a minute and costs nothing to see.
There is exactly one exception on the site, and it will not help you. SmashingLogo’s API page publishes Studio at $790/mo or $9,480 billed annually, Autopilot at $1,490/mo or $17,880 billed annually, and Enterprise at $4,290/mo or $51,480 billed annually, beneath a line reading “Pricing and entitlements are an early commercial proposal and may change before launch.” Those are prices for other software companies embedding logo generation into their products. They are not what a store owner pays for a logo, and nobody should report them as if they were.
So when you see a comparison table online with four SmashingLogo tiers and struck-through regular prices, ask where those came from. On the public site the FAQ names the packages, BASIC, LITE, BUSINESS marked Most Popular, and PREMIUM, and never attaches a number to any of them.
Copyright: contradicted versus retained
This is the section that decides it for most high-ticket stores, and both companies are unusually easy to quote here.
SmashingLogo keeps the copyright and says so
SmashingLogo’s terms of use, last updated 20 March 2024, contain three sentences that you should read together rather than separately. “All generated logos are protected by copyright laws.” “We retain the copyright and all associated rights to the original design.” “The purchased license does not allow you to sell, assign, or transfer rights to the original design.”
Alongside those, the same document grants a wide permission: “You can use the purchased logo for any commercial or non-commercial purpose.” And it draws a boundary most people miss: “You have the full ownership of the purchased design as a whole, not to the individual elements like the used fonts or icons.”
I want to be fair about what that means, because it is easy to make it sound worse than it is. You can put the logo on your store, your packaging, your invoices and your van, and nobody at SmashingLogo is coming after you. What you cannot do is assign it. If you sell the business in four years, the buyer’s lawyer will ask whether the marks transfer with the company, and the honest answer on a SmashingLogo mark is that the original design’s copyright was never yours to transfer. For a store you intend to flip, that is a real line item.
LogoNerds gives two answers
LogoNerds is not the opposite of that. It is something more awkward. Its FAQ answer on who keeps the rights is one sentence: “LogoNerds does not retain any rights once your final logo has been delivered.”
Its terms of service say: “No trademarks, copyrights, or service marks in or to any Final Designs for all services offered through LogoNerds.com are being conveyed under these Terms and Conditions.”
Both of those are live, right now, on logonerds.com. Not retaining rights and not conveying rights are different propositions, and an attorney preparing a trademark application will want to know which one governs. The terms add two more things worth knowing: LogoNerds has no obligation to run trademark or copyright searches to validate the legality of the final design, and your use is limited to the single Final Design you selected rather than all the concepts you were shown.
The practical difference between the two companies is this. SmashingLogo’s answer is unambiguous and unfavourable. LogoNerds’ answer is ambiguous and probably favourable. Which of those you prefer depends entirely on whether you would rather know where you stand or have a good chance of standing somewhere better. For a mark you intend to trademark, I would take neither and go read why in the section on what I would actually do.
Vector files: where they start on each
Both companies gate vector behind a higher tier, and both are explicit about it, which is more than a lot of this category manages.
LogoNerds’ FAQ defines web ready formats as jpg, gif and a transparent png, and print ready formats as ai (editable), eps, tiff and jpg at 300dpi, with PSD included in all print formats but flattened unless you request it editable before work starts. Asked directly, the FAQ says: “Yes, we provide you with scalable vector files (AI, EPS & PDF if Requested) NOTE: These formats are included with the business logo and character logo packages.” So vector starts at $47, and the $27 web logo is not a cheaper version of it, it is a different product.
SmashingLogo’s FAQ says: “Our Business and Premium package includes the raw vector files (PDF and EPS format).” It elaborates elsewhere on the same page: “The optimized Vector PDF/EPS files, which are available in our BUSINESS and PREMIUM package, do not lose quality when being scaled up or down in size.” Since there are four packages named and vector appears on the top two, you are buying at least the third rung. What that costs, I cannot tell you, for the reason above.
SmashingLogo’s higher tiers also carry things LogoNerds does not bundle. The FAQ says the BUSINESS and PREMIUM packages include pre-sized profile pictures and cover photos for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, and that you receive the names of the fonts used when you buy Business or Premium. LogoNerds sells its social media package separately at $57, which its own page describes as a discount on $85 if the five headers were bought individually at $17 each.
Turnaround, revisions and the clock on you
LogoNerds’ FAQ says all orders are delivered within three to five business days, and defines business days as Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm EST. Revisions and finals generally take two business days and can take one to three. A complete redesign request can add another three to five business days because the process starts again. Mascots are seven business days.
SmashingLogo takes about a minute and you can regenerate as many times as you like before you buy anything. There is no cap because there is no person.
The LogoNerds cap is real and it is in the terms of service rather than on the sales page: free revisions “entitles you to a maximum of 4 revisions for our professional web logo package and 6 revisions for our professional business logo and mascot design packages.” After that, the terms say further revisions requested once final files have been requested or delivered carry an additional fee of $17, and additional concepts cost $17 each.
There is also a clock that runs against you, which I have not seen anyone mention in a review. The terms say: “You shall have 5 calendar days to respond to each response sent to you. If you have failed to respond after 5 calendar days, LogoNerds.com will assume that your project is complete and the project shall be deemed completed.” And once a project is complete, files are held “for a period of no more then 10 days”, after which the terms say LogoNerds is under no obligation to provide them and may charge to recreate them. Download everything the day it lands.
“I do not want to wait five days or manage a designer”
SmashingLogo generates marks in about a minute with unlimited regeneration before you pay. Its FAQ names four packages and puts raw vector PDF and EPS files in the BUSINESS and PREMIUM tiers. Build one free to see your own price.
Refunds: three conditional days against none at all
LogoNerds publishes a refund policy with an arithmetic you can check. You are entitled to a refund less an administration fee of $20 on the web and business logo packages, or $50 on character design, but only if you request it within three days of the initial concepts being sent to you and you have not asked for a redraw or for revision work. On a $27 web logo that leaves $7. On the $47 business logo it leaves $27. Everything under Other Services is final sale with no refunds at all.
SmashingLogo does not have a window. Its terms of use say: “After the logo has been purchased and the user has access to the files, they are not eligible for a refund.” The next sentence removes the discretion: “In order to treat everyone equally, no exceptions will be made.”
Read that as designed rather than as harsh, because it explains the whole product. You can generate and regenerate for free until you are happy, so the company’s position is that you have already seen what you are buying. That is a coherent policy for a generator. It is also a policy with zero recourse, and you should know that before the download button.
Who you are actually contracting with
LogoNerds’ terms of service name the company as “Logo Nerds, Inc., a company located in Ontario, Canada”, and state: “You hereby agree and consent to venue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the event of any legal action regarding these Terms and Conditions or of any copyright enforcement issues.” Its dispute clause sends matters to arbitration under the Commercial Rules of the International Chamber of Commerce in Toronto, and the governing law is the Province of Ontario.
SmashingLogo’s terms of use carry a “last updated” date of 20 March 2024 and set out the copyright, licence and refund positions quoted above. One practical note for anyone researching the company: smashinglogo.com returns a Cloudflare challenge to automated requests, which means a lot of what has been written about its pricing was assembled from something other than its live pages.
Neither company is doing anything unusual here. A Canadian venue is perfectly normal, and so is an automated generator retaining copyright in its own template output. The point is that for a US store owner, neither of these is a contract drafted with your eventual trademark filing in mind, and you should price that in rather than assume it away.
Head to head
| LogoNerds | SmashingLogo | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Assigned human designer | Automated generator |
| Entry price | $27 published | Not published on any public page |
| Vector starts at | $47 Professional Business Logo | BUSINESS package, price unpublished |
| Concepts | 3 at $27, 6 at $47 | Unlimited regeneration before purchase |
| Turnaround | 3 to 5 business days | About a minute |
| Revisions | 4 free on web, 6 on business and mascot, then $17 | Regenerate freely, no human revisions |
| Copyright position | FAQ and terms give different answers | Company retains copyright, licenses use to you |
| Can you assign it onward | Unclear from the published pages | No, the licence forbids it |
| Refunds | Within 3 days, less $20 or $50, if no revisions requested | None once files are accessed |
| Venue | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Not stated in the terms of use |
The verdict
For a high-ticket store, LogoNerds at $47 is the better buy of the two, and it is not close.
You get six concepts from a person who read your brief rather than a template filled with your company name. You get a vector file in AI, EPS and PDF at a price you can see before you pay. You get a refund window, even a stingy one, and a named company with a stated venue. And on the ownership question, the worse of its two published answers is still better than SmashingLogo’s clearest one, because “no rights are being conveyed” is at least arguable while “we retain the copyright and you may not assign it” is not.
SmashingLogo wins on exactly one axis and it is a legitimate one: speed with no management overhead. If you are testing a store concept this weekend, if the name might change next month, and if the logo’s entire job is to stop the site looking unfinished while you chase supplier approvals, then a generated mark is the correct decision and the copyright clause costs you nothing, because you were never going to trademark a placeholder. Build one free, see your own price, and move on to the work that matters.
What I would not do is buy a SmashingLogo package for a store you intend to keep. The licence is explicit, and the day you want to sell the business or file a trademark, you will be paying a designer to redraw the mark from scratch anyway. Paying twice is the expensive version of saving a week.
How I would actually sequence this
If you have not taken an order yet: generate something free, put it in the header, and forget about it. Your bottleneck is supplier approval, and I would spend the week on my guide to finding high-ticket dropshipping suppliers rather than on colour palettes.
If you have suppliers and orders: buy the $47 LogoNerds Professional Business Logo, ask for the editable PSD before work starts because the FAQ says it arrives flattened otherwise, and download every file the day it lands because of the ten day retention rule.
If you are within a year of a trademark filing or you are building something you plan to sell: neither. Commission a designer directly under a contract that assigns the work to you. The reason is in the U.S. Copyright Office’s Circular 30 on works made for hire, which explains that ordinarily the author is the person who actually created the work and that work made for hire is a narrow exception. Paying a contractor does not by itself transfer the copyright. Where the mark genuinely matters, you can record the assignment following Circular 12 on recordation of transfers.
Before any of that, twenty minutes on the USPTO’s explanation of what a trademark is is the highest-return reading in this whole process. A logo and a trademark are not the same thing, and only one of them stops a competitor trading under your name.
Decide this in an hour, then go work on something that moves revenue
LogoNerds tops out at $97 and SmashingLogo is free to try before it quotes you anything. The gap between a good niche and a bad one is the whole business. That is the conversation worth having.
One last thing about published prices
I have written a lot of these comparisons, and the single most reliable signal of how a vendor will treat you later is whether they will tell you the price before you are emotionally invested. LogoNerds puts $27, $47 and $97 on a page with no account required. It also publishes its revision caps, its response clock, its retention window, its administration fees and its venue, in writing, where you can read all of it before you spend anything. Plenty of companies charging ten times as much do not.
SmashingLogo’s public pages are clear about policy and silent about price. That is a choice, and it is not illegal or even unusual in the AI logo category, but it has a consequence: every comparison article you read about its pricing was written from a screen the author saw once. Including, to be blunt, earlier drafts of my own that I threw away while writing this one. The rule I now hold myself to is that a price I cannot send you to check is a price I do not print.
If you are earlier in the process than choosing a logo, start with what high-ticket dropshipping actually is. If you already know that and you are setting things up properly, the next piece is forming the business entity behind the store, ideally in the same week you settle the name.
And if you have not yet picked what you are selling, the high-ticket niches list is worth more of your afternoon than this decision is.
Everything else I publish lives on Ecommerce Paradise.
Related articles
- LogoNerds pricing explained
- Logo Nerds Review 2026
- SmashingLogo Review 2026
- 48hourslogo vs SmashingLogo
- 48hourslogo vs LogoNerds
- How to create a logo for your LLC
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
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