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

Provider 1 – Glypish

Glypish Pro 3 – $25 / 460 Icons + 40 Toolbar Icons

Glypish pro 3

Value

Cheap high quality icons, a nice free set and lots of formats.

Great Value

Formats

  • @1x
  • @2x
  • PNG
  • PSD
  • PDF
  • AI

Free Set

Glypish Free 3 – 200 Icons

Glyphish Pro 4 – $25 / 200 Icons

Screen Shot 2013 02 16 at 7 26 51 PM

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
  • PDF
  • AI

Free Set

None

Provider 2 – Glyphicons

Glyphicons Pro – $59 / 420 icons + 160 Tiny Icons + Future Updates

Screen Shot 2013 02 16 at 7 29 49 PM

Value

High quality, and great value, this is a nice icon set with extra toolbar icons included.

Great Value

Formats

  • @1x
  • @2x
  • FONT
  • SVG
  • PDF
  • AI
  • PSD
  • PNG
  • CSS

Free Set

Glyphicons Free – 420 Icons + 160 Minis Icons

Glyphicons All – $25 / 420 Icons + 160 Minis Icons

Screen Shot 2013 02 16 at 7 31 09 PM

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

Glyphicons Free – 420 Icons

Provider 3 – iconSweets

iconSweets2 – $8 / 400 Icons + 292 Mini Icons

Screen Shot 2013 02 16 at 7 34 05 PM

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

iconSweets1 Free – 60 Icons

Provider 4 – Iconic

Iconic – FREE / 171 Icons

Screen Shot 2013 02 16 at 7 36 07 PM

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)

Screen Shot 2013 02 16 at 7 38 01 PM

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

Ikonic Free – 25 Icons

Provider 5 – Icon Beast

Icon Beast Pro $75 / 1700 Icons

Screen Shot 2013 02 16 at 11 46 59 PM

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
  • PDF

Free Set

IconBeast Lite – 300 Icons

Provider 6 – Pictos

Pictos 1 – $29 / 324 Vector Icons, $49 / 324 PNG Icons

Screen Shot 2013 02 17 at 10 57 10 AM

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

Screen Shot 2013 02 17 at 11 05 11 AM

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

Screen Shot 2013 02 17 at 11 21 39 AM

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

Sample Pack

Provider 8 – Hlvticons

Basic $279 / 245 Icons

Screen Shot 2013 02 17 at 11 34 35 AM

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

Screen Shot 2013 02 17 at 11 34 35 AM

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

Screen Shot 2013 02 17 at 11 34 35 AM

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

Screen Shot 2013 02 17 at 11 34 35 AM

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

Screen Shot 2013 02 17 at 12 07 27 PM

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.