Guidelines

Guidelines is a browser-based publishing workspace that turns a company’s visual identity into searchable, interactive guides. It is particularly well suited to in-house brand teams, design studios, and agencies that need several editors and controlled sharing. The best reason to choose it is the combination of quick guide creation and a proper brand portal; the main drawback is how quickly the Free limits become restrictive.

Overview

Guidelines brings logos, color definitions, typography, icons, and downloadable files into one organized guide instead of leaving them dispersed across folders and design applications. The result is an editorial reference that can explain usage as well as provide the approved assets themselves. Searchable organization is valuable for teams that repeatedly field requests for the correct logo, color, or typeface.

Quick Start uses uploaded logos, selected colors, and fonts to create a first draft. That lowers the effort of establishing a guide, although editors still need to shape the material into their own standards. Guides can be shared publicly, protected with a password, or limited to authenticated accounts, so the same system can serve a public identity site or a restricted partner and employee portal.

Key features

Brand publishing and management

Brand-portal, guideline-management, and template-management capabilities make Guidelines more than an asset repository. It fits organizations that must communicate rules to many contributors, while a team seeking only file storage would be paying for editorial structure it may not use.

Collaboration and integrations

Editors can invite collaborators to design and maintain guides together. Integrations listed include Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, Sketch, Tailwind, CSS Variables, ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, and Okta, giving teams connections across design, development, AI, and identity workflows. The ChatGPT connector uses MCP and OAuth and reads brand data without write access, a useful boundary when AI assistance is wanted without allowing it to alter source material.

Sharing and security

HTTPS/SSL applies to all guides. Enterprise adds SSO, automatic access by domain, and additional controls, while account authentication and password protection are available in Studio. Message and email support is offered, with replies usually arriving within a few hours when the team is available.

Pricing

Free

The Free plan costs nothing and includes one public guide, one editor, seven published pages, 100MB of asset storage, unlimited guide visitors, and basic integrations. It is suitable for a small proof of concept or a simple public style reference. One editor, seven pages, and 100MB leave little room for a substantial multi-brand library or an active content team.

Studio

Studio costs $15 a month, billed per editor per month. It removes the structural ceilings with unlimited guides, brands, and pages, provides 1GB of storage per brand, collaborative editing, password- or account-protected guides, custom domains, and AI integrations. This is the practical choice for studios and in-house teams, but per-editor billing means costs rise with every contributor who needs editing rights.

Enterprise

Enterprise costs $40 a month, billed per editor per month, and includes everything in Studio plus custom storage limits, SSO, version history, translations and localization, and automatic access by domain. Additional SSO fees may apply per monthly active SSO user. Large agencies and brands that need identity administration, audit-friendly history, or localized portals are the clear audience; smaller teams are unlikely to justify the added price.

Platforms

Guidelines is available on the web. That makes browser-based access straightforward across a team, but there is no separate desktop or mobile platform in the offering.

Who it's for

Choose Guidelines for an in-house brand department, design studio, or agency that needs a maintained source of truth, multiple editors, and selective external access. Studio is the sensible starting point when more than one person publishes or when a guide needs more than seven pages. Free works for a compact public guide; Enterprise is aimed at larger organizations with SSO, domain-based access, versioning, and localization requirements.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Quick Start creates a usable first draft from core brand inputs, reducing setup friction.
• Pros: Searchable guides combine explanatory standards with downloadable assets in one portal.
• Pros: Public, password, and account-based access support different audiences and confidentiality needs.
• Pros: Broad design, development, AI, and identity integrations can fit an existing workflow.
• Cons: Free is limited to one editor, one public guide, seven pages, and 100MB, so it is not a realistic home for a growing library.
• Cons: Studio and Enterprise charge per editor, and Enterprise may add monthly active SSO-user fees.
• Cons: Web-only delivery may not suit teams requiring a dedicated desktop or mobile application.

Alternatives

Brandy is a better fit when unlimited editors and a lower-cost Pro plan matter more than Guidelines’ interactive publishing model; its free tier includes 100MB, 20 assets, and one brand space.

BrandHalo suits teams wanting an API-accessible service with a free tier and trial. BrandKity is worth considering for a free 500MB allowance or a 9.00 USD monthly starter plan. Brink offers web workspaces and free options for a single team member or brand portal.

BrandPatrol is an alternative for teams centered on brand checking and Brand Twin workflows. Brand Context Protocol is a free open standard rather than a comparable hosted publishing suite. Brand24 is a paid, multi-platform monitoring product, while Frontify is a paid enterprise option with custom pricing. Browse the broader Brand Management Software category for more choices.

Verdict

Guidelines is a strong choice for teams that want an attractive, searchable brand portal with collaborative editing and flexible access controls. Pick Studio for most active brand teams; move to Enterprise when SSO, version history, localization, or domain-based access are essential. Look elsewhere if you need generous free collaboration, a non-per-editor pricing model, or a native desktop and mobile experience.