Guidelines

Guidelines is a web platform for turning a team’s visual identity into an interactive, searchable brand portal. It is best suited to in-house brand teams, design studios, and agencies that need several people to maintain guidance and controlled sharing for others. Its quick-start workflow and broad integration list make setup practical, but the free tier is too constrained for a sizeable brand library.

Overview

The service gathers logos, color specifications, typefaces, icons, and downloadable resources into interactive guides. That gives contributors a single place to find approved material and gives brand owners an editorial surface for explaining how assets should be used. Quick Start builds an initial draft from uploaded logos, chosen colors, and fonts, reducing the work required before a guide can be shared.

Guides support public access, password protection, or account-based authentication. Teams can therefore publish an open reference site, restrict a client or partner portal, or require authenticated access for internal material. The platform is web-only, so it fits organizations that want browser access rather than a desktop application.

Key features

Centralized brand publishing

Asset, guideline, and template management are combined with a brand-portal model. This is more useful than a bare storage folder when the goal is to explain rules as well as distribute files. Searchable organization should also reduce repeated requests for approved logos, colors, or fonts.

Collaboration and integrations

Multiple collaborators can design and maintain guides together. Integrations cover Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, Sketch, Tailwind, CSS Variables, ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, and Okta, giving teams links to both design workflows and development tooling. The ChatGPT connector uses MCP and OAuth and reads brand data without write access, a sensible boundary for teams that want assistance without allowing automated changes.

Sharing and security

HTTPS/SSL applies to all guides. SSO is included with Enterprise, while lower tiers provide password- or account-protected sharing. The access choices are useful for distributing guidance beyond the editing team, although advanced identity administration is reserved for the top plan.

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 a reasonable way for an individual or small project to publish a compact reference, but the single-editor cap prevents genuine team maintenance and seven pages can force a growing system into a narrow structure.

Studio

Studio costs $15 per editor per month. It removes the main structural limits with unlimited guides, brands, and pages, provides 1GB of storage per brand, and adds collaborative editing, password- or account-protected guides, custom domains, and AI integrations. Studios and in-house teams get the clearest upgrade path here; cost rises with every editor, so occasional contributors should be limited carefully.

Enterprise

Enterprise costs $40 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 centralized identity, historical recovery, or localized portals have a reason to pay for it; smaller teams are unlikely to need those controls.

Platforms

Guidelines runs on the web. Its listed integrations connect the web workspace with design, code, AI, and identity tools, but the product itself does not offer a separate desktop or mobile platform.

Who it's for

Choose Guidelines for a team formalizing a visual system and publishing it to employees, clients, partners, or the public. Studio fits collaborative brand groups that need multiple guides and custom domains. Enterprise is aimed at large agencies and brands requiring SSO, domain-based access, version history, or localization. A solo user with a short guide can use Free, while organizations wanting only unstructured file storage should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Quick Start drafting: uploaded logos, selected colors, and fonts become a first guide draft, shortening initial setup.
• Flexible audience controls: public, password-protected, and account-authenticated sharing cover different distribution needs.
• Collaborative publishing: paid Studio editing supports teams rather than a single document owner.
• Wide integration range: design, development, AI, and identity connections can fit an existing production stack.

Cons

• Small free allowance: one editor, one public guide, seven pages, and 100MB storage limit serious adoption.
• Per-editor billing: Studio and Enterprise costs scale with each editor, which can become significant for broad contributor groups.
• Advanced identity controls are gated: SSO and automatic domain access require Enterprise, with possible extra SSO-user fees.

Alternatives

BrandHalo is worth considering if you want an API and web product with a free Brand Agent and Connectors tier, or a 139.00 AUD-per-month Essentials plan.

BrandKity suits users prioritizing API access, 500MB of free storage, and a 9.00 USD-per-month Starter plan.

BrandPatrol is an option for teams interested in brand-twin checks and a free tier with one workspace and five Checker single checks per month.

Brandy is better when unlimited free editors and a simple 100MB, one-brand-space allowance matter more than Guidelines’ page publishing.

Brink offers web-based workspace and brand-free tiers for teams comparing lightweight portal arrangements.

Brand Context Protocol is a free, open standard for readers seeking a protocol rather than a managed publishing service.

Lingo is the alternative to examine when an API-first system and a 30-day free trial are priorities.

Marq may fit teams wanting web publishing with a free one-user plan and a 12.00 USD-per-month Pro tier.

For a broader shortlist, see Brand Management Software.

Verdict

Guidelines is a strong choice for teams that need a polished, collaborative brand portal with fast initial drafting and controlled external access. Studio is the practical starting point for most working teams, while Enterprise earns its price when identity, history, and localization are operational requirements. Look elsewhere if you need many free editors, a desktop client, or a low-cost solution for a large asset library.