The Growth List vs Growth.Design for startup founders and marketers
Pick The Growth List if you are a founder or marketer looking for a growth tactic to run: 133 free tactics, no account. Pick Growth.Design if you design or manage a product and want to learn the psychology behind good screens: 52 free case studies after sign-up, and a course at about $1,500.
Growth.Design facts read from its own site on . By Ryan Doyle. The Growth List is our library.
Side by side
| The Growth List (Ours) | Growth.Design | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A library of 133 written growth tactics | Comic-style UX case studies on product psychology |
| Who it is for | Founders and early marketers | Designers and PMs working on product experience, by our read |
| Size | 133 tactics in 21 categories | 52 case studies and a list of 106 principles |
| Format | Text pages with steps and examples | Comics, 2 to 5 minutes each |
| Price to read | Free, no account | Free after a Google or email sign-up |
| Paid option | None | Product Psychology Masterclass, about $1,500 |
| Ratings | Impact and effort on every tactic | None shown on the pages we read |
| New content | Updated tactic pages; no fixed schedule | Weekly email with case studies |
| Filters | Keyword search and category | Psychology, Ethics, Onboarding, Retention, Revenue, Referral |
| Certificate | None | Final exam and certificate in the course |
| Team pricing | Free for any team size | 35% team discount on the course |
| Next course start | No course | Registration opens January 25, 2027 |
Quick picks: what are you trying to do?
- Find your first users: The Growth List, starting at acquisition
- Fix a confusing onboarding flow: Growth.Design's onboarding case studies
- Raise prices or add a plan: The Growth List's revenue tactics
- Get a certificate your employer pays for: Growth.Design's Product Psychology Masterclass
- Read without signing up: The Growth List
What The Growth List gives you
133 growth tactics, each on its own page with how it works, steps and examples. They are filed in 21 categories, including the five funnel stages, and each carries an impact and effort rating (our editorial scores, last reviewed November 5, 2026). 13 are rated high impact and low effort, such as build in public and letting customers pause a subscription.
- Acquisition: 22 tactics, start with build in public.
- Activation: 13 tactics, start with free migration.
- Retention: 20 tactics, start with allow to pause subscriptions.
- Revenue: 13 tactics, start with disabled premium features.
- Referral: 11 tactics, start with run an affiliate program.
What Growth.Design gives you
52 UX case studies (the count in its page title on November 9, 2026), each a comic of 2 to 5 minutes about a product such as Strava, Audible or Apple, filed under Psychology, Ethics, Onboarding, Retention, Revenue and Referral. A separate page lists 106 cognitive biases and principles, some marked coming soon. Its home page says 132,793 people have joined the weekly email. The Product Psychology Masterclass is 5 modules over 5 weeks, self-paced, lifetime access, a final exam and a certificate. It costs about $1,500, with a 35% team discount and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and the next registration opens January 25, 2027.
Where Growth.Design still wins
- Product psychology. It explains why a screen works, with named principles; we cover growth tactics, not interface design.
- Visual teaching. The comic format is quicker to share with a team than a long page.
- A structured course with an exam and a certificate. We have no course.
- A weekly email of new comics. We have no fixed email schedule.
Where The Growth List wins
- No sign-up to read anything.
- Channels none of the Growth.Design pages we read mention, such as SEO, cold email and newsletter ads.
- A rating on every tactic, so you can shortlist by impact and effort.
- No paid upsell, because there is nothing to buy.
Want more than these two? The Growth.Design alternatives page compares five options with prices, and you can browse our tactics by category.
Questions people ask
Is The Growth List or Growth.Design better for a startup founder?
If you need a growth channel to try, The Growth List: 133 tactics filed by funnel stage, 13 of them rated high impact and low effort. If your problem is a product screen that people drop off, Growth.Design's onboarding and revenue case studies fit better.
How much does Growth.Design cost?
Reading the case studies is free once you sign up with Google or email. The Product Psychology Masterclass page showed "Price ~1500 USD" on November 9, 2026, with registration opening January 25, 2027.
Does The Growth List have a paid plan?
No. There is no paid plan, no trial and no account. Every tactic page is public.
Can I use both?
Yes, and they rarely overlap. Use The Growth List to pick a channel or tactic, and Growth.Design to improve the screens that tactic sends people to.
Sources
- Growth.Design home page, read November 9, 2026
- Growth.Design case studies, read November 9, 2026
- Growth.Design psychology principles, read November 9, 2026
- Product Psychology Masterclass, read November 9, 2026
- The Growth List library: 133 tactics with ratings, read November 9, 2026.