Three tools, measured inside each one

Nobody touches the file after the machine

This is the difference that costs money, and we did not have to guess at it – one of them sells the correction. SewFlow, in their own window: «Want it perfect? Go Pro – a professional digitizer hand-builds your file – machine-tested and back in 24h for $19.99.» A hand-built file is a different product from the one the subscription gives you, and it costs more than a whole month.

• We do not sell a correctionThere is no «go pro» line here, because there is nothing to fix afterwards. The file you look at is the file the machine gets.
• You judge it, not usThe whole mark is worked out on screen before you pay – every stitch, at the size you asked for. If it is not right, do not buy it. That is the whole promise, and it is why we can afford to have no human step.
• Seconds, not a dayThe workshop shows how long it took, in milliseconds, under the mark. A hand-built file comes back in 24 hours; a person digitizing from scratch takes a day or two.

What we do not claim: that their files are bad. We have not measured them, and this page does not print numbers we have not measured. What is measured is this – one of them charges $19.99 to have a person build it properly, and our file was run on a commercial Brother and called «perfect and readable» by a shop with forty years behind it.

Five ways to get a stitch file

They are not the same kind of thing, so they cannot be compared field by field. This is what each one is, and what it costs.

1. A person digitizes it

   $10–85per file

   A digitizer opens your logo and builds the file by hand. The oldest way, and still the one a hard mark ends up at.

   24h – 2 days · From their price pages

2. Desktop software

   $3,995+one licence

   Wilcom EmbroideryStudio, the edition that can digitize an illustration. Yours forever, and the steepest thing in the trade to learn. Cheaper editions exist – Wilcom Lettering around $999, Hatch around $599 – but none of them can digitize an illustration.

   weeks to learn · From their price pages

3. Ember

   $9.99per month

   Browser tool, subscription. Auto-digitizing sits behind the Pro plan.

   minutes · Measured inside the tool

4. SewFlow

   $9–39per month

   Browser tool, four steps. A person will hand-build it for $19.99 on top.

   minutes · Measured inside the tool

5. digitizing.app

   from $0.40a file, on a yearly plan

   Browser tool, subscription. Studio’s first month is $9 for 20 files, then $29 a month. You see the whole mark before you pay.

   seconds · This is us

The three browser tools, side by side

These three do the same job, so they can be measured against each other. We opened both of the others and used them.

Where each one is stronger

Ember

Ten machine formats to our seven, and a monthly plan from $9.99. If your machine takes u01, pec, sew or tbf, they write it and we do not.

SewFlow

100 files for $19 a month is the cheapest volume in the trade. Our Shop step is $64 a month billed yearly – still three times more per file. If you run names and logos every day, that is a real number.

digitizing.app

The whole mark is on screen before you pay, with no account. The vector drawing comes out too, which neither of the others can export. And every measurement on this site is our own, published with the file it was measured on.

Questions people actually ask

Is there a free alternative to Ember for digitizing?

You can work out a whole mark here and look at every stitch without paying or making an account – the file is what costs money. Embers auto-digitizing sits behind their Pro plan, and SewFlows free plan allows zero downloads, both measured on 23 August 2026.

Which one exports a vector file?

Only this one. We checked both: Embers export list has ten formats and a search for «svg» returns nothing; SewFlow writes «all 6 formats» and all six are machine formats. A vector is the drawing, not the stitches – it is what a designer needs and what neither of them writes.

Which is cheapest?

It depends on how many files you make. Here, Studio’s first month is $9 for 20 files, then $29 a month, or $24 a month billed yearly; lettering is $5 a file. Ember starts at $9.99 a month and SewFlow at $9. For a hundred files a month, SewFlow at $19 is cheaper than our $64 – we say so because it is true. Measured 23 August 2026; check their pages before you decide.

What if the automatic file is not good enough?

SewFlow sells a person on top of their own automatic: «Want it perfect? Go Pro – a professional digitizer hand-builds your file – machine-tested and back in 24h for $19.99», in their own window on 23 August 2026. That is a different product from a subscription file, and it changes the sum: one hand-built file costs more than a whole month. We do not sell a person at all – the file you look at is the file you get.

Do I have to subscribe?

Yes, for a logo file: Studio is a subscription. The first month is $9 for 20 files, then $29 a month, and you can cancel any time. Lettering is $5 a file without one. Ember and SewFlow are subscriptions too – the cheapest way in is $9.99 and $9 a month.

Can I trust a comparison written by one of the three?

Judge it by whether the numbers can be checked. Every one has the day it was measured, and the two places we lose are on the page. If you find one that is wrong, it is wrong and we will fix it – the address is on the terms page.

So which one

The honest answer depends on what you are, and this is it:

You run a hundred files a month

SewFlow at $19 is cheaper than us, and we said so higher up. Take it.

You need u01, pec, sew or tbf

Ember writes them and we do not. Take it.

Anything else

Come here. You see the whole mark before you pay, nobody corrects the file afterwards, the vector drawing comes out too, and a file is from $0.40 on a yearly plan – or start with Studio’s first month: $9 for 20 files, then $29 a month. If it is not right on screen, you have not spent anything.