Comparisons
Us and Dreamwave, judged on what arrives at the end
Dated, factual and narrow: what happens to the finished files here (one archive, a manifest, branded profile pictures) and where to check Dreamwave.
From $39 per person, volume discounts from 5 people.
- 40 headshots per person
- About an hour from selfies to download
- Nobody on the team needs an account
Dreamwave is another AI headshot product, and its own site presents packages aimed at teams. It turns up in the same conversations as we do. As of September 2026 we have no verified account of its current features or pricing, so we do not repeat any: check their site, and note the date you checked. This page instead concentrates on the stage most demonstrations skip: what an organisation actually receives once the photographs exist, and in what shape it arrives at a designer, a website or an HR platform.
Comparing
What to check before you choose.
The questions a team buyer should put to any headshot tool, and how Starkie Teams answers them. For the other tool, check their current site.
| What to check before you choose. | Starkie Teams | The other tool |
|---|---|---|
| One-time credits, no subscription | Yes | See their site |
| 40 headshots per person | Yes | See their site |
| One style enforced across the whole team | Yes | See their site |
| Teammates need no account | Yes | See their site |
| Admin approval before photos go out | Yes | See their site |
| Consent text versioned and logged per person | Yes | See their site |
| API and signed webhooks | Yes | See their site |
| Published in English and Italian | Yes | See their site |
Why we compare so little
A page that lists another company’s features is only as good as the day it was written, and the temptation to shade the description is enormous. We have decided not to try. Nothing here describes Dreamwave beyond what its own site says of itself: that it operates in this sector and sells packages to teams.
Everything else on this page is a description of our own product that you can test in an evening with three colleagues, which is a far better basis for a decision than a table copied out of two marketing sites.
Backdrops
- Studio white
- Studio greySelected
- Studio black
- Modern office
- Glass office
- City street
- Library
- Navy gradient
Outfits
- Dark suit
- Light suit
- Blazer, no tieSelected
- Fine knit
- Casual shirt
- White coat
The result
Everyone, in the same light.
Choose a backdrop and an outfit once. Every person who joins is generated inside that style, so the team page finally looks like one team rather than a collage of whoever had a photo.
Sample headshots generated by Starkie from phone selfies.
How the finished work comes out
Every person receives forty images and marks a favourite. For the organisation, an admin downloads one archive containing a folder per member, with a square variant alongside each image, plus a manifest file that records the contents, including which frame each person chose and the branded profile picture filename where one exists.
It is deliberately not a shared gallery link: delivery stays private, and the archive is what gets handed to a designer or imported into a system. With approval on, only approved members are inside it.
What the organiser sees
The whole run, from one screen.
Invites, consent, approval, downloads and the branded profile pictures, each a step in the same place.
- Invite peoplePaste emails or upload a CSVOpen linkCopy linkstarkie.ai/teams/join/x7q…Only @acme.com addresses24 invited
- DownloadsWhole team, one archive24 people · 960 files
- One folder per person
- Approved people only
- ReviewLena40 headshotsAwaiting approval
ApproveRequest a retakeReasonThe tie: could we try the open collar? - Branded profile pictureACMECompany frame1024 · 512
Re-rendered when the template changes
- Before you uploadConsent text v3
Your selfies are used to generate your headshots and deleted at the end of the retention period.
I agreeAccepted · logged - Webhookmember.photos_readyDelivered
X-Starkie-Signature: t=1700000000,v1=5257a8… · Signed{ "type": "member.photos_ready", "organizationId": "org_…", "data": { "memberId": "cle…" } }
Branding applied once, rebuilt on demand
An organisation can define a single brand template: a colour, a crop shape (circle, rounded or square), a ring, a badge position and a logo. Every eligible member’s chosen frame becomes a branded profile picture in two sizes, and a member who later picks a different favourite gets theirs rebuilt.
Editing the template re-renders the set across the organisation, with progress shown as it goes, and an uploaded SVG logo is rasterised on the server rather than executed anywhere. None of this requires a designer to touch four hundred files by hand.
ACMERe-rendered when the template changes
The difference
A shoot day, or an afternoon.
Booking a photographer
- Find a date the whole team can make
- Book a room and a photographer
- Chase the people who were travelling
- Wait for retouched files
- Start again for every new hire
With Starkie Teams
- Invite by email, CSV or one link
- Everyone uploads selfies from a phone
- Remote colleagues take part on the same terms
- 40 headshots each in about an hour
- New hires get the same style, whenever they join
Pricing
One credit per person. Discounts stack as you buy.
No subscription and no seats. A credit is one person’s 40 headshots, and the discount on every purchase is set by the credits you have bought so far.
- First 4 creditsList price$39.00 each
- 5+ credits20% off$31.20 each
- 25+ credits30% off$27.30 each
- 100+ credits40% off$23.40 each
- 250+ credits50% off$19.50 each
Estimate your price
- Price per person
- $31.20
- Volume discount
- 20%
- Subtotal
You're in the 20% band. 15 more people reaches 30%.
Prices in US dollars. One credit per teammate.
Trust
Read it before you buy.
The documents a procurement or IT team asks for, published rather than sent on request.
- Data Processing AgreementRoles, sub-processing, retention and deletion, in writing.
- Sub-processorsEvery third party that touches a photo, and why.
- SecurityHow photos are stored, who can open them, and for how long.
- Privacy notice for teamsWhat each teammate is told before they upload a selfie.
- GDPRRights, requests, and how to exercise them.
Frequently asked questions
Can we get every image rather than only the favourite?
The organisation archive carries the full set for each person, not one picture each. The favourite matters for two things: it is recorded in the manifest, and it is the frame the branded profile picture is composited from.
What is in the manifest?
A machine-readable record of the archive: the members included, the folder each one occupies, the file names inside it, the selected frame and the branded picture where one has been rendered, plus the template version it came from. It is there so an import script does not have to guess from filenames.
Can images be pulled one at a time instead?
Yes, through the JSON API, which lists a member’s gallery images with signed links valid for an hour and serves the branded profile picture separately. Signed webhooks can notify a system the moment a set becomes ready or is approved.
How do we compare two vendors fairly on delivery?
Ask both to show the exact files a ten-person account ends up with, including how they are named and grouped, and whether an index a program can read comes with them. A demonstration of one beautiful portrait says nothing about what happens on the day someone has to load two hundred of them.
Give the whole team the same headshot, without the shoot day.
Free to set up: you only pay when you buy credits. There is no subscription, and you don't need a card to start.