Profile, Plugin or Icon Pack?
Three things are sold for a Stream Deck and they are not three flavours of the same thing. One sends keystrokes, one runs code, one is a picture. Buying the wrong one is the most common mistake in this category, so here is the distinction in one table.
The difference, in one table
| Profile | Plugin | Icon pack | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A layout. Every key is bound to a keyboard shortcut of one application. | Software. It adds new actions to the Stream Deck app itself. | Artwork. A set of key images, one glyph per command. |
| What a key does | Sends a key combination to whatever window has focus. | Calls a service and draws the result on the key face — a count, a status, a figure. | Nothing. It changes what a key looks like, never what it does. |
| What it needs from you | The application it was built for, installed and in focus. | Usually one API token, pasted into the action's settings. | Any profile at all, including one you built by hand. |
| With the app closed | Does nothing useful — the keystrokes go to whatever is in front instead. | Still works. It is not sending keystrokes to anything. | Unaffected — it is a picture. |
| In this catalog | 117 profiles, 9,015 shortcuts | 15 plugins | 31 packs |
Each one, in a sentence you can act on
Profile
A layout. Every key is bound to a keyboard shortcut of one application.
Sends a key combination to whatever window has focus.
117 profiles, 9,015 shortcuts
Browse profilesPlugin
Software. It adds new actions to the Stream Deck app itself.
Calls a service and draws the result on the key face — a count, a status, a figure.
15 plugins
Browse pluginsIcon pack
Artwork. A set of key images, one glyph per command.
Nothing. It changes what a key looks like, never what it does.
31 packs
Browse icon packsQuestions people actually ask
- What is the difference between a Stream Deck profile and a plugin?
- A profile is a layout of keys bound to keyboard shortcuts: press one and the combination is sent to whichever application has focus, exactly as if you had typed it. A plugin is software that adds new kinds of action to the Stream Deck app — its keys talk to a service and display what comes back on the key itself. The practical test: if you want a key to do something inside an app you are using, you want a profile. If you want a key to tell you something, you want a plugin.
- Do I need the icon pack if I buy the profile?
- No. Profiles here ship with their own icons already on every key, in three themes. The matching icon pack is for people who built their own layout, or who want a different drawing on keys they have rearranged. Buying both is a choice, never a requirement.
- Can a plugin replace a profile?
- Not for shortcuts. A plugin cannot know an application's keymap — that is what a profile is. The two sit together well though: a profile for the application you are working in, with a few plugin keys on a spare page for the numbers you keep checking.
- Which one should I buy first?
- The profile for the application you spend the most hours in. It is the purchase with the largest immediate effect — a profile in this catalog carries between 15 and 249 shortcuts, so it fills the whole device on its own — and it is the one that decides whether this kind of thing suits how you work at all.
- Does a profile work without the Elgato Stream Deck software?
- No. All three product lines are formats the Elgato Stream Deck software reads: a profile is its layout format, a plugin extends it, an icon pack goes into its icon library. The software is free from Elgato and required for any of them.
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How to install a profile · Profiles by trade · Compare Stream Deck models