Design Subscription vs Freelance vs In-House: Full Cost Breakdown
LIONS State of Creativity Report for 2024 has found that most brands that expect to grow beyond their competitors are 6 times more likely to spend more on marketing and 4.6 times more likely to spend more on creativity.
But how much does that stellar creative design and marketing performance really cost? Well, creative services can range in cost from a few hundred dollars to millions, depending on what your needs are.
A few famous examples come from Nike and Pepsi. The iconic Nike logo design in 1971 cost around $35, while the Pepsi 2008-2009 rebranding cost $1M. So, there is a lot of room in the estimates for the cost to go up or down depending on scale, time and project complexity.
In this creative services cost breakdown, we’ll explore the most common creative services that B2B, startups, and scaleups most need and their associated costs, on average, in 2024. We’ll also explore some solutions to deliver more cost-effective results and the pros and cons of spending more vs. spending less on a creative solution.
Cost of: Freelancers vs design subscription services vs in-house
There are four main alternatives that startups and scaleups tend to choose for their design and creative requirements.
They are:
- Freelancers: Usually, companies source freelancers in platforms like Upwork and Fivver. Some end up developing relationships to work as contractors;
- Agencies: Most companies use agencies for multi-layered and complex projects that require high-level, interdisciplinary skills to produce the output.
- In-house: Companies, startups, and scaleups tend to opt for in-house to have more control over the results, consistent quality delivery, and even vetting of the previous alternatives.
- Design subscription services: A design subscription service will be a partnered company that will handle your design needs from top to bottom, usually for a monthly plan or subscription. For instance, having unlimited UI/UX and Landing page design through a $2,000 monthly fee.
Now, let’s understand the real-world breakdown of average costs for outsourcing with agencies and freelancers or hiring in-house designers.
Costs may vary greatly from company to company, depending on seniority level and geographical location. We’ll take the point of view of a US-based company, and here’s how the breakdown will be structured:
- In-house designer costs: We’ll take the average yearly salary as the main cost. Remember that whenever this is the case there should also be the added hiring process cost, which averages $4,700 for each position but can range up to 3 times their yearly salary.
- Agencies cost: Here, we’ll take an average from agencies’ projects, barring any hidden or additional costs, and ensure that it’s a smooth and not overly complex deliverable.
- Freelancers cost: We’ll take the hourly cost, not per project, for freelancers simply to broaden our understanding of cost.
No-code development: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $60,000–$90,000 per year for no-code generalists or Webflow-certified developers who can manage design, development, and website maintenance.
- Design agency cost: $10,000–$30,000 per project, depending on complexity, for custom no-code solutions, often including complex workflows and third-party integrations.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour, with Webflow specialists often charging higher rates due to expertise.
Web design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $60,000–$100,000 per year for 1 designer skilled in UI/UX and front-end tools like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Design agency cost: It can range from $10,000 to $30,000 for standard websites and $30,000 to $75,000 for high-end, fully customized designs.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$150/hour, depending on expertise and scope.
Web app design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $60,000–$120,000 per year for a web app designer, depending on expertise and seniority.
- Design agency cost: $20,000–$100,000 per custom web app; the value varies greatly based on complexity.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$150/hour. While this may seem like the cheaper option, you can never tell at the start how many hours it’ll take to finish the project due to changing requirements and possible roadblocks.
Landing pages: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $60,000–$120,000 per year for a web designer, depending on expertise and needs.
- Design agency cost: $800 – $10,000 per landing page, depending on complexity, features, and services required.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour, depending on the scope of the project and required skills.
Graphic design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$85,000 per year for a graphic designer, depending on seniority.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$20,000 per project, depending on complexity and deliverables such as branding, brochures, or social media assets.
- Freelancers cost: $35–$100/hour, with higher rates for specialists in branding or advanced design software.
Logo design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$85,000 per year.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$10,000 per project.
- Freelancers cost: $35–$100/hour.
Social media design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$80,000 per year for one full-time designer.
- Design agency cost: $1,000–$5,000 per month, depending on consistency of postings.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$65/hour.
Illustrations: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: Similar to graphic designers, depending on specialization.
- Design agency cost: $2,000–$5,000 per set of custom illustrations.
- Freelancers cost: $25–$100/hour.
Marketing presentations: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$80,000 per year, as these projects require graphic design and copywriting expertise.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$15,000 for high-quality, custom presentations aimed at pitching or branding.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour for design and layout, and potentially higher for strategic content creation.
Brand identity: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: From $60,000 to $85,000, covering expertise in logo design, color palette creation, and brand guidelines.
- Design agency cost: $10,000–$25,000 per project for comprehensive brand identity packages, depending on brand maturity and channels to be explored.
- Freelancers cost: $35–$100/hour; while projects like logo and brand guide creation may average $1,000–$3,000 on some freelancing platforms.
Marketing assets: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$80,000 per year for consistent production of marketing collateral like flyers, brochures, or ad creatives.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$20,000 per project for multi-asset campaigns, depending on their length.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour; complex projects like interactive PDFs may increase rates.
UI/UX design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $70,000–$100,000 per year for generalist UI/UX designers who handle web, mobile, and cross-platform projects.
- Design agency cost: $15,000–$50,000 per project for typical UI/UX work, depending on the scale and complexity.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour for tasks like wireframing, prototyping, and interaction design.
Mobile app UI design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $75,000–$120,000 per year for experienced UI/UX professionals.
- Design agency cost: $20,000–$100,000 per mobile app project.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$150/hour.
Design systems creation: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $80,000–$120,000 per year for specialized designers.
- Design agency cost: $20,000–$50,000 per comprehensive system.
- Freelancers cost: $70–$150/hour.
Animation and motion design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $70,000–$110,000 per year for skilled motion designers.
- Design agency cost: $10,000–$50,000 per animation project, depending on length and complexity.
- Freelancers cost: $100–$200/hour.
Print & Packaging design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$85,000 per year for general graphic designers.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$25,000 per packaging project.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour.
Design Subscription: Say goodbye to overblown costs and welcome effectiveness
Freelancers vs. Design Subscriptions
The general recommendation is to use a freelancer when you have a task that isn’t crucial to your business or when the delivery date is unimportant, such as smaller-scale creative resources like a social media design graphic.
However, sourcing a high-quality freelancer with transparent pricing who delivers projects fast can be a lengthy and costly process. You’ll likely also need to involve different departments and steal time from your in-house leaders to vet the candidate.
Choosing to go with a design subscription service would make much more sense if any of those problems are going to make you get stuck in the process or stop you from achieving the results you need.
For instance, Awesomic matches companies with talents. Every talent goes through a multi-step vetting process, and they’re matched to tasks that better fit their expertise. You get a flat price, unlimited revisions, and no hidden costs; all aspects are upfront and transparent.
In-House Teams vs. Design Subscriptions
In-house teams are great if you’re trying to build your company’s design culture, want a design creative leader, fear losing the brand identity, or have some particular micromanaging tendencies. An in-house team offers some flexibility with a full-time commitment. They will also have more access to internal communication and collaboration, you’ll have more control over feedback, and they can help manage external partners such as agencies and freelancers.
That’s not to say that a design subscription can’t offer you flexibility.
For instance, Awesomic has plans that go from light design work to full website migrations, and you don’t have to pay more than the monthly subscription. That’s not usually the case for in-house teams; if you need multiple field experts, you’d need to pay each one individually.
Companies that offer design subscription services may also offer other services, such as matching you with a full-time extension of your team. For instance, using Awesomic’s 1-to-1 talent plan plus one subscription of a Pro plan, you’d have one full-time designer embedded in your team and access to a plethora of field experts to match with on many tasks.
Another type of flexibility that in-house hiring doesn’t offer is to easily change, add, or remove design subscription plans as you scale or as your design needs fluctuate.
Agencies vs. Design Subscriptions
Agencies are at their best when you have a project that requires many different types of specialists or holistic and complex projects. As we explored previously, the trade-off is clear on the price tag. It can be worth going for agencies if you have a multi-channel campaign that needs copywriting, PR, marketing strategy, branding, and performance marketing, for instance.
But beware of choosing the right agency, as many horror stories of junior specialists being sold as senior talent, and turnover costs that would scare the most courageous of heroes have been felt by business owners when picking an agency that is not a good fit. On the other hand, design subscriptions offer consistent results for recurring design needs, making them ideal for dynamically changing needs in asset creation.
They also excel in cost-effectiveness while maintaining high-quality deliverables. And nothing is stopping you from using both services in conjunction, such as using an agency for strategy and closing out gaps, while using the design service subscription to get the actual assets.
B2B SaaS design: website launch and branding case analysis
Let’s put this into perspective: suppose a B2B SaaS startup needs a website and branding.
If they were to use freelancers for logo design, it’d cost between $100 and $2,500, and a web designer who could build a site from scratch would go for around $10,000. They’d spend over $10,000 while managing everything, with no insurance over radio silence and late deliverables. And we’re not counting revisions and additional costs for vetting and sourcing materials.
If they were to hire an agency with project and industry expertise, they could quote the project from $25,000 to 6 figures, depending on its complexity.
And a design subscription at $1,998/month would cost around $23,976 per year. However, the main thing to consider is that it most likely wouldn’t take a year to deliver the project; at Awesomic, these projects tend to take a few weeks.
During the rest of the year, you’ll get access to all other design and product materials you may need, such as social media and email marketing assets, to maintain brand identity and enhance promotion initiatives.
Save money and deliver amazing results with Awesomic
With Awesomic, you can say goodbye to traditional methods by connecting with award-winning, vetted, and experienced design talents who are matched to your tasks in 24 hours to fulfill design, product, and development needs. All of this is under the umbrella of a transparent monthly subscription. Forget about waiting days, weeks, or even months to get matched to the talent your company needs to grow and deliver disruptive projects.
Awesomic aims to quickly deliver the perfect experience with the perfect match for your every task. Join our clients, such as Yerbaé, who designed multiple landing pages in less than three weeks. Book a demo below, and we’ll walk you through all our solutions to help you decide which makes the most sense.
LIONS State of Creativity Report for 2024 has found that most brands that expect to grow beyond their competitors are 6 times more likely to spend more on marketing and 4.6 times more likely to spend more on creativity.
But how much does that stellar creative design and marketing performance really cost? Well, creative services can range in cost from a few hundred dollars to millions, depending on what your needs are.
A few famous examples come from Nike and Pepsi. The iconic Nike logo design in 1971 cost around $35, while the Pepsi 2008-2009 rebranding cost $1M. So, there is a lot of room in the estimates for the cost to go up or down depending on scale, time and project complexity.
In this creative services cost breakdown, we’ll explore the most common creative services that B2B, startups, and scaleups most need and their associated costs, on average, in 2024. We’ll also explore some solutions to deliver more cost-effective results and the pros and cons of spending more vs. spending less on a creative solution.
Cost of: Freelancers vs design subscription services vs in-house
There are four main alternatives that startups and scaleups tend to choose for their design and creative requirements.
They are:
- Freelancers: Usually, companies source freelancers in platforms like Upwork and Fivver. Some end up developing relationships to work as contractors;
- Agencies: Most companies use agencies for multi-layered and complex projects that require high-level, interdisciplinary skills to produce the output.
- In-house: Companies, startups, and scaleups tend to opt for in-house to have more control over the results, consistent quality delivery, and even vetting of the previous alternatives.
- Design subscription services: A design subscription service will be a partnered company that will handle your design needs from top to bottom, usually for a monthly plan or subscription. For instance, having unlimited UI/UX and Landing page design through a $2,000 monthly fee.
Now, let’s understand the real-world breakdown of average costs for outsourcing with agencies and freelancers or hiring in-house designers.
Costs may vary greatly from company to company, depending on seniority level and geographical location. We’ll take the point of view of a US-based company, and here’s how the breakdown will be structured:
- In-house designer costs: We’ll take the average yearly salary as the main cost. Remember that whenever this is the case there should also be the added hiring process cost, which averages $4,700 for each position but can range up to 3 times their yearly salary.
- Agencies cost: Here, we’ll take an average from agencies’ projects, barring any hidden or additional costs, and ensure that it’s a smooth and not overly complex deliverable.
- Freelancers cost: We’ll take the hourly cost, not per project, for freelancers simply to broaden our understanding of cost.
No-code development: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $60,000–$90,000 per year for no-code generalists or Webflow-certified developers who can manage design, development, and website maintenance.
- Design agency cost: $10,000–$30,000 per project, depending on complexity, for custom no-code solutions, often including complex workflows and third-party integrations.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour, with Webflow specialists often charging higher rates due to expertise.
Web design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $60,000–$100,000 per year for 1 designer skilled in UI/UX and front-end tools like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Design agency cost: It can range from $10,000 to $30,000 for standard websites and $30,000 to $75,000 for high-end, fully customized designs.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$150/hour, depending on expertise and scope.
Web app design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $60,000–$120,000 per year for a web app designer, depending on expertise and seniority.
- Design agency cost: $20,000–$100,000 per custom web app; the value varies greatly based on complexity.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$150/hour. While this may seem like the cheaper option, you can never tell at the start how many hours it’ll take to finish the project due to changing requirements and possible roadblocks.
Landing pages: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $60,000–$120,000 per year for a web designer, depending on expertise and needs.
- Design agency cost: $800 – $10,000 per landing page, depending on complexity, features, and services required.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour, depending on the scope of the project and required skills.
Graphic design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$85,000 per year for a graphic designer, depending on seniority.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$20,000 per project, depending on complexity and deliverables such as branding, brochures, or social media assets.
- Freelancers cost: $35–$100/hour, with higher rates for specialists in branding or advanced design software.
Logo design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$85,000 per year.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$10,000 per project.
- Freelancers cost: $35–$100/hour.
Social media design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$80,000 per year for one full-time designer.
- Design agency cost: $1,000–$5,000 per month, depending on consistency of postings.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$65/hour.
Illustrations: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: Similar to graphic designers, depending on specialization.
- Design agency cost: $2,000–$5,000 per set of custom illustrations.
- Freelancers cost: $25–$100/hour.
Marketing presentations: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$80,000 per year, as these projects require graphic design and copywriting expertise.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$15,000 for high-quality, custom presentations aimed at pitching or branding.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour for design and layout, and potentially higher for strategic content creation.
Brand identity: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: From $60,000 to $85,000, covering expertise in logo design, color palette creation, and brand guidelines.
- Design agency cost: $10,000–$25,000 per project for comprehensive brand identity packages, depending on brand maturity and channels to be explored.
- Freelancers cost: $35–$100/hour; while projects like logo and brand guide creation may average $1,000–$3,000 on some freelancing platforms.
Marketing assets: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$80,000 per year for consistent production of marketing collateral like flyers, brochures, or ad creatives.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$20,000 per project for multi-asset campaigns, depending on their length.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour; complex projects like interactive PDFs may increase rates.
UI/UX design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $70,000–$100,000 per year for generalist UI/UX designers who handle web, mobile, and cross-platform projects.
- Design agency cost: $15,000–$50,000 per project for typical UI/UX work, depending on the scale and complexity.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour for tasks like wireframing, prototyping, and interaction design.
Mobile app UI design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $75,000–$120,000 per year for experienced UI/UX professionals.
- Design agency cost: $20,000–$100,000 per mobile app project.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$150/hour.
Design systems creation: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $80,000–$120,000 per year for specialized designers.
- Design agency cost: $20,000–$50,000 per comprehensive system.
- Freelancers cost: $70–$150/hour.
Animation and motion design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $70,000–$110,000 per year for skilled motion designers.
- Design agency cost: $10,000–$50,000 per animation project, depending on length and complexity.
- Freelancers cost: $100–$200/hour.
Print & Packaging design: Cost breakdown
- In-house cost: $50,000–$85,000 per year for general graphic designers.
- Design agency cost: $5,000–$25,000 per packaging project.
- Freelancers cost: $50–$100/hour.
Design Subscription: Say goodbye to overblown costs and welcome effectiveness
Freelancers vs. Design Subscriptions
The general recommendation is to use a freelancer when you have a task that isn’t crucial to your business or when the delivery date is unimportant, such as smaller-scale creative resources like a social media design graphic.
However, sourcing a high-quality freelancer with transparent pricing who delivers projects fast can be a lengthy and costly process. You’ll likely also need to involve different departments and steal time from your in-house leaders to vet the candidate.
Choosing to go with a design subscription service would make much more sense if any of those problems are going to make you get stuck in the process or stop you from achieving the results you need.
For instance, Awesomic matches companies with talents. Every talent goes through a multi-step vetting process, and they’re matched to tasks that better fit their expertise. You get a flat price, unlimited revisions, and no hidden costs; all aspects are upfront and transparent.
In-House Teams vs. Design Subscriptions
In-house teams are great if you’re trying to build your company’s design culture, want a design creative leader, fear losing the brand identity, or have some particular micromanaging tendencies. An in-house team offers some flexibility with a full-time commitment. They will also have more access to internal communication and collaboration, you’ll have more control over feedback, and they can help manage external partners such as agencies and freelancers.
That’s not to say that a design subscription can’t offer you flexibility.
For instance, Awesomic has plans that go from light design work to full website migrations, and you don’t have to pay more than the monthly subscription. That’s not usually the case for in-house teams; if you need multiple field experts, you’d need to pay each one individually.
Companies that offer design subscription services may also offer other services, such as matching you with a full-time extension of your team. For instance, using Awesomic’s 1-to-1 talent plan plus one subscription of a Pro plan, you’d have one full-time designer embedded in your team and access to a plethora of field experts to match with on many tasks.
Another type of flexibility that in-house hiring doesn’t offer is to easily change, add, or remove design subscription plans as you scale or as your design needs fluctuate.
Agencies vs. Design Subscriptions
Agencies are at their best when you have a project that requires many different types of specialists or holistic and complex projects. As we explored previously, the trade-off is clear on the price tag. It can be worth going for agencies if you have a multi-channel campaign that needs copywriting, PR, marketing strategy, branding, and performance marketing, for instance.
But beware of choosing the right agency, as many horror stories of junior specialists being sold as senior talent, and turnover costs that would scare the most courageous of heroes have been felt by business owners when picking an agency that is not a good fit. On the other hand, design subscriptions offer consistent results for recurring design needs, making them ideal for dynamically changing needs in asset creation.
They also excel in cost-effectiveness while maintaining high-quality deliverables. And nothing is stopping you from using both services in conjunction, such as using an agency for strategy and closing out gaps, while using the design service subscription to get the actual assets.
B2B SaaS design: website launch and branding case analysis
Let’s put this into perspective: suppose a B2B SaaS startup needs a website and branding.
If they were to use freelancers for logo design, it’d cost between $100 and $2,500, and a web designer who could build a site from scratch would go for around $10,000. They’d spend over $10,000 while managing everything, with no insurance over radio silence and late deliverables. And we’re not counting revisions and additional costs for vetting and sourcing materials.
If they were to hire an agency with project and industry expertise, they could quote the project from $25,000 to 6 figures, depending on its complexity.
And a design subscription at $1,998/month would cost around $23,976 per year. However, the main thing to consider is that it most likely wouldn’t take a year to deliver the project; at Awesomic, these projects tend to take a few weeks.
During the rest of the year, you’ll get access to all other design and product materials you may need, such as social media and email marketing assets, to maintain brand identity and enhance promotion initiatives.
Save money and deliver amazing results with Awesomic
With Awesomic, you can say goodbye to traditional methods by connecting with award-winning, vetted, and experienced design talents who are matched to your tasks in 24 hours to fulfill design, product, and development needs. All of this is under the umbrella of a transparent monthly subscription. Forget about waiting days, weeks, or even months to get matched to the talent your company needs to grow and deliver disruptive projects.
Awesomic aims to quickly deliver the perfect experience with the perfect match for your every task. Join our clients, such as Yerbaé, who designed multiple landing pages in less than three weeks. Book a demo below, and we’ll walk you through all our solutions to help you decide which makes the most sense.
