Design Cloud vs Hiring In-House

Cut your creative content costs without cutting quality

Save £23,024.28* per year vs hiring in-house - and get set up in under a business day

No employers NI’, pensions or sick pay to worry about

Experienced UK-based design team on UK business hours

High-quality work, unlimited requests and revisions

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Trusted by 700+ small businesses & major brands

OUTSOURCE DESIGN SOLUTION

Save £23,024.28 per year vs hiring in-house

Design Cloud gives you all the benefits of hiring in-house - without the risk or expense - and the flexibility of outsourcing without the hassle, frustration or limitations when trying to scale

Low, predictable pricing

High-quality work delivered fast

Scale resource up & down

The true cost of hiring 1 full-time designer

This is a simple breakdown of the true cost of hiring a full time designer. This calculation assumes that the designer is based in London and works from your office. Average designer salaries vary by city and region. We have included links to support our workings and this information is correct as of October 2025.

Description
Data Source
Annual Cost
Monthly Cost
Base salary (London)
Glassdoor
£36,000
£2916.67
Employers NI
HMRC
£4,073.40
£339.45
Pension contribution
Nest
£1080.00
£90.00
Design tools
Adobe Creative Cloud
£798.00
£66.50
Stock library
Adobe Stock
£420.00
£35.00
Project management tools
Asana Business
£251.88
£20.99
Email & cloud storage
Google Workspace
£110.40
£9.20
Office space costs
Rubber Desk
£7,800.00
£650.00
Total
£50,533.68
£4,211.14

Cost of working with 3 designers from Design Cloud

Our pricing plans tier up based on the complexity of work you need to access and costs go down the longer that you sign up for. This calculation is based on working with 3 designers from our team on a 12 month contract. All of our plans come with unlimited requests and revisions and this set up also includes access to our platform and the option to communicate with your design team in real time via Slack.

Subscription Plan
Number of Designers
Annual Cost
Monthly Cost
Graphic Design: Agency
2
£18,339.60
£1,528.30
Motion/Video: Essential
1
£9,169.80
£764.15
Total
£27,509.40
£2,292.45

Total savings

Working with Design Cloud would save you £23,024.28 per year vs hiring 1 designer in-house. It's a no brainer.

Subscription Plan
Number of Designers
Annual Cost
Monthly Cost
Hiring In-House
1
£50,533.68
£4211.14
Design Cloud
3
£27,509.40
£2,292.45
Savings
£23,024.28
£1918.69
Description
Data Source
Annual Cost
Monthly Cost
Base Salary (London)
£35,000.00 /pa
£2,916.67 /pm
Employers NI
£3,609.53 /pa
£300.79 /pm
Pension Contribution
£1,050.00 /pa
£87.50 /pm
Design Tools
£743.88 /pa
£61.99 /pm
Stock Licences
£383.88 /pa
£31.99 /pm
Project Management Tool
£251.88 /pa
£20.99 /pm
Email & Cloud Storage
£110.40 /pa
£9.20 /pm
Office Space Costs (London)
£6276.00 /pa
£523.00 /pm
Total Full Time Designer Cost
£47,425.57 /pa
£3,952.13 /pm
Contract length:
Design Cloud logo
2 x Graphic Designers + 1 x Motion/Video editor
£29,964 /pa
£2,497 /pm
Savings
£17,461.57 /pa
£1,455.13 /pm
Design Cloud logo
2 x Graphic Designers + 1 x Motion/Video editor
£29,964 /pa
£2,497 /pm
Savings
£17,461.57 /pa
£1,455.13 /pm
Design Cloud logo
2 x Graphic Designers + 1 x Motion/Video editor
£29,964 /pa
£2,497 /pm
Savings
£17,461.57 /pa
£1,455.13 /pm

Finding reliable, ongoing design support that works on your terms can seem impossible. Marketplaces are hit and miss, freelancers aren’t always available and hiring in-house is slow and expensive. We’ve solved all these problems by creating a slick, scalable and more reliable alternative...