What Design Agencies Actually Charge: 21 Agencies, Verified on Clutch
Minimum project size and hourly rate for 21 design agencies, read from their live Clutch profiles on 11 September 2026. Method stated, figures dated.
Written ByVlad Hrynchuk
Across 21 design agencies with claimed Clutch profiles, minimum project size runs from $1,000 to $250,000 and hourly rates from $25–49 to $200–300. The median minimum sits at $10,000–25,000 and the most common hourly band is $150–199. Every figure below was read from the agency's live Clutch profile on 11 September 2026 and is reproducible by opening the same profile.
Key takeaways
- Minimum project size spans 250x across the sample, from $1,000 to $250,000, for work described in near-identical language on every agency's own site.
- Hourly rate and minimum project size are independent. Agencies with the same hourly band differ by 2.5x on what they will start work for.
- Minimum project size is the fastest filter for whether an agency is reachable at your stage, and it is public for anyone with a claimed profile.
- Most published agency pricing is an estimate presented as a fact. These figures are Clutch's own fields, with the date attached.
Most published writing about what design agencies cost uses invented numbers. Round ranges, no source, no date — "$50K–$150K" applied to five different agencies because the writer needed a figure and had none.
This page is the opposite. Every number below was read from the agency's own live Clutch profile on 11 September 2026. Nothing is estimated. Anything you disagree with can be checked by opening the same profile.
Here's what this guide covers:
- Minimum project size and hourly rate for 21 agencies
- Why those two numbers are independent of each other
- How to use a minimum as a shortlist filter
- What the table does not tell you, including where we sit in it
The data
Min project and Hourly are Clutch's own Pricing Snapshot fields, self-declared by each agency. Rating and reviews are as shown on the profile that day.
| Agency | Rating | Reviews | Min project | Hourly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masterly | 5.0 | 19 | $10,000 | $50–99 |
| Eleken | 4.9 | 127 | $10,000 | $25–49 |
| Qubstudio | 4.9 | 92 | $10,000 | $50–99 |
| UX studio | 5.0 | 41 | $10,000 | $50–99 |
| Orbix Studio | 5.0 | 49 | $10,000 | $50–99 |
| Excited | 5.0 | 55 | $10,000 | $50–99 |
| Fireart Studio | 4.9 | 40 | $10,000 | $50–99 |
| thoughtbot | 4.9 | 39 | $10,000 | $150–199 |
| DD.NYC | 5.0 | 106 | $10,000 | $150–199 |
| Lounge Lizard | 4.8 | 43 | $10,000 | not listed |
| Wavespace | 4.9 | 16 | $1,000 | $25–49 |
| Neuron | 5.0 | 52 | $25,000 | $150–199 |
| Fuzzy Math | 4.9 | 27 | $25,000 | $150–199 |
| Momentum Design Lab | 4.8 | 96 | $25,000 | $150–199 |
| Huemor | 4.8 | 72 | $25,000 | $150–199 |
| Miquido | 4.9 | 51 | $25,000 | $50–99 |
| Fuselab Creative | 5.0 | 15 | $25,000 | $100–149 |
| Orbit Media Studios | 5.0 | 36 | $50,000 | $150–199 |
| Ramotion | 4.9 | 29 | $50,000 | $150–199 |
| UXDA | 4.8 | 21 | $250,000 | $200–300 |
| Instrument | — | — | $250,000 | $200–300 |
Instrument's profile is an unclaimed directory listing rather than a reviewed one, so it carries no rating or review count.
What the spread says
The range is 250x. From $1,000 to $250,000 as a starting point, for services described in near-identical language on every one of these agencies' own websites.
No amount of reading their copy would tell you this.
Hourly rate and minimum are independent. Miquido and Fuzzy Math both start at $25,000; Miquido bills $50–99 an hour and Fuzzy Math $150–199. thoughtbot bills $150–199 and opens at $10,000, while Neuron bills the same and opens at $25,000.
The two measure different things. The hourly band is positioning — seniority, market, geography. The minimum is business model. A subscription studio takes small monthly engagements; a consultancy with an identical rate may not open a file under $25,000 because its delivery assumes a team rather than a person.
The median minimum is $10,000–25,000. Eleven of the twenty-one start at $10,000, six at $25,000.
Rating does not vary usefully. Every agency here sits between 4.8 and 5.0. A Clutch rating separates agencies from nothing; the review count says a little more about volume, and the pricing fields say the most.
How to use this
Three of the profiles behind the table, if you want to see the fields for yourself: Eleken, thoughtbot, UXDA. Each shows the Pricing Snapshot the numbers above come from.
Filter by minimum before you look at portfolios. Most shortlists die on budget rather than on taste, and the minimum is public. Reading five portfolios before discovering three of them will not take the project is time nobody gets back.
Read the review count as tenure, not quality. 127 reviews against 15 tells you how long and how widely somebody has worked, not how good the work is.
Do not read the hourly band as a quote. These are self-selected ranges, and most real engagements are priced by project. See it as where an agency places itself.
What the table does not tell you
Clutch does not audit these fields. The agency writes its own minimum and hourly band. They are positioning, declared by the company, not verified numbers.
This is not a random sample. These 21 appear on search results for design-agency queries in the United States, plus several we track. They skew toward agencies doing SaaS and product work.
We are in the table. Masterly is the first row, at $10,000 and $50–99. Leaving ourselves out would be worse, and including ourselves without saying so would be worse still.
Free to quote with a link back. Review counts move, so open the profile before republishing an old figure.
If budget is the question behind this page, a design retainer and a fixed-scope project price very differently — we cover which fits when in our retainer agreement guide, and the agency-versus-hire decision in design ops before you have a team.
If you know what you need and want to talk scope, we're here.
