In 2013, Stewart Butterfield had a problem. He was building a new workplace chat app, but instead of hiring a full in-house design team, he took a smarter route. Butterfield partnered with a small UX design agency that acted as a fractional design team—translating his vision into a beautiful, intuitive product experience. That decision led to the creation of Slack, now one of the fastest-growing business applications in history. The design wasn’t an afterthought—it was a growth accelerator.
If you want to build the next Slack, focus on what only you can do: defining the strategy, acquiring customers, and scaling your business. Let a product design agency or UX design agency handle what they do best—bringing your ideas to life with speed, clarity, and quality. Working with a fractional design team doesn’t just save you time; it can save your startup over 70% compared to hiring in-house. That’s more runway, more momentum, and more room to grow.
In the paragraphs that follow, we’ll break down exactly how this model works—and why it’s becoming the go-to approach for ambitious startups. From accessing a full spectrum of design talent without the overhead, to prototyping faster and scaling more efficiently, we’ll explore the tangible benefits of partnering with a UX or product design agency. If you’re navigating how to get high-quality design on a startup budget, this post is your playbook.
One Team, Many Skills – Minus the Management Hassle
The 70% Cost Savings – Design at a Fraction of the Cost
For budget-conscious startups, the cost advantages of engaging a UX design agency are game-changing. Design Centered Co.’s own Design Accelerator, for example, is designed to offer substantial cost savings – often up to 70% compared to hiring an equivalent in-house team. While actual savings vary depending on scope and company structure, the model consistently reduces overhead and delivers a more efficient use of resources. It’s no wonder that cost reduction is consistently cited as a top reason (Deloitte Global Outsourcing Survey) companies choose to outsource design work. Simply put, working with a UX design agency allows startups to access top design talent without incurring full-time salaries, benefits, and expensive software subscriptions.
Consider the components of in-house cost that external design services eliminate. There’s the salaries themselves – a single senior designer in the U.S. can cost around $97,000 per year (plus benefits). Hiring a full design team with mixed skill sets could run a few hundred thousand dollars annually, a huge sum for an early-stage venture. By contrast, a flexible design engagement is often a flat monthly fee or pay-as-you-need model, paying only for actual design work delivered.
This efficiency extends to ancillary costs as well. No software licenses to buy – agencies typically come equipped with all the professional design tools needed. That saves you thousands right away: an Adobe Creative Cloud for teams subscription costs about $90 per month per user, Figma’s professional plan is about $15 per editor seat monthly, and even a Canva Pro account is around $120 per year. These expenses add up if you have multiple designers. With a design agency, “only pay for services, not tools” is the rule, since they already have the latest software and equipment.
Startups also save on less obvious costs like office space and infrastructure (no extra desks or high-end Macs to buy for new designers) and on the costly process of hiring itself. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) finds the average cost per hire is about $4,700 in recruiting expenses, and some employers estimate the true total cost (when factoring management time and onboarding) is 3–4 times the position’s salary. That means hiring a designer with a $80k salary might really cost up to $240k when all is said and donez
Scale Up or Down at Will – Built-In Flexibility and Speed
What’s more, design partners often bring access to specialized talent on demand. If you need help with motion design, marketing collateral, UX testing, or prototyping, a flexible product design agency can plug in the right expert without you needing to go through separate recruitment efforts. This “elastic” model means you don’t need to overhire for peaks or risk under-delivering during crunch times.
Quality and Strategic Support from Day One
In many cases, agencies also serve as strategic partners, helping not just with execution but with broader thinking around branding, user engagement, and product-market fit. Their multi-industry experience allows them to draw inspiration and proven ideas from adjacent sectors, fostering more innovative outcomes.
Finally, a trusted product design agency is often well-networked, and may be able to connect your startup to vetted vendors, developers, or marketers they’ve worked with—providing added value beyond just design execution.
