How Unlimited Design Service Pricing Works (and What Affects the Cost)

Businesses have different reasons to outsource their designs. It could be to offload some design workload from the internal design team or to tackle sudden spikes in design need or perhaps there is no budget for an internal design team. On all such occasions, unlimited design services make a cost-efficient move. But have you ever wondered how unlimited design service pricing works? 

You know you will be paying a fixed monthly fee. You know there are diverse design categories covered in that monthly fee. But what else does the monthly fee include? Are there any variables that affect the price you pay in the future? This post will answer all these questions so you can understand the unlimited design service pricing structure clearly and thus make a confident decision when it comes to outsourcing your design.

Unlimited Design Service: An Introduction 

What exactly is an unlimited design service? 

Unlimited design services help small businesses, solopreneurs and marketing teams tackle their ever-growing design needs at a fixed monthly price. Following the subscription-model, these services cover not one, not two, but a wide range of design categories like logos, social media designs, presentations, illustrations, flyers, UI design and more. 

How is an unlimited design service different from traditional design agencies? 

Traditional design agencies often have per-project pricing. This means that the price varies depending on your design request. While this might be a great option for one-off design needs, it becomes unpredictable in the long run. 

Some design agencies have retainers and long-term contracts, which can lock you into long-term commitments even when your design workload fluctuates. In contrast, unlimited design service pricing is flexible and there are no contracts. You can pause or cancel the chosen subscription when your design requirements drop. 

Are unlimited design services better than freelancers? 

Freelancers are a great option when you only need one or two designs and do not need to go back to those designs in the future. In such cases, you can easily hire a freelancer with the relevant expertise. But yes, there is time and effort spent in vetting them. 

But availability can vary and pricing is usually tied to individual projects or hourly rates. In contrast, unlimited design services are your always-on design team that is regularly working on all your design requirements. So what do they offer that collaborating with freelancers often cannot? 

• Visual consistency that comes from the same design team working on all your designs 
• Predictable pricing 
• Unlimited revisions 
• Structured workflows that make it easier to bring all your stakeholders on board
• The ability to handle multiple design needs over time without repeatedly hiring new designers 

How does a design subscription work?

The process is quite simple. You sign up for the plan that meets your requirements and submit your design requests through a dashboard. The assigned designer or design team then starts working on your design, either one at a time or in parallel, depending on the service and the chosen plan. 

Once your design is ready, you review and submit your feedback and the designer then updates the design so that it aligns with your expectations, which is when you approve the design. This cycle continues throughout the month, allowing you to keep submitting new requests as your design needs evolve.

How much do unlimited design services cost? 

Most unlimited design services cost between $500-$2000 per month or more. This is the price paid on a monthly basis for several design requests. 

According to Fiverr, hiring freelancers for logo design services can cost anywhere from $20 to $2500 or more. Some of these are per-hour charges and you might be paying extra for ownership of your designs and multiple revisions, which might be the case when working on your core brand designs, like logos. All this adds up and your design bill often deviates largely from your budget. This is one of the reasons brands choose unlimited design services for logo design and branding.

In comparison, design agencies might also charge hourly in the range of $25-$49 per hour or more, depending on the complexity of the design and the additional requirements like source files, revisions, design ownership etc. 

Because of this, unlimited design subscriptions are often considered a cost-effective option for businesses that need consistent design output without hiring a full-time designer or paying agency-level retainers. 

Now that we’ve addressed the basics, it’s time to dig a little deeper. So the monthly fee you pay varies from one design subscription to another. But what are some standard elements covered in this monthly fee and what are the variables that often influence the actual price you pay every month? 

Understanding Unlimited Design Service Pricing – What’s Typically Included in Your Monthly Fee

Unlimited design requests 

10 requests or 100 requests, the number is totally up to you. Unlimited design services do not charge you extra for every new request you submit. This is in contrast with the per-project pricing with many design agencies. 

Most services use a queue system where you can keep adding tasks as your design needs grow. Designers work through them one request at a time or many based on your plan limits, but you are free to keep submitting new ideas, revisions, or fresh design briefs without worrying about additional charges.

Unlimited revisions 

Another standard feature that is part of the unlimited design service pricing is unlimited revisions. If your design needs change or if the design delivered does not meet your expectations, you can always request revisions and only approve a design when you feel that it accurately captures your idea. 

Unlike traditional design collaborations, where there is a cap on the number of revisions you can request, unlimited design services allow you to experiment with new ideas, rework them or start fresh if required, irrespective of the number of iterations it takes. 

Source files 

Lack of clarity in terms of ownership of the designs is one hurdle several businesses face when collaborating with external designers or design teams. But that risk is averted when you work with unlimited design services as source files are part of what’s included in your monthly fee. 

Why does this matter? When you have the source files, you can edit your designs in the future without having to rely on the same design team for updates. 

Access to stock assets 

Many unlimited design services also include access to stock photos, icons, and other creative assets through licensed libraries. This ensures that you do not have to pay extra for premium stock assets. 

For instance, when you choose a KIMP Graphics subscription, 50 stock assets from premium stock photo sites ($80 value) are included in your monthly fee. 

7 Common Variables That Affect Unlimited Design Service Pricing  

When you choose any unlimited design service, there might be several plans to compare. But what really varies between the plans is what we are discussing now. But once you choose a plan, the price remains the same month after month. So, the real question is about weighing what each plan offers and understanding what features are worth paying extra for. 

1. Dedicated design team 

Unlimited design services remove the hassle of comparing portfolios and identifying the right designer for your project. But what differs is that some plans rely on a shared pool of designers who are assigned to your project based on your requirements. In such cases, there might be a Project Manager who reviews your requests and assigns the right designer for your needs or an automated system that does this. 

For instance, Penji only assigns a dedicated design team to the Agency plan that costs $1497/month. The entry-level plans miss out on this advantage. ManyPixels also reserves dedicated designers for its higher-tier plans, while lower plans operate with a shared design pool. 

So, in such cases, how much you’ll be paying per month depends on whether you need a dedicated design team for all your projects, for visual consistency or if you can work with a shared pool of designers. 

2. Creative oversight 

The other variable that impacts unlimited design service pricing in some cases is creative oversight. While some entry-level plans simply focus on executing the design tasks you submit, higher-tier plans may include roles like project managers, art directors, or creative leads who oversee the work. 

They help review design briefs, clarify requirements, and ensure that the final output aligns with your brand guidelines and campaign goals. In short, they act as a bridge between you and the designers, helping streamline communication and reducing the back-and-forth that can happen during revisions. This creative oversight can make a big difference for solopreneurs looking to carve their brand identity in a competitive space or even marketing agencies managing multiple brands. 

For example, with Delesign, a dedicated Project Manager is only available with the Enterprise Plan. With Design Pickle, to add a Production Coordinator and Art Director to your team for creative oversight, you need to spend an additional $2399/month and with Flocksy, a Production Coordinator is assigned to your projects only when you choose 4+ daily hours and an Art Director when you choose 6+ daily hours. 

Services like Kapa99, Draftss and KIMP assign a dedicated creative team and project manager with all plans, making the plans a better value. 

3. Number of active requests 

Unlimited design services allow you to submit as many requests as you want. But the number of designs that can be worked on at the same time depends on the plan you choose. This is often referred to as “active requests”. 

In most cases, the unlimited design service pricing is such that the lower-tier plans allow just one active request. Designers complete that task and any revisions before moving on to the next item in your queue. So, your work flows in a serial queue. 

Higher-tier plans increase this limit. This allows multiple requests to be worked on simultaneously so teams can move through their design backlog faster. This can significantly increase the design output volume every month. The monthly subscription cost nearly doubles when you choose 2 active requests. 

For instance, Draftss has two different prices for its plans when you choose 1 active request or 2 active requests. The Build plan, which costs $1390/month for 1 active request, costs $2490/month when you need 2 active requests. 

So if your business regularly needs multiple designs across campaigns, channels, or brands, choose a plan with more active requests to increase your design output. For such requirements, a service that supports multiple active requests with all plans makes a more cost-effective decision, like KIMP (3 active requests with KIMP Graphics, 2 with KIMP Video and 5 with KIMP Graphics + Video plans).  

4. Daily hours 

Another factor that can influence the subscription cost is the number of hours allocated to your account each day. Instead of strictly defining how many requests can be active at once, some services structure their plans around how much time designers spend working on your projects. 

In this model, your requests are still added to a queue. But the speed at which they move forward depends on the number of design hours included in your plan. More hours mean faster progress and the ability to handle larger or more complex projects within the same timeframe. But more hours are available at higher costs. 

Design Pickle and Flocksy are two popular services with monthly subscription costs that depend on the daily hours you require. So, how much you pay month after month depends on how many hours you want your design team to allocate to your projects every day. 

5. Design scope 

A prominent detail that influences the differences between plans offered by an unlimited design service is the design scope. Some plans cover illustrations and others don’t. Some cover presentations and others don’t. A more common differentiator is the inclusion or exclusion of motion graphics design and video editing. 

For instance, KIMP’s plans are known for their straightforward, tier-free pricing. Comparing KIMP’s plans is as easy as deciding whether you need graphic designs or motion graphics or both. 

If you only need graphic designs, the KIMP Graphics plan covers them (illustrations, presentations, brand identity, web/app/UI design and most other categories a brand or marketing team needs). Or if you need help designing short videos or editing raw footage, the KIMP Video plan covers it all (video editing, cinemagraphs, testimonial videos, explainer videos and more). If you need both running in parallel workflows that do not impact each other, choose the KIMP Graphics + Video plan. It’s as simple as that. 

So, the other major question you need to ask yourself in order to understand how much monthly design subscription you will be paying is what types of designs you need for your brand. 

6. Number of brands 

While most unlimited design services support multiple brand profiles, some impose limits on the number you can add depending on the plan you choose. Many businesses only need designs for one brand, but agencies and growing companies often manage multiple brands, products, or sub-brands at the same time.

To maintain consistency, unlimited design services usually allow you to upload brand guidelines, logos, color palettes, fonts, and other assets into brand profiles. Designers then refer to these profiles when creating new designs. However, some providers limit the number of brand profiles included in lower-tier plans. 

KIMP supports unlimited brand profiles with all plans. However, Penji only supports up to 5 brands with the Business plan and to gain access to unlimited brand profiles, you need the Agency or Marketing & Ads plans. Draftss, Graphically, and Flocksy are other services that support multiple brands with all plans. 

7. Turnaround time 

In some cases, the speed at which your design requests are completed depends on the plan you choose and the monthly fee you pay. Some services have standard turnaround times that depend more on the complexity of your design request rather than the plan you choose. So you do not have to pay more to get your designs faster. 

However, with services like ManyPixels, the turnaround time for most simple designs depends on the monthly fee. For instance, their Advanced plan comes with 1-2 day delivery while the Dedicated Designer and Design Team plans come with same day delivery. 

So if your team needs designs completed quickly for seasonal campaigns, product launches, or time-sensitive marketing activities, you will be choosing a plan with faster turnaround times at a higher monthly price.

Unlimited Design Service Pricing: FAQs

Ready to Simplify Your Design Costs? 

Understanding how unlimited design service pricing works makes it much easier to choose the right plan for your business. While the monthly fee may look similar across providers, the real value lies in the details, things like the number of active requests, design scope, turnaround time, and the level of creative support included. 

These nuances also help you compare plans offered by an unlimited design service to know what monthly fee actually makes sense for your business. 

Remember, the goal isn’t just to find the cheapest plan, but to find one that consistently delivers the design output your team needs and fits into your design workflow effortlessly.

If you’re looking for a straightforward pricing model with a dedicated design team, unlimited requests, and support for both graphic and video design, KIMP offers flexible plans designed for growing businesses and marketing teams. 

You can get started today and explore how the service works with KIMP’s 7-day free trial. Sign up now!