26/01/2026
Subscription vs In-House: ditch the drain
We recently stress-tested our subscription model against building in-house.
Below is a transparent breakdown of our findings – shared to help you notice what really matters when choosing a design setup.
⚠️ In-house designers in Europe earn a base salary of €45K–€60K, with an additional 20–30% typically spent on taxes, benefits, tools, training, office space, and recruitment – bringing the total to €60K–€85K per designer yearly.
❇️ Subscriptions range from €2K to €6K monthly – no hidden fees.
total yearly cost starts at just €24K for a full design team – making it a radically leaner alternative to in-house hires.
⚠️ Scaling with in-house teams often means long hiring cycles, limited flexibility during shifts in workload, and high fixed costs – even when projects slow down or team members are unavailable due to vacations, turnover, or burnout.
❇️ Choose the load that fits your business (40, 80, or 160 hours/month). Scale up or down as needed. No additional contracts, no overheads, just outcomes.
⚠️ In-house limits skills to a few hires, hindering pivots like UX to motion graphics.
❇️ Subscriptions give senior teams in UX/UI, graphics, branding, GTM, plus a design lead, PM, fully covered by us.
⚠️ In-house timelines often vary depending on availability and research depth – with turnarounds typically stretching to 2–3 weeks and limited capacity for quick iteration.
❇️ Subscriptions deliver in 24–72 hours via sprints, unlimited feedback, and simple dashboards.
⚠️ Limited exposure – experience is typically tied to a narrow set of industries and products
❇️ Subscriptions leverage collective experience from SaaS, B2B, B2C, eCom, FinTech, and beyond. Best practices and sharp thinking built into every deliverable.
Flying Age helps product teams scale smart. Ready to reduce overhead and get consistent senior-level design? Start here.
