In-House vs Design Subscription Services in 2025: Which Option Will Deliver ROI for Your Business?

You need design help. A lot of it.

One week it’s ads. The next, a landing page. Then a sales deck. A quick app screen. A pitch for the CEO. Something always comes up.

Now you’re asking: should we hire a designer or try one of those design subscription services?

This blog helps you figure that out.

We’ll break down:

• The pros and cons of in-house design
• The benefits of design subscriptions
• What you get, what it costs, and what to expect
• When to outsource and when not to

No fluff. No confusion. Just clear answers for your team.

What Are Design Subscription Services?

Design subscription services are monthly plans that give you access to designers. You pay a flat fee. You get unlimited design work. It’s like having a designer on call, but without hiring full-time.

Most use async tools like Trello or Notion. You submit a task. They work on it. You get the file back in 1–2 days.

These services offer fast, on-demand graphic design solutions like:

• Ads
• Social posts
• Slide decks
• Website graphics
• Landing pages
• Icons and illustrations

They’re built for design services for businesses that want speed, variety, and flat pricing.

What Kind of Design Work Can You Request?

You can request many types of graphic design solutions, including:

• Display ads
• Social media posts
• One-pagers and pitch decks
• Landing page mockups
• Email banners and headers
• Blog graphics and illustrations
• Icons and web assets

Some services also offer:

• Basic branding support
• Web and mobile UI design
• Ebooks or PDFs

But not all services cover everything. Most skip motion design, video, and complex UX research. They're best for high-volume, repeatable graphic work.

Who Does the Work?

The designers may be:

• Assigned to you full-time (dedicated)
• Part of a rotating pool (shared team)

In both cases, they follow your brand guidelines and design requests. Some platforms let you speak directly to the designer. Others are task-based only.

With good briefs and clear examples, the output improves fast over time.

What Is In-House Design?

In-house design means hiring a full-time employee. This person works only on your brand. You manage them, train them, and pay their salary and benefits.

They’re part of your meetings. They sit in on strategy. They know your product, your tone, your team.

This model works well if you need deeper brand work, custom product design, or real-time design support.

Here’s what it usually looks like:

• You hire a graphic designer first.
• Then maybe a UI/UX designer.
• Then a brand designer.
• Later, a design manager.

As your team grows, your in-house design setup becomes a full department. Some teams even build pods one designer for each department or region.

What Can They Handle?

In-house design teams work on:

• Brand systems
• Website design and UI
• Mobile app visuals
• Decks, emails, banners
• Internal design assets (docs, dashboards, templates)

Since they’re fully embedded, they also help with:

• Strategy discussions
• Feedback loops with product and sales
• Live changes in working sessions

They can see how things are used. They get feedback in real time. They work closely with content writers, developers, and founders.

What’s the Setup Like?

To get the most from an in-house design team, you’ll need:

• Time to hire and onboard them
• Clear roles and structure
• A creative lead or design manager to guide quality
• Workflows between teams (PM, marketing, content, product)

Without these, even the best designers can get stuck in misaligned priorities.

Who Should Consider In-House Design?

Go in-house if:

• Your brand is growing fast
• You ship product updates often
• You run many internal projects that need design
• You want your designers to join meetings and strategy calls
• You’re ready to invest in long-term team building

Hiring is slower. Costs are higher. But the benefit is depth, ownership, and full brand control.

Quick Comparison: Design Team vs. Subscription

Here’s a simple breakdown.

Let’s Go Deeper

Speed: Who Delivers Faster?

• In-house design starts fast, but backlog builds up.
• With only one or two designers, requests pile up during busy times.
• Design subscription services focus on quick turnarounds.
• You get results in 24–48 hours per task.
• Need faster delivery? Upgrade to more output lanes.

For frequent, smaller tasks, design subscription services are faster. For complex projects, in-house design can move faster once onboarded.

Cost: What’s More Affordable?

• In-house design is a long-term cost:
  • $60K–$100K per year per designer
  • Add taxes, tools, onboarding
  • Don’t forget paid time off, benefits, raises
• Design subscription services start as low as $1,000/month
  • No hiring
  • No overhead
  • Pause or cancel anytime

If you want flexible design services for businesses without a full-time salary, subscriptions are better for budget control.

Collaboration: Who Fits Better With Your Team?

• In-house design works best for real-time collaboration
  • Instant Slack messages
  • Live meetings
  • Design sprints
• Design subscription services are async
  • You write a brief
  • You wait for delivery

Need a designer in daily calls? Go in-house. Okay with task-based async delivery? Use subscriptions.

Brand Consistency: Who Understands Your Style?

• In-house designers learn your tone fast
  • They use your assets
  • They follow your team’s workflow
• Subscription designers start slower
  • But with good brand docs, they catch up
  • Many platforms offer dedicated designers for better alignment

In-house design nails brand faster. But you can still get strong consistency from subscriptions with the right input.

Range of Skills: Who Gives You More Options?

• In-house designers are usually strong in 1–2 areas
  • Great at product visuals or ads, but maybe not both
• Design subscription services often support:
  • Ads
  • Decks
  • Web UI
  • Logos
  • Social media

For broader graphic design solutions, subscriptions give you more range.

Benefits of Design Subscriptions

Still unsure? Here’s why companies are shifting to design subscription services:

• Fast Start: Get design help in 24–48 hours. No hiring delays.
• Flat Cost: No surprise bills. Easy to budget.
• Easy to Scale: Add volume when campaigns pick up.
• Async Friendly: Works across time zones.
• Low Risk: Pause when you don’t need it.

Best for:

• Startups
• Agencies
• SaaS teams that need creative team outsourcing

Pros and Cons of In-House Design

Let’s keep it real.

Pros

• Deeper brand knowledge
• Part of your internal team
• Instant feedback and edits
• Supports cross-functional projects

Cons

• High cost and slow hiring
• Limited bandwidth
• Not easy to scale for sudden needs

Best for:

• Large companies
• Brands needing high-touch design
• Product-led teams with daily design work

When to Outsource Your Company’s Design Work

Not sure whether to go with in-house design or a design subscription service?

This section will help you decide fast.

Start with this checklist. If most of these are true for your team, outsourcing your design work is a better fit.

You need 3–5 designs every week

Your marketing team is always launching something paid ads, webinars, lead magnets, sales emails, blog posts, LinkedIn carousels.

That means you constantly need graphic design solutions.

If your internal team can't keep up with the pace, or if you're creating more content than usual, then design subscription services are a faster and more flexible solution.

They’re built for speed and scale perfect for teams that move fast.

You’re running ad campaigns every month

Performance teams burn through creative fast. What worked last month won’t work this month. You need new versions, quick iterations, and fresh ideas to test.

If you're spending on paid ads, but not refreshing your designs often, you're leaving results on the table.

This is where design subscription services shine they can produce multiple ad versions in a week, without slowing your team down.

Your internal design team is at capacity

Even if you already have an in-house design team, there's a limit to how much they can handle.

If they're stuck in meetings, long-term product work, or strategy sessions, they may not have time for daily design requests from other departments.

Rather than burn them out or say no to the work use a design subscription service to handle the overflow.

It gives your team breathing room and keeps your pipeline moving.

You want to test new formats or ideas before hiring

Not sure if you need a full-time motion designer? Want to test ebooks or LinkedIn carousels for the first time? Don’t hire just yet.

A design subscription service lets you test formats and content styles with less risk. You get real results without committing to long-term roles or contracts.

If the format works, you can later decide if it's worth hiring for.

If most of the above are true, it's time to outsource at least for now.

But that’s not the full picture.

You also need to think about how your team works day to day.

Design Service Comparison in Real Scenarios

Scenario A: New SaaS Startup You have no designer, but you need a homepage revamp, 3 sales decks, and ad creatives.

→ Start with a design subscription service. It’s fast and cost-effective.

Scenario B: Mid-size B2B Brand You already have a brand designer, but they’re overloaded.

→ Add a subscription team for speed. Keep strategy in-house.

Scenario C: Product-Led Company Design is core to your roadmap. You ship features every two weeks.

→ Go with in-house design. You need deep collaboration.

Conclusion

You don’t need to pick one forever.

Start with what works now.

If you want flexibility, speed, and cost control, design subscription services are a solid bet. If you want real-time collaboration, brand depth, and daily design support, choose in-house design.

You can also combine both.

Many smart companies use internal designers for high-impact work and graphic design solutions from a subscription team to clear the backlog.

Know your use case. Then choose the model that keeps your team moving.