Eleken Pricing Model Explained

What are the most common pricing models? In the majority of design agencies, you would be charged a fixed price, paid upfront or split into two parts, or per-hour charge (time and materials). 

Both models have proven efficiency in design-related tasks. We have used them as well at the beginning of our practice. Later, when we started working with SaaS exclusively, we discovered another pricing model: the time-based retainer model.

At Eleken, the pricing is very simple: clients pay a fixed amount every month. We assign each client designer(s) working on their project full-time. Basically, it is a subscription-based product designer.

Most SaaS businesses use a subscription-based model, which means having a recurring monthly (in some cases yearly) income. What we realized from our experience working with SaaS is that this model works best for clients and the design agency  as well.

Having a designer working on your project full-time for a fixed monthly fee sounds a lot like… hiring a full-time designer. What is the point of using agency services then?

• Save time. The hiring process is often long, exhausting, and requires a dedicated HR professional. We find you a designer experienced in SaaS and you can start working the next day. Plus, direct collaboration with designers ensures quick delivery and faster iteration compared to traditional agency workflows.
• Save money. You don’t have to care about social security, insurance, work benefits, or other overhead costs associated with hiring a full-time designer. We handle those operational details so your team can focus on building the product.
• Get the best talent. There’s no way to avoid risk during the hiring process. With us, the risk is minimized. We only work with professional UI/UX designers who have experience in SaaS. There are no freelancers. Our designers work in a team, share their work and get advice from colleagues.
• Insurance for any design-related accidents, like a designer quitting for a better offer, the fuss of finding a new employee, and all the other things that might happen. In case our designer quits, we will onboard another qualified professional from our team and provide a seamless transfer that won’t affect your project.
• Flexibility. You can change the size of the team at any moment without the pain of the firing/hiring process.
• Free trial. 3 days of working with our designer on your project. After that, you can decide if you want to proceed or leave. No registration or card required.

That is what you get by paying a monthly subscription at Eleken. But what if one project takes less than a month?

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For this, we have weekly sprints. Similar to the monthly subscription, this is a shorter commitment for smaller projects. Also, weekly sprints are perfect at the end of a months-long project when only a few things are left to finish. The next question that might come is:

Product design: How do I know how long the work will take?

There is no definite amount of time that is optimal for product design. We can estimate the period of time needed based on our experience, but we strictly follow the pay-per-month rule. Working closely with our designers, clients know perfectly well that things that need to take time, well, take time.

Our work follows a structured product design process:

1. Trial: 1–2 screens designed during the free trial.
2. Research and UX audit: product discovery and competitor analysis.
3. Screens design: information architecture and wireframes, web design, and mobile app design.
4. UI design: multiple visual directions and prototypes.
5. Design handoff: full UI kit and design system for developers.
6. Ongoing support : new features, UX consulting, and iteration.

Pricing strategy: How do fixed-price agencies know exactly how long it will take and how much it will cost? 

The most common formula for calculation is as follows: take an average amount of hours spent on a similar project previously, multiply it by 1,5 (or 2), add all the overhead costs, and there you get it. And if the project requires more iterations than usual, an additional bill is likely to come.

That is what makes UI/UX design costs often high and unpredictable. However, our monthly charges are not subject to change and are easy to fit SaaS companies and the client's budget. This approach helps SaaS teams plan their budgets confidently, without worrying that the agency will raise prices midway through the project.

Often our design process ends up being faster than fixed-price because the team works directly with Eleken designers skipping the intermediation through project managers on the agency side. That way, the direct communication, and feedback are constant and lead to a more productive workflow.

SaaS pricing: How is the business model connected to design quality?

There’s no discussion about the fact that good design takes time. What some people don’t understand is that user-oriented design takes time again and again. And it’s for good. We believe that design is a process, not an event.

Here is what it means in reality: the initial version of the design turns out great but it is never perfect. We run usability tests and discover space for improvement. We make improvements and test all over again. Each iteration has the potential to make the product more user-friendly. 

When the product is launched, we get feedback from a large number of users. That feedback often comes from real customers and paid customers, whose behavior and expectations reveal what needs improvement in the product. The product is out and running for a while, and then we get information from the support team and see what needs to be changed again.

All these changes do not mean that the initial product was not good in the first place. These updates are not about changing the whole user interface. Still, however slight these changes are, they matter a lot.

When you work with a design agency on a fixed price basis, each of these upgrades would have a new, unpredictable price. What is more important, some of these updates would not even happen because there wouldn’t be a person in your team following the whole process from the design point of view and monitor user feedback design-wise. 

At Eleken, you know exactly how much you will pay each month and follow designers’ work constantly. Each iteration is under your control.

That’s a lot about how we work, but what about the results?

Over the years, Eleken has completed 200+ design projects for SaaS companies across industries such as AI, data analytics, fintech, healthcare, and developer tools. Our approach has helped many SaaS companies improve their products and deliver better experiences for their customers.

Here are a few examples:

• SEOcrawl experienced huge growth, scaling from 0 to more than 2,000 users after improving its product design.
• Zaplify doubled its activation rate.
• Datawisp raised $3.6M in funding.
• Floret secured a $2.3M investment round.

Want to see how we helped these companies achieve those results? Take a look at our case studies. 

Experience our design services with a risk-free trial

Here comes the best part of our pricing model. Like many SaaS companies, we offer a free trial to prospective clients. You can get three days of work with one of our designers for free and then decide if you want to continue. As easy and awesome as it sounds.

The process is simple:

Step 1: Kick-off call: We discuss your product, goals, and design needs.

Step 2: Screen design: Our designer creates key screens based on your product requirements and gathers your feedback.

Step 3: Design presentation: We present the final screens in Figma, explain our design decisions, and discuss possible next steps if we continue working together.

The trial is designed to be quick and informative, giving you a deep understanding of our process and more value we can bring to your product before making any commitment.

Why Eleken’s pricing model works for SaaS companies

Product design is an ongoing process of research, testing, iteration, and improvement. That’s why traditional fixed-price design projects often fall short for SaaS companies that constantly release new features and refine their products.

Eleken’s subscription-based pricing model solves this problem by giving teams predictable pricing and continuous access to experienced SaaS designers. Instead of negotiating new contracts for every design update, companies can focus on improving their product while working closely with a dedicated designer who understands their platform.

If you're building or improving a SaaS product, the best way to see how our process works is simple: start with the 3-day free trial and experience our design approach firsthand.

And if you have any questions, we'd love to answer them! Please drop us a line.