Below, each option is worked out with sources, and at the end there's a rule of thumb to help you choose. All prices exclude VAT (25.5% in Finland).
The short answer: four options side by side
What does an in-house designer cost?
The average graphic designer salary in Finland's private sector is about €3,519 a month (Duunitori, 2024 salary data). For the business, that's only the starting point:
The table leaves out one-off costs. Recruiting takes weeks, and a new hire spends their first months learning your brand. During summer holidays, design stops for about five weeks.
Pros: the designer is part of the team, knows the product inside out and is always around.
Cons: the most expensive option, worth it only if there's work for every day. The skill set is limited to one person's strengths.
What does a freelance designer cost?
Freelancers usually charge by the hour or per project. Grafia's industry study, from the Finnish association of graphic designers, put the average rate for creative graphic design at about €84 an hour (2019 figures). In Germany, freelance graphic designers averaged about €82 an hour in October 2025 (freelancermap), so the level has held roughly steady.
Example: if a three-size ad set takes four to six hours, a freelancer bills about €340-500 for it. Ten jobs like that in a month already comes to €3,400-5,000.
Pros: the cheapest way to get a single job done, and you only pay for what you order.
Cons: good freelancers have other clients, so their schedule shapes yours. Every project starts with a new brief and a new quote.
What does an agency cost?
Agency rates are higher because they include account management, project management and strategy. In the same Grafia study, a mid-sized communications agency charged about €129 an hour and a large digital agency about €140 (2019 figures).
Pros: at their best on a big campaign that needs concept, media planning, shoots and production from one place.
Cons: heavy and expensive for everyday design like social templates and ad variations. Even a small change can mean a new quote.
What does a design subscription cost?
With a design subscription you pay a flat monthly fee and get an unlimited queue of requests. At EP Creative:
- Standard €2,490 / month: one request in progress at a time, unlimited requests and revisions, delivery in about two working days
- Pro €4,490 / month: two requests at once, priority queue and a monthly strategy call
- Founding offer €1,990 / month for the first three clients, for six months
The price stays the same whether your queue holds two requests or twenty. You can pause or cancel anytime, and if it doesn't feel right within the first 14 days, you get 75% back.
Pros: a predictable monthly cost, a same-day start and a consistent look, since everything comes from the same designer.
Cons: requests are worked on one at a time (two on Pro), so a sudden rush won't all land at once. For a single occasional job, a subscription is overkill.
When is a subscription cheaper than a freelancer?
Rule of thumb: if you need more than about 30 hours of design a month, a design subscription costs less than a freelancer. The math is simple: €2,490 divided by €84 is about 30 hours. Against an agency, the break-even is around 18 hours (€2,490 / €135).
Compared with an in-house designer, Standard costs about half, and your company doesn't become an employer.
Hours add up faster than most people expect. A weekly social pack, a monthly ad campaign and a couple of decks can easily take 30 hours a month.
Which option is right for you?
- Freelancer when you need a one-off job now and then, like a logo now and maybe the next thing next year.
- Agency when there's a big campaign ahead, from concept to media.
- In-house designer when there's a full working week of design and the designer needs to sit in your team.
- Design subscription when you need design every week across several channels but don't want to hire.
Plenty of companies mix these. An agency can run the big campaign of the year while a subscription keeps everyday content moving around it.
FAQ
How much does a graphic designer charge per hour?
In Finland, freelance graphic designers typically charge around €80-90 an hour excluding VAT. Grafia's study put the average for creative work at €84. Agencies charge more, roughly €129-140.
How much does it cost to hire a graphic designer?
About €4,600-4,900 a month, once you add statutory employer costs, holiday bonus and equipment to the average salary of about €3,519. Recruiting and onboarding come on top.
What do employer costs include in Finland?
Pension contributions, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and accident and group life insurance. In 2026 they add up to roughly 20% of salary, most of it pension.
Should I hire a designer or buy design as a service?
Hiring makes sense when there's a full working week of design every week. If your needs are smaller but steady, a design subscription or a freelancer costs less, and you take on no employer obligations.
Do these prices include VAT?
No. All prices in this article exclude VAT. With Finnish VAT (25.5%), €2,490 comes to about €3,125. VAT-registered businesses can usually deduct it.
Sources
- Duunitori: Graphic designer salary (2024 salary data, private sector)
- Veronmaksajat: Health insurance contributions 2026
- Ilmarinen: Social insurance contributions and limits 2026
- Grafia: Industry study (hourly rates, 2019 figures)
- freelancermap: Graphic designer hourly rates (Freelancer-Kompass, October 2025)
These figures are estimates. Actual costs depend on the collective agreement, the pension provider and the designer's experience.
Updated 2 November 2026