“How much for a logo?” is the question I get more than any other. The honest answer is that it depends, but that’s a frustrating thing to hear when you’re trying to budget. So let me give you real numbers instead.
I’ve been designing brands for 20 years, for everyone from local businesses around Dunstable to names like Holland & Barrett and Dr. Martens. Prices range from nothing to tens of thousands of pounds, and the gap between those numbers is mostly about what you’re actually buying. Here’s what each tier gets you, and where I think the sensible spend sits for a small business.
The Four Price Tiers, Explained
Most logo work falls into one of four bands. The price isn’t random. It tracks how much thinking, how many revisions, and how much usable kit you walk away with.
| Option | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| DIY (Canva, AI tools) | £0 – £30 | A file you made yourself, no strategy, shared templates |
| Marketplace (Fiverr, 99designs) | £5 – £250 | Fast turnaround, often clip-art based, limited revisions |
| Freelance designer | £400 – £1,500 | Custom mark, proper files, a real conversation about your brand |
| Branding agency | £3,000 – £30,000+ | Full identity system, strategy, guidelines, a team |
DIY and AI tools (£0 to £30)
Canva and the new wave of AI logo generators are genuinely useful for a quick placeholder, or if you’re testing an idea before you commit. I won’t pretend otherwise.
The problem is everyone else has access to the same templates and the same generators. You end up with something that looks fine in isolation but blends into a sea of near-identical marks. There’s no strategy behind it, no thought about how it holds up at tiny sizes or on a van or embroidered on a polo shirt. For a side project, fine. For a business you want people to remember, it’s a false economy.
Marketplaces (£5 to £250)
Fiverr and similar sites are cheap and quick, which is the whole appeal. You’ll get something in a few days.
What you often don’t get is originality. A lot of budget marketplace logos lean on stock icons that have been sold a hundred times over, so you can end up sharing your “unique” mark with a plumber in Leeds and a cafe in Cardiff. Revisions are usually capped, communication can be tricky, and you rarely get the full set of files you’ll need later. It can work if you brief carefully and check the seller’s real portfolio, but go in with your eyes open.
Freelance designer (£400 to £1,500)
This is where most small and growing businesses land, and for good reason. You get a custom mark drawn for your business specifically, a proper back-and-forth about what your brand stands for, and a full pack of files (vector, web, black and white, the lot) that actually works everywhere.
You’re also working directly with the person doing the design, so nothing gets lost in a chain of account managers. For a business in Dunstable, this is usually the sweet spot between cost and quality.
Branding agency (£3,000 and up)
Agencies earn their fees on bigger projects: a full identity system, brand strategy, naming, tone of voice, detailed guidelines, and a team to execute it across dozens of touchpoints. If you’re a funded startup or an established company doing a serious rebrand, that investment makes sense.
For a local business or an early-stage company, it’s usually overkill. You’d be paying for capacity you don’t need yet.
What This Means If You’re Hiring in Dunstable
Dunstable is a market town, so most of the logo work I get asked about here is for shops, trades and hospitality businesses along the high street or on one of the local retail parks, not funded startups planning a full rebrand. That’s exactly the profile the freelance tier is built for.
The default instinct for a lot of Dunstable business owners is to search a marketplace site rather than look for someone local, mostly because they don’t realise a freelance designer working nearby is an option and assume it means agency prices. In practice you get the same price bracket as the marketplace tier’s better end, without the shared stock icons and capped revisions, and you get to sit down and actually explain your business to the person drawing your logo.
Why Cheap Logos Often Cost More
Here’s the part nobody tells you when you’re chasing the lowest price. A cheap logo frequently gets redone within a year or two, which means you pay twice.
I’ve lost count of the rebrands I’ve done where the brief was basically “we went cheap the first time and now it’s holding us back.” The signs are always the same: the logo only exists as a low-res JPG so it pixelates when printed, it falls apart at small sizes, it looks dated already, or it turns out someone else owns something almost identical.
Then there’s the knock-on cost. Once a logo is out in the world, it’s on your signage, your packaging, your website, your social profiles, your business cards. Changing it later means changing all of that too. Getting it right the first time is almost always cheaper than getting it wrong cheaply.
What Actually Drives the Price
If two designers quote you wildly different numbers, the difference usually comes down to a handful of things:
- Originality. A custom mark drawn from scratch takes longer than dropping in a stock icon, and it’s worth more.
- Number of concepts and revisions. More options and more rounds means more time.
- Deliverables. A single PNG is one thing. A full kit with vectors, variations, favicons and a one-page guideline is another.
- Strategy. Some of the cost is the thinking that happens before any drawing starts: who you are, who you’re for, what makes you different.
- Experience. Twenty years of knowing what works and what dies on contact with the real world is part of what you’re paying for.
How I Approach Logo Projects
When someone hires me for a logo, the first thing I do is ask questions, not open my design software. I want to understand the business, the customers, the competitors, and what you actually need the logo to do.
From there you get a small set of considered concepts rather than fifty throwaway options, a couple of revision rounds to refine the chosen direction, and a complete file pack so you’re never stuck because you only have the wrong format. If you want the full picture of what’s included, have a look at my logo and branding service.
It’s also worth reading what actually makes a good logo before you commission one, so you know what to look for in the work you get back.
So What Should You Budget?
For most small businesses, I’d say budget somewhere in the £400 to £1,500 range and work with a freelance designer. You’ll get something original, properly built, and made specifically for you, without paying agency rates for capacity you don’t need.
If you’re weighing up the bigger picture of going freelance versus an agency for all your design work, I wrote a separate guide on freelancer versus agency that goes deeper.
If you’re a business in Dunstable, or nearby in Luton or St Albans, and you’d like an honest quote for a logo, get in touch. Tell me a bit about what you do and I’ll come back with a realistic price and timeline. The first chat is free, there’s no obligation and no hard sell, and I reply to every enquiry within a day.
You can also reach me directly at me@louislantos.com or on 01582 206160.