Founders are often too focused on redesigning the front-end of their product through a new marketing agency and in turn neglecting the back-end experience for existing customers. This results in an overwhelming amount of potential trial and demo customers dropping off at the dashboard instead of completing an application.
Once your beta has been released and you have a working product with some functionality, you need to start thinking about who will help you develop your future marketing and growth strategy. Many founders will turn to traditional marketing agencies to handle everything from logo design to creating all of the marketing and advertising collateral necessary to promote a new product, rather than hiring specialized saas design agencies. While these agencies may provide attractive graphics and website design, they typically do not have experience in developing or marketing software products.
Many of these agencies are solely focused on the marketing and growth of a product rather than the overall experience. Founders need to understand the importance of finding a vendor that understands their specific needs.
Identify your unique situation before you start reviewing potential vendor portfolios. By doing so, you will significantly reduce the time and effort spent on vetting potential vendors.
Identify Your Delivery Model
Some products are complicated to navigate due to workflow complexity. In these cases, a product UX specialist is needed to simplify the real user flows and create an effective UX design system.
Conversion from demo/trial users to paying customers tends to be low. In this scenario, a growth/web designer would be the best solution. They can assist you with improving your positioning and the clarity of your pricing while preserving your existing SEO traffic.
If you are creating a new product from the ground up, you will need an engineering and strategy partner who can validate your idea and create a maintainable minimum viable product (MVP) after they leave.
Creating a high volume of assets continuously may require a subscription or a dedicated designer model. You will need to establish if your current workload is sufficient to justify the recurring monthly fee.
When modernizing a legacy platform, you will need a UX and technical implementation partner who can redesign the platform in a safe manner while also ensuring proper data migration and user adoption.
15 Best SaaS Design Agencies Evaluated by Proof
The top 15 saas design agencies have been evaluated by proof and delivery model. The detailed breakdowns of the top vendors in the industry are based on their work model, pricing, and actual proof of performance.
1. Cieden
Core Focus: Complex B2B business logic, AI interfaces, enterprise dashboards, and high-density data workflows.
Ideal Buyer: Teams who have regulated, AI-enabled, or data-heavy software products.
Published Pricing: $50-$99 hourly.
Reported Proof: Sitenna (setup time reduced from 24 months to weeks), Lykon (135% increase in NPS score).
Evidence Quality: Strong. The statement that you will reduce project time from 24 months to weeks must be substantiated. Prior to engaging with this organization, you must ask for the baseline information (including deliverables) on the original project you will be working on.
Not a Fit If: You only require a simple brochure website refresh. These solutions are primarily designed for complex logic related to products.
2. Phenomenon Studio
Core Focus: Creating a design centered around regulatory compliance (with respect to HIPAA, GDPR, etc.), performing UX audits, and developing solutions from beginning to end.
Ideal Buyer: Healthcare, education technology companies, and other organizations affected by regulation in need of granular control on user permission levels based on specific roles.
Published Pricing: $50 to $99/hour.
Reported Proof: Isora GRC Platform (increased 2x efficiency of user workflow), AdFlux (launched ad campaigns 60% faster than previously).
Evidence Quality: Reasonable reliability based on standardized design award nomination.
Not a Fit If: You want to work with a company that focuses on the presentation aspect of your website. Phenomenon Studio’s specialty is creating compliance-driven designs focused on regulating data use.
3. ProCreator
Core Focus: Data visualization, design systems, SaaS UX, and mobile/web app development.
Ideal Buyer: Manufacturing analytics, sales intelligence, and HR technology organizations.
Published Pricing: $25 to $49/hour.
Reported Proof: MangOS, Scoop.
Evidence Quality: Portfolio-led. No numeric result is given for user retention improvements.
Not a Fit If: You need heavily quantified, outcome-led evidence.
4. Merge Rocks
Core Focus: SaaS UX/UI, Webflow, and React/Next.js front-end development.
Ideal Buyer: Startups in vertical SaaS that want transparent delivery.
Published Pricing: $25 to $49/hour.
Reported Proof: Lox logistics platform (90% churn decrease).
Evidence Quality: A 90% drop in churn is significantly impactful, but the causes for churn have various sources. Please inquire about the methodology used to establish the isolated impact of the design.
Not a Fit If: A large internal development team is looking for a highly controlled and isolated method to control front-end code.
5. Eleken
Core Focus: Embedded design and continuous UI/UX.
Ideal Buyer: Product development teams seeking to integrate a full-time designer into their workflow without the hassle of a project manager typical to a traditional design.
Published Pricing: Subscription-based services start at $4,599/month (part-time) scaling up to $11,999 (2 full-time designers).
Reported Proof: Hubble Network; SEOcrawl (reported user base increases of over 100% in 2 years).
Evidence Quality: Their very transparent process with respect to publishing is one of the most detailed and verifiable means of auditing UX.
Not a Fit If: You need front-end coding services. This is a purely design-focused agency.
6. Arounda
Core Focus: Branding, UX, website design, and pitch decks.
Ideal Buyer: Funded start-ups within fintech and Web3 that desire their public-facing brand to match their private application.
Published Pricing: $25-$49/hr (some sources may state they are quote-rate only).
Reported Proof: Player's Health (34M funding event), MYSO Finance (15% increase in total users).
Evidence Quality: Many event-funded companies use this as a means of evidence, but as a business, it only indicates clients' growth, not necessarily a measure of design success.
Not a Fit If: You are only wanting to clean up the back-end interface for internal users.
7. Excited!
Core Focus: Motion design, legacy modernization, and product storytelling for investors.
Ideal Buyer: Start-ups looking to upgrade their old codebase to secure funding or impress enterprise-level customers.
Published Pricing: $50-$99/hour.
Reported Proof: XILO ($14 million funding event), Verida ($5 million funding).
Evidence Quality: Strong visual awards. Relies heavily on funding amounts for business proof.
Not a Fit If: You need fast wireframes to test an unproven MVP.
8. StanVision
Core Focus: StanVision primarily focuses on building efficient onboarding flows for businesses using Webflow and conversion-led strategies to maximize online conversions.
Ideal Buyer: StanVision is ideal for B2B companies that have trouble converting users into paying customers as a result of showing low sign-up rates or having trouble with early product activation campaigns.
Published Pricing: StanVision charges between $50-$99/hour for their development services.
Reported Proof: StanVision has numerous clients and individual projects that have shown up to 12X increases in website traffic and 4.5X more sign-ups using their onboarding flow strategies and conversion-led design approaches.
Evidence Quality: StanVision has produced strong evidence using very specific growth metrics from their clients such as Primer and GoAudience. These very specific growth metrics provide a high degree of confidence that these numbers are valid. However, you should verify the corresponding context regarding each client's website traffic quality prior to making a decision on whether or not to hire StanVision.
Not a Fit If: StanVision may not be a fit for engineers who require building enterprise-level dashboards using React.
9. CodeTheorem
Core Focus: CodeTheorem offers build services for companies on a tight budget and builds, designs, and develops using an affordable full-cycle approach, including keyword optimization and AI development. They also specialize in multi-tenant systems.
Ideal Buyer: CodeTheorem is ideal for bootstrap founders that require full-cycle build services (architecture, interface, engineering) in one location.
Published Pricing: CodeTheorem offers build services for under $25/hour (you may wish to verify their pricing as some sites show they only provide quotes).
Reported Proof: CodeTheorem has numerous examples of clients and projects where they used CodeTheorem to achieve significant increases in keyword rankings. An example would be Scraping Dog with a 30% increase.
Evidence Quality: When reviewing CodeTheorem's work, you will find that the speed at which they build projects is an important factor for a business creating an online presence. While they do have a great deal of claims regarding the number of clients they have assisted, they also do not have enough SEO claims to establish the same SEO baseline context for their clients.
Not a Fit If: If you are well-established and you require premium Figma files, CodeTheorem is not a suitable fit for you.
10. Goji Labs
Core Focus: Goji Labs primarily develops a strategic vision and plan for new businesses to launch products that are typically unproven.
Ideal Buyer: Goji Labs serves as a great resource for business owners who are not technical and require the product they are planning to develop.
Published Pricing: $100 to $149 per hour.
Evidence Quality: The success of an agency's projects is determined by its financial position in relation to its clients.
Not a Fit If: You need quick turnaround on a visual update. The company's discovery phase requires significant planning and strategic thinking.
11. MetaLab
Core Focus: Focused on providing high-quality interface designs for large-scale businesses.
Ideal Buyer: Large established technology companies that have a lot of funding to put towards creating high-quality visual designs.
Published Pricing: Starting at $100,000 or more per project.
Reported Proof: The company reported a 68% increase in revenue at Upwork.
Evidence Quality: They have an elite portfolio, but increasing revenue by 68% for a company of this size is affected by a variety of business variables.
Not a Fit If: You are on a budget and/or want to test a raw concept affordably.
12. Superside
Core Focus: Provides subscription-based creative assets (including ads, landing pages) and has a high volume of production.
Ideal Buyer: Marketing teams at large companies that require continuous creative output and speed.
Published Pricing: Monthly subscriptions range from $5,000 to $15,000 and up depending on volume and software costs.
Reported Proof: Shopify (4,300 assets quickly delivered), Boomi (24% engagement on LinkedIn).
Evidence Quality: Incredible operational speed and volume metrics; an excellent example of successful scaling of marketing execution.
Not a Fit If: You need to create complex software architecture or dashboard design.
13. Bop Design
Core Focus: Creates B2B marketing web pages, is SEO-savvy, and uses WordPress to generate leads.
Ideal Buyer: B2B marketing teams that need more demo requests (leads) and organic search traffic to their pre-login pages.
Published Pricing: $25,000 to $75,000+ per project.
Reported Proof: MediKeeper (4x more qualified leads), Viedoc (100% increase in conversion rate).
Evidence Quality: Excellent and highly specific lead-generation metrics.
Not a Fit If: You need to create an app for post-login access, as they specialize in WordPress and lead generation.
14. ManyPixels
Core Focus: Low-cost, unlimited design services.
Ideal Buyer: Startups requiring a daily flow of graphical materials, advertorials, and basic UI changes without an overwhelming project scope.
Published Pricing: Beginning at $699/month.
Reported Proof: Low Lag Labs.
Evidence Quality: No public numeric data to support that there was any impact from their work on the reported businesses. Competes almost solely on price/speed.
Not a Fit If: You require extensive user research and usability tests, as well as comprehensive product strategy.
15. Awesomic
Core Focus: Flexible capacity based on a combination of product UI, branding, and marketing. Designer matching.
Ideal Buyer: Companies seeking one subscription which covers web pages as well as application screens.
Published Pricing: $1,490 - $2,995/month.
Reported Proof: Mercoa (fintech UI and Webflow build).
Evidence Quality: Extremely transparent pricing, but primarily qualitative case studies.
Not a Fit If: You need an agency to oversee your software and API development.
How to Compare Case Studies Without Being Misled
All agencies showcase impressive-looking case studies, so don’t let pretty mock-ups influence your decision.
In terms of funding, receiving $50 million or more does provide evidence of a company’s ability to generate revenue from the market, but in terms of how well they improved customer retention via a newly developed navigation menu, it does not demonstrate how well an agency is capable of achieving the results you want.
To maximise your return on investment with your vendor(s), build a set brief to perform an accurate comparison across multiple vendors. Request that vendors provide you with one comparable case study. Make sure you request they provide:
The original problem to be solved
The methodology used to obtain the information
The criteria by which the final deliverables would be assessed
The results achieved 90 days following the final delivery date
Analyzing Conversion Rate Claims
Visual production companies and visual production shops both provide visual assets (graphics, images, etc.) as part of their services; however, they are not the same company. Visual production shops provide a service that supports business growth by providing information on how customers converted (i.e., clicked on or purchased something).
When evaluating whether the visual production shop you've chosen has provided a value-added service, you should not accept a statement that the conversion rate went from 0.5 percent to 1.0 percent or from five percent to ten percent without being given background information relating to the reasons for this increase.
The Importance of Technical Handoffs
When choosing a visual production company, look for saas design agencies that provide well-documented and structured technical handoff processes. Your agency should be able to provide you with details about how they organize their design system (design token naming conventions; typography structure; Figma layer naming) as well as a comprehensive listing of the responsive design, component variants, keyboard focus states, form validation, and loading behaviour associated with the final product that you will receive.
If the agency only provides you with a static file of your design (for example, a set of desktop mockups), your technical handoff will be incomplete and lead to the need for significant investment in extra engineering costs.
Meeting Accessibility Compliance Standards
The European Accessibility Act has made accessibility compliance mandatory. As a result, if you produce software/products/services in the e-commerce or consumer subscription marketplace, it is imperative that any purchase flow you create must meet the requirements of the European Accessibility Act.
Based on current research, the online environment for accessibility is in dire shape, as evidenced by the results of WebAIM's latest study. They found that over 95 percent of the 1 million most popular (by traffic volume) home pages had detectable WCAG 2 failures (the guidelines for web accessibility). The average page contained an estimated 56 errors, and even among these, the most common errors were low-contrast text, missing form labels, and missing alt text.
When selecting a partner, make sure that accessibility is incorporated into the core business processes of the prospective partner, rather than being treated just as a checklist item to check off at the very end of the build. Additionally, ask your partner specifically about their processes for testing both keyboard navigation and screen-reader compatibility during the wireframing process.
Protecting SEO During a Redesign
Protecting your search traffic during a redesign is one of the largest business risks when you engage a partner to rebuild your pre-login marketing site. A terrible redesign can result in complete loss of your organic search traffic overnight.
Unfortunately, most design agencies do not have an understanding of SEO migrations. Agencies typically change URL structures, remove old content pages, and neglect to set up canonical tags. If a design agency does not map redirects perfectly, this means that on the day you launch, all of your incoming leads will flatline.
Therefore, before engaging a partner to replatform your website, you should require them to provide you with a detailed plan for preserving your existing SEO. They must show you that they have a solid process for running a URL inventory, validating your sitemaps, and keeping your analytics tracking intact with no gap.
The Last Call on Vendor Selection
Generic lists will not help you effectively hire your perfect partner. The vendor that would be a perfect fit for creating your quick Webflow could be a disaster for creating your multi-tenant database dashboards.
Stop drinking the Kool-Aid; top saas design agencies should be required to demonstrate their technical hand-off. They must supply baseline metrics from their case studies and have their accessibility-proficient operational data available for your audit. A competent partner will not rely solely on their attractive graphics to attract you; an ideal partner will have a wealth of operational data and readily be able to present it as evidence that they comprehend how to create and sell software.
