What a branding agency actually costs
Six of the 46 firms on our five branding rankings state a price for brand work on their own site. Published rebrand figures run from $50,000, the bottom of the range SVZ says it typically works in, to around $350,000 for a Focus Lab structural rebrand. Thirty-four publish nothing, and a directory minimum is not a price.
By Rajat Kapoor
Updated October 2026
Key takeaways
Of the 46 agencies on our five branding rankings, six state a figure for brand work on their own site, four publish prices only for other services, two show budget bands on an enquiry form, and 34 publish nothing.
Three firms publish a rebrand-sized figure: Ramotion's Brand Redesign at $85,000, SVZ's stated $50,000 to $250,000, and Focus Lab's structural rebrand at around $75,000 to $350,000.
Focus Lab prices brand work per month against a duration, so on its published model the length of the engagement is the price.
The agency fee is not the cost of a rebrand. Signage, packaging, product changes and trademark filings sit outside it unless the quote says otherwise.
A minimum on a directory profile is a self-declared filter, not a quote, and six firms on these rankings carry one in our records while stating no figure on their own site.
Ask every shortlisted firm the same five questions, because a $60,000 quote and a $250,000 quote are usually pricing different scopes rather than different talent.
You have been asked to find out what a rebrand will cost, and the agencies you have looked at all say the same thing: book a call. The board wants a number before anyone books anything. Get the budget wrong in either direction and you lose months: too low and every serious firm qualifies you out on the first call, too high and you approve a programme scoped for a company twice your size.
This page counts which agencies on our five branding rankings actually state a price, sets out every figure they publish with its source and its wording, and explains what an agency fee leaves out. It does not recommend a firm. The rankings linked at the end do that.
Three purchases share one word
A branding quote prices one of three jobs, and the brief has to say which.
An identity refresh. New marks, type, colour and guidelines on top of a position the company already holds. Bounded, visual, and the cheapest of the three.
A repositioning. Research, a new statement of what the company is and who it is for, messaging, then the identity that expresses it. This is what most people mean by a rebrand, and it is where published prices start to climb.
Architecture and naming. Several products or acquired companies brought under one system, often with a new name. Legal clearance and internal politics set the timeline here rather than design.
If you are unsure which you need, our guide to branding or web design has a one-day test that tells you.
Who publishes a price
On 15 October 2026 we checked the website of every firm on our branding rankings: navigation, services, FAQ and contact pages, and each site's own sitemap. Forty-six firms in total. The result:
- Six state a figure for brand work: Focus Lab, SVZ, Ramotion, Refokus, Tonik and Sanctuary Computer.
- Four publish prices only for other services, usually websites: Amply, Bop Design, 8020 and Veza Digital.
- Two show budget bands on an enquiry form and nothing else: Ten Adams, whose lowest band is $10,000 to $25,000, and Off+brand, whose lowest is £20,000 to £30,000.
- Thirty-four publish nothing, including every large consultancy on the lists.
Silence is the norm in this category, not a warning sign. It does mean the six that publish are the only fixed points a buyer has.
What the six actually publish
Focus Lab sets out a ladder on its FAQ page. Focused Branding starts at $15,000 a month and typically runs one to three months, which it puts at around $15,000 to $50,000 in total. A Structural Rebrand starts at $25,000 a month over three to five months, around $75,000 to $350,000. Retainers start at $5,000 a month for design execution and $10,000 for a brand team, month to month with a 30-day money back guarantee.
SVZ answers the question directly: it typically works within a $50,000 to $250,000 range for branding projects, and has an accelerated rebranding service for smaller brands with a budget of $25,000 or less.
Ramotion publishes packages. Brand Creation is $60,000 and Brand Redesign $85,000, both marked branding only, with website design priced separately. Its startup branding page says those services start from around $45,000.
Refokus states on its contact page that projects usually start around $40,000 and can go beyond $250,000, with most engagements between $50,000 and $80,000, a band it describes as usually brand strategy, branding and the website together.
Two publish rates rather than projects. Tonik's branding page states project work at $125 an hour or subscriptions from $4,000 a month. Sanctuary Computer bills $225 to $265 an hour depending on seniority, with no contractual minimum, and says it rarely takes on projects ballparked under 480 hours. At its lowest stated rate, 480 hours is $108,000. That is our arithmetic, not its quote.
Outside these rankings, web studios that sell identity alongside websites publish lower floors. Lil Big Things states brand identity starts at $6,500. That buys a visual identity, not a repositioning.
So the published figures for a rebrand-sized engagement run from $50,000 (SVZ's stated lower bound) to around $350,000 (Focus Lab's structural rebrand), with Ramotion's $85,000 between them. Below that line you are buying an identity. Above it, the firms that work there do not say.
A directory minimum is not a price
Six firms on these rankings carry a minimum in our records that came from a third-party directory profile while stating no figure on their own site. Those minimums are typed into a form by the agency, often once, and act as a search filter. A $5,000 floor beside a portfolio of national rebrands tells you the profile exists, not what the work costs. Our web design cost guide makes the same case for website agencies, with a worked example.
What the agency fee leaves out
Rollout. Signage, packaging, vehicles, product interfaces, sales material and every template carrying the old marks. It is rarely in the agency's quote, so ask which assets are, by name.
The website. Ramotion and Refokus both price the site as a separate line. If the new brand has nowhere to live on launch day, budget for that too.
Naming and trademarks. A new name means clearance searches and filings. The USPTO fee schedule sets a $350 base application fee per class for an electronically filed US trademark, before any lawyer's time, and a name usually needs more than one class.
The year after launch. A brand nobody maintains drifts. Three of the six publish a monthly retainer or subscription for exactly this reason.
Payment terms. Ramotion asks for 50% upfront and, on a cancellation in the first week, refunds all but a $5,000 service fee. Terms like these change the real risk of a quote as much as the total does.
Making two branding quotes comparable
Send every shortlisted firm the same five questions and compare answers rather than totals.
- Which of the three jobs is this: refresh, repositioning or architecture?
- Is research included, and with how many customers or stakeholders?
- Does the quote include naming, and who pays for clearance and filings?
- Which rollout assets are in scope, listed by name?
- What does the first year after launch cost, and on what terms can either side stop?
The numbers will still differ. They will differ for reasons you can read.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a branding agency charge for a rebrand?
Among the branding agencies that publish a figure on their own site, a rebrand-sized engagement runs from $50,000, the bottom of the range SVZ says it typically works in, to around $350,000 for a Focus Lab structural rebrand, with Ramotion's Brand Redesign package at $85,000. Most agencies publish nothing, including all the large consultancies, so those figures describe the published part of the market rather than all of it. The agency fee also excludes rollout across signage, packaging and product unless the quote says otherwise.
Why do so few branding agencies publish prices?
Because the same word covers three very different jobs. An identity refresh, a repositioning and a brand architecture programme can differ in price many times over, and an agency that prints one number attracts the wrong enquiries for the other two. Of the 46 firms on our branding rankings, six state a figure for brand work on their own site. The ones that do usually publish a structure, such as monthly rates with a typical duration or named packages, rather than a single price, which is more useful to a buyer anyway.
How much does logo design cost from an agency?
Most branding agencies do not sell a logo on its own, and none of the 46 firms on our branding rankings publishes a logo-only price. The lowest published identity figure we found is from a web studio outside those rankings that states brand identity starts at $6,500. Among firms that do publish, the lowest strategy-and-identity figure is Focus Lab's focused branding at $15,000 a month, and published rebrand figures start at $50,000. If you only need a mark, a type system and colours, a freelance designer is usually the cheaper and entirely reasonable choice.
Is a monthly branding engagement cheaper than a fixed project?
Not necessarily cheaper, but differently shaped. A monthly model, such as Focus Lab's $15,000 or $25,000 a month, makes duration the price, so any delay in your own approvals costs you directly. A fixed project moves that risk to the agency and builds a margin in for it. Monthly suits a company that can decide quickly and wants to stop if it is not working. Fixed suits a company with slow sign-off or a budget that cannot move once approved. Ask which model the firm uses before comparing totals.
Does a rebrand quote include rolling out the new brand?
Usually not, and it is the single largest gap between what a rebrand costs and what the agency charges. A quote normally covers strategy, identity and guidelines. Replacing signage, packaging, vehicle livery, product interfaces, sales material and every document template is separate work, often done by other suppliers or your own team. Ask the agency to list which assets are in scope by name, and budget the rest yourself.
How long does a rebrand take, and does that change the price?
Published durations put a focused branding engagement at one to three months and a full structural rebrand at three to five, and naming or a multi-brand architecture adds more because legal clearance and stakeholder agreement are outside the agency's control. Where an agency prices by the month, time is the price directly. Where it prices by project, a slipping timeline usually turns into change requests. Agree who has final sign-off before work starts, because every phase waits on that person.