A logo is the part of branding everyone can picture, so it's usually the part people ask about first. But the honest answer to "how much does a logo cost" splits into two quite different questions. Do you need a mark to put on your website and van, or do you need a proper identity system that holds together across a website, social media, signage, packaging and printed material? The two jobs cost differently, and mixing them up is where most of the confusion, and most of the disappointment, comes from.
Logo-only versus a full brand identity
A logo-only project gets you a mark, usually with a small set of colour and font variations, delivered in the file formats you need for a website and basic print. A full brand identity package goes further. It includes the logo, but also a proper set of brand guidelines covering colour palette, typography, spacing rules and usage do's and don'ts, plus design work applied across real touchpoints such as business cards, letterheads, social media templates, email signatures or packaging. One gives you a symbol. The other gives you a system other people (a printer, a new employee, a freelance designer you hire in two years) can pick up and use correctly without asking you every time.
What UK businesses typically pay
The figures below are general market guidance rather than a fixed quote. Where your business lands depends on the factors covered further down.
| Logo only | Full brand identity | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | £450 – £950 | £1,200 – £3,500+ |
| Best suited to | New businesses needing a mark to launch with | Businesses wanting consistent branding across every touchpoint |
| What's included | Logo concepts, a set of revisions, core file formats | Logo, brand guidelines document, applied design across chosen touchpoints |
| Typical turnaround | Roughly 1 – 2 weeks | Roughly 3 – 6 weeks |
Anything markedly below the logo-only range usually means a single template with your business name typed over it, rather than a mark designed around your business. Anything markedly above the identity range tends to reflect a longer touchpoint list, packaging design, or a larger business with more stakeholders needing sign-off along the way.
What actually pushes the price up or down
Four things move logo and identity pricing more than anything else.
- Number of concepts. A single designer sketching one idea costs less than a studio presenting three or four genuinely distinct directions for you to react to and choose between.
- Revision rounds. Most quotes include a set number of revision rounds. Open-ended "keep tweaking it until you're happy" work costs more, because it's the hardest thing for a designer to estimate in advance.
- File formats and applications needed. A logo destined only for a website is a smaller job than one that also needs to work embroidered on a polo shirt, cut as vinyl signage, or reversed out of a dark background without losing legibility.
- Whether brand guidelines are included. Writing down the rules, not just designing the mark, is real work in itself. A proper guidelines document takes time to put together and is one of the main things separating a logo-only price from a full identity price.
None of these are an agency inflating a number. They're the actual variables that decide how many hours the job takes.
Why a very cheap logo often costs more later
A logo bought from a marketplace template site, or knocked out overnight by an unvetted freelancer for £30, isn't automatically worthless. But it's rarely built to hold up once your business starts using it properly. Colours get guessed differently by whoever's making your next batch of business cards. The file you were sent won't scale cleanly onto a shop sign or print sharply on a banner. There are no guidelines telling a new hire or a print shop what's correct and what isn't, so every fresh application becomes a small, separate decision, and inconsistency creeps in fast. A year or two later, once the business has grown and the mark is stitched into vehicles, signage and stationery, redoing it properly costs considerably more than getting it right the first time would have. The cheap logo isn't free, it just moves the real cost further down the road and adds a rebuild on top.
Getting a number that actually fits your business
If you're weighing up a logo-only refresh against a full identity project, it helps to be clear from the outset about where you'll actually use the mark, whether you need a guidelines document for future suppliers, and how many revision rounds feel reasonable to you. Our branding and logo design page sets out what's typically included at each level. Or get in touch and we'll talk through your business before putting a number on anything.