Salary is half the bill
A junior designer in the US costs from $3 000 per month net. On top of that come employer taxes and insurance, paid vacation, sick leave, and equipment. The real number is about $5 500–6 000 — and that’s for one person in one specialty.
Add a developer, because a designer won’t build the page, and you’re already around $7 400 per month. And neither of them will set up an ad campaign or fix your Google listing.
Downtime is billed the same as work
For small businesses, tasks come in waves: busy before the season, quiet in the off-season. An in-house employee still gets a full salary in a slow month — you pay for availability, not results.
The subscription works differently: the team works across several companies at once and doesn’t sit idle. If there are no tasks this month, the subscription is paused and you’re not charged.
Hidden article: find and replace
Hiring takes two to three weeks of interviews, test assignments, and onboarding. If the person is not a fit or leaves after six months, the whole cycle repeats, and work is on hold.
These costs usually don’t get counted, but they’re exactly what makes in-house expensive for a company of five to fifty people. You can replace a contractor with a message; an employee — you can’t.
The real cost of an employee is salary plus 35–45% on top.
You pay for staff even in months when there are no tasks.
One person can’t handle design, development, and ads at the same time.
