In-house designers are loyal and context-rich. They're also expensive, hard to backfill, and don't scale on demand. Here's the 12-month comparison.

Sako vs In-House Design: 12-Month Cost and Output Comparison

The in-house designer is the most trusted solution for teams that want brand consistency and speed. The argument makes intuitive sense: someone who is embedded in your company culture, in your Slack channels, in your sprint reviews, will produce better output than an external vendor.

The argument holds for product design. For GTM design, the economics are more complicated.

The 12-Month In-House Cost

Fully-loaded cost for one senior marketing/GTM designer:

• Salary: $85,000–$110,000
• Benefits (25% loaded): $21,250–$27,500
• Equity (amortized over 4-year cliff): $12,500–$25,000
• Equipment, software, subscriptions: $5,000–$8,000
• Recruiting cost (1-2 months of salary): $7,000–$18,000

Total year 1 cost: $130,750–$188,500

This assumes the hire works out on the first try. If there's a mis-hire and you replace after 6 months, add a second recruiting cycle.

The 12-Month Sako Cost

• Sako Core ($2,500/mo): $30,000/year
• Sako Ops Base ($4,500/mo): $54,000/year
• Sako Enterprise ($8,500/mo+): $102,000+/year

Even at Enterprise, Sako starts at 54-88% of the in-house cost for a single designer.

The Output Comparison

An in-house designer typically handles:

• 15-20 requests per week in a high-velocity environment
• Spans across multiple functions (product, marketing, sales, ops)
• Has 20+ days of vacation/PTO per year
• Is unavailable during interviewing periods, performance review heavy periods, etc.

The actual marketing-specific output is often 40-50% of total hours after product requests, internal work, and unavoidable overhead.

Sako Ops Base handles:

• 2 active slots running simultaneously
• 100% GTM-focused output (landing pages, decks, ads, motion)
• 48h standard delivery on eligible tasks
• No PTO gaps (coverage built into pod model)

What In-House Does Better

Brand stewardship and strategic creative direction are better handled in-house. The person who lives in your Slack understands the nuance of why a decision was made six months ago. They can push back on a brief because they know the company context.

For strategic brand decisions, keep that in-house.

For execution — the 15-20 GTM tasks per month that need to ship fast — the pod model produces more output at lower cost, without management overhead.

See the pricing model →. Book a fit check to map this to your specific team structure →.