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Key takeaways
- There is no honest price list: method, participant numbers, and analysis depth set the cost, and every study mixes those differently.
- A fixed budget is a fine starting point. A good agency designs the strongest study inside it and tells you plainly what that buys.
- The briefing matters more than the budget. One sharp question beats a big spreadsheet of vague ones.
Every enquiry we get eventually lands on this question, usually in the second paragraph. Fair enough. You have a budget, a boss, and a decision to make. Here is the straight answer: nobody honest can quote you a number before knowing the study, and anyone who does is selling packages, not research.
Why is there no price list?
Because no two studies cost the same, and a list would lie to you. Price follows three things: the method, the number of participants, and how deep the analysis goes. A heuristic review by one senior researcher is a different universe of effort from a three-market interview programme with recruited users. Any agency publishing fixed prices is either padding the simple jobs or cutting corners on the hard ones.
What actually drives the cost?
Three levers, in rough order of impact. Recruitment comes first: common users nearby are cheap to find, rare specialists across markets are not. Sample size comes second: five interviews analyse in an afternoon, five hundred survey responses need serious hours. Depth of analysis comes third: a punch list of fixes costs less than a segmented model with a readout tour. Move any lever and the quote moves with it.
- Recruitment. Who you need to talk to, how rare they are, and where they live. Incentives and recruiter fees live here too.
- Method. Observation and interviews trade researcher hours for depth. Surveys trade scale for analysis time. Expert reviews skip participants entirely, which is why they are the fastest route to answers.
- Analysis and reporting. Findings ranked by impact with evidence attached take longer than a raw readout, and they are worth it. This is the bit you actually act on.
- Presenting. A live walkthrough for your team adds preparation and performance time. Worth it when the findings are politically awkward, which the important ones usually are.
What do different shapes of study look like?
Think in shapes, not prices. At one end sits the focused review: no participants, one researcher, answers in days. In the middle sits the single-question study: a round of usability tests or interviews aimed at one decision, done properly. At the far end sits the programme: mixed methods, multiple segments, tracking over time. Most teams are surprised to learn the middle shape answers most of what keeps them up at night.
Tell us your budget and we will tell you what is possible inside it. Often that is more than you would think.
How do you brief an agency on a fixed budget?
Lead with the decision, not the method. 'We are choosing between two onboarding flows before the December release, and we have this much' gets you a sharper proposal than a spreadsheet of deliverables. Name your timeline, name your users, and say the budget number out loud. Agencies that flinch at budgets are telling you something. We would rather design something excellent inside your number than quote something grand outside it.
Get a real number
One email is all it takes: what you are building, who it is for, and what you can spend. We reply within a day with what that buys. Ask for a quote, or browse the full service list first.