Design Rails vs Agency
Professional designers create beautiful, thoughtful brand systems. But the deliverables they produce weren't designed for AI workflows.
Hire a designer when you've found product-market fit and want a premium, crafted brand identity.
Use Design Rails when you're still iterating, might pivot, or need something agent-ready today.
| Feature | Agency | Design Rails |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $3,000 – $30,000+ | ~$150 – $200 |
| Timeline | 2-8 weeks | ~30 minutes |
| Customization | Unlimited | Guided choices |
| Agent-ready output | Manual conversion | Native |
| Pivot/rebrand cost | Start over (~$3K+) | ~$150 - $200 |
| Design tokens | If you ask | Always included |
| Component patterns | Varies | Always included |
Series A/B rebrand
You've raised $10M, have PMF, and need a brand that signals credibility to enterprise buyers. An agency gives you that crafted, strategic identity.
Pre-seed, Seed stage MVP
You're validating an idea and might pivot 3 times before finding what works. You need to look professional without burning runway on branding.
Rebrand prep
Come to agency kickoffs with a clearer vision. Generate your design system first to reduce discovery time, align stakeholders, and get more value from your agency budget. Need an intro to an excellent agency? Email us.
The bottom line
Professional designers create exceptional work. But they optimize for PDF brand guidelines and Figma files—not CLAUDE.md context and design tokens. If you hire an agency, you'll still need to translate their deliverables into agent-readable format. Design Rails gives you that format natively.
Ready to give your AI design context?
Create your brand identity and get agent-ready files in about 30 minutes.