GUIDE · COST
What a UX audit costs, and when it is worth a tenth of a redesign
A UX audit costs $1,500 to $3,000 from a senior-led studio and takes five to seven days. Agencies and research firms charge $5,000 to $20,000 for a fuller programme with user testing. The audit's job is to make the expensive work aimed, so it is priced to be bought before a redesign rather than instead of one.
THE BANDS
The last row matters more than it looks. An audit run by the team that wants the redesign is not an audit, it is a scoping exercise. That is fine, as long as you know which one you bought.
WHY IT IS THE CHEAPEST THING WE SELL
Because its whole job is to stop you spending the larger number in the wrong place.
A redesign changes forty things at once. If the number moves you cannot say which change moved it, and if it does not move you have spent the budget and learned nothing. An audit at a tenth of the cost tells you which three problems account for most of the loss, so the expensive work is aimed.
It is also the easiest engagement to walk away from. Plenty of teams take the findings to their own designers and never speak to us again, and that is the model working as intended rather than a loss.
WHAT MOVES IT
DO THIS FIRST, FOR NOTHING
Five strangers, ten minutes, no helping.
Find five people who have never seen the product. Ask each to complete the main task. Say nothing — no hints, no "you just need to click there". Write down every place they hesitate.
That exercise finds most of what any audit finds. The reason it is worth paying for one anyway is not that we know something you do not. It is that almost nobody actually runs it, and that a stranger with no attachment to the decisions can say what your team has learned not to notice.
QUESTIONS
How much does a UX audit cost?
Ours starts at $1,500 for one flow and runs to about $3,000 for a full product across roles and platforms. Research firms charge $5,000 to $20,000 for programmes that include recruiting and moderating real users, which is more rigorous and appropriate at a different stage.
Is a free audit worth taking?
Sometimes, and know what it is: a sales asset. A free audit is designed to surface enough problems to justify a proposal, which is not the same as an honest ranking of what to fix first. Take it, read it, and notice whether anything in it argues against buying.
What can we do ourselves for nothing?
Watch five people who have never seen the product try to complete the main task, without helping them. Say nothing for ten minutes. That single exercise finds most of what any audit would find, and the reason people pay for an audit is that they will not actually do it.
Does an audit include the fixes?
No, deliberately. Findings stand alone so you can hand them to your own team, which plenty of clients do. If you want us to implement, that is a separate product design engagement priced separately.