10 Clay Alternatives for Product and Brand Design, Priced (2026)

Reviewed by Yusuf, Lead Designer at 925Studios

Mohammad Yusuf, Lead Designer at 925Studios
Published 10 April 2026 · Last updated 8 October 2026 · 21 min read

I've reviewed hundreds of agency portfolios and shipped 50+ products with the team at 925Studios. The pattern I keep seeing with Clay alternatives is a founder who gets a proposal from Clay, sees the $50,000 floor, and starts searching for "a cheaper Clay" without deciding whether they are buying a product, a brand, or both. This list is built to stop that. I've ranked ten Clay alternatives for product and brand design on the four things that decide the outcome: strategic depth, SaaS and AI domain fluency, process transparency, and demonstrable business impact.

Last updated 8 October 2026 by Mohammad Yusuf, Lead Designer at 925Studios. 925Studios is ranked first here and I've written plainly about where we're the wrong choice. No agency paid to be listed.

The best Clay alternatives for product and brand design in 2026 are 925Studios, Ramotion, MetaLab, Lazarev, Eleken, Focus Lab, Red Antler, Koto, Fantasy and Instrument. Clay itself lists a $50,000+ minimum project and $150 to $199 an hour on Clutch. Published floors on this list run from $7,000 at 925Studios and $10,000 at Eleken to $250,000 at Instrument, so the first decision is what you are buying, not who has the prettiest portfolio.

TL;DR:

• Clay is a brand-and-web studio that also designs product. Clutch splits Clay's work into 30% UX/UI, 30% web design and 20% branding. If your problem lives inside the product, weigh product-first studios such as MetaLab, Lazarev and Eleken more heavily.

• Ramotion is the closest like-for-like swap. Same founding year (2009), same 10-49 team band, the same $50,000 minimum and the same $150 to $199 hourly band on Clutch, with a heavier UX/UI share of the work.

• MetaLab is the pick for product depth, at twice the floor. It designed Slack's original product and Midjourney's first interface, and Clutch lists its minimum at $100,000+.

• Brand-only problems have cheaper, sharper answers. Focus Lab publishes its pricing (from $15,000 a month for startups), and Red Antler lists a $10,000+ minimum on Clutch for consumer and challenger brands.

• Below $50,000, product and brand together narrows the list fast. 925Studios, from $7,000, and Eleken, from $10,000, are the two that cover SaaS product design at that budget.

Quick Answer: 925Studios ranks first for SaaS and AI teams that need product and brand design from one team, with engagements from $7,000. Ramotion is the closest Clay match ($50,000 minimum), MetaLab leads on product depth ($100,000+), Lazarev on AI products, Eleken on SaaS UI by subscription, Focus Lab and Red Antler on brand, Koto on global identity, and Fantasy and Instrument on enterprise programmes.

How was this list built?

I started from the agencies that AI answers and the top-ranking pages name most often for "Clay alternatives for product design", plus the five studios in the April 2026 version of this article. For each agency I checked live product or brand work in its own portfolio, named clients I could confirm on its site, and any published price. Founding year, team band, minimum project and hourly rate come from each agency's Clutch profile or its own website. Where neither publishes a figure, the table says "Not disclosed" rather than guessing. Clay is the reference point and is not ranked. 925Studios is ranked first, and no agency paid for placement.

How do the best Clay alternatives compare?

Not sure which of these fits your stage? Talk to our team for 30 minutes and we'll tell you, even if the answer is another studio on this list.

Why look beyond Clay for product and brand design?

Clay is a strong agency, and the reasons to look elsewhere are about fit, not quality. Clay was founded in 2009, began as a UX design agency in San Francisco, and now runs offices in San Francisco, New York and Austin with a team in the 10-49 band. Clutch lists a minimum project size of $50,000+ and an hourly rate of $150 to $199, with a 4.8 rating from 32 verified reviews (Clutch, 2026). The same profile splits Clay's work into 30% UX/UI design, 30% web design, 20% branding, 10% advertising and 10% low-code development, so half of what Clay sells is websites and brand rather than product interfaces. Its client list is famous, with Slack, Coinbase, Stripe, Google and Amazon among the names. For a seed or Series A team, three things usually push the search wider: the $50,000 floor, a small senior team with limited capacity, and a mix that leans toward marketing surfaces when the real problem sits inside the product.

You can check those figures on Clay's Clutch profile, and Clay's own work page shows the range in practice: Slack's interactive demo, STC Bank's digital banking app, Grayscale's web redesign and Tipalti's website, which picked up design awards in September 2026. We compared the two studios side by side in 925Studios vs Clay if you want the head-to-head view.

Our honest take: most "Clay alternatives" lists rank agencies as if they were interchangeable, and they are not. Clay sits in the middle of a spectrum that runs from pure product studios to pure brand studios. A list that does not tell you where each alternative sits on that spectrum will send a SaaS founder to a branding shop, or a consumer brand to a dashboard specialist. That is why every entry below states what the agency is best for and what to watch for.

Which Clay alternatives are best for product and brand design in 2026?

1. 925Studios

925Studios is a product design studio for funded AI and B2B SaaS teams, named Best AI SaaS & Web3 UI/UX Design Studio at The SaaS-ies 2026, by Acquisition International. Where Clay leads with brand and web and brings product alongside, we lead with the product and build the brand around how it actually works, so the identity, the marketing site and the interface come from one team. The work comes from one senior-led team, with both founders working in the file. You get a Loom walkthrough every 24 to 48 hours, and the team works inside your Slack, Linear and Figma setup instead of moving you onto a new process.

Specializes in: AI product interfaces, B2B SaaS dashboards, product-led brand systems, marketing sites and design systems.

Best for: Seed to Series B SaaS and AI teams that need the product, the brand and the site designed by one studio, below Clay's $50,000 floor.

Starting budget: 925Studios engagements start at $7,000. Retainers and fixed-scope projects are both quoted against scope.

Notable clients: MARA, Offa, Solana, Jupiter, Cerebria.

Watch for: We are product-first. If you need a consumer D2C identity with packaging, a global rebrand across dozens of sub-brands, or enterprise design consulting, Red Antler, Koto or Instrument are the better call. We are also the wrong choice for a Series C+ programme that needs a ten-person embedded team.

2. Ramotion

Ramotion is the closest like-for-like alternative to Clay. Both were founded in 2009, both sit in the 10-49 team band on Clutch, and both list a $50,000+ minimum with an hourly rate of $150 to $199. The difference is the mix: Clutch puts Ramotion at 40% UX/UI design, 30% branding and 20% web design, and it carries 29 reviews there. Ramotion's own SaaS page describes a 16-week engagement from kickoff to front-end handoff and claims contributions to more than $6 billion in client exits since 2009 (Ramotion, 2026).

Specializes in: SaaS brand identity, UX/UI design, iconography, motion identity and marketing sites.

Best for: Growth-stage SaaS and developer-tool companies that want a second quote against Clay from a studio with the same pricing and positioning.

Starting budget: $50,000 minimum project on Clutch and on Ramotion's own site, with an hourly rate of $150 to $199.

Notable clients: Stripe, Firefox, Okta, Descript, Xero.

Watch for: Ramotion matches Clay's floor, so it solves a fit question, not a budget one. If $50,000 is already a stretch, it will not change your shortlist.

3. MetaLab

MetaLab has made interfaces since 2006 and is the strongest pure-product alternative to Clay. Slack came to MetaLab with a working prototype in its early days, and MetaLab designed the original product suite and brand. Its current work page shows the original Midjourney interface, a rebrand of Windsurf, long-running partnerships with Uber and Nike, and product concepting alongside Loom's in-house teams. Clutch lists offices in Vancouver and Victoria, a 50-249 team, and a service mix of 40% product design, 25% UX/UI, 25% custom software development and only 10% branding (Clutch, 2026).

Specializes in: Product strategy, product design and front-end engineering for consumer, AI and SaaS products, with brand work alongside.

Best for: Well-funded teams where the interface is the product and engineering support from the design partner is a plus.

Starting budget: $100,000 minimum project on Clutch. Hourly rate not disclosed.

Notable clients: Slack, Midjourney, Windsurf, Uber, Nike.

Watch for: The $100,000 floor is double Clay's. If your main need is brand identity rather than product depth, you are paying for capability you will not use.

4. Lazarev

Lazarev is a San Francisco product design agency founded in 2015 that now positions almost entirely around AI-native B2B products. It says it has shipped 600+ products, including 30+ AI and ML tools, and has won three Webby Awards in three years, most recently for Elva, a voice-first AI video editor. Its own FAQ says most AI and B2B design projects run 8 to 12 weeks for design and three to six months end to end. Clutch shows 19 reviews and a 50-249 team.

Specializes in: AI product design, UI/UX for complex B2B platforms, web design and answer engine optimisation.

Best for: Late-seed to Series B AI and SaaS teams that want an AI-specialist product studio rather than a brand studio.

Starting budget: $100,000 minimum project on Clutch, with an hourly rate of $100 to $149.

Notable clients: Accern, Elva, Peel.

Watch for: Lazarev now also sells "agentic websites" and AEO programmes. Make sure the team on your product is the product team, and get the scope in writing before comparing quotes.

5. Eleken

Eleken is a Kyiv-based UI/UX design partner founded in 2015 that works only on SaaS. It sells designers by subscription, with a dedicated designer who starts within a week, a 3-day trial, and no project manager between you and the designer. Clutch lists 127 reviews and a 100% UX/UI service mix, and Eleken says it brings experience from 200+ SaaS projects.

Specializes in: SaaS product redesigns, MVP design, UX audits, design systems and team extension.

Best for: SaaS teams with a developer-built interface that needs a designer embedded now, on a budget well under Clay's.

Starting budget: $10,000 minimum project on Clutch, with an hourly rate of $25 to $49.

Notable clients: Gamaya, TenderX, TextMagic.

Watch for: Eleken is product UI only. There is no brand identity practice, so a team that needs a new brand and a new product will need a second partner.

6. Focus Lab

Focus Lab calls itself a B2B brand agency and says it has built more than 600 brands across B2B tech and manufacturing since 2010. It is one of the few studios on this list that publishes pricing on its own site: Focused Branding for startups and growth-stage companies starts at $15,000 a month and typically totals $15,000 to $50,000, while Structural Rebrands start at $25,000 a month and run $75,000 to $350,000. Retainers start at $5,000 a month.

Specializes in: Brand strategy, verbal identity, visual identity and brand-led web design for B2B companies.

Best for: B2B SaaS companies whose product is fine but whose brand no longer matches the company they have become.

Starting budget: $15,000 a month for Focused Branding, typically one to three months.

Notable clients: PolyAI, Giga Energy, Kasada, Quantive.

Watch for: Focus Lab is brand only. It will not redesign your onboarding or dashboard, so pair it with a product studio if the product is part of the problem.

7. Red Antler

Red Antler is a Brooklyn brand company founded in 2007 that builds brands for startups, including a dedicated pre-launch track. Its featured work includes Hinge, Ramp, AllTrails, Archer and Chime, and Casper and Allbirds remain in its portfolio. The services list now runs from naming and brand strategy through visual identity, apps and product design, and integrated advertising. Clutch lists a 50-249 team and the profile is unclaimed with no reviews.

Specializes in: Brand strategy, naming, visual and verbal identity, and launch campaigns for consumer and challenger brands.

Best for: Consumer and fintech startups preparing a launch, where the brand has to carry the go-to-market.

Starting budget: $10,000 minimum project on Clutch, with an hourly rate of $100 to $149.

Notable clients: Hinge, Ramp, Chime, AllTrails, Casper.

Watch for: Red Antler's Clutch profile is unclaimed, so treat its $10,000 figure as a floor to confirm, not a quote. Complex B2B dashboards are not where its portfolio is deepest.

8. Koto

Koto is a brand studio founded in 2015 with five offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin and Sydney. Its recent work is big-tech identity at scale: a refreshed Instagram wordmark, an 18-month Amazon brand system across 15 markets and more than 50 sub-brands, the Microsoft Copilot+ PC identity, and Google's Fitbit Ace LTE.

Specializes in: Brand strategy, identity systems, motion and brand architecture for global companies.

Best for: Growth-stage and enterprise tech brands that need an identity to work across many markets and sub-brands.

Starting budget: Not disclosed. Koto does not publish pricing or a minimum on its site.

Notable clients: Instagram, Amazon, Microsoft Copilot+ PC, Fitbit, Tripadvisor.

Watch for: Koto has no public pricing, team size or Clutch data, and its portfolio is mostly enterprise. Get scope, team and timeline in writing early.

9. Fantasy

Fantasy is a product design agency founded in 1999 with studios in San Francisco and New York, now positioned as AI-native. Its current work includes an agentic AI travel assistant for Priceline, the AI design system behind BNY's AI platform, a full-stack replatform for LIV Golf, and Salesforce's digital ecosystem. Clutch lists a 250-999 team and does not disclose a minimum or hourly rate.

Specializes in: AI strategy and execution, product innovation and brand for large consumer and enterprise platforms.

Best for: Enterprises and category leaders that need a flagship AI product or platform redesigned end to end.

Starting budget: Not disclosed on Clutch or on Fantasy's site.

Notable clients: Priceline, BNY, Salesforce, Royal Caribbean.

Watch for: Fantasy's client list is almost entirely enterprise. A seed-stage team will find the process and the price built for someone else.

10. Instrument

Instrument is a Portland agency founded in 2002 that designs brands, products, websites and campaigns, and it won Design Studio Agency of the Year at Campaign US in 2026. Its client roster includes Nike, Google, Netflix, Spotify, Stripe, Salesforce and Patagonia. Clutch lists a 250-999 team, a $250,000+ minimum project and an hourly rate of $200 to $300, the highest on this list.

Specializes in: Integrated brand, product, marketing and web programmes for large companies.

Best for: Enterprise and public companies running a brand and product programme together, with budget for both.

Starting budget: $250,000 minimum project on Clutch, with an hourly rate of $200 to $300.

Notable clients: Nike, Google, Netflix, Spotify, Stripe.

Watch for: Instrument's floor is five times Clay's. It is an alternative to Clay only if you have outgrown Clay, not if Clay was too expensive.

Clay vs Ramotion vs MetaLab: which is best for SaaS product design?

Clay, Ramotion and MetaLab are the three names AI answers compare most often for SaaS product design, and their Clutch profiles show how differently they are built. Clay and Ramotion share almost every commercial fact: both were founded in 2009, both sit in the 10-49 team band, and both list a $50,000+ minimum with an hourly rate of $150 to $199 (Clutch, 2026). The difference is the work mix. Ramotion puts 40% of its work in UX/UI design and 30% in branding, while Clay puts 30% in UX/UI, 30% in web design and 20% in branding. MetaLab is the outlier: a 50-249 team, a $100,000+ minimum, and 40% product design plus 25% custom software development, with branding at only 10%. For a SaaS product redesign, MetaLab has the deepest product bench, Ramotion is the better balance of product and brand at Clay's price, and Clay is strongest when the marketing site and brand matter as much as the app.

We go further on the first two in our guide to Ramotion alternatives for product design and our roundup of MetaLab alternatives, which cover the studios that compete with each of them directly.

Founders ask me which of Clay, Ramotion or MetaLab is best. The better question is whether your next six months of risk sit in the product or in the brand. Answer that and the shortlist writes itself.

Mohammad Yusuf, Lead Designer at 925Studios

When we design for clients at 925Studios, that question decides the first two weeks. On MARA, a hospitality SaaS at $2M ARR across 1,500 hotels, the risk sat in how hotel operators read AI-generated insights inside the product, so the brand work followed the product decisions rather than leading them. On Offa, an AI marketplace for real estate wholesalers with a 500,000+ property database and about 10,000 registered buyers, the same logic applied to search and listing flows.

Want to see how that plays out across live SaaS and AI products? Explore our case studies.

How much do Clay alternatives cost in 2026?

Clay alternatives in 2026 split into three price bands, and the published numbers make the gaps plain. The entry band sits under $20,000: 925Studios engagements start at $7,000, Eleken and Red Antler list $10,000 minimums on Clutch, and Focus Lab's Focused Branding starts at $15,000 a month. The Clay band sits at $50,000, where Clay and Ramotion both list $50,000+ minimums and $150 to $199 an hour (Clutch, 2026). The premium band starts at $100,000, with MetaLab and Lazarev at $100,000+ and Instrument at $250,000+ with $200 to $300 an hour. Koto and Fantasy do not publish a floor. Focus Lab is the most transparent studio here, stating that startup brand projects usually total $15,000 to $50,000 and full rebrands $75,000 to $350,000. For a Seed to Series A SaaS team that needs product and brand together, most realistic quotes from this list land between $7,000 and $50,000, with scope rather than agency name driving the final figure.

• Product subscription: a dedicated designer or pod billed monthly. Best when the product ships every sprint and design has to keep up.

• Fixed-scope project: a defined redesign, brand identity or launch quoted against a brief. Best when there is a clear end date.

• Brand engagement: strategy, naming and identity sold as a monthly or phased programme. Best when the product is sound and the story is not.

For the wider pricing picture, including what drives quotes up, read how much a UX agency costs in 2026. Want a scoped number for your own product? Book a free 30-minute call.

How do you choose the right Clay alternative for your product?

1. Decide whether the risk is in the product or the brand

What to do: List the three problems you most need fixed in the next six months, then mark each as product (activation, onboarding, dashboards) or brand (positioning, identity, site).

Why it matters: The list above runs from product-only (Eleken) to brand-only (Focus Lab). Clay sits in the middle, which is why "cheaper Clay" is the wrong search.

Red flags: An agency that quotes before asking where users drop off or what your positioning is.

Real example: MetaLab's Clutch mix is 10% branding and Focus Lab's work is all brand. Both are excellent, and they solve different problems.

2. Check whether a design system is part of the deal

What to do: Ask each studio whether the engagement ends with a documented component library in your Figma, or only with finished screens.

Why it matters: In Figma's own controlled study, designers with access to a relevant design system completed their task 34% faster than designers without one (Figma, 2019). That saving compounds every sprint after the agency leaves.

Red flags: Screens delivered as one-off frames with no shared components or tokens.

Real example: Fantasy's BNY project was explicitly an AI-native design system, not a set of screens.

The 34% figure comes from Figma's study on measuring the value of design systems, which also notes it is a best-case number for an up-to-date, relevant system.

This is a much better option than a big, stuffy branding agency if you care about the process and want to make sure you create the best new identity possible.

Casey Carey, CMO at Quantive

3. Match the agency to your stage and budget

What to do: At seed to Series A with under $50,000, shortlist 925Studios, Eleken, Focus Lab and Red Antler. At Clay's budget, compare Clay and Ramotion directly. Above $100,000, add MetaLab and Lazarev, and above $250,000, Fantasy and Instrument.

Why it matters: An enterprise process on a seed-stage product burns runway on workshops, and a startup process on a global rebrand misses stakeholders.

Red flags: A portfolio made up entirely of companies far larger or far smaller than yours.

Real example: Koto's 18-month Amazon programme across 50+ sub-brands is a different job from a ten-screen SaaS onboarding.

4. Ask who will actually be in the file

What to do: Ask for the names and seniority of the designers on your account, and how often you will see work in progress.

Why it matters: Clay and Ramotion both sit in the 10-49 team band, so senior capacity is finite. A slot on a small senior team is worth more than a large team you rarely see.

Red flags: A pitch led by founders, with delivery handed to a team you never met.

Real example: Eleken removes the project manager entirely, so you talk to your designer directly.

If your product sits in a technical vertical, weigh domain fluency heavily. We cover what that means for B2B software products and web3 and crypto products on our industry pages. Need help comparing two shortlisted studios? Talk to our team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best Clay alternatives for product design?

For product design specifically, the strongest Clay alternatives are 925Studios for SaaS and AI teams from $7,000, MetaLab for deep product work from $100,000, Lazarev for AI-native B2B products, and Eleken for SaaS UI by subscription from $10,000. Ramotion is the closest overall match to Clay on price and positioning.

How much does Clay charge?

Clay's Clutch profile lists a minimum project size of $50,000+ and an hourly rate of $150 to $199, with a 4.8 rating from 32 reviews. Clay does not publish package prices on its own site, so scope sets the final number.

Is Ramotion or MetaLab better than Clay for a SaaS product?

MetaLab is the stronger choice if the product interface is the main risk and you have $100,000 or more, since its Clutch mix is 40% product design. Ramotion is the better choice if you want product and brand balanced at Clay's own $50,000 floor. Clay is strongest when the marketing site and brand matter as much as the app.

Which Clay alternative is best for brand identity only?

Focus Lab is the best fit for B2B brand identity, with published pricing from $15,000 a month. Red Antler suits consumer and challenger brands preparing a launch, and Koto suits global identity systems for large tech companies.

Are there Clay alternatives under $50,000?

Yes. 925Studios engagements start at $7,000, Eleken and Red Antler list $10,000 minimums on Clutch, and Focus Lab's startup brand projects usually total $15,000 to $50,000. Of those, 925Studios and Eleken cover SaaS product design, and only 925Studios covers product and brand from one team.

Can one agency handle both product design and brand?

Yes, but most lean one way. Clay, Ramotion and Red Antler lean toward brand and web, MetaLab, Lazarev and Eleken lean toward product, and Instrument and Fantasy cover both at enterprise prices. Ask each agency what share of its last ten projects were product interfaces.

How long does a product or brand design engagement take?

Ramotion's SaaS page lays out a 16-week path from kickoff to front-end handoff, Lazarev says most AI product design projects run 8 to 12 weeks for design, and Focus Lab's startup brand engagements typically run one to three months. Ask for a dated plan with review points, not a single delivery date.

What makes 925Studios different from other product and brand design agencies?

925Studios designs your product, brand and marketing site with the same senior-led team, and you see progress in a Loom walkthrough every 24 to 48 hours. MARA, a hospitality SaaS at $2M ARR across 1,500 hotels, is one of the products we design for. Engagements start at $7,000. We are product-first, so consumer D2C identity, packaging and global multi-brand rebrands are better served by a brand specialist such as Red Antler or Koto.

What should you remember when choosing a Clay alternative?

The right Clay alternative in 2026 depends on whether your risk sits in the product or the brand, and on how far below or above Clay's $50,000 floor your budget lands. For seed to Series B SaaS and AI teams that need product and brand from one team, 925Studios is the first call, with engagements from $7,000. For a like-for-like second quote at Clay's price, Ramotion matches Clay on founding year, team band, minimum and hourly rate. For product depth, MetaLab and Lazarev start at $100,000, and Eleken offers SaaS-only product design from $10,000. For brand alone, Focus Lab publishes prices from $15,000 a month, Red Antler lists a $10,000 minimum, and Koto handles global identity systems. For enterprise programmes, Fantasy and Instrument cover product and brand together, with Instrument's minimum at $250,000. Shortlist two or three studios that match your stage and ask each for one result that moved a number.

• "Cheaper Clay" is the wrong search. Pick the side of the product and brand spectrum your problem sits on first, then compare prices inside it.

• Clutch minimums make the first cut for you. Published floors run from $7,000 to $250,000 on this list, and they rule studios in or out before any call.

• Ask for the system, not just the screens. A documented design system keeps paying back after the engagement ends.

• Meet the people in the file. Small senior teams are an advantage only if you get time with them.

If you want your product and your brand designed by one team, book a call with 925Studios and we'll tell you honestly whether we, Clay or another studio on this list is the better fit.

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If you're building a product and want a team that covers product design, motion, and founder video under one roof, talk to 925Studios. We work with SaaS, fintech, healthtech, web3, and AI founders.

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