Us, against a proper agency.
We came out of an agency, so this isn't a hatchet job. There are things a retainer does that we don't, and they're at the bottom of this page.
| ONOUR | TYPICAL AGENCY | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical monthly cost | £125 | Commonly £1,500–£5,000 in the UK for a small-business retainer |
| Minimum commitment | None. Month to month. | Usually 6 or 12 months |
| Before you pay anything | A full audit of your live site, free | A discovery call and a proposal |
| Who does the work | Marketers, with automation doing the repetitive half | Marketers, usually junior on an account this size |
| Reporting | The same scan re-run monthly, so the number moves or it doesn’t | A monthly deck |
| Turnaround on a small change | Usually same week | Depends where you sit in the queue |
Agency figures are the ranges commonly quoted for UK small-business retainers, not a survey. Ask any agency you are considering for their own numbers — a straight one is a good sign.
The real difference
A retainer buys hours. This buys the work getting done.
On a small retainer, a good chunk of the fee goes on the account being managed: the status call, the deck, the internal handover when someone leaves.
None of that is waste exactly, but none of it moves your numbers either. Automating the repetitive half is what makes £125 possible without the work getting worse.
When you should hire an agency instead
Three cases where we're the wrong answer.
A campaign that needs a room full of people
A launch with a shoot, a PR push and three agencies to coordinate is not what this is. That is a proper agency job and you should hire one.
Big-budget media buying
Above roughly £20k a month in ad spend, a specialist buyer who does nothing else will beat us, and the fee stops being the expensive part.
Brand from scratch
Naming, identity and a full brand system is a studio project with a different shape and a different price. We work with the brand you have.
Common questions
Is £125 a month really the full price?
For the Starter plan, yes — your website built and looked after, plus the automations that answer enquiries and chase the ones that go quiet. Larger pieces of work are quoted separately as project work, and you are told the price before anything starts.
What happens if I want to leave?
You leave. There is no minimum term on the monthly plan, so you can stop at the end of any month.
Do I have to take everything?
No. The audit tells you which part is costing you most, and it is reasonable to fix only that. Plenty of businesses start with a single project and never take the monthly plan at all.