What Our 2025 Web Design Industry Financial Trends Survey Revealed
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Diane Whiddon (of SwayRiseCreative.com) and I jumped on a livestream to walk through the Web Design Industry Financial Outlook for 2025 report—our survey of over 150 web designers, mostly from Q1–Q2 this year, in 2025.
If you want the full backstory you can read it here (why we decided to do the survey, etc) —but we wanted this post to stand alone.
Diane said, “Everybody was releasing trend surveys..." but they "didn’t tell me what I needed to know. So we thought—let’s ask the money questions.”
We knew the usual business survey style, but our focus was hard finances, real outcomes, and how designers are actually thinking about their revenue. Getting people to actually take the survey was... kind of an adventure. We ended up with 151 responses, which was waaaaay less than the 1,000 we were aiming for, though 150 was our minimum goal & we did hit that at least.
As Diane said, "we were so disappointed in that we really wanted to get a thousand and we were just convinced we would get a thousand but people were really reluctant to share this information even though we were like 'Look it's anonymous we're not going to collect your emails'" for marketing purposes!
Actually, Diane almost got kicked out of a couple Facebook groups for just trying to share the survey link & asking people to take it. It was very interesting to observe the different community reactions and to see the difference between sharing this in a group that was not a Squarespace designer group, versus the reactions from people in groups that were WordPress designers.
The Squarespace-centric groups really highlighted the community aspect & were really supportive of our collective effort to get & provide the information for free, while the other groups (non-Squarespace-centric) were more competition-oriented and protective, not willing to share the survey because it "might" be perceived as promotion just because on the landing page we were sharing we felt it was important to give context for who we are & why we're asking these 'hard' questions about finances in order to build enough trust with respondents to get honest answers. 🤦🏼♀️ That distinction seemed totally lost on the WordPress crowd! (And no, we did not add anyone's email address to our email lists or send marketing materials to them; we only used it to deliver the report when finished & send the link to this live chat about it, ––as promised!)
The Big Picture: We’re Optimistic But Anxious
Here's what surprised me most: despite everyone's fears about AI, the economy, and rising costs, web designers are still cautiously optimistic. On a scale of 1-10, the average optimism level was around 7. Two-thirds (about 63%) of respondents expected to increase their income this year, and another almost 30% felt their income would be similar this year. Only 7.3% of people reported they thought their income would decrease in 2025, which is actually much lower than I figured that assumption would be.
But here's where it gets interesting—when we asked about financial stability compared to 12 months ago, twice as many people said they felt worse than those who felt better. Diane had a great insight about this: "when you compare this question to the first question of how optimistic you are it becomes really interesting because twice as many people were like I feel worse but I'm still hoping I'm optimistic."
It's like we're afraid but hopeful at the same time, as Diane put it. She also noted that this makes sense with how things are fluctuating: "I think it's because like they probably felt slightly different at this stage in the survey than they did when at the beginning... it's like oh I've got this I am awesome I'm a badass then there's a new AI tool that drops and we're like crap all the jobs are gone... we're just all over the place right now."
Screencapture from the report
The Financial Reality Check
The data point that completely shifted how I think about my business was this: over a third (35%) of respondents said they have zero months of financial runway & they're living month-to-month. Less than 10% had six months or more saved up. While about 40% have about 1-3 months of safety net, and another 16% have between 3-6 months saved up.
We both thought that was pretty interesting! Diane summed up the broader context perfectly: "I mean you know when eggs are a buck an egg [laughed] and we've got things like that, you know, it's just stressful right now and I think people are a lot more discerning when it comes to paying for expenses for their business."
This is why Markup's $79/month pricing felt so tone-deaf. Through no fault of our own, just by keeping your existing business running, your monthly expenses suddenly jumped because every software company decided to raise prices after Black Friday/New Year sales were over. You're not changing anything in your business, but you have to hustle for more clients just to break even.
What's Really Scaring Us
Screencapture from the report
The top fears among web designers aren't surprising if you've been in this industry for a while:
Getting clients - This is the eternal struggle, honestly
"Why won't they pay me what I'm worth?" - The pricing battle we all fight
Impostor syndrome - That voice saying "I don't know what I'm doing"
What's interesting, Diane noted, is that all three of these are really mindset issues, not tactical problems. When she finally raised her prices significantly, it wasn't because she suddenly got better at design or learned some new skill, it was because she got fed up with charging lower prices and just decided to change them because she had to.
When I finally raised my prices significantly, it wasn't just because I had gotten better at design, I just started to realize that my take-home pay essentially from each project was ridiculously low which wasn't sustainable. So if I was charging $2,000, maybe my take-home pay from that would be about $1,000 of that, and that wasn't enough to feel like my business was successful. I actually discovered the issue after reading Profit First, because I didn't really know how to fix that until I read it. After that then I was like 'Oh I get it now I've been doing this wrong for like a decade.' 😂🤦🏼♀️
That's the thing about pricing—you may be waiting for some external validation. As Diane noted, "when you start out you're like, 'well I'm going to when I know enough, when I get the right kind of client, when I have the right experience, when my website looks a certain way...' It's always these external metrics that you're holding out there, but honestly I have found that every single time I've raised my prices... it's always been within me."
She's absolutely right! When I finally raised my prices, it wasn't because I'd suddenly learned one specific new skill—I had actually been gaining capabilities over time through both education and experience, but I hadn't been raising my prices to match that growth. Every time I've successfully raised my prices, it's been an internal shift. I just decided I wasn't going to accept less anymore, because I couldn't keep helping people and pay my bills at the old rates.
Client Sensitivity Reality
About half of respondents said their clients have become more price-sensitive in the last year. This tracks with what I've been hearing from my members in the Club too.
As Diane said, "my one-on-one clients have not been getting more price sensitive, but the people who are buying my lower ticket things were getting way more price sensitive... I was selling more custom websites so more $5,000 - $9,000 projects, but I was selling fewer design days and my lower ticket things."
It seems like people are either going all-in on big investments or being really cautious with smaller expenses.
An Education Spending Mindset Shift?
Screencapture from the report
Possibly the most telling part of the survey: last year, the most popular education budget was $500 - $2,500.
This year? The most popular answer was either $0 - $500, or "I'm not buying anything this year."
If you add up the percentages of people spending $0 - $500 with those not buying anything at all, that's over half (51.3%) of respondents drastically cutting their education spending. That's a massive shift from the mindset of "I'll invest in high-ticket courses to get where I want to go" to "I'm going to bootstrap it this year."
I'm almost wondering too if part of that is a shift of, 'I've learned enough for right now,' and people are starting to pull out of that 'I don't know enough' mentality. Maybe partly because they're forced to at this moment, but also maybe they're just realizing they've taken a lot of courses, haven't implemented everything yet, and they're going to go back through what they've purchased.
So the question is, have we already learned enough for now?
As Diane pointed out, it can also "be a defense mechanism too, you know, you want to keep buying, you don't feel good enough to start on your own, so you keep buying more education."
We think this trend is going to accelerate because of AI because knowledge isn't as scarce as it used to be. When you can get detailed answers from ChatGPT about things that used to require a $2,000 course, it's changing the value proposition of traditional education.
Course & Membership Pricing Specifics
The survey showed a clear shift in what people are willing to pay for education, because the sweet spot for courses used to be $500 - $2,500 or even $3,000 - $5,000, but now it seems much lower.
About 67% said they'd pay less than $1,500 for a course
Another 13% of respondents said they weren't buying any courses at all this year.
For monthly memberships, most people (about 75.6%) prefer to stay under $100/month,
About 64% of those people are staying under $50/mo.
This doesn't mean education is less valuable—it just means we need to think differently about how we package and price it, including how we back up the cost for the investment. Maybe that means we just need to create more accessible entry points like breaking larger courses into segments and allowing students to purchase it in sections, similar to how Rache of SquareStylist broke up her signature course Standout Squarespace* into 2 parts purchasable together (bundled) or separate. Or maybe that means more people need payment plans. Or maybe it means prices are slightly inflated and some just need to cost less & deliver the same core content. 🤷♀️ You'll have to decide what feels right for you!
With my Ultimate Client Portal System course, which focuses on the setup & management of a dedicated Client Portal using Kitchen.co*, I purposefully chose to keep the course under $400 at launch even though I know it's likely worth more, because I wanted to make sure it remained accessible for you.
Screencapture from the report
Screencapture from the report
How I feel about this education shift
I actually feel very sad about the recent shifts in education, generally (not just in the online space, in grade schools, colleges & universities, etc too). I don’t have a degree (though I did nearly graduate before dropping out due to lack of funds & scheduling issues with the commute to classes & work) BUT, well-rounded educations aren’t worth much now. Even if I had a degree like my past co-workers, they got paid the same salary that I did and none of us were making more than $20/hr or had benefits packages. So of course, increasingly, whether it’s correlation or causation, we’re looking at “college” more & more like a waste of money & time because frankly, it is. As long as inflation keeps increasing, and wages can’t keep up, and university tuition (in countries that don’t provide higher level learning for free) continues to climb –– no amount of student loans can justify the cost/investment.
So we look online for unaccredited ways to learn, which is what I did, because my college program didn’t tell me how to run my own web design business anyway!
Look, I'm always glad we have access to more knowledge via the internet! I love taking courses. I’m an avid reader myself, and love a good documentary (on practically anything) because I enjoy the process of learning something new & interesting.
On the other hand, we’re already devaluing critical thinking more and more each year (as a global community, seemingly), and now we can just ask AI to think for us but we don’t always know how to vet those answers for the facts. My husband is a deep thinker who probably would've pursued a degree in philosophy if he'd thought it would've been a profitable career path, –but sadly, that just doesn't seem to be the case (even before AI).
So, I just don't see this going in a positive direction, in regard to devaluing deep thought on our own, becoming more reliant on external tools to “think”, ––and less value in learning for the sake of learning, to become more well-rounded & empathetic people.
My question is, will having access to AI strip us of our desire to be curious without it? 🤔
How This Changes Our Business Strategies
Screencapture from the report
All of this data made Diane completely rethink her business model. She'd been focusing on getting more custom website clients—those $5,000-$10,000 projects—and building out her team to handle that workload. But looking at these survey results, she realized she was potentially leaving out a huge group of people who want to learn from her but can't afford a $10,000 custom website.
As Diane explained, "I think I'm leaving out a whole swath of people who would invest in me and want to learn from me, or would want to work with me in some way and want to know what I know, but don't want to pay $10,000 for a custom website for their business. Maybe they're more DIY, they want to do it on their own ,they're just starting out, or maybe it's like a side hustle."
That's what led her to create her AI Photo Factory course. She'd been seeing all these expensive brand photo shoots—$20,000-$30,000 productions with professional directors, location shoots, outfit changes, the whole deal. But as Diane said, "you can do all that now for, you know, a couple of days worth of work in an AI if you have the skills and tools... with a $10 Midjourney subscription." She priced her course at $297 for the founding member launch, and a lot of people told her it should be $800 or $1,200. But as she explained, "my list is still really small because I'm a one-to-one business" and based on the survey data, she knew fewer people were willing to spend that much on education right now. She said, "I'm just not going to worry about the price so much first; let's get people in the door, and let's make it really robust, and build it out. But all of those decisions were based on what what I saw in the survey."
What We're Prioritizing (and what that tells us)
When we asked what skills designers are most financially incentivized to develop in 2025, the top three were:
Design skills - Still the foundation of what we do
SEO - Always valuable, always in demand
AI - The new frontier
I am super curious to see how that breakdown changes between when we ran this survey in Q1 and Q2, and next January because I think those top three are going to be flip-flopped. I have a feeling those rankings are going to look very different by next year!
The Software Struggle Is Real
When we asked about software expenses, 31% of people budget between $500 - $2,500 annually for their business tools. But 12% are spending less than $500 per year total. That's like ChatGPT or Claude, and Squarespace, ––or just two software subscriptions, right?! Neither of us really understand how that's possible for late beginner or even intermediate businesses & older, but we have to assume they're just using the free plan on stuff wherever possible. 🤷♀️
At one point last year, Diane was spending about $900 a month just on apps and software, not including contractors. That's over $10,000 a year! As Diane said, "that was just, that was just terrible, and I was like, we can't ––no–– this is this is ridiculous; I cannot do this." 😂
Screencapture from the report
Least justified software
Of the least justified software expenses the most common mentions were (in order from most mentions to least mentions): None/Not Sure, Adobe, Honeybook*, Weglot, and Zoom.
Zoom makes sense since so many people are switching to Google Meet these days, since it comes with your Google Workspace plan, Zoom has become rather redundant software; it just took us five years after COVID to realize, 'oh I'm already paying for this feature over there.' 😬
Screencapture from the report
Most justified software
Of the most justified software expenses the most common mentions were (in order from most mentions to least mentions): Canva, Squarespace, Adobe, CRMs (in general), and SEOSpace*.
It's interesting to note that Adobe made BOTH the most justified and least justified lists, which Diane perfectly captured in this statement: "Adobe is one of those things, you either love it or you hate it. It if it's your go-to, you're a pro, you're like a magician with it, it's amazing, –but if you're not I mean there's just so many other things." She also pointed out that "the fact that Canva's listed as the most justified software expense kind of says... weaknesses" about Adobe's accessibility.
And I have to agree with Diane's assessment of the Adobe vs Canva conversation, because I finally cancelled my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription in the fall of 2024 after paying for it for about 4 or 5 years, and am actively switching over to using Affinity's apps because they're highly compatible industry-standard-level design software with a one-time fee, or pay as you decide to upgrade pay structure. Before that I had always used the Creative Suite software, which I owned outright when I purchased it. With Adobe Creative Cloud, even on the discounted plan I had over those years, by the time I cancelled it I'd paid more (about $1,900 total in ongoing subscription fees) than 'Creative Suite v6' which was the last version of it that I owned before Creative Cloud was released & you couldn't use their software without a subscription any more.
I think people are just fed up with subscription-based softwares and are dropping what they can, when they can, especially when the company doesn't seem to give a shit about its audience/customers, ––and all of Adobe's customers definitely have felt that way at some point over the years! Throw Canva's affordable plan & time-efficient design features into the mix, and Affinity's apps... and we aren't surprised that Adobe showed up in both of these least/most justified software lists. 😏
The big question on everyone’s minds:
Is AI going to take our design jobs?
We have to talk about AI. I know, I know—it's both terrifying and exciting and confusing all at once.
First, about half of survey respondents said they were likely to invest in AI-related software, but only a third were also planning to invest in AI education, which means roughly 60-70% of respondents either want/feel obligated to use AI but might not know how to do get the most out of it.
Screencapture from the report
Screencapture from the report
Our Thoughts on AI & the Future of Web Design
We ended the livestream talking AI impact—and I want to bring that conversation into this post, because I'm sure you've wondered or thought about it too.
My initial knee-jerk reaction is often something akin to, 'we're all screwed' when I watch the doom-and-gloom interviews with AI experts that are popping up everywhere now. But the optimist in me is mostly like 'no, I refuse to believe that; I'm capable of figuring out something to pivot to and can adapt.' I definitely find that I'm having to limit my consumption of a lot of these recent doom and gloom interviews on channels like Diary of A CEO (which I normally LOVE), because it's just not productive information for my brain to have, ––in order to be a productive business owner and do my job, continuing to help people like you, RIGHT NOW.
Diane made an valid point about the core threat too: "knowledge jobs in general are just going to be less and less valuable as AI takes off and provides more people with that kind of stuff, which is a threat to people like us, because that's our knowledge." It's "what we've spent a lifetime acquiring, but also that's what people pay us for is what we know, and if they can get the same information from ChatGPT it's going to be a threat." But then she also reminded us: this industry has always been changing! As she explained, "I've been at building websites since 2006; I can't tell you how many times I've been up against it... the economy crash in 2007... here I am trying to launch this web design business and in those days people didn't even really know what a website was for, they didn't see the benefit of it." She continued with examples that I resonated with too: "a few years later there was the whole Facebook page / 'I don't need a website anymore,' nobody's going to have websites, everybody's going to have a Facebook page... and you know... there have been tons of those! I remember when Parallax came out and it totally changed the way websites were laid out. I had spent all these years training myself to be a genius at the body, the sidebar, a header, and a background, like I know how to do that beautifully and now all of a sudden there's these big sections."
Her conclusion was perfect: "if you're new to this industry and you're terrified about AI, just be like 'oh this is web design, yay'. It's just going to change every every two three years and become something completely different, and you just got to roll with it; you know, that's tech."
As we navigate this bumpy era, something I read recently said, "we can't control our first thought, but we can control our second." I loved that! Our first thought might be panic about AI, or worry about pricing, or stress about the economy, but the second thought? That's where we can choose to focus on what we can actually control and take action from there. My own process now: read headlines when/if needed so I’m staying in-the-know with how the industry is changing, but then stop doom-scrolling (or doom-watching, in cases like those interviews from Diary of A CEO), and focus on what I can do right now.
AI is just really fast acceleration that's hard to keep up with. Yeah, knowledge jobs are being threatened. But web design evolves. Like mobile-first, parallax, and Facebook-page-only eras—it’ll shift again. Designers, like everyone else, must adapt or 'die' trying.
Like the locals have always said in every part of the U.S. that I've ever lived in, "if you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes." I suppose the same could be said for web design, because if ya don't like how it is right now, just wait five minutes… because it'll change/evolve again. 🤭
So we're approaching AI as a helpful tool to enhance our work, not as a threat. You do you—but it'd be smart to add AI skills of some kind into your toolkit, or you may get left behind. 😬
Moving Forward: Adapting to Reality
Running this survey taught Diane and me that staying connected to what's actually happening in our industry—not just what we think is happening—is crucial for making smart business decisions.
For example, the survey data helped me think about my current (as of posting) website redesign. When we were running the survey, I couldn't really think of any direct correlation between what I've decided to do and what we were learning from the respondents, but since then as I'm redesigning my website, these details are sort of living in the back of my head for what designers are looking for and how to maybe place those things higher up in the navigation ––adjusting the userflow.
The data helped me understand my split audience better, because before it was mostly geared towards one-on-one services which is less of a focus now, than the education side of my business. So now I'm going back through everything with the intention of having a split audience and needing to figure out how to reorganize my website so that it speaks to either person for whatever they came to me for help with.
For both Diane & I, the survey data has informed several key decisions:
Creating more accessible price points for people who want to work with us but can't afford custom website prices
Being more intentional about software expenses and cutting tools that don't directly contribute to revenue, wherever possible
Focusing on practical AI applications that solve real business problems rather than just cool tech for tech's sake
Pricing based on market reality, rather than what we think things "should" cost
What's Next
We're planning to run this survey again next year, and as Diane mentioned, "we're going to start announcing it in end of December / beginning of January and then we'll get the results out earlier." By doing it earlier in the year for 2026, we'll have data to compare to from 2025 and that'll get even more interesting and nerdy!
Hopefully, we'll get more than 151 responses next time, too. As Diane said, "hopefully people will remember it and tell their friends." The more data we have, the better insights we can provide to help all of us make smarter business decisions.
The web design industry is changing rapidly, but we're not helpless. We can gather data, share insights, support each other, and adapt together. Sometimes the best thing we can do is just acknowledge that things are weird right now and we're all figuring it out as we go.
And as Diane concluded, "that's enough. That's always been enough." 👏🏻
Want to dive deeper into the data?
Check out the full report here and watch our full discussion in the embedded video at the top of this post. Let us know in the comments if any of these insights are affecting your business decisions—we'd love to hear how you're adapting!
Questions for You:
How are you dealing with dual audiences in your business? (if applicable)
What pricing-related mindset shift are you working on?
How are you experimenting with AI in your design process?
What software was most/least justified in 2024 and 2025 so far, for you?
