Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies

When mid-market companies search for Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies, they’re typically navigating a complex landscape where enterprise consulting firms meet specialized creative agencies. EY Studio+ brings together 7,000 design, marketing, sales, service and technology professionals across 50 countries, but this scale and enterprise focus often creates friction for growing businesses seeking agility, predictable pricing, and rapid creative execution.

This comprehensive guide examines the Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies, focusing specifically on creative agency services including branding, graphic design, UI/UX design, motion graphics, video production, conversion optimization, UX research, website development, and AI implementation. While EY Studio+ offers additional services beyond creative work—including consulting, tax, and advisory practices—this analysis concentrates on their creative agency capabilities to help marketing leaders, UX directors, founders, and digital transformation executives make informed decisions.

Understanding EY Studio+ Creative Services

EY is bringing its suite of creative services, including design, sales, marketing and customer experience practices, under one umbrella called EY Studio+, which launched in 2025. EY Studio+ is comprised of design, sales, marketing, and customer experience technology expertise from EY-acquired agencies including Blackdot, Digital Detox, Doberman, etVenture, Fabernovel, Freshworks, Future Friendly, Italia Brand Group, Seren, Team Collective, VODW and Zilker.

For creative services specifically, EY Design Studio offers project costs ranging from $30,000 to over $200,000, depending on complexity, with minimum project sizes of $50,000+ and hourly rates ranging between $150-$199. EY’s Business Transformation Consulting – Design Studio roles show hourly rates ranging from $32.70-42.93 for entry-level positions, though client-facing rates are typically significantly higher, with project durations varying widely based on scope and teams assembled on a project-by-project basis.

Why Mid-Market Companies Seek Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies

Mid-market companies with 50-1,000 employees face distinct challenges when engaging with enterprise consulting firms like EY Studio+. Several factors drive the search for Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies:

Budget Predictability and Transparency

Marketing leaders at mid-sized tech companies often struggle with the lack of cohesion between marketing and design efforts when working with large consulting firms, with the challenge not just about cost but finding a partner who can truly understand complex product offerings without the disruption to existing marketing processes that comes with traditional agency onboarding. Enterprise consulting firms typically operate on custom project-based pricing models that require substantial budgets and extended procurement cycles.

Speed and Agility

UX directors at rapidly growing e-commerce companies need agencies that can keep pace with agile development cycles and deliver measurable conversion improvements, not just strategic recommendations. Traditional consulting project timelines measured in months conflict with the rapid iteration cycles that growth-stage companies require.

Resource Allocation and Expertise

Large consulting firms assemble teams on a project-by-project basis with mixed seniority levels, whereas mid-market companies increasingly seek dedicated senior resources who understand their brand, products, and customers deeply over time.

Comprehensive Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies

Subscription-Based Creative Agencies

Passionate Agency – Passionates

Founded in 2019 and based in London and New York, Passionate Agency offers a subscription-based model specifically designed for mid-market companies seeking enterprise-quality creative services without enterprise complexity. The agency provides three progressive tiers covering design, web development, conversion optimization, UX research, and AI implementation.

Pricing Structure:

• Grow tier: $8,000/month full-time (40 hours/week) or $5,000/month part-time (20 hours/week) for design, branding, UI/UX, motion graphics, video production, and website development (WordPress, Webflow, Shopify)
• Optimize tier: $10,000/month full-time or $6,000/month part-time, adding UX research, CRO analysis, A/B testing, and advanced analytics
• Innovate tier: $12,500/month full-time or $7,250/month part-time, adding AI implementation, automation, chatbots, and personalization
• Hourly packages: $199/hour in 1-10 hour blocks for maintenance and ad-hoc tasks

Project Duration: Operates on unlimited request model with 1-3 working day delivery per request. Clients can use subscriptions for fixed-term projects (1-2 months for website redesigns) or ongoing creative needs.

Team Composition: All team members are senior professionals with 5+ years experience (top 0.5% of talent). Clients receive a dedicated project manager coordinating across designers, developers, motion graphics artists, UX researchers, CRO specialists, and AI engineers.

Process and Quality: Enterprise-grade quality control with dedicated project management, Slack integration, and seamless workflow coordination. Clients retain full ownership of deliverables with no cancellation penalties.

Best For: Mid-market companies requiring comprehensive creative services with predictable budgeting, rapid turnaround, and the ability to scale by stacking multiple resources. Particularly suited for iterative, fast-paced creative teams and organizations needing integrated design, development, CRO, and AI capabilities.

Superside

Superside operates as a Creative-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform targeting enterprise clients with high-volume design needs. Startup, enterprises and mid-market companies trust Superside to deliver pixel-perfect creative, at scale.

Pricing Structure:

• Monthly plans start at $5,000/mo, with a $1,000 service fee on Level 1 to 3 plans
• Superside targets enterprise clients with tiered monthly plans ranging from $10,000 to over $100,000 per month
• Credit-based system where unused hours roll over for up to three months

Project Duration: Projects can be completed in as little as 12 hours with dedicated project managers and collaborative online tools.

Team Composition: Global team of animators, project managers, and AI specialists, with access to a global pool of talent and creatives from top agencies and big brands, though the main point of contact is usually a project manager, not a single dedicated Creative Director.

Process and Quality: Clients can ramp up creative output 20 times faster than hiring an in-house team, at 50% of the cost. 88% of customers give Superside 5/5 on TrustPilot and G2, using phrases like “favorite agency partner,” “content game changer” and “true extension of our team”.

Best For: Larger enterprise brands and mid-size clients with high-volume needs, having worked with brands like Booking.com, Lyft, Reddit and Shopify.

Design Pickle

Design Pickle offers unlimited graphic design services through a subscription model, positioning itself as an affordable option for consistent creative output.

Pricing Structure:

• Graphics Pro plan at $1,349/month includes presentation design, Zapier integration, dedicated designers, Slack, collaboration tools, with 24-hr turnaround for everything but presentation design
• Graphics Premium plan at $2,049/month includes motion graphics and video editing, onboarding support, premium customer support, and a dedicated CSM
• 2025 pricing operates on a per-hour subscription basis, starting around $1,918 per month for a 2h/day package with monthly, quarterly or annual contracts (38% discount on annual)

Project Duration: Most designs delivered within 24-48 hours, with complex projects like presentations, animations, and video editing taking longer, operating on a queue system working on one project at a time for lower tiers.

Team Composition: Access to a dedicated designer with the guarantee of daily work on active projects, with the system assigning dedicated designers who know your brand.

Process and Quality: Unlimited design requests and unlimited revisions included in all plans. No contract required, but no refunds for unused time—clients still pay for the full amount of time for the plan they signed up for even if they cancel early.

Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses needing consistent graphic design output at predictable costs, particularly those requiring social media content, presentations, and marketing materials.

Enterprise Consulting Alternatives

Accenture Song

Accenture Song was No. 1 in the Agency Report 2025 ranking of the world’s biggest agency companies. Song is the world’s largest tech powered creative group, helping businesses grow into the future by creating relevance for their customers today.

Pricing Structure:

• Accenture does not publish standard price lists; nearly all work is priced as custom professional services or managed services based on scope, complexity, geography and duration
• Custom project-based pricing typical of enterprise consulting engagements

Project Duration: Varies by project scope, typically multi-month engagements for comprehensive transformations.

Team Composition: Design & Digital Products, Marketing, Commerce and Service practices deliver superb craftmanship at scale, rooted in strategy, powered by tech, enhanced with AI and elevated by creativity.

Process and Quality: Buyers laud Accenture Song’s process expertise, innovation, and flexible delivery model. Accenture has broad and deep capabilities in experience design through Accenture Song, with clients commending design excellence, people quality, and vendor differentiation most highly.

Best For: Optimized for mid-market and especially large enterprise clients that need complex, multi-platform transformations or managed operations at scale, though its cost structure, engagement model and delivery approach are generally over-sized for very small businesses.

Evaluating Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies by Company Size

Small to Mid-Market Companies (50-250 employees)

For smaller mid-market companies with limited budgets and need for agility, subscription-based models offer the most compelling value proposition. These organizations benefit from predictable monthly costs, rapid turnaround times, and the ability to scale services up or down without complex procurement processes.

Passionate Agency’s Grow tier at $8,000/month or Design Pickle’s plans starting at $1,349/month provide substantially lower entry points than EY Studio+’s $50,000+ project minimums. The subscription model eliminates the need for extensive scoping, proposal processes, and change order negotiations that characterize traditional agency engagements.

Mid-Market Companies (250-500 employees)

Organizations in this range often need a balance of strategic thinking and execution velocity. They may benefit from combining subscription services for ongoing creative needs with selective enterprise consulting engagements for major transformations.

Passionate Agency’s Optimize tier ($10,000/month) or Innovate tier ($12,500/month) provides access to CRO specialists and AI engineers alongside creative resources, offering integrated capabilities without the complexity of coordinating multiple vendors. For companies requiring higher volume, stacking multiple full-time resources creates dedicated team capacity at predictable costs.

Larger Mid-Market Companies (500-1,000 employees)

Larger mid-market companies with complex compliance requirements, multiple brand portfolios, or high-volume creative demands face a choice between building in-house teams, engaging enterprise consultancies, or implementing comprehensive subscription models.

Traditional agencies typically charge 2-4x more than subscription alternatives for comparable work, with project-based billing creating budget unpredictability, while in-house teams require 2-5x higher investment when factoring in salaries, benefits, software licenses, training, and management overhead, whereas subscription models allow enterprises to scale from one to five or more full-time resources as needed.

Key Decision Factors When Evaluating Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies

Pricing Model and Budget Predictability

The fundamental difference between Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies lies in their pricing approach. Enterprise consultancies like EY Studio+ and Accenture Song operate on custom project quotes requiring substantial budgets, while subscription agencies offer fixed monthly fees with transparent pricing.

For marketing directors managing quarterly budgets, the predictability of subscription models eliminates the uncertainty of scope creep, change orders, and variable project costs. Organizations can forecast creative spending with precision and reallocate resources based on actual needs rather than contracted project scopes.

Speed and Delivery Velocity

Growth marketing directors running 20+ experiments monthly cannot afford to wait weeks for creative assets. The velocity difference between traditional consulting engagements and subscription models is substantial.

Passionate Agency’s 1-3 day delivery per request and Superside’s 12-hour turnaround times contrast sharply with traditional project timelines. This speed advantage enables rapid experimentation, continuous optimization, and the ability to capitalize on market opportunities as they emerge.

Talent Quality and Consistency

The composition and consistency of creative teams significantly impacts output quality and brand coherence. Enterprise consultancies assemble project teams with mixed seniority levels, while subscription agencies emphasize senior talent and dedicated resources.

Passionate Agency’s guarantee of senior-only talent (5+ years experience, top 0.5%) with dedicated project management ensures consistent quality and brand understanding over time. This contrasts with project-based models where team composition varies across engagements.

Service Integration and Scope

Mid-market companies increasingly seek partners offering integrated capabilities rather than coordinating multiple specialists. The boundaries between design, development, marketing, and technology continue blurring.

Agencies offering comprehensive service coverage—from branding and UI/UX through web development, CRO, and AI implementation—eliminate the coordination overhead of managing multiple vendors. Passionate Agency’s progressive tiers provide this integration, allowing clients to access diverse expertise through a single relationship.

Scalability and Flexibility

Business needs fluctuate, and the ability to scale creative resources up or down without long-term commitments provides strategic flexibility. Subscription models excel in this dimension, allowing companies to add or reduce resources monthly.

For organizations with seasonal demand or project-based needs, the ability to stack multiple resources during peak periods and scale back during quieter months optimizes resource allocation. This flexibility is particularly valuable for e-commerce companies with seasonal peaks or product launch cycles.

Industry-Specific Considerations for Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies

B2B SaaS and Technology Companies

B2B SaaS companies face unique challenges in communicating complex product value propositions while maintaining rapid iteration cycles. Founders at Series B companies with 75-180 employees need design partners who understand the nuances of B2B marketing, product-led growth, and the importance of consistent brand execution across multiple touchpoints.

These organizations benefit from agencies with deep B2B software experience and the ability to simplify complex features through engaging visuals and videos. Passionate Agency’s specialization in B2B Software and Services companies addresses this need, while traditional enterprise consultancies may lack the specialized focus required.

E-commerce and Retail

E-commerce managers at rapidly growing online retail companies with 350+ employees are responsible for optimizing conversion rates across all digital touchpoints. They need partners who understand e-commerce-specific conversion factors, platform integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce), and the technical and experiential sides of online retail.

The ability to implement AI personalization, conduct UX research, and execute rapid A/B testing becomes critical. Agencies offering integrated CRO, UX research, and AI capabilities—like Passionate Agency’s Optimize and Innovate tiers—provide the comprehensive support e-commerce organizations require.

Financial Services and Regulated Industries

Digital transformation directors at financial services companies with 650 employees face additional complexity around security, compliance, and integration with existing systems. They need partners with both technical expertise and business acumen who understand domain-specific challenges.

Enterprise consultancies like Accenture Song may offer advantages in regulated industries due to their experience with compliance requirements and enterprise security standards. However, subscription agencies with ISO 27001 ready security standards and enterprise MSAs can also serve these markets effectively at lower price points.

The Evolving Landscape of Creative Services

Subscription Economics

Software taught businesses to prefer subscription pricing for predictability and flexibility, with creative services following the same path as subscription models gain adoption among organizations tired of unpredictable project costs and scope creep.

Integrated Capabilities

The boundaries between design, development, marketing, and technology continue blurring, with organizations increasingly preferring partners offering integrated capabilities rather than coordinating multiple specialists.

Senior Talent Accessibility

Remote work democratized access to senior talent globally, with agencies no longer needing massive overhead to access top professionals, enabling new models that deliver senior-quality work at mid-market pricing.

Making the Right Choice Among Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies

The optimal choice among Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies depends on your organization’s specific needs, budget constraints, and strategic priorities:

Choose Enterprise Consultancies (EY Studio+, Accenture Song) When:

• You’re undertaking a comprehensive digital transformation requiring deep industry expertise and technology integration across enterprise systems
• Your budget exceeds $250,000 for multi-month engagements
• You value the brand credibility and risk mitigation that comes with established consulting relationships
• You have the internal resources to manage complex procurement processes and extended timelines

Choose Premium Subscription Services (Passionate Agency, Superside) When:

• You need predictable, transparent pricing without procurement complexity
• Your team requires rapid turnaround (1-3 days) for iterative work across multiple creative formats
• You want dedicated senior resources who develop deep brand understanding over time
• Your organization operates in agile sprints requiring continuous creative support
• You need integrated capabilities spanning design, development, CRO, and AI

Choose Budget Subscription Services (Design Pickle) When:

• Your primary need is high-volume graphic design for marketing materials and social content
• Budget constraints limit options to $1,500-$2,500/month
• You can manage longer turnaround times (24-48 hours) and queue-based workflows
• Your creative needs are primarily two-dimensional graphics rather than comprehensive digital experiences

Frequently Asked Questions About Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies

What are the main differences between EY Studio+ and subscription-based alternatives?

The primary differences lie in pricing models, delivery speed, and resource allocation. EY Studio+ operates on custom project-based pricing with minimums of $50,000+ and timelines measured in months, while subscription alternatives like Passionate Agency offer fixed monthly fees ($5,000-$12,500) with 1-3 day delivery. Subscription models provide dedicated senior resources who develop brand expertise over time, whereas traditional consultancies assemble project teams with variable composition.

How do I determine the right budget for creative services?

Budget allocation depends on your organization’s size, creative volume, and strategic priorities. As a benchmark, mid-market companies typically allocate 5-15% of revenue to marketing, with 20-40% of marketing budget dedicated to creative services. For a company with $20M revenue, this translates to $200,000-$1.2M annually for creative work. Subscription models at $8,000-$12,500/month ($96,000-$150,000 annually) provide comprehensive coverage at the lower end of this range.

Can subscription agencies handle large-scale projects like complete rebrands?

Yes, subscription agencies can execute large-scale projects by stacking multiple resources or dedicating longer timeframes. A comprehensive rebrand that might cost $150,000-$300,000 as a project-based engagement can be accomplished through 2-3 months of multiple full-time subscription resources, often at lower total cost with greater flexibility. The key advantage is the ability to iterate and refine continuously rather than committing to a fixed scope upfront.

What level of strategic thinking can I expect from Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies?

Strategic capabilities vary significantly across alternatives. Enterprise consultancies like EY Studio+ and Accenture Song emphasize strategy and transformation consulting as core differentiators. Premium subscription services like Passionate Agency provide strategic guidance through senior practitioners with 5+ years experience, focusing on practical, execution-oriented strategy rather than pure consulting. Budget subscription services typically focus on execution rather than strategic direction.

How quickly can I onboard with different Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies?

Onboarding timelines vary dramatically. Enterprise consultancies typically require 4-8 weeks for procurement, contracting, and team assembly. Subscription services can onboard within 1-2 weeks, with some offering same-week starts. Passionate Agency’s streamlined onboarding enables clients to submit first requests within days of signing, while Design Pickle emphasizes quick setup. This speed difference is critical for organizations with immediate creative needs.

What happens if I’m not satisfied with the creative output?

Satisfaction guarantees and revision policies differ across alternatives. Subscription services typically offer unlimited revisions within their service scope, with no additional fees for refinements. Traditional consultancies may charge for revisions beyond contracted scope. Passionate Agency offers no cancellation penalties with month-to-month flexibility, allowing clients to discontinue if unsatisfied. Enterprise consultancies typically require longer commitment periods with more complex exit provisions.

Conclusion: Selecting the Best Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies

When searching for Top EY Alternatives for creative agency services, the right choice depends on your specific needs, constraints, and priorities. For mid-market companies and startups, subscription-based agencies are often the best alternative to EY Studio+, as these companies need enterprise-quality work without the enterprise budget or bureaucracy.

The landscape of creative services has evolved significantly, with subscription models gaining traction as organizations seek predictable pricing, rapid delivery, and integrated capabilities. While enterprise consultancies like EY Studio+ and Accenture Song continue to serve specific needs around comprehensive transformation and strategic consulting, the emergence of premium subscription services provides compelling alternatives for mid-market companies.

For organizations prioritizing speed, cost predictability, senior talent access, and integrated capabilities spanning design, development, CRO, and AI, subscription models represent a paradigm shift in how creative services are delivered. The ability to scale resources dynamically, maintain brand consistency through dedicated teams, and execute with 1-3 day turnaround times addresses the core pain points that drive mid-market companies to seek Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies.

As you evaluate options, consider not just the immediate project needs but the long-term strategic value of your creative partnership. The right alternative should not only deliver high-quality work but also enable your organization to move faster, experiment more freely, and scale more efficiently than traditional models allow.

Comparison Table: Top EY Alternatives for Mid-market companies