Best UX & UI design agencies in the UK

How we picked these

This page covers UK agencies for which UX design is a listed service with named client case studies. Several are web agencies that do UX within a build, and one (ustwo) is a product studio. Each entry says which kind it is. Offices range from Cardiff to Leicester to London, so location is not a filter.

The order follows fit first: how central UX research and design are to the agency’s offer. After that we looked at what each can show. For UX work the quality of the design shown is what you are buying, so documented work and measured results come first, followed by published prices, named teams and stated support terms. This is desk research from public sources, so we have not worked with any of them or watched them run a project. More on how we choose agencies.

1. Illustrate Digital

Illustrate Digital is a Cardiff-based WordPress and UX agency of about 17 people, founded in 2013, with Bristol and London offices. It works mainly for banks, insurers, law firms and Welsh public bodies. It suits regulated organisations that want user research and ISO 27001-certified delivery.

What they do best

• Regulated-sector UX. The portfolio holds 25 case studies for Admiral, GoCompare, Burges Salmon, Foot Anstey, Pepper Money and Welsh Government services.
• Measured outcomes. Hodge Bank reported 76% more savings applications and Pepper Money cut deployment time by 83%.
• UX on its own. The projects page sets a separate minimum for one-off evaluations and UX-only projects, and it also publishes a six-step method and a named team.

Where they fall short

• A high floor. Full design and build starts From £40,000 per build, the highest published floor on this page, so smaller projects are out of scope.
• No support times. No support response times are published.

2. Atomic Smash

Atomic Smash is a Bristol WordPress, WooCommerce and Shopify agency of about 11 people, founded in 2010 and a Certified B Corp since 2023. It takes over existing sites and improves them on published monthly retainers. It suits marketing teams with a stable site who want planned UX improvements, support and reporting on a fixed budget.

What they do best

• Published monthly packages. It publishes three monthly packages with inclusions (From £950 per month + VAT), a day rate and an onboarding plan.
• Clear account cover. Each client gets a pod led by a Client Partner with weekly or fortnightly status calls, and support tickets get a response within an hour in office hours.
• Measured gains. ForrestBrown’s average performance score rose 61% after launch with bounce rate down 58%.

Where they fall short

• No new builds. Its WordPress page states that it does not build new websites, so a from-scratch build means hiring another agency first.
• Unconfirmed awards. It has 36 case studies, the newest from December 2024, and award mentions it did not confirm on an organiser’s site.

3. Torchbox

Torchbox is a 100+ person employee-owned B Corp in Bristol, founded in 2000, that created the Wagtail CMS. It builds websites, intranets and campaigns for charities, NHS bodies and public-sector teams. It suits nonprofits and public bodies that want Python-based open-source platforms and design from the same team.

What they do best

• Charity and NHS products. The work page lists 136 case studies including Breast Cancer Now, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, ActionAid, RNID, Acas and Art Fund.
• Usage results. The Guy’s and St Thomas’ intranet recorded almost 500,000 views in its first week with about 15,000 daily users.
• Campaign results. Breast Cancer Now’s challenge raised £1.48m with 24k leads, 37% above target.

Where they fall short

• No prices or process. It publishes no prices or process steps and works almost entirely for mission-driven clients, so commercial brands have little relevant reference work.
• No stated terms. Torchbox itself states no meeting cadence or support terms.

4. ustwo

ustwo is an employee-owned B Corp digital product studio founded in London in 2004, with studios in Malmo, Lisbon and New York. It designs and builds apps and platforms for health, finance and energy clients. It suits organisations planning a large product build over several months.

What they do best

• Large product programmes. The work page lists more than 50 case studies including HSBC/Klir, iShares, Peloton, National Grid and RVO Health.
• Measured product results. RVO Health’s AI coaching pilot enrolled 1,500 users in its first month, three times the number anticipated, and Soph’s Plant Kitchen reports 84% month-one retention.
• Described engagements. The services page describes four engagement types with typical lengths.

Where they fall short

• No prices or team size. The engagements start at 6 to 12 weeks, which points to enterprise budgets rather than small projects.
• Unconfirmed awards. The BAFTA and Fast Company recognition it cites were not checked on the organisers’ lists, so we counted none.

5. Opace

Opace is a Birmingham digital agency, trading since 2008 and listing about 7 named staff, covering web builds on WordPress, Magento, Drupal and Laravel, SEO, PPC and AI search work. It suits small firms that want a monthly-fee website and larger retailers that need ecommerce development with SEO.

What they do best

• A published entry price. The services page lists Pay monthly websites from £50 per month.
• Ecommerce case studies. Eight featured case studies cover NatureSpot, Corcorans, Shedstore and SPI Lasers.
• A named team. Seven team members are named with roles, along with a Brindley Place address.

Where they fall short

• Figures without baselines. Case study figures carry no baseline or time window (500 page-one rankings and 45% organic visibility growth for Shedstore).
• UX is a side service. UX is one service among more than twenty listed, and no design or SEO price list showed in our rendered check.

6. Studio 24

Studio 24 is a Cambridge digital agency, in business since 1999, with a London office at King’s Cross and about 15 people. It builds accessible websites and web apps in WordPress, Craft CMS, Laravel and Symfony for public sector, charity and arts clients. It is on the G-Cloud 15 and DOS 7 frameworks.

What they do best

• Accessible UX for public bodies. The GAAD Foundation lists its W3C website redesign as a 2023 Gaady winner.
• Large public clients. The work page shows 17 case studies for W3C, Crossrail, HS2, UKHSA, RNIB and the Welsh Parliament.
• Framework buying. Procurement is possible through G-Cloud 15 and DOS 7.

Where they fall short

• No prices. A buyer outside the public frameworks cannot size a budget before contact.
• Few before and after figures. The UKHSA study reports a 5-week on-time build and the RNIB study cites 84,000 data points turned into a tool, but most studies lack before and after figures.

7. Cite

Cite is a Leicester brand, digital and campaign agency, founded in 2000 and employee-owned since October 2025. It works mainly for B2B organisations with complex offers, and its portfolio includes Knauf, Weidmann, DHL, LINK, Santander and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. It suits B2B teams that want brand, website and campaign work together.

What they do best

• Complex B2B work. Fifteen case studies include a Weidmann three-site build dated March 2026.
• Client collaboration. The Harvard GSD testimonial describes collaboration with the client’s web team and regular updates.
• Campaign reach. The LINK campaign reports 50+ million impressions.

Where they fall short

• No prices or process. Its pipeline figures for Knauf (a projected £44 million) are projections rather than closed revenue. Our estimate is projects from about £50,000, based on two campaign investments, and it is our judgement only.
• Hidden delivery team. The delivery team below director level is not listed.

Which one fits your project

What UX design services actually cost

A UX quote is rarely the whole cost. When you compare agencies, check whether each of these is included or extra:

• Research. Interviews, participant recruitment and testing can be a separate phase. Illustrate Digital prices UX-only projects separately from full builds.
• Build. A design handover is not a working product. Atomic Smash does not build new sites, so a redesign there needs a build partner.
• Ongoing improvement. Retainers cover continuing UX and conversion work, such as Atomic Smash’s packages (From £950 per month + VAT) and Illustrate Digital’s growth retainers.
• Accessibility audits. Check whether WCAG testing sits inside the design price.
• Engagement length. ustwo’s engagements run from 6 weeks to over a year, and cost follows team size and time.

As our estimate, a UX-only project for a mid-sized organisation costs a few thousand pounds at the low end, a full design and build runs from £40,000 to six figures, and product programmes cost more. The published figures on this page are Illustrate Digital’s From £40,000 per build, Atomic Smash’s From £950 per month + VAT and Opace’s Pay monthly websites from £50 per month. Cite’s figure is our estimate. Torchbox, ustwo and Studio 24 publish no price.