Makreate vs R/GA — Which Digital Agency Is Right for You?

Short version: R/GA is a global digital innovation agency working with Nike, Verizon, Samsung, Beats and Equinox at multi-million-dollar engagement tiers. Makreate offers integrated UX, branding and growth at a fraction of that floor — USD 160/day or USD 1,600/month — for clients who need senior execution but don't have a $500K+ engagement budget. The two are solving different problems at different scales.

This guide compares both on the dimensions that actually matter when you're picking a partner — pricing, engagement model, deliverables, and the decision criteria for "which one fits my situation."

At-a-glance comparison

Pricing comparison

The biggest practical difference between Makreate and R/GA is the price floor. Makreate's UX Design pricing starts at USD 160/day or USD 1,600/month for retainers. A typical project — say, a SaaS dashboard redesign with research, wireframes, prototypes and a design system — runs $20K-$80K end to end.

R/GA works at the enterprise innovation tier. Engagements rarely start under $250K and most run $500K-$5M. They are known for integrated brand + product + technology work for major consumer and enterprise brands.

What you get for Makreate's price

• One senior designer (8+ years) leading the project
• Backed by a team of UX veterans (35+ combined years), available as needed
• Direct Slack channel — your engineer/PM talks to your designer, no account-manager layer
• Shipped work: wireframes, prototypes, UI, design systems, sometimes the build itself
• USD-fixed proposal in 48 hours, kickoff within a week

What you get for R/GA's price

• Digital innovation strategy
• Brand and product design
• Connected product / IoT design
• Software engineering
• Marketing and advertising
• Service design and CX
• Executive innovation workshops
• Long-term innovation retainers

Engagement model

Makreate runs three engagement models:

• Daily retainer (USD 160/day): a senior designer dedicated to your team. You pay only for days they work. Good for ongoing UX needs without committing to a full-month retainer.
• Monthly retainer (USD 1,600/month): 40 hours/week of senior UX work. Best when you have continuous UX needs and want predictable monthly cost.
• Fixed-price project: defined scope, defined timeline, USD-fixed cost. Best when the project is well-defined upfront.

R/GA runs multi-phase engagements. Engagements are typically scoped end-to-end across multiple workstreams (strategy, design, sometimes engineering) running 3-18 months. You commit to the full arc, not piece by piece.

Who they serve

Makreate's client list skews US, UK and UAE growth-stage: SaaS founders (pre-seed through Series C), fintech and tax-tech operators (Cleartax, Accuvat), healthtech and fitness (BurnCal AI), B2B enterprise (DESC, GGCF, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank, Oracle), and ecommerce (Sneakers retail, Glass World UAE). See the case studies.

R/GA's client list: Nike, Verizon, Samsung, Beats by Dre, Equinox, Mailchimp, Bose.

Deliverables

Makreate ships production-ready design work:

• UX audit reports + heuristic evaluations
• User research reports (qualitative + quantitative)
• Information architecture and user flow maps
• Wireframes (low and high fidelity)
• Clickable Figma prototypes
• Production-ready UI (Figma → handoff)
• Component libraries and design systems
• Often: the front-end build itself (HTML/CSS/React)

R/GA ships:

• Digital innovation strategy
• Brand and product design
• Connected product / IoT design
• Software engineering
• Marketing and advertising
• Service design and CX
• Executive innovation workshops
• Long-term innovation retainers

When Makreate is the better choice

• You need senior UX work shipped in 4-12 weeks
• Your budget is under $250K for the engagement
• You're a SaaS, fintech, healthtech, ecommerce or B2B growth-stage company
• You want to skip the account-manager layer and talk directly to designers
• You need production-ready design, not just strategy
• You bill in USD or GBP and want pricing in your currency

When R/GA is the better choice

• You're an enterprise or major consumer brand
• Your budget is $500K-$5M for the engagement
• You need integrated brand + product + technology work
• You're building a connected product or service-design challenge
• You can wait 6-12 weeks for kickoff
• Your scope spans multiple quarters and disciplines

For everyone else — most US, UK and growth-stage companies — Makreate is the closer fit. The two firms are solving different problems. Comparing them by price alone misses that point.