Your logo is more than just a little image to stick on your website and business cards, and it’s often the first thing your audience and prospective clients see. With visuals being processed up to 60,000 faster than text, most people will often judge your brand and create a first impression of your business the second they see your logo. And you want to make a good impression, right?

A lot more goes into logo design than most people think, and there’s a reason why Fortune 500 companies spend millions, sometimes billions, on logo design and brand development. While we don’t recommend you blow your entire year’s marketing budget on a new logo, we wouldn’t suggest cut-rate logo design services, either. Here’s why:

Logo Design Takes (A Lot) More Time Than You Think

Part of the reason a high-quality logo doesn’t cost $30 is the time it takes to create one. A professional logo designer or agency will take the time to meet you and spends hours researching your company, competition, and target audience before even thinking about logo ideas.

Cheap designers on sites like Craigslist and Fiverr won’t do anything like that. At best, you’ll get a logo drawn off the top of the designer’s head with no real consideration for your company or your brand image. At worst, they’ll copy another company’s design or use copyrighted material and land you in legal hot water.

Think about it. If someone is charging $30 for a logo, how much time do you really think they’ll spend on it?

Logo Design Takes Skill

Just like any other job, logo design takes skill – and skill takes time to develop. Sure, some young graphic designers might be incredibly talented, but they likely won’t be offering their services for $30 either. Skilled graphic designers are typically professionally educated and have years of experience under their belt.

On that note, high-level education doesn’t come cheap. So, it’s perfectly reasonable not to expect someone who’s spent tens of thousands of dollars and years of their life honing their craft to just give away their services for rock bottom prices. You wouldn’t trust a discount mechanic with your expensive car, so why trust a $30 logo designer?

The Tools Aren’t Cheap

Designers need to stay up to date with the latest in design technology. That means spending thousands on hardware and software and constantly having to shell out on upgrades. Take the mechanic example above, would you rather trust your car with a mechanic who uses the latest tools, or one who uses stolen, outdated, and inefficient tools?

Professional design software is a lot more expensive than most people think but is absolutely necessary to create beautifully designed logos. If designers charged less than it cost to maintain their tools of the trade, they wouldn’t be in business for long.

So, how much should a logo cost?

This is a tough question to answer, but it certainly doesn’t cost $30. The price for logo design depends on a range of factors including how many drafts or concepts need to be drawn up, how much research needs to be done, and how many revisions are needed. While you can technically find logo design services for as little as $5 (though, you really shouldn’t), what you ultimately pay for your logo depends on your needs. Without a doubt, the best way to find out how much logo design will cost you is to simply get in touch with a professional design agency for a quote.