How much does embroidery digitizing cost?
What logo digitizing usually costs, what makes one design cost more than another, and what you should get for the price.
Digitizing is paid once per design and size. After that the file is yours to sew as often as you like, so the price is spread over every shirt, cap and bag you make with it.
Typical prices
Prices vary a lot between a freelancer, an online service and a local shop, but most land in these ranges:
| Design | Typical size | Usual price |
|---|---|---|
| Left-chest logo, cap front, sleeve | up to about 4 in (100 mm) | roughly $10 to $30 |
| Medium design, full chest | 5 to 8 in (130 to 200 mm) | roughly $20 to $50 |
| Jacket back, large artwork | 10 in (250 mm) and up | roughly $40 to $100 or more |
Some digitizers charge by stitch count instead, often around $1 to $1.50 per 1,000 stitches with a minimum per design. Local shops often call it a setup fee and add it to the first embroidery order. Very cheap offers ($5 or less) exist too, but read on before you pick one.
What makes one design cost more
- Size. A bigger design has more stitches, and more stitches take longer to plan and check.
- Detail. Small lettering, thin lines, gradients and many colours all take extra work.
- The fabric and placement. Caps sew from the centre out on a curved frame, towels need a knock-down layer so the loops don't poke through, and stretchy knits need extra underlay.
- Speed. Rush delivery in a few hours usually costs extra.
Not sure how big your design will be? The free stitch calculator estimates the stitch count from your artwork and the size you want.
What you should get for the price
- Every format your machines read, such as DST for commercial machines and PES for Brother, not only one.
- A preview or production sheet: the size, the stitch count, the colour order and the thread codes.
- Free edits if the test sew-out shows a problem, such as a gap, puckering or unreadable lettering.
- A file built for your size and fabric. A file scaled up or down by more than about 10% changes its density, so a new size should be digitized again.
Why the cheapest file can cost the most
A badly digitized file shows its problems on the machine: thread breaks, puckering, fabric showing through the fills, outlines that miss their colours. Every failed sew-out costs a blank garment, thread, stabilizer and machine time. One ruined hoodie usually costs more than the difference between a cheap file and a good one.
Before you order a batch, sew the file once on the same fabric. Our guide on turning a logo into an embroidery file lists what to check.
What we charge
At Stitchify Art your first design is free, up to 4 in. After that, every custom design is $10 flat, at any size: a cap logo and a jacket back cost the same. Each design comes in DST, PES, JEF, EXP, VP3 and XXX with a production sheet within 24 hours, and edits are free. More on the custom digitizing page.
How the free first design works, and how it compares with auto-digitizing apps and software trials: free embroidery digitizing.