As component libraries mature, the open-ended maintenance retainer is thinning. Studios are repricing around governance, tokens, and system stewardship.
3 min readA small but notable move: several respected studios have walked away from portfolio-showcase platforms, citing signal, not spite.
Designers spent a decade cramming everything above the fold. The best portfolios of 2026 are betting on the scroll instead.
Seat-based increases land hardest on the 15-to-40-person shops that standardized early. Some are re-evaluating their whole toolchain.
Larger accounts increasingly want a single vendor of record. Independent builders say the referral pipeline is changing shape.
A preview of the season's major web design and product conferences, and the themes likely to dominate the stages and the hallways.
As web accessibility disputes rise, contracts and complaints increasingly reach past the brand to the agency or developer that built the site.
A plain-English guide to what a small-business website redesign costs in 2026, what drives the price, and where budgets quietly overrun.