Your projects cost more than you quoted. Here's why.
For designers, consultants and freelancers: tools get more expensive, contractors charge more. If you don't update your project costs, every new quote is cheaper than it should be.
Adobe Creative Cloud: from €60/month to €89/month (48% more in two years). Figma introduced paid plans where it used to be free. Project management, hosting, email marketing platforms — all raised prices.
Have you updated your project costs to reflect these increases?
If you're a designer, consultant, web developer, photographer, or any kind of freelancer, your "materials" are the tools and services you use to deliver work. And their prices have been rising for years.
The hidden cost of service projects
| Resource | Real monthly cost | Per-project allocation |
|---|---|---|
| Adobe CC | €89/month | €4–8 per project |
| Client hosting | €15/month | €15 if dedicated |
| Stock images | €29/month | €2–5 per project |
| Project management | €25/month | €1–3 per project |
| Subcontractors | Variable | 100% to project |
A designer doing 8 projects a month who doesn't allocate tool costs is giving away €15–25 per project. That's €1,440–2,400 in unrecovered costs per year.
The subcontractor who raised their rate
This is the most common case. You work with a copywriter, developer, or photographer. You've been collaborating for years and have their rate "memorised". But they raised it 15% last year and you're still quoting the old rate.
You're absorbing the difference.
How Syntra tracks project costs
When you receive an invoice from a subcontractor or a software subscription renewal, you upload it to Syntra. The AI categorises it and saves the updated price.
Next time you quote a project and add "copywriting" or "Adobe CC" to the costs, the price shown is the real one — from the latest invoice, not the number you had in your head from three years ago.