Design System ROI Calculator | Knapsack
Unlock Greater Value with Knapsack: See Your Design System ROI.
Calculate the ROI of a design system built to scale with your team. Our calculator shows exactly how Knapsack can drive efficiency, consistency, and cost savings—tailored to your unique needs. Ready to see the impact Knapsack can make?
Cost Saving by Employee Time Savings by Component Calculate Your ROI
Move the sliders to input your employee costs and assumed efficiency gain to calculate total employee savings from implementing a design system. If you need help figuring out how efficient you might be, try calculating Time Savings by Component on the next tab.
Projected Cost Savings
What's your average employee cost?
Assumed average loaded cost to the business per employee.$0$500000
$150000
- 0
- 125K
- 250K
- 375K
- 500K
Number of employees using the system?
Include all users you expect to benefit from the system.0150
30
- 0
- 37.5
- 75
- 112.5
- 150
Efficiency Gain
Expect a minimum of 10% and a target of 40-50%0%80%
10%
- 0
- 20
- 40
- 60
- 80
Projected Cost Savings: $450,000.00
My name is* Tobias Dantzig and you can get in touch with me at* toby@knapsack.cloud
Select an example component or UI element to calculate the estimate efficiency gain using a system vs. unique implementation. Pick between the two starting scenarios - a simple (e.g. button) or complex (e.g. dynamic menu) component.
Simple Component Type Complex Component Type
Projected Cost Savings
Without a Design System
The hours required to build the component each time it needs to be used.
How long does it take to build the component for each use case?
e.g. 5 hours design, 10 hours engineering and 5 hours maintenance = 20 hours
0200
20
- 0
- 50
- 100
- 150
- 200
With a Design System
The time spent to build within a design system - including initial one time set up and implementation.
e.g. 10 hours design, 15 hours engineering and 15 hours maintenance = 40 hours
0200
40
- 0
- 50
- 100
- 150
- 200
How long does it take to implement the component?
e.g. 2 hour design import time and 4 hours engineering import time - 6 hours
060
6
- 0
- 15
- 30
- 45
- 60
Scale of Use
How many times does the component appear in product UIs?
Number of times implemented
The number of UIs using the component e.g. 30 UIs
0200
50
- 0
- 50
- 100
- 150
- 200
Total Effort: 1,000 hours
Implementation time without a Design System: 340 hours
Implementation time with a Design System: 660 hours
Total hours saved: 66%
Efficiency gain
Select between the different starting scenarios based on different team sizes and product complication. Move the slider on employee costs and efficiency gain to calculate the total savings.
10 team members + 1 product 25 team members + 4 products 100 team members + 10 products
Average loaded cost per employee
Assumed average loaded cost to the business per employee.
0$350000$
160000$
- 0
- 87.5K
- 175K
- 262.5K
- 350K
Number of System Users
Include all users you expect to benefit from the system.
0300
10
- 0
- 75
- 150
- 225
- 300
Projected efficiency gain
Expect a minimum of 10% and a target of 40-50%
0%100%
40%
- 0
- 25
- 50
- 75
- 100
Projected Cost Savings: $640,000
Average loaded cost per employee
Assumed average loaded cost to the business per employee.
0$350000$
175000$
- 0
- 87.5K
- 175K
- 262.5K
- 350K
Number of System Users
Include all users you expect to benefit from the system.
0300
25
- 0
- 75
- 150
- 225
- 300
Projected efficiency gain
Expect a minimum of 10% and a target of 40-50%
0%100%
50%
- 0
- 25
- 50
- 75
- 100
Projected Cost Savings: $2,187,500
Average loaded cost per employee
Assumed average loaded cost to the business per employee.
0$350000$
200000$
- 0
- 87.5K
- 175K
- 262.5K
- 350K
Number of System Users
Include all users you expect to benefit from the system.
0300
100
- 0
- 75
- 150
- 225
- 300
Projected efficiency gain
Expect a minimum of 10% and a target of 40-50%.
0%100%
65%
- 0
- 25
- 50
- 75
- 100
Projected Cost Savings: $13,000,000
Accelerating digital production to save $3M
Knapsack helped a Fortune 500 product development team collaborate more effectively around a dynamically maintained, central source of truth.
Watch your team excel with Knapsack
- 30% Reduction in QA time
- 20% Improvement in designer and developer efficiency
- 15% Accelerated feature speed-to-market
- Faster time to market
- Increased collaboration
- More opportunities for innovation
- Easier onboarding for new team members
- A source of truth everyone can use