Agency or in-house

Create content yourself, outsource it, or work together with AI flows?

There is no right answer for everyone. It depends on the knowledge you have in-house, your budget, how much you want to create and how quickly it needs to happen. Here you will find the three models side by side, honestly compared, with what they cost, a decision aid and the questions to ask before you sign.

Three models

Who does what?

Internal01

In-house

Suits For companies with someone who enjoys writing, experts who make time and a modest rhythm of a few pieces per month.

Cost Mainly your own time: count on 5 to 12 hours per piece without AI. Tools cost 50 to 300 euros per month.

Pros

  • Nobody knows your customers and your field better
  • Quick to adjust, no briefings
  • Knowledge stays in-house

Cons

  • Content always loses out to urgent work
  • Little insight into what works outside your own bubble
  • Promotion and measurement often fall by the wayside

External02

Agency

Suits For companies that want a fixed rhythm without their own team, or that need to scale up quickly with strategy, production and promotion in one pair of hands.

Cost A full programme usually costs 3,000 to 10,000 euros per month, depending on volume, formats and promotion budget.

Pros

  • Fixed rhythm and quality, even when things are busy
  • Experience from other sectors and channels
  • Strategy, production and promotion together

Cons

  • You pay for every briefing and every change
  • The agency knows your field less well than you do
  • Knowledge and methods partly stay outside your company

Tailored AI flows03

Together

Suits For companies that want to create content themselves, but faster and more cheaply: a partner builds an AI flow around your knowledge and voice, your team creates and publishes.

Cost Setting up an AI flow costs a one-off 3,000 to 15,000 euros, then 500 to 2,500 euros per month for support, improvement and promotion.

Pros

  • Your knowledge, turned into content faster and more cheaply
  • The flow stays yours and gets better every month
  • Promotion and measurement by a partner who does it every day

Cons

  • Requires an internal owner who uses the flow
  • The first weeks take time to train the flow
  • A flow does not replace your own knowledge or customer conversations

Indicative amounts excluding VAT, based on what we see in the Belgian market in 2026. An estimate by Edge, not a quote. The hours per piece follow the time estimate behind our cost calculator.

Weighing it up

A content agency: what it delivers and what it costs.

+Pros of an agency

  • RhythmContent appears even when your own team is swamped. Regularity is what builds an audience.
  • ExperienceA good agency sees what works in other sectors and channels, and does not repeat the mistakes at your expense.
  • SpecialistsStrategist, writer, designer, video maker and media buyer, without having to hire them all.
  • PromotionAgencies that also advertise put the right pieces in front of the right buyers, with a budget that works.
  • MeasurementReporting on leads and deals, with an outside view of what you cannot see yourself.
  • ScaleAdding a campaign, a study or a new market? An agency scales with you without new hires.

−Cons of an agency

  • CostYou pay for experience, time and margin. Even a small change or an extra feedback round costs money.
  • ExpertiseThe agency knows your customers and your product less well than you do. Without input from your experts, content becomes generic.
  • DistanceBriefings, feedback and approvals slow things down. What takes a day internally can sometimes take a week externally.
  • DependenceMethods, prompts and knowledge sit with the agency. When you switch, you often start again from scratch.
  • Volume over valueSome agencies sell numbers of pieces. More pieces is rarely the answer.
  • Changing peopleWho works on your account changes. Every new writer has to learn your field all over again.

40%

of B2B marketers find creating content that prompts action the biggest challenge. Next come a lack of resources (39 percent) and measurement (33 percent).

Source: Content Marketing Institute, B2B Content and Marketing Trends 2026, n = 1,015

What it does not prove How big those problems are in Belgium. The sample is mainly North American.

45%

of B2B marketers plan to spend more on AI tools in 2026. Only 9 percent plan to spend more on people: salaries and training.

Source: Content Marketing Institute, B2B Content and Marketing Trends 2026

What it does not prove That people are becoming less important. It shows where the money goes, not what works.

66 euros

per hour is the average rate of a freelance copywriter in Belgium. Graphic and digital design: 87 euros. Audiovisual: 70 euros. Excluding VAT.

Source: Creative Shelter, hourly rates of creative freelancers, April 2026

What it does not prove What an agency charges. It concerns freelancers who invoice through Creative Shelter.

Decision aid

Which model suits you?

Eight questions, each between two extremes. Choose what best fits your company. The needle shows whether you are better off creating in-house, working with a partner and AI flows, or outsourcing to an agency.

01How much content do you want to create?
02Is there someone who enjoys writing and does it well?
03How easily do your experts share knowledge?
04How quickly do you need results?
05How many formats and channels?
06Do you want to keep knowledge and methods in-house?
07How familiar is your team with AI tools?
08Does the content also need paid promotion?

Compare costs

Agency or in-house: the cost per year

What does a year of content cost in-house compared with an agency or partner? A rough comparison per year. For in-house work, calculate with the total salary cost (including employer contributions, holiday pay and the thirteenth month), not with the gross salary.

€
months
€
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Difference (agency − in-house)0
Cost in-house0
Cost with agency0

How we calculate

In-house = people × salary cost / 12 × months. With agency = days × day rate + the in-house cost × the share of internal time still needed. Not included: tools and promotion budget (you have those in both cases), rhythm, quality and what your team learns or misses out on.

Simplified model: use it for an order of magnitude, not as a quote or for accounting. Example values, adjust them to your situation.

Fee models

How do you pay a content partner?

ModelHow it worksStrengthWatch out
Price per pieceA fixed price per article, case study, video or newsletter.Easy to compare and budget.Steers on numbers. Ask what briefing, interviews, feedback rounds and promotion cost.
Monthly retainerA fixed monthly amount for an agreed package of strategy, production and promotion.Rhythm and a fixed team that gets to know your field.Agree what is delivered each month and how surpluses or shortfalls are settled.
Time and materialsYou pay for the time worked at an hourly or daily rate.Flexible when the assignment is not yet fixed.Ask for an estimate and a cap, and reporting per assignment.
Set-up plus supportA one-off price to set up an AI flow and way of working, then a smaller monthly fee.You build something that stays yours and gets cheaper every month.Make sure prompts, flows and documentation belong to you, and that someone internal owns them.
Performance-basedPart of the fee depends on leads, sign-ups or revenue.Interests are aligned.Agree in advance how you measure and attribute. Content works slowly and by roundabout routes.

Twelve questions

Ask these questions before you sign.

  1. 01

    What content did you create for companies like ours, and what did it deliver in leads or revenue?

  2. 02

    How do you get knowledge out of our experts, and how much of their time does that take?

  3. 03

    Who writes, who edits and who checks the facts?

  4. 04

    Where and how do you use AI, and what does a human always do themselves?

  5. 05

    How do you choose topics: from keywords, from customer questions or from our agenda?

  6. 06

    How is each piece distributed, and what is included in the promotion budget?

  7. 07

    Which figures do you report on, and how often?

  8. 08

    Who owns the texts, images, prompts and flows if we stop?

  9. 09

    What does an extra feedback round or a rush job cost?

  10. 10

    How do you keep our tone of voice consistent when the writer changes?

  11. 11

    How do you handle old content: update, merge or delete?

  12. 12

    What do you do if a piece does nothing after three months?

Red flags

Five signals to walk away.

  • 1

    Guarantees on rankings or traffic

    Nobody decides what Google or an AI assistant shows. Whoever guarantees it is selling a promise they cannot keep.

  • 2

    Volume as an argument

    Thirty articles a month at a low price is almost always unchecked AI text. More is rarely better.

  • 3

    No questions about your customers

    A partner who immediately proposes a calendar without talking to your salespeople is writing for themselves.

  • 4

    Reports full of views

    Whoever only reports reach and clicks does not know what it delivers, or does not want to show it.

  • 5

    Everything stays with the agency

    Texts, accounts, flows and data should belong to you. Put it in the contract.

Still in doubt?

Discuss your situation with Edge, with no obligation. If creating in-house is better for you, we will say so, and you get our assessment in writing.

Discuss it with Edge Calculators