# Garden designer cost in the Netherlands, or DIY?

> What does a garden designer cost in the Netherlands? About 60 to 90 euros an hour. Compare cost, lead time and the finished document, and see what you can do on your own plot.

Canonical: https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/garden-designer-cost-netherlands
Last updated: 2026-09-24

![A pencil garden design on tracing paper, a narrow back garden drawn from above, on a wooden table beside samples of clay paver, oak, corten steel and gravel](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/tuinplan-vs-tuinarchitect-ae3c0e7e.webp)

Published: 2026-09-09

The cost of a garden designer in the Netherlands is about 60 to 90 euros an
hour. A complete design costs 300 to 900 euros on average. Drawing a plan of your
own plot in tuinontwerp.app costs nothing. Which of the two you need
depends on what you want to have in your hands at the end.

## How much does a garden designer cost in 2026?

The hourly rate for the design work itself depends on which price overview you
read. Three Dutch sites give three bands:

| Price overview                                                  | Hourly rate, garden designer |
| --------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| Homedeal, a Dutch price comparison site, 2026 average           | €60 to €90                   |
| Hovenier.nl, a Dutch landscaping site                           | €70 to €90                   |
| Werkspot, a platform for hiring tradespeople, garden designer   | €50 to €100                  |

Most studios do not bill hours. They charge a fixed price per garden. A
complete design costs 300 to 900 euros on average, and the amount rises with the
size of the garden. Homedeal's price overview breaks it down by size:

| Garden size     | Design cost             |
| --------------- | ----------------------- |
| up to 75 m²     | €250 to €500            |
| 75 to 150 m²    | €450 to €750            |
| 150 to 300 m²   | €700 to €1,000          |
| 300 m² and more | €1,000 to €1,800 and up |

A planting plan is usually not included. It adds 40 to 60 percent of the design
cost, or a fixed amount of 150 to 400 euros.

Part of the price spread comes from the word itself. In the Netherlands, the
title tuin- en landschapsarchitect (garden and landscape architect) is
protected. Only someone listed in the Dutch Architects Register may use it,
since the Architects' Title Act (Wet op de architectentitel) came into force on
1 October 1988. Price comparison sites also list landscapers with a design
service under the heading tuinarchitect. Those charge around 45 to 60 euros an
hour. At the top end, specialists charge up to 120 euros an hour.

## What do you get for the money?

A drawing a landscaper can work from, plus a price. The final design shows
every element of the garden in detail: paving, lighting, planting and
materials. A quote for building the garden comes with it.

Werkspot prices those parts separately. A layout plan, the drawing seen from
above, costs 300 to 750 euros there. A 3D visualisation costs 500 to 1,000 euros
and a planting plan 200 to 500 euros. If a layout plan is all you need, you do
not pay for the rest.

Those pieces take time: allow 2 to 6 weeks between commissioning the design and
receiving the final version. For a garden built in spring, that process starts
in winter.

So you are buying two things at once: a decision about the layout, and a
document you can compare quotes against. Both steps come up again in
[the garden design section of the blog](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/category/tuinontwerp).

## Cost, lead time and the finished document, side by side

Each row below gives what both options cost and says when to choose the
designer over your own plan.

| Aspect           | Hiring a designer                                 | Making your own plan                          | When you need the designer                   |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| Price            | €300 to €900 for a complete design                | designing on your own plot: free              | when the fee is small next to the build      |
| Hourly rate      | €60 to €90                                        | none                                          | for separate guidance during the build       |
| Lead time        | 2 to 6 weeks                                      | you work when it suits you                    | when you are waiting for a landscaper anyway |
| Document you get | layout plan, planting plan, materials, quote      | a plan of your own plot to scale, with your layout | when you want to compare three quotes   |
| What it misses   | what was not visible on the day of the site visit | soil, differences in height, the neighbours' trees | as soon as the ground itself is involved |

A design fee of a few hundred euros is small next to the cost of building the
garden. A landscaper charges 35 to 60 euros an hour, and over a whole garden
that adds up fast. If you have the garden built, the design is the cheapest
item in the project.

The lead-time row decides when to start. A spring build starts in winter. When
the landscaper has a waiting list of months anyway, that time costs you
nothing.

The row on the finished document is not about money. A designer delivers a
drawing made to be handed to a contractor. Three quotes on one drawing compare
better than three quotes on three readings of your own description.

That leaves the row on what each option misses. A calculation does not know the
ground underneath. Beyond your property line it sees only the buildings, not
your neighbours' trees. Someone standing in your garden sees those.

## Can you design your own garden?

Yes, for the layout and the light. Tuinontwerp.app starts from your address.
Your plot comes to scale from the cadastral map of the Kadaster, the Dutch land
registry, through PDOK, the government's geodata platform. The buildings around
it get their heights from 3DBAG, the open dataset of measured building heights
for the Netherlands. On that plan you place your terrace, your borders and your
plants, each at a grown plant's width. Each plant shows the most hours of
direct sun its spot gets on 15 May. Why that day was chosen is explained in
[garden sun hours, calculated per spot](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/garden-sun-hours-calculator).

The difference from a sketch on paper lies in what you cannot see for
yourself. In a worked example with terraced houses, a spot one metre behind the
back door is left with 0.0 hours of direct sun. The reason is that the app
counts the property line as a wall of 1.8 metres. A sketch does not show that. How that works is set out in
[north-facing garden plants](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/north-facing-garden-plants).

Figures like these are an upper bound. Anything beyond your own plot that you
have not drawn is left out, so in practice the spot gets less. To set it beside
what you see yourself, the method is in
[measure sunlight in your garden](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/measure-sunlight-garden).

## When is a garden designer worth the money?

As soon as the ground itself is involved. Differences in height, drainage, an
existing tree that stays, a fence that has to be agreed with the neighbours:
those are decisions someone makes on site. The app's calculation assumes one
flat ground surface and ignores the soil.

The same goes for putting the work out to quote. A designer's document is made
to be handed to a landscaper, with materials and a quote for building the
garden. That prevents misunderstandings between you and the contractor.

So choose the designer as soon as you start moving soil, or as soon as you ask
contractors to quote. If the garden is flat and your question is mostly about
layout and light, your own plan gets you far enough.

## From the address field to your own plan

Start at the address field at the bottom of this page. Tuinontwerp.app lays out
your plot to scale, with the buildings around it, and you draw your terrace,
borders and plants on it. Designing on your own plot is free.

Because the measurements come from cadastral and building-height data, they
are right to within decimetres. That is enough to plan a border or a terrace,
but too coarse for setting out a foundation.

What you then have is the first half of what a designer delivers: the
dimensions of your plot, your layout and the light that falls on it. With that
plan, ask a landscaper for a quote. The conversation about your garden then
starts with your own layout on the table.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does a garden designer charge per hour in the Netherlands?

On average 60 to 90 euros, in the Homedeal price overview for 2026. Hovenier.nl gives 70 to 90 euros, and Werkspot 50 to 100 euros for a garden designer. Starters and landscapers with a design service charge around 45 to 60 euros.

### How long does it take to get a garden design made?

Allow 2 to 6 weeks between commissioning the design and receiving the final version. So start well before the season in which you want the garden built.

### Is garden architect a protected title in the Netherlands?

Yes. The title tuin- en landschapsarchitect (garden and landscape architect) is protected. Only people listed in the Dutch Architects Register may use it, under the Architects' Title Act (Wet op de architectentitel), in force since 1 October 1988. Not every provider listed online as a tuinarchitect is registered: price comparison sites list landscapers with a design service under that same heading.

### Can I design my own garden without a designer?

Yes, for the layout and the light. Tuinontwerp.app lays out your plot to scale from public registers, with the buildings around it. On it you draw your terrace, borders and plants, and each plant shows the most sun its spot gets on 15 May. Designing on your own plot is free. Soil, differences in height and your neighbours' trees are not in that calculation. Check those in the garden yourself, with your plan in hand.

## Sources

- [Homedeal — Tuinarchitect kosten, prijzenoverzicht 2026](https://www.homedeal.nl/tuinaanleg/tuinarchitect-kosten/)
- [Hovenier.nl — Tuinarchitect: kosten en gemiddelde prijs per uur](https://www.hovenier.nl/kosten/tuinarchitect)
- [Werkspot — De kosten van een tuinontwerp](https://www.werkspot.nl/tuinieren-buiten/prijzen-kosten/tuinontwerp-advies)
- [Architectenregister — De Wet op de architectentitel](https://www.architectenregister.nl/wie-wij-zijn/wet-op-de-architectentitel)
- [3DBAG (TU Delft / 3DGI), documentatie, CC BY 4.0](https://docs.3dbag.nl/en/)

## Read next

- [A garden sun hours calculator that starts from your address](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/garden-sun-hours-calculator) - How many hours of direct sun does each spot in your garden get? Tuinontwerp.app draws your plot to scale with 3DBAG building heights and works out the most sun each spot gets on 15 May. (2026-09-06)
- [Measure sunlight in your garden: count sun hours per spot](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/measure-sunlight-garden) - Measure sunlight in your garden on a clear day in mid-May: one stake per spot, a tally mark every hour. More than six marks is full sun, under three is shade. (2026-08-01)
- [Garden design cost: 2026 prices and your 2027 budget](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/garden-design-cost) - What does a garden design cost? 200 to 1,500 euros to have one made, and 1,000 to 1,800 euros and up for 300 m² or more. What each price class buys. (2026-09-12)
- [More about garden design](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/category/tuinontwerp)