Yes- the SOIC (small outline IC) AXE231 all up is perhaps a tad costly, but it'd certainly look professional & allow extremely compact state of the art designs. DIP layouts are near historic of course, & are now rarely seen in commercial electronics.Full sized components are probably retained merely for repairs,learners & hobbyists!
Ah-you do realise that the AXE231 (& earlier 08M based AXE230 -now discontinued)
is fully populated with a 08M2,slim programming socket (optional),SMD resistors/cap., & even a LED ? A SOIC PICAXE 08M2 alone would cost ~US$5 of course. How much would your time be worth fiddling with (or even accessing!) surface mount components? Otherwise consider Digikey's versatile "Surfboards (~US$1.50 each) !?
All manner of dirt cheap compact but "ugly" layouts have arisen. I've rustled up a few
"squashed bug" DIP approaches myself in the distant past! Naturally a limiting factor relates to the eventual power supply too - even a Li coin cell & associated holder can be significantly bulky. Dead bug style continues to have it's followers- the SMD festooned DIP 08M below retains the ability to be breadboard mounted for program tweaking.
Stan.