How much does hiring a freelancer cost?

How much should a freelancer cost? Well, if you’ve not hired many freelancers before, knowing how much they should cost is a tricky business. A freelancer’s rates will vary from as little as $5 per hour all the way up to $1,000 per hour. We’ve helped thousands of companies hire freelancers through Twine, so we decided to give you the typical rates people charge, so you don’t get screwed over.

What factors are most important to you when hiring a freelancer?

Some of you will have heard of the quality, cost, and time triangle. It’s often called the project management triangle or the triple constraint. Simply, you can have two of quality, cost, and time, but never all three.

Freelancer cost affected by quality, cost and time also known as project management triangle or the triple constraint

When you’re looking at affecting the cost of hiring a freelancer, the speed that the work is done and the experience level of the freelancer (their quality) is going to be the variables.

Quality levels of freelancers

Generally speaking, if you want a higher quality output, you will want a more experienced freelancer. This can be broken down into three levels:

  1. Junior – This is usually less than 3 years of experience in their sector.
  2. Mid-level – Between 3 to 7 years of experience.
  3. Senior / Expert – Freelancers that have more than 7 years of experience.

Other factors that affect freelancer cost

In high-demand metropolitan areas, where there is a high cost of living, you can expect a 50% addition to these price ranges. Especially if you need your freelancer in-house. Here are some examples of high-demand areas:

  • Amsterdam
  • Berlin
  • Dubai
  • New York
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Paris
  • San Francisco
  • Singapore
  • Sydney

Equally, if you are flexible in working with remote freelancers on projects, you might be able to get a 25% reduction in price ranges.

What are the typical rates for freelancers?

Using the data from our network of 500,000+ freelancers and thousands of jobs that have been posted on Twine, we’ve analyzed the price trends for all the creative, digital, and marketing freelance roles.

This is not a definitive list, but here are the ranges you would expect for a day of work (7-8 hours):

Role
Junior
Mid-level
Expert
$150-250
$250-400
$400-750
Front-end developer
$200-300
$300-500
$500-1000
Back-end developer
$200-300
$300-500
$500-1000
UX designer
$200-300
$300-500
$500-1000
$200-300
$300-500
$500-1000
$150-250
$250-500
$500-1000
Digital Marketer
$150-250
$250-400
$400-750
$150-250
$250-500
$500-1000
Copywriter
$150-250
$250-400
$400-750
Music producer
$150-250
$250-350
$350-500
Mixing engineer
$150-250
$250-350
$350-500

Price ranges in GBP:

Role
Junior
Mid-level
Expert
Graphic designer
£100-200
£200-300
£300-600
Front-end developer
£150-250
£250-£400
£400-800
Back-end developer
£150-250
£250-£400
£400-800
UX designer
£150-250
£250-£400
£400-800
Videographer
£150-250
£250-£400
£400-800
£100-200
£200-400
£400-800
Digital Marketer
£100-200
£200-300
£300-600
Illustrator
£100-200
£200-400
£400-800
Copywriter
£100-200
£200-300
£300-600
Music producer
£100-200
£200-250
£250-400
Mixing engineer
£100-200
£200-250
£250-400

If you have any comments or disagree with price ranges, we would love to get your thoughts. How much does hiring a freelancer cost?

Further Reading

Stuart Logan

The CEO of Twine. Follow him on Twine and on Twitter @stuartlogan – As the Big Boss, Stuart spends his days in a large leather armchair, staring out over the Manchester skyline while smoking a cigar and plotting world domination. (He doesn’t really). Originally from Salisbury, UK, he studied computer science at Manchester University but was always keen to break into the exciting world of start-ups, and was involved in a number of ventures before finalising his plans for Twine. When not wearing his chief executive hat (metaphorically speaking) he enjoys harbouring unrealistic expectations for Manchester United’s future success and live music.