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.
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:
- Junior – This is usually less than 3 years of experience in their sector.
- Mid-level – Between 3 to 7 years of experience.
- 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?