Freelance Pricing Is More Than "Charge More"
"Charge more" is true and not useful. A rate has to come from somewhere, and the reliable direction is backwards - from what you need to earn, through the hours you can actually bill. The Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator works that way round.
Start from the income you need
Not what you would like. What covers your living costs, your taxes, your pension and a margin for the quiet months.
Then add the costs the business carries: software, equipment, insurance, accountancy, workspace, training. These are easy to forget because they arrive annually rather than monthly, and they are real money that has to come out of your billing.
Then your tax position, which as a freelancer includes the parts an employer used to pay. This is the step most people underestimate.
Then subtract the hours you cannot bill
Here is the part that changes the number most, and it is the reason the naive calculation fails.
You cannot bill all your working hours. Finding clients, writing proposals, invoicing, chasing payment, bookkeeping, keeping your skills current and answering email are all genuine work and none of it is billable. Most freelancers bill somewhere between 50 and 70 per cent of their working hours.
And you are not paid for time off. Holiday, illness, public holidays - call it seven weeks a year that produces no income.
So a 2,000-hour working year with 60 per cent utilisation and five weeks off is roughly 1,100 billable hours, not 2,000. Which means a 60,000 income target needs about 55 an hour before costs and tax, and comfortably over 70 after them. The Salary to Hourly Wage Calculator shows why that is roughly double the salaried equivalent.
Hourly is not the only option, and often not the best
Hourly is transparent and penalises you for getting faster, which is the wrong incentive for anyone improving at their job.
Day rate removes the arithmetic from every conversation and suits work that fills days.
Fixed price per project is what most clients prefer, because they want to know the cost. It pays you for the result rather than the hours, which rewards efficiency - and it carries the risk that you estimated badly, so it needs a clearly defined scope and a stated process for changes.
Retainer - a fixed monthly fee for ongoing availability - is the one that makes income predictable, which is worth a great deal when the alternative is wondering about next month.
Most established freelancers end up using an hourly rate privately as the floor they check other pricing against, rather than quoting it.
Raising a rate
With new clients first, where there is no history to renegotiate. Existing clients get notice and a date, not an apology.
If nobody ever says no to your price, it is probably too low. A reasonable loss rate on quotes is a sign the rate is working rather than a problem to fix.
Common questions
Should I publish my rates?
It filters enquiries, which saves time, and it removes room to price by project value. Both defensible.
What about charging what the market pays?
Worth knowing as context. Your costs set the floor; the market sets the ceiling.
How do I handle a client who wants an hourly discount?
Tie it to volume or to a retainer. A discount for nothing trains the next negotiation.
Want to work out your own floor?