EarnBunny / Pricing & rates
Category · 34 reports
Pricing & rates
The uncomfortable half of freelancing. What to charge, how to say the number out loud, and how to raise it later without losing the client. Every benchmark on this site carries its sample size, so you can judge how much weight it deserves.
Work out your own floor first
Before you compare yourself to anyone else’s rate, find the number below which the work is not worth doing. Our calculator handles unbilled hours, time off, expenses and tax set-aside, and takes about two minutes.
Newest first
All pricing reports
How to quote a project when the client will not name a budget
Three questions that surface the real number without you guessing first, and what to do when all three get dodged.
5 min 053
Raising your rate on an existing client, word for word
The message, the timing, the notice period, and what happened to the eleven readers who sent it.
7 min 048
Hourly, day rate, or fixed fee: what each one actually costs you
Fixed fee pays best when you are fast. Hourly protects you when you are not. A decision table for choosing per project.
8 min 044
The rate you need is higher than the salary you left. Here is the maths.
Unbilled hours, holiday, sick days, equipment, tax and insurance. Run the numbers before you quote anyone.
6 min 041
Discounting: what a 10% cut really does to your year
One small discount, repeated across a year of work, costs more than most freelancers assume. The compounding is the problem.
5 min 038
Rate benchmarks: what 612 readers were actually paid last quarter
The full ledger, by discipline and experience level, with the sample size next to every figure.
12 min 035
Deposits: 50% up front is normal, and asking is not rude
How to introduce a deposit to clients who have never paid one, plus the wording that gets the fewest objections.
4 min 032
Value pricing sounds great until the client asks how you got the number
An honest look at where value-based pricing works, where it collapses, and what to say when you are challenged.
9 min 029
Rush fees, revision limits and the cost of being too accommodating
Three clauses that are easier to add at the start than to negotiate at week six.
6 min 026
What to charge for your very first paid job
You will underprice it. Here is how to underprice it deliberately, and how to get out of that rate within three months.
5 min
The Payout · every Tuesday
Three gigs worth doing. One worth skipping.
Plus the rates behind both, pulled from what readers actually got paid last week. Free, and it stays that way.
No sponsored gigs in the main list. When a link pays us, it says so on the line above it.