The freelance pricing guide is now necessary as the new freelancers have no idea what should freelancer charge. This guide is for every new freelancer out there who is not clear about the pricing.
We will see the exact freelance pricing guide which will tell you what should freelancers charge for their service. Don’t worry, we will cover all the things that you should look for.
So, basically, there are a couple of things that you should look for when you are charging your clients. We will see all these criteria and then decide the final charge.
Freelancing platform or Direct clients
As we stated in our How to start freelancing post, there are two ways you can get your clients in freelancing. One is by the freelancing websites and the other one is by direct approach.
If you are using one of the freelancing platforms to get the clients, you should charge with respect to that.
Confused? Let me explain it to you.
If you are using sites such as Fiverr, your competition will be offering a much lower price. You can’t just charge $500 for a logo if you are just starting out. Fiverr is the place where you need to start at a much lower price. So, if that is the case for you, you can research your competition on Fiverr and charge accordingly.
I suggest that your freelance charge on Fiverr should start from $5. If you are providing logo services, you can keep 3 pricing plans. If your client wants a simple logo, they can go with $5 but if they want a premium logo, they need to pay more. In the same way, you can offer more customizations or revisions for a couple of extra bucks. In the same way, if you are approved in some of the premium freelancing websites such as Toptal, you can surely increase your price. Generally, the beginners are charging less than $40 per hour in Toptal. You can have a look at Toptal’sHourly Calculator. You will come to know what Toptal’s developers are charging per hour based on the programming language. It will give you a better idea on what you should charge.
For Upwork, you should see the client’s budget and act accordingly. You can surely work for fewer charges at first. Later on, you can increase your pricing.
So, if you are using freelancing websites such as Fiverr, Toptal, Upwork, etc then you can’t just charge more money. You need to keep in mind various things. 
Individual Freelancer or Digital Agency
The next important thing to keep in mind is how you are pitching the clients. Whether you are pitching as a digital agency (or team of freelancers) or you are pitching them as an Individual freelancer.
Usually, a digital agency will charge 3 times more than the individual freelancer. Along with the charge, they will also provide 5 times better value. This is because they have a full team working on the projects.
For instance, for a logo designing project, they have a person who thinks about the logo design and later on the photoshop experts actually design it. The logo is then finalized by different creators. Thereafter, it is finally sent to the client. This is why they charge more. Also, there are various expenses that need to be covered such as office rent, bills, etc
On the other hand, if a client is hiring a freelancer, they would expect a little bit low-cost project. (assuming you are new to freelancing). So, you can’t directly compare with the digital agency when it comes to pricing.
Therefore, this section in our freelance pricing guide will be to decide whether you are working as a group of freelancers or working as an individual freelancer. This will help you in deciding what should you charge as a freelancer. If you are a complete beginner who has never worked on projects, you should start off by $5 or 10 (I know it is too low but you can surely increase it later on). Keep the same price for the first 3 clients. Thereafter, you can analyze the review and proceed accordingly. For the intermediate people, you can start off by $25. In the same way, if you are a digital agency, you can start your journey by $40. But wait, the section is not over. There are a couple of more things to see before keeping this pricing.
Target Audience
The quick answer to “What freelancers should charge?” will depend on the audience you are targeting.
There are two main things you should see in the target audience.
Locality
If you are targeting local businesses, you might want to look out the average freelance pricing in your country. If they are a local company, chances are they already know the pricing around you. If you are providing common service (for all audiences), you might want to see the other criteria in our freelance pricing guide. It will tell you in brief about “How much should freelancers charge”.
If you are looking for the exact amount then you should keep your hourly charge somewhere around $10 to $25 when you are just starting out. If you are charging the direct lump sum amount, you can calculate the number of hours required and charge accordingly.
In the same way, if you are targeting a local audience, you can check the average pricing in your country. You also need to calculate your Annual income or monthly income. Add sick leave and the days you will take off. In simpler words, you need to calculate how many hours are billable. You can use Freelance hourly rate calculator. It will give you the exact rate on what you should charge.
Niche
In some niche, you could literally charge thousands of dollars for certain service whereas, in some of the niche, you can only charge a couple of hundred dollars. If you are in tech, healthcare, finance, management, or legal niche, you can charge a high amount.
Whereas, the other niche tend to have a low amount of income. So, you need to see what niche you are targeting.
Calculate the ROI
ROI means Return on Investment. No, we are not talking about your return on investment but we are talking about your client’s ROI.
If your client is spending $100 on your service what will they get in return?
This can be obvious and easy to calculate for some service whereas if you are providing branding and logo services, it will be a bit hard to calculate it.
So, if possible, you should calculate it. It will not only give you a better idea about the service but will also help you in pitching your clients in a better way.
For some services, it is easy to calculate the Return on Investment, whereas it is hard for some services. For instance, if you are providing PPC ads, you can calculate the ROI easily. In the same way, if you are providing SEO services, it takes time to see the return. Hence, it becomes harder to calculate ROI.
The value you are providing
Now, for a couple of seconds, just forget everything.
Focus on the value you are providing.
[bctt tweet=”Price is the money the client pays for your service, Value is what your service will pay them, ” username=”RishitSBhatt”]ALWAYS provide more value than your competitor. No matter if your price is more or less. In this way, you will be able to make more money and also you will create a brand around yourself.
So, the next thing that you need to keep in mind while deciding what you should charge as a freelancer is a value you are providing.
Genuinely ask yourself, “How much money you would pay if you were the client?”
That will give you the estimate. Mix it with all the other factors and you will get the exact price that you should charge as a freelancer.
Summary of Freelance Pricing Guide
So, here are the points that we discussed in this freelance pricing guide. We are summing up this entire post over here.
- The first thing is knowing the platform where you are working to get the clients
- The next thing is to know whether you are an individual freelancer or you are taking projects are a company (group).
- You should also keep in mind the locality of the audience and the niche.
- See what will the client get if they buy or purchase your service.
- The value you are providing is very much important
Final words: Conclusion on Freelance pricing guide
To conclude, this was the complete freelance pricing guide. This will give you a brief idea of what should freelancers charge for their work and service. It depends on various factors and you should keep your pricing accordingly. If you are providing more than one service, you can mix some of the services up and offer a package.
This was just the estimation. You can keep changing your pricing to test out the perfect price.