Whether you are a web designer that considers ditching their full-time job for a freelance career or you need to hire one, it is vital to know how much do freelance web designers charge for their services.
While you can also leverage the professional services of web design companies that can help you design and develop your website as per your specific needs, choosing a freelancer over a web design company has its own perks.
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For instance, freelance web designers are highly specialized in their work, flexible, bring a fresh perspective, and, most importantly, charge less than huge agencies.
Sadly, answering this question is not as straightforward as it might seem, as many things go into forming the rates, such as the web designer’s skill set, location, the project’s difficulty, and the client’s decisiveness.
With this said, we provide an in-depth breakdown of how prices change based on different factors and how freelancers form them. By doing this, we hope to help clients and newbie freelance web designers understand how freelance designer pricing works.
Tips for clients: How much do freelance web designers charge and base their prices?
If you are looking to hire a freelance web designer, it’s crucial to know how they form their prices. This way, you will manage your expectations and budget more efficiently and be better prepared for what lies ahead.
Several different factors influence freelancer’s rates, including:
- Client’s decisiveness: Clients need to know what they want before hiring a freelance web designer. It’s vital to determine the complexity of the website: whether you need a simple solution that will serve as a virtual business card or require more complex functionalities such as eCommerce, forms, dynamic components, etc. Your decisiveness is crucial in avoiding unplanned costs, as each additional change will be charged.
- The project’s light: As a client, you need to think about how long this project will take to complete. You need to know whether it’s a huge redesign or you just need a quick fix.
- Freelancer’s skills and experience: Freelancers’ skills and experience will definitely impact the price. Don’t be cheap in your quest for freelancers, as you might pay more in the end if you hire a noobie for more complex tasks.
Freelance web designer rates: Why is it hard to determine them?
As we mentioned, it’s hard to tell exactly how much freelance web designers charge as plenty of factors influence their rates.
The best thing you can do if you want to become one is to ask for quotes from other fellow coworkers with similar experience and knowledge and start from there. However, it’s important to be mindful of other aspects that influence the pricing such as the project’s difficulty and the client’s decisiveness.
In case you need to hire a freelancer, start searching locally first, as you might find it easiest to manage daily communication. If you find the prices in your area are too high, you can always source freelancers from different parts of the world that offer more affordable services.
Freelance web designer rates: UK market
Since it’s pretty hard to give a clear overview of freelance web designer rates, let’s see how much do freelance web designers charge in the UK. For reference, we used the data Expertmarket website provided.
According to the Expertmarket, freelance web designers’ rates go anywhere from £10 and £100 per hour. When it comes to daily rates, they go between £70 and £750+ per day.
They also listed pricing based on freelance web developer skill level, and you can find them below.
Freelance web designer rates based on UpWork, PeoplePerHour, and Indeed
It’s quite hard to determine freelance web designer rates, as many things go into forming the prices, such as the freelancer’s location, expertise, the project’s difficulty, and so on. However, we did go on the most popular freelance job board websites, such as UpWork and PeoplePerHour, and researched the average rates.
With this said:
- Junior web designer earns anywhere between $13 and $45 per hour
- Mid-level web designer charges between $45 and $90 per hour
- Senior web designer rates go between $90 and $135 per hour
Why is it not a good idea to base your pricing according to UpWork and PeoplePerHour?
Many people new to freelancing don’t have many options for finding new clients. That’s why they reach out to websites such as UpWork and PeoplePerHour as their first choice until they build a solid base of clients and until they start getting recommended by previous clients.
However, while these websites are good when just starting, they aren’t the best model freelancers should be led by simply because they work on a bidding system and usually force freelancers to shave off their prices to win jobs.
These platforms favor freelancers with the lowest rates. That’s why they aren’t good for those who want to advance and increase their pricing.
Frequently asked questions
After we showed how much freelance web designers charge and form their prices, let’s see what are some other frequently asked questions regarding this topic.
How much should I charge for my freelance web design services?
“How much should I charge for my freelance web design services” is probably one of the first questions every web designer asks when starting with freelance work.
The answer to this question isn’t straightforward, as there are too many things that go into the equation. We will go through the four main billing methods: hourly rates, charging per project, day, and by page.
- Hourly rate (and why it might not be the best option)
While many freelancers charge by the hour, this billing model might not be the best. Since hourly contracts rely on the freelancer’s speed to finish the job, they don’t provide sufficient financial compensation for fast workers.
Furthermore, efficient freelancers might lose a desire to increase their efficiency and work on core skills, as they’re getting paid less than those working on fixed contracts.
Lastly, freelancers who mainly work on hourly contracts tend to put greater focus on volume, rather than quality, which damages their reputation and decreases the chances for future work.
- Project-based pricing
Project-based pricing is probably the best option for skilled freelance web designers, as they are getting better and better at predicting workload, possible problems, and pitfalls.
However, before you start charging per project, you need to spend some time working on hourly contracts to help you gauge the time and effort you’ll need to put in, but also make sure that the client lists everything that needs to be done and avoid unpleasant surprises.
However, project-based pricing comes with its own set of downfalls as well. The biggest drawbacks of this pricing model are client indecision and the project’s complexity.
Larger projects are much harder to assess as there are too many things that go into them, and some things, inevitably, get overlooked.
Secondly, indecisive clients can introduce too many changes that might change the course of the whole project, and that’s why freelancers should make detailed contracts that deal with such unpredictable situations.
- Pricing per day
Some companies prefer their freelance web designers to work from their offices, where they can manage them more easily. While this is not something every freelance web designer is fond of, sometimes they make exceptions and agree to such arrangements.
To calculate how much you’d charge per day, besides the project’s complexity and the amount of work you’ll have to deal with, you should include transportation fees and money you’ll spend on lunch.
- Pricing by Page
Pricing by page is also one of the less common pricing methods. Usually, freelance web designers reach out to this model when they have to deal with larger websites. This method works by agreeing on a fixed rate for each page the website has based on its complexity.
How can I determine my hourly rate as a freelance web designer?
Deciding what your hourly rate should be is not easy as plenty of things go into an equation. To be more specific, to determine your hourly rate you should consider:
- Your level of expertise
- Technical skills you possess
- The industry you’re in
- The region where you live or work
It’s also essential to have a reference while determining your prices. You can ask for help from your fellow freelancers, check websites such as UpWork or People Per Hour, or ask (former) coworkers who do some part-time work outside of their 9 to 5 job.
Overall, it’s essential to be realistic, but also pick pricing that will keep you motivated to complete tasks timely and efficient.
How can I charge for my services?
Once you set up your pricing and onboard your very first clients, it’s time to think about how you will charge for your services.
Having a professional-looking invoice is extremely important for freelancers, as it helps them keep track of their work and income, but also look professional and trustworthy. Furthermore, offering a few payment methods is also important, as it enables clients to pay for the services in a way that’s most convenient for them.
For that reason, subscribing to online invoicing tools such as InvoiceBerry is probably the best option for new and experienced freelancers.
InvoiceBerry allows both freelancers and small business owners to streamline their invoice-making and tracking process, track expenses and manage clients while saving time and money at the same time.
InvoiceBerry comes with a wide array of handy features such as setting reminders for late payments, turning quotes into invoices in a few simple steps, providing a few different payment options, and customizing each invoice.
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