What others earn — and why it doesn't answer your question

«How much does a designer earn», «what's a developer's rate», «what's a photographer's salary» — the most common way to ask «so what should I charge». The answer to the first doesn't answer the second.

Here is why, and how to get an answer that works for you.

What hides behind someone else's number

Any figure about someone's income or rate is the result of five decisions you can't see. Until you know the answers, it's noise.

• Before or after tax? A difference of six to twenty percent.
• For all hours or only paid ones? Part of the working time is never paid.
• With costs or without? Equipment, software, a studio, insurance.
• In which city, at what rent? The same income in two cities is two different lives.
• How many months a year does the person really work? Holidays, sick days, empty months.

One rate, different results

Two people charge €60 an hour. One sells 100 hours a month, the other 50.

Example: over 10 working months the first bills €60,000, the second €30,000. The rate is the same, the income is twice as different. Ask both «what's your rate» and the answer is identical, but the life isn't.

One income, different lives

Two people take home the same amount. One rents for €2,000 a month, the other for €800.

Example: the first has €1,200 less left to live on after rent. To live the same way, they have to earn that much more — by the calculator's formula that's another €45 on every hour sold.

Someone else's number answers «how do others do». Your rate answers «will I be OK».

What to calculate instead

Your price per hour is made of five numbers of your own: what you need per year, how many hours really sell, how much time goes on what isn't paid, tax and a margin. There isn't a single number of someone else's in it.

You can work it out in a couple of minutes in the rate calculator, no sign-up. The formula step by step is in the method.

Why look at other people's numbers at all

They're useful for one thing: to see whether you've fallen behind your clients or drifted away from them. But use them after the calculation, as a check, not instead of it.

If your number comes out higher than your clients pay, that's a gap, not a mistake. Three ways to close it are in the method; the conversation with a client is in how to raise your rate.

Common questions

How much does a freelance designer, developer or photographer earn?

As much as they sold hours at their rate, minus costs and tax. Two people in the same profession can differ several times over: because of hours, rent and clients. Your own answer takes a couple of minutes in the calculator.

What's the average freelance rate?

You can name an average, but you can't use it: it knows neither your costs nor your hours. That's why we don't publish one. Instead there's a calculation from your life.

Why don't you show what others charge?

Because any such number becomes an anchor. People see «the median is X» and shape their rate to it, even though they need a different one. The product exists exactly to calculate from your own costs.

I'm new, with no experience and no clients. How do I calculate?

The same way. A rate is there so you can live, not to match a level. Experience changes something else: how many hours a task takes and how many clients will pay, not the formula.

Next: rate calculator, the method, how to raise your rate and all the guides.