$100/hr, albeit writing about/for software, not writing the software itself. Copywriting is a super great gig.
How did you get started?
Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
31–40 of 129 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
#32I used to charge $50 USD per hour, but I kept upping my rates. Soon I charged $100 per hour, and then $125 hour. The highest I ever got for programming/consulting was $150 USD per hour, but I don't charge that anymore. I've moved on to day rates.
Now I bill around $800 per day, but I only work about 6 super-focused hours, and I use the Pomodoro method every day. My clients are happy because I get a lot of work done, and I'm happy because I have to work less.
This is just doing general PHP dev work (Codeigniter and Laravel frameworks), and if I specialized, and if I focused on the ecommerce or finance industry I could probably make more. Most my clients are in the Rocky Mountain West, and so far I have more work than I can finish.
So if you want to increase your earning potential you should:
1. Specialize and master a niche.
2. Network like your business depends on it.
3. Give free seminars and teach everywhere you go.
4. Label yourself as a consultant.
5. Don't be just a programmer. Work with businesses and fix their problems.
6. Know your worth, and don't be afraid to charge what you're worth.
7. Anchor your costs against how much value you'll make your clients.
8. Keep raising your rates until you can't get any work.
9. Work half as much as you used to.
10. And finally, spend time on things that matter like family, learning, and having fun.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
#33I'm a full-stack developer and I was working full-time till last month and freelanced occasionally. After leaving my job I decided to take up freelancing and currently, I'm making $35 an hour working on CakePHP/Laravel/Angular project which is low considering my experience (11 years). I usually charge upwards of $50 but this time I made an exception because the company is looking to raise Series A (which means more work at a better rate in future).
Last month, I got paid pretty good money for a React+Redux project.
Mail me at mail+efl@vivekgupta.com
I'm currently free for 20-30 hours a week and looking for more work.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
#34I used to charge $50 USD per hour, but I kept upping my rates. Soon I charged $100 per hour, and then $125 hour. The highest I ever got for programming/consulting was $150 USD per hour, but I don't charge that anymore. I've moved on to day rates. Now I bill around $800 per day, but I only work about 6 super-focused hours, and I use the Pomodoro method every day. My clients are happy because I get a lot of work done,…
Nice! I too work on CodeIngiter and Laravel along with Angular and React. I live in India and the local companies pay peanuts, which means no local projects. How do I find more clients and projects in the US?
Re: Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
#35What's the best way to start freelancing? A few years ago I used a few freelance sites such as upwork but the pay was fairly low and the work was just around building wordpress sites. Any recommendations? Specifically for backend or fullstack projects?
Re: Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
#36I charge $120/hour for development work. I specialize in low-level, performance critical stuff, lock-free algorithms, C/C++, assembly, SIMD code. But most of the work I get is typical full-stack web application development, with a little mobile stuff sometimes. I charge half rate to startups in top accelerators, like YC, that haven't closed an A round yet. The idea is to build relationships with future customers that…
This is interesting. So you have a performance specialization AND do full-stack web development. How do you position yourself in the market place? For example, most of my work is also fullstack web-development, but I also know how to build highly-available systems with Erlang/Elixir, but I'm not sure how to squeeze the latter into the messaging.
At a certain point, it becomes hard to market yourself in a way that maps to what people understand.
Imagine having a toothpick, saw, wine opener, knife, and other various tools. Now put them all into the very first Swiss Army Knife and try explaining that to someone. Who are you going to explain it to? A carpenter who needs full size professional tools won't need that, but maybe a soldier in the Swiss Army looking for handy tools to cart around in the field would!
Figuring out who needs your services is the first challenge. Maybe high availability systems and full stack web development intersects where people need a front end that ties into a reliable backend (querying a database, visualizing a system, real time analysys, etc.) That's your target customer.
Does your target customer have a name for full stack plus high availability already? To make something up, let's call it Full StackOps. Sell them your Full StackOps wizardry. If target customer has a different name for Full StackOps, you'll have to try to figure out how to tailor your message per customer. If there's no name, try making one up!
Or just generate referral for yourself, so anytime customers need a Full StackOps-like person, their first thought is to call you.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
#37I used to charge $50 USD per hour, but I kept upping my rates. Soon I charged $100 per hour, and then $125 hour. The highest I ever got for programming/consulting was $150 USD per hour, but I don't charge that anymore. I've moved on to day rates. Now I bill around $800 per day, but I only work about 6 super-focused hours, and I use the Pomodoro method every day. My clients are happy because I get a lot of work done,…
Nice! I too work on CodeIngiter and Laravel along with Angular and React. I live in India and the local companies pay peanuts, which means no local projects. How do I find more clients and projects in the US?
The best thing is to do is to build out your network. Keep reaching out to the people in the USA. Make sure your english is impeccable, as that will help build your perceived level of trust.
I suggest also getting out there more. Blogging works but you have to market your posts, and it's more long term. Teaching for notable learning platforms works, as well as helping to write public courses.
Anyway, the key lesson is to get out there and meet people. Then as you talk about what you do, and if you are good, you'll find work.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
#38I'm a 21 year-old who has recently gotten into contracting to supplement my primary income (a Software Engineering Apprentice for a Defence contractor). I earn £12 an hour for my contract work, which I'm quite happy with at the moment because 10 hours a week means I get an extra £500 per month (which is considerable at my age, it pays my rent and bills and some). I know it doesn't seem much, but I think I'm actually…
Great to hear you are happy, but I do think you're being exploited. I'm pretty sure you can flip burgers for £12.
I hope this motivates you to ask for more.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
#39I used to charge $50 USD per hour, but I kept upping my rates. Soon I charged $100 per hour, and then $125 hour. The highest I ever got for programming/consulting was $150 USD per hour, but I don't charge that anymore. I've moved on to day rates. Now I bill around $800 per day, but I only work about 6 super-focused hours, and I use the Pomodoro method every day. My clients are happy because I get a lot of work done,…
Definitely recommend billing by the day (or even week). It can make a huge difference in your relationship with the client and helps get them past thinking about how much you work and focus more on what you accomplish.
On a side note I actually offer billing by the half day, but price a half day at more than half a full day. This is intended to encourage clients to batch up work rather than feed it to me in dribs.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you earn on average through software freelancing?
#40We're a YC company that put together a visualizer for freelance engineering and design rates. It draws on a few thousand data points from our freelance invoice and contract product. You can filter by location, type of work, and experience: https://www.hellobonsai.com/rates
Curious, do you have stats for remote workers? I live in a far away country with no physical access to the US.