Introduction
One of the challenges when getting started with freelance web development is deciding how much to charge.
You want to make sure you earn enough money to be profitable, but you also don't want to price yourself out of the market.
It can be particularly tricky if you're thinking of moving over to freelancing from traditional employment where you're paid a salary. Your brain is likely wired to think in terms of a yearly salary, or the monthly amount that hits your bank account. So when you need to start thinking about hourly rates, day rates, or project rates, it can take a while to get used to.
Since you have more control over your work schedule as a freelancer, you need to factor in things like:
- How many hours a week do you want to work?
- How many of those hours are billed?
- How many weeks a year do you want to work?
- Do you want to bill on a daily or hourly rate?
- What does that hourly or daily rate equate to in terms of a yearly salary?
Sure, you can sit there and do the maths yourself. But if you're experimenting with different pricing strategies, it can be a bit of a pain to keep recalculating everything.
So I put together a freelance hourly/daily rate calculator tool to help you calculate your freelance rates. It's a simple, free tool that asks you for a few values and then spits out some calculations for you.
Annual to Hourly/Daily Rate Calculator
If you're used to thinking in terms of a yearly salary, this calculator will help you figure out what your hourly or daily rate should be. This can be especially useful if you're transitioning from a salaried job to freelancing and want to make sure you're not taking a pay cut.
The tool will ask you:
- How much you want to earn in a year
- How many weeks you want to work in a year
- Whether you want to charge an hourly or daily rate
- If you selected "hourly rate", how many hours you want to work a week
- If you selected "daily rate", how many days you want to work a week
The tool will then display your hourly or daily rate.
Here's an example of the tool in action with some example figures:
Hourly/Daily Rate to Annual Calculator
The calculator also works in reverse and allows you to calculate the annual income based on a given hourly or daily rate.
This can be great if you're thinking of increasing your prices and want to see how that would affect your earnings over the year.
The tool will ask you:
- Whether you want to charge an hourly or daily rate
- If you selected "hourly rate", what your hourly rate is and how many hours you want to work
- If you selected "daily rate", what your daily rate is and how many days you want to work
- How many weeks you want to work in a year
The tool will then display your annual income.
Use the Freelance Rate Calculator
You can check out the tool by clicking the link below:
👉 Use the Freelance Rate Calculator
Please remember that this tool is just a guide. When you're freelancing, there will likely be other factors you need to consider (such as taxes, business expenses, etc.) that the tool doesn't take into account. But hopefully it should still give you an idea of your potential earnings based on the figures you input.