Fixed price or hourly: how to pay a freelancer (and how to charge)

Short answer: use a fixed price when the scope is clear and can be written down, such as a five-page website or a logo. Use hourly or a monthly retainer when the work is ongoing or hard to define, such as maintenance, support or open-ended consulting. Either way, agree milestones and how changes are handled before work starts.

Fixed price

Best for: projects with a clear end result.

• For the client: you know the cost upfront and can compare quotes easily.
• For the professional: working efficiently is rewarded, and you are not judged on hours.
• The risk: scope creep. If the brief keeps growing, someone loses. A written scope and a change process fix this.

Hourly

Best for: work that is ongoing, exploratory or hard to estimate.

• For the client: you pay only for the time used and can change direction freely.
• For the professional: extra requests are paid for automatically.
• The risk: no ceiling on cost. Agree a weekly or monthly cap and regular time reports.

Retainer

A fixed monthly fee for a set amount of work, common for social media, SEO, bookkeeping and IT support. It suits work that never really ends. Agree what a month includes and what happens to unused hours.

How to protect both sides

1. Write the scope down. Pages, features, deliverables and what is excluded.
2. Pay against milestones. A deposit, then payments as each part is delivered.
3. Agree a change process. Anything outside the scope is quoted separately before it is done.
4. Cap hourly work. A limit per week or month, and a check-in before going over it.
5. Keep it in writing. Email is enough for a small project. Larger ones deserve a short contract.

Quick guide by service

• Websites, apps, logos, videos: fixed price per project.
• SEO, social media, bookkeeping, IT support: monthly retainer.
• Consulting, fixes and small changes: hourly with a cap.

Typical figures for each are on our price ranges page. On VouchQuote, professionals say in each quote whether the price is fixed, hourly or an estimate, so you can compare like with like.