Catalog ›Professionals ›Time & billing
Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator — what to charge
What should you actually charge per hour? Every freelancer asks this early on — and most get it wrong, by pricing only the salary they'd like instead of everything else the business has to cover. This calculator starts from two numbers and returns the minimum hourly rate you shouldn't go below.
What it records
- Annual income goal, all costs included (€)
- Estimated billable hours per year, e.g. 1000
How it works
This is a Reactive app: a plain text document that your browser turns into a working app — forms, live data, tables, statistics and even charts, with nothing to install or configure.
- Use it right away. Hit “Use this app”: it opens right in your browser, ready to go, with data saved only on your device.
- Your data stays yours. Everything is stored locally on your device, kept separate for each app: no account, no server, nothing to set up.
- Make it your own. The text below is the entire app: copy it, tweak fields, views and words, and your changes become interactive instantly.
- Share it as a file. An app is a simple file: save it, export it or share it with a link; and with encrypted collaboration several people edit the same data in real time.
The app’s source
# ⏱️ Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
What should you actually charge per hour? Every freelancer asks this early
on — and most get it wrong, by pricing only the salary they'd like instead
of everything else the business has to cover. This calculator starts from
two numbers and returns the minimum hourly rate you shouldn't go below.
## Your numbers
The first field, **annual income goal**, is not "the take-home pay I'd
like": it must already include taxes, social-security contributions,
software, training, insurance, your accountant and any other fixed cost of
running the business. If you only price your desired salary, by year end
the money for everything else simply won't be there.
The second field, **billable hours per year**, is not the hours you work:
it's the hours you can actually invoice a client for. Out of your total
working time you need to subtract holidays, sick days, training, client
prospecting, admin and the natural downtime between projects — for a
full-time freelancer a realistic estimate is often around 1000-1200 hours a
year, not 2000.
::::form{path="simulations" id="fto"}
::input{form="fto" field="goal" type="number" placeholder="Annual income goal, all costs included (€)" required="true"}
::input{form="fto" field="hours" type="number" placeholder="Estimated billable hours per year, e.g. 1000" required="true"}
::add-form{form="fto" path="simulations" label="Calculate rate"}
::::
:::table{path="simulations" headers="Annual goal,Billable hours,Hourly rate" deletable="true" editform="fto"}
€ {goal} | {hours} | € {goal/hours}
:::
Compare several scenarios by changing the numbers: every row stays in the
history, so you can see how the rate moves if you cut billable hours or
raise your income goal.
This is an indicative baseline (it doesn't account for different clients,
discounts or fixed-fee packages): use it as a starting point, then refine it
with experience and, for the tax side, with your accountant.