Freelancing seems like heaven. You’re able to work from anywhere, have nice work-life balance and be your own boss

But how much money freelancers actually earn?

We decided to figure out what the average rate of freelance WordPress, PHP, Javascript, and .NET developers.

32% of all full-time freelancers earn more than they got at a company.

In fact, after analyzing a random sample of 10,134 Software Engineer freelancers, we discovered that only 32% of all full-time freelancers earn more than they got at a company. We took information about Average Companies Salaries from Glassdoor (Data on Glassdoor’s Salaries: WordPress; PHP; Javascript; .NET). And about freelancers rates on Periodix DataBase)

What gives? Before we get into that, here are 3 other interesting things we found:

• American coding freelancers earn almost the same money they do on corporate jobs. In other countries, they earn more than they’re able to get at a company (considering moving to Thailand or Slovakia?).
• Javascript Freelance Developers earn more money than other freelancers.
• Freelancers with fewer companies experience earn less than others do.

Let’s dig in!

What is the average rate of a freelance developer in the USA?

According to our data, we found that the rate of Freelance JavaScript Developer is higher than he/she earns at a company. Does it true?

Here are our stats on the hourly rate of American some coding specializations of freelancers:

We can see that the rate of a JavaScript developer is higher than other types of coding.

What about JavaScript Developers from other countries?

Here is our data:

Hourly rate of different freelance coding developers types in other countries doesn’t have a big difference as Javascript Engineers in the USA.

Why are JavaScript Developers highly paid freelancers?

We assume that it depends on big demand of this type of development.

Every day our service aggregates plenty of job openings for JavaScript Developers. It’s a trend technology. Competition is so big for it.

According to Google Trends we can see that “Javascript Job” request tend to grow up.

How to win a competition on the freelance market?

The freelance job search is unjust. Because you have to emulate with freelancers that have much less rate than yours. (That’s why we develop Periodix).

1. Improve Your Skills Every 6 Months. New Technologies appear every day. You have to be in trend of new coding languages and frameworks.
2. Build Your Experience with Small Tasks Projects. If you just start freelancing, it helps you to improve your programming skills and portfolio.
3. Apply for Jobs that Are Less than One Week Old. It increases your chances to be hired and if you’re not qualified for 100%. You never know if something special in your application will catch a client.

Summary

Winning a competition has always been hard, but it’s getting harder. Nowadays, you have to be well-skilled professional to manage your rate.

Check projects that fit your background and rate expectation.

We’ve already added a feature to filter projects according to your budget realities. And Periodix calculates your chances to be hired on a freelance or remote job.

More Resources: The Ultimate Freelancing Guide