The short version
2026 editionKey takeaways
Each takeaway links to its canonical data row. Reported figures belong to their cited producer; modeled results are labeled as calculations.
- Creatives: United Kingdom average day rate: £417 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
- Creatives: United States average hourly rate: $69.00 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
- Designers: United Kingdom average day rate: £385 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
- Designers: United States average hourly rate: $63.00 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
- Marketing & Communications: United Kingdom average day rate: £418 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
- Marketing & Communications: United States average hourly rate: $69.00 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
- Project Management: United Kingdom average day rate: £406 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
- Project Management: United States average hourly rate: $67.00 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
- Software Engineering: United Kingdom average day rate: £533 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
- Software Engineering: United States average hourly rate: $88.00 (2024–2025 data, published in the 2026 report).YunoJuno
What do freelancers charge by service?
These are selected platform averages. UK day rates and US hourly rates describe separate markets; the two columns are not currency conversions or a basis for inferring working-day length.
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns →
| Discipline | UK: GBP per day | US: USD per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Creatives | £417 | $69.00 |
| Designers | £385 | $63.00 |
| Marketing & Communications | £418 | $69.00 |
| Project Management | £406 | $67.00 |
| Software Engineering | £533 | $88.00 |
| Strategy | £518 | $85.00 |
YunoJuno 2026 report; observations span 2024–2025. The selection covers six client-service disciplines, not the full source table.
Primary source: YunoJuno — checked October 8, 2026
What does a rate include?
A rate needs an agreed unit and scope. Ask whether preparation, meetings, revisions, project management, expenses and usage rights are included before comparing two quotes.
A five-day engagement is not automatically five eight-hour days, and a project fee is not a monthly retainer. Document availability, deliverables, approval points and change requests in the proposal.
How can I use a benchmark to plan a project?
Build a scenario using the service and market that match the work, then replace it with a real quote. Multiply agreed effort by the chosen rate and show any assumptions separately.
Do not combine UK and US figures into a global average. Do not call the result take-home income: taxes, overhead, nonbillable time and payment timing are outside these rate observations.
Was this an original freelancer survey?
No. This is a sourced review of platform evidence. Workspace369 did not collect freelancer responses or observe the underlying contracts.
For an original survey, record service, location, currency, pricing unit, experience, scope and the date of a recent engagement. Distinguish advertised, agreed and actually collected fees. Publish counts per comparison group rather than treating every respondent as interchangeable.
How this report was built
Methodology and limitations
- Selected figures were transcribed from the producer’s discipline table. The ledger retains the original unit, geography, period and exact row/column.
- The report describes more than 182,000 contractor, booking, skills and workforce data points, not that many unique people or independent rate observations. Discipline-specific sample counts and uncertainty intervals are not supplied.
- The producer combines approved rates and confirmed bookings and removes anomalous observations. This is platform evidence with selection limits, not a representative freelancer survey.
What these numbers cannot tell you
- The 2026 report title is not a claim that the measurements were collected in 2026.
- Experience and project scope vary within each discipline. An average does not establish a fair quote for a particular engagement.
- Only selected factual values are republished; no underlying personal data or complete proprietary report is distributed.
Freshness and corrections
Maintained by the Workspace369 editorial team. Editorial owner reviews quarterly and when the producer releases a new rate report. Next review January 2027. The edition date changes only when the evidence or content is substantively reviewed; it does not change the underlying observation period.
First edition: . Data extraction, source attribution and arithmetic checked for this edition. No independent peer review is claimed.
Found an error or a newer primary release? Send a correction with the source and affected statistic. Confirmed corrections are recorded below before republishing.
Revision history
Evidence dates above describe the report. Download and citation updates below do not imply that sources were checked again.
- — Versioned CSV and JSON archives, checksums and reference-manager exports added. Source observations and evidence dates are unchanged.
Primary sources and provenance
Every reported numeric cell links directly to its producer. The downloads include exact table or workbook locators, observation periods, access dates, formulas and input references.
- YunoJuno2026 Contractor & Freelancer Rates Report ↗Publication date not recorded; see the original source. Accessed October 8, 2026.Selected factual observations with attribution. Source report and underlying platform data retain their own rights; no raw profiles or bookings are redistributed.
Made to be checked, then cited
How to cite this report
For a source-reported statistic, credit the original publisher and link to the exact row here when using our compilation. For a modeled result, cite Workspace369 and include the assumptions. Linking to this page does not make us the original producer of third-party data.
Workspace369. (2026-10-08). Freelancer Rates by Service: 2026 Report Guide. https://workspace369.com/research/freelancer-rate-benchmarks/. Primary sources and observation periods as listed in the report.
Download reusable chart with sources and limitations ↓
Versioned data
Use an archived file when your analysis needs to stay reproducible. The version identifies the exact CSV and JSON bytes; unchanged data keeps the same version.
Dataset version: 6478e207d3c4eea1a2be7c67e0262f07bbd1c965e8c6b0d8be8e34a6ced1845f
Reference exports describe Workspace369’s compilation. When citing a reported observation, also credit its original producer.