What hiring a Filipino freelancer actually costs

Most people arrive with one number in mind: the hourly rate. It is the number every directory sorts by, and it is the least useful one on its own.

The rate is not the cost

A rate becomes a cost once you have added the things around it. Some of those are yours to decide and some are decided for you.

• The rate itself, agreed directly with the person doing the work.
• What the platform takes, which on most marketplaces is a percentage of everything you pay, forever.
• Payment fees, which depend on how the money moves rather than on how much of it there is.
• Your own time, which is the line nobody puts on a spreadsheet and the one that decides whether a hire was worth making.

Percentages compound in a way flat fees do not

A ten per cent fee on a $1,500 monthly engagement is $150 a month, every month, for as long as the relationship lasts. That is the part worth thinking about before it starts: a good hire is a long relationship, and a percentage turns a good outcome into a growing bill.

A commission is charged on success. That is the part to look at twice.

What we do instead

We charge one flat monthly price to the business and nothing at all to the freelancer, and we never touch the money between the two of you. You agree a rate, you pay it however you both prefer, and what you agreed is what changes hands.

There is a page that runs the arithmetic against the other options, with every figure sourced and dated, if you would rather see it than take our word for it: what hiring costs.