Don't do freelance programming until you read this

Published on 18/05/2025

Many developers daydream about freelancing - being your own boss, choosing projects, maybe even working poolside. But before you quit your day job and dive in, you need to know the ugly truths. The reality of freelance programming is far less glamorous than the Instagram lifestyle photos suggest. In fact, it's so challenging that even experienced programmers have sounded the alarm. One developer-YouTuber even titled his video "The Harsh Reality of Freelance Programming":

This article pulls back the curtain on the downsides, hidden workload, and harsh challenges of being a freelance programmer.

Fierce competition and unstable income

Think there's plenty of freelance work to go around? The numbers say otherwise. Major platforms are utterly saturated with freelancers. Upwork alone hosts over 18 million registered freelancers, while active clients number under 1 million. Freelancer.com similarly has tens of millions of users competing for only a few million jobs completed per year. In other words, for each coding gig posted, there may be dozens if not hundreds of hungry programmers vying for it. The result is a ruthless global talent pool where clients can cherry-pick the lowest bid. It's common to see jobs attracting 50+ proposals, many from developers willing to undercut on price. This oversupply pushes earnings down - some analyses peg the average hourly rate on Upwork at a shockingly low ~$3 USD when all the low-budget gigs are factored in.

Not only is landing work hard, but earning a living wage from it is even harder. Only a tiny elite of freelancers break through to consistent high earnings. Upwork's own stats showed that merely 1 out of 800 freelancers makes over $1,000 in a month. Put another way, ~0.125% manage to earn what might be considered a modest full-time income. A large analysis of Upwork developer profiles found that about one-third quit the platform before earning even $1,000 total, and one in four give up before hitting $10k. The majority of those who don't quit are still scraping by on relatively small projects.

The income you do make as a freelancer tends to be highly unpredictable. One month you might snag a big project, then next month nothing. It's feast or famine. There's no guaranteed paycheck - if you can't find clients for a while, your income drops to $0. That reality drives many to abandon freelancing.

Hidden responsibilities beyond coding

When you're a freelance programmer, writing code is only part of your job - and often not the biggest part. In reality, you're running a one-person business entirely by yourself. As one veteran freelancer put it, freelancing isn't just about coding at all; "it's a full-fledged business" where you have to juggle marketing, client relationships, financial planning, and taxes on top of the technical work. This often comes as a rude awakening to developers used to having a boss or project manager handle the non-coding stuff. Suddenly, you have to wear all the hats: salesperson, accountant, project manager, customer support - and do all those jobs for "free" if you want any paid coding work at the end of the day.

Unpaid overhead quickly piles up. Crafting proposals, pitching to clients, and prepping estimates can consume countless hours each week - none of which are billable. You might spend your morning writing cover letters and bids for jobs you'll never win. Many freelancers find that a significant chunk of their working time (20%, 30%, or more) goes toward hunting for new gigs or negotiating terms, which yields exactly $0 in itself. In fact, on some platforms you literally have to pay just to apply for jobs. Upwork, for instance, requires "Connects" (bid tokens). If you send dozens of proposals a month, those fees add up - it's essentially paying money for the chance to maybe earn money.

Speaking of fees, freelance platforms take a hefty cut of whatever you do earn. Upwork currently charges a flat 10-15% service fee on all contracts. Fiverr takes 20% of each transaction - and with various add-ons like their paid promotion and subscription programs, the effective fee for many sellers averages over 30%. Freelancer.com similarly deducts fees for projects and contests. This means if you charge a client $1000 for a project on Upwork, you only pocket $900 after fees (and that's before accounting for your own taxes!). On Fiverr, $1000 in sales nets you just $800. These platforms might provide access to clients, but they make sure you absorb most of the cost.

On top of that, you're responsible for all the logistics that a normal employer would handle. Nobody is withholding taxes or setting up your retirement plan - you must budget for taxes, file them, and possibly pay for an accountant or software to help. You have to manage your own hardware, software licenses, office space, etc. There's no paid vacation or sick leave; any day you don't work is lost income. Health insurance? Better find and fund your own plan. In fact, a recent survey found only 58% of freelancers have health insurance at all - the other 42% go without, risking massive bills if something goes wrong. Needless to say, freelancers don't get employer-subsidized benefits like 401(k) matches or paid training. All those safety nets vanish, and replacing them out-of-pocket is expensive if not impossible. This "business side" of freelancing often blindsides newcomers. Instead of coding 8 hours a day, you're maybe coding 4 and spending the other 4 on administrative or support tasks that you never had to worry about as an employee. It can be exhausting, and it certainly cuts into your effective hourly earnings.

Difficult clients and payment pitfalls

If you're hoping to escape having a boss, be careful - as a freelancer every client becomes a boss, and you might have multiple bosses at once. You will encounter wonderful clients, but you will also meet absolute nightmares. Many clients have no real understanding of software development (that's why they're hiring you). As a result, they may drastically underestimate how hard a feature is to build, or constantly change the project scope. It's not uncommon to agree on one thing, then have the client say "actually, can we also add X and Y?" expecting it for free. Scope creep and vague requirements are rampant. When you push back or request more pay for extra work, some clients will act surprised or upset - as if everything is easy magic for a programmer. One freelance developer who left Upwork noted that many employers on the platform "had no idea what they were doing" when managing projects, which often led to chaos, miscommunication, and ultimately subpar results.

Freelance programmers also have to play the role of customer service when clients are demanding or unresponsive. You'll deal with clients who disappear for weeks in the middle of a job, then suddenly expect immediate results when they resurface. You'll deal with those who want daily status meetings or constant progress updates (essentially micromanaging you remotely). And of course, you'll eventually deal with non-paying or late-paying clients, especially if you work outside of a platform escrow system. Late payment is so common in freelancing that it's practically the norm - one report found a staggering 85% of freelancers have had their invoices paid late at least some of the time. Even worse, over 21% of freelancers reported that most of their payments arrive late or never at all. Imagine completing a project, sending the code, and then waiting months to see the money (if you ever do). Chasing down delinquent clients becomes part of the job, and it's incredibly frustrating. Yes, platforms like Upwork and Fiverr have payment protections (to a degree), but outside those walled gardens you're on your own. Small claims court or debt collectors for a $500 invoice? Most just swallow the loss. It's an emotional gut-punch to work hard on a project and then have to beg for the agreed payment. The psychological toll of constantly worrying about getting paid - something traditional employees usually don't fret over - cannot be overstated.

Isolation and burnout

Beyond the financial struggles, freelance programming can be mentally and emotionally draining. When you work solo, you don't have colleagues to bounce ideas off (or even commiserate with when things go wrong). There's no IT department to help if your computer crashes, no office chatter, no holiday parties - often it's just you and a laptop all day, every day. This isolation can breed loneliness. In fact, surveys show that well over half of freelancers feel isolated and even depressed due to the nature of their work. Unlike a regular office where you at least have social interaction and a support network, freelancing can feel like living on an island. Days or weeks of working from home alone can take a real psychological toll. Many freelancers report their motivation and mood suffer from the lack of human contact - it's an often-hidden downside that people only discover after leaving the camaraderie of a traditional workplace.

The flip side of "being your own boss" is that there's no defined limit to your workday - and many freelance programmers end up overworking themselves. When you have multiple clients with overlapping deadlines, or you're hustling to make rent, it's easy to fall into a cycle of late nights and weekends spent coding. There's always more you could be doing: fix one more bug, bid on one more project, answer that client email that just came in at 11pm. The boundaries between work and personal life blur or vanish. Burnout is a very real risk. Without a company enforcing vacation time (or at least making you take a break when you're off the clock), some freelancers just never stop working. This is especially true early on when you're trying to establish yourself - turning down work feels impossible, so you take it all and end up drowning. Over 60% of freelancers in one study said they "often feel lonely" and many suffer from stress-related illnesses due to the grind of gig work. Combine that with the financial volatility and constant client pressures discussed above, and you have a recipe for mental exhaustion.

In short, the freelance programming life can be a high-stress, high-pressure lifestyle without the usual support systems. There's no team to back you up if you hit a snag, and no manager to take responsibility when a project fails - it's all on you. Every successful project or positive review rests on your shoulders, but so do all the problems and setbacks. That level of personal responsibility can become quite heavy over time. It's no wonder that many developers who try freelancing end up returning to salaried jobs for the stability and peace of mind.

Conclusion

Freelance programming is not the carefree, easy-money gig that some imagine. Behind the scenes it's a grind of hustling for work in a crowded marketplace, enduring unpredictable income swings, doing a ton of unpaid busywork, and managing difficult clients - all while handling every aspect of a business single-handedly. It can absolutely offer freedom and flexibility, but it comes at the cost of stability and often sanity. Experienced developers know these harsh realities all too well; if you're newer to the field, make sure you go in with eyes wide open. The freedom of freelancing can be real - but so are the struggles and sacrifices that come with it. Don't jump into freelance programming until you've truly weighed these downsides, because once you're in the thick of it, the "dream" can turn into a nightmare fast.