THE BEST FREELANCE CONTRACT TEMPLATE IN 2024

The best Freelance Contract Template and get successful results from your freelancer in 2024. This template is ready on Google Docs. You can also use it as a Word document or PDF file.

Brought to you by Mau, a Senior Freelance Contract Specialist at eDigital.

A PREMIUM FREELANCE CONTRACT TEMPLATE FOR 2024

To ensure you get a successful project delivery from a freelancer, you should use a premium freelance contract template that specifies all the details about the assignment or type of work to be hired.

Marketers, entrepreneurs and business owners commonly use freelancers as a way to quickly and easily execute professional work without the need to hire full-time staff.

A fantastic durable relationship with a freelancer starts with a freelance contract and for that, you need the best template!

eDigital consultants have carefully crafted this best freelance contract template which has been used by hundreds of marketers and clients. This simple yet effective freelance contract template covers all your hiring needs for a successful freelance work delivery.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The template we needed!

We found this template as a perfect solution to manage all our freelancer contracts. Easy to customise and reuse.

Karl F. ✅ Verified Buyer

BENEFITS OF HAVING A WELL-WRITTEN FREELANCE CONTRACT TEMPLATE

The main goal when writing a freelance contract is to allow you and the freelancer to:

Understand your exact requirements, service objectives and goals.
Let your freelancer know exactly how the service should be executed (in which context and for what purpose)
Help your freelancer deliver extraordinary work for you with no hassle at the right time and on budget.
Set clear expectations for the period your freelancer should not work for any of your top competitors.

Some of the top benefits of a well-crafted freelance contract include:

Deliver the right service you need (scope of work) and agree on the exact service location and service specifications. Parties without a proper contract risk finding themselves in scope creep. This is when during, or after completing a project, a client and a freelancer do not agree on additional work to the project outside the agreed terms.
Eliminate assumptions and reduce any misinterpretations and confusion. If a misunderstanding erupts and you have a contract, you can refer to the agreement to clarify any dispute.
Ensure expectations from both parties (client and freelancer) are clear.
Agree on legalities (terms and conditions).
Agree on timings.
Agree on payment and payment types. Using a freelance contract protects freelancers from non-payments as clients know that failure to settle a payment will result in lawsuits.
Agree on the cancellation policy and its process for both parties.
Agree on the revision policy (how many rounds of revisions a client is allowed to do)
Avoids costly omissions. Omissions provide room for potential trouble. For example, if you have a specific way of handling revisions, delivery of work, or receiving payment, you may use a contract to define those terms. Without a contract, the freelancer will use what seems fit, which may neither protect your interest nor your time.

BEFORE WRITING A FREELANCE CONTRACT

Before you embark on the process of spending time writing a Freelance Contract, we suggest you:

Category and brand familiarity. Does the freelancer have demonstrable experience in your industry? or has the freelancer used the products or services you offer? Every client work requires a unique set of challenges and skills for the work to be completed successfully.
Hire a freelancer with top skills in a specific activity. Some freelancers’ experience might be focused on creative writing, photography, journalism, graphic design, illustration, programming, software development, video editing, social media posting, web development and others.
Think extra reach. Hiring a freelancer via an influencer platform not only will give you access to great freelance talent but also they have the power to promote the final assigned work to their own audiences and followers.
Ownership rights. Freelancers work for hire, which means they don’t own any rights to the work. This has to be made clear in the contract before undertaking any work. Some freelancers will be happy with this as they may not want to get their names on work that is out of scope or not useful for their portfolio. This could be the case of designers, illustrators or artists who may complete work for you but do not necessarily want their names to be associated with that delivered work for whatever reason: your brand style is not theirs and the completed work has been modified to fulfil the client’s taste.
Communication method. A huge advantage of being a freelancer is that freelancers are not restricted by time or location. But that does not mean freelancers are available 24/7. Experienced freelancers will ensure the contract specifies how often the client expects support during the contract duration to avoid surprise calls from clients at odd hours demanding a freelancer to answer their questions or tackle an emergency. Professional freelancers will specify how to be contacted and their preferred communication method to limit cases of app fatigue. Freelancers will also consider capping the number of meetings that they will have with the client.

THE BEST FREELANCE CONTRACT TEMPLATE IN 2024

The sections of this premium Freelancer Contract – template.

SECTIONS

CLIENT DETAILS
CONTRACTOR DETAILS (Freelancer details)
SERVICES
- Project details
TERMS AND CONDITIONS

In “Terms and Conditions” you will be shown all of the critical aspects to consider when hiring a freelancer. This includes acceptances, warranty, confidentiality and non-disclosure clauses and many more. The entire “Terms and Conditions” part of the template includes 21 clauses you must take into consideration before hiring a freelancer.

How to get this premium template

Complete payment on Paypal.
Once payment is completed, Paypal will show a “Return to Merchant” link. Click on this link to be taken to the page where you will find the template.

You can always contact us if there are any issues. We respond fast! ⚡️

A funny freelancer client relationship meme cartoon

THE TOP 12 THINGS FREELANCERS WILL CHECK IN YOUR CONTRACT

Payment terms. freelancers love clients who can offer an initial up-front payment. Freelancers also want you to cover any transaction fees. As much as you may have your own requirements or payment preferences, your freelancer may also have their own guidelines. Hence, be open to settling on a common ground acceptable to both you and the freelancer. Payment types freelancers will check to include:
- Delayed payments. Freelancers want to know what options you will offer in case of delayed payment. Late fees for delayed payments are quite popular.
- Early payments. Freelancers may offer discounts for early payments (best suited for larger projects). Check with your freelancer.
- Upfront payment: The client pays before the project begins.
- Net 30, 45, etc: determines when payment is due after the invoice is sent.
- Pay on publication: payment will be completed once the assignment gets published.
- Split payment: mostly for larger projects with different milestones.
- Pay on submission: payment is made when the client receives the invoice or when you turn in your assignment.
- Pay on acceptance: payment is done after the client accepts the piece, usually after one or two revisions.
- Late fees: freelancers will check a compensation provision if the client fails to pay on time or within the agreed period.
- Kill fees: charged if the client cancels the project you have begun working on to cover the time and resources spent on the project.
Excessive demands. Freelancers want to ensure your contract does not include anything out of scope or any request that seems excessive or unreasonable. Watch out! exploitative freelance contracts are meat for the media. Journos and media outlets would love to find out about any unreasonable contracts.
Unlimited rounds of revisions. Usually, three rounds of revisions are enough, but if it is not spelled, freelancers may find themselves in an endless cycle of revisions and this can be exhaustive and time-consuming
Set clear boundaries. As a client, you can set deadlines for a project, but you cannot demand a freelancer to work at particular times or to be on-call. An astute freelancer will check this is clear in the contract.
Chapter length. if you are hiring a freelancer to ghostwrite a book, be clear on the length of each section and extra payment if you want to increase the length of the book or a chapter.
Signing a “non-compete” clause. It is acceptable to ask a freelancer to avoid working with a couple of your top competitors during the time of the assignment. If you are asking a freelancer to sign a “non-compete” clause, make sure you and your freelancer know how long it is in effect after you cut ties with the freelancer. The most common times can be between 6 months to two years depending on the level of competitive advantage in the work the freelancer is involved with.
Additional requirements out of scope will change deadlines. Freelancers will not only charge more but also will ask you to update your deadlines if additional requirements have been requested.
Extra creative pieces. Some freelance projects like ebooks and white papers require high-quality media that accompany the text. Define who is responsible for designing book covers, including image sourcing and copyrights. Nonetheless, don’t assume. Find out if you have to provide the media that accompanies the text written by a freelancer.
Out of reach. Freelancers may want to specify any holiday time and/or off-hours so you – the client – know when not to contact the freelancer.
Legal cost fees. Disagreements can happen and may end up in a legal battle. Astute freelancers can make the client liable for all legal fees by simply adding a clause in the contract. In this case, you – the client – are most likely to pay the freelancer to avoid legal costs.
Revision policy. Define the number of rounds of revisions the client can perform as part of the assignment. Include what constitutes a “revision”, and the people allowed to make/request revisions. Ensure you add some clauses for how you will deal with extra revisions outside the agreed ones.
Refund policy. Refunds occur when you (the client) have already made payment in advance and cancelled the project or when you aren’t happy with the work. However the latter can be settled with a few changes or edits. However, if you (the client) refuse the option for the freelancer to correct changes and you have already paid, the freelancer may need to refund. This has to be clear on the contract how the freelancer makes the refund and the fees it attracts.

FINAL TIPS

Remember that freelancers are ‘self-employed’ contractors. This means their freelance activities should not be similar to that of a part-time or full-time employee. If it does, you may risk being sued for it.
Digital signatures are valid. Freelancers are super busy professionals and may not have the time to sign, scan and email a contract. Make it easy for them by offering a digital signature. Signing your name on a form and clicking submit counts as a legal signature in a court of law.
Use tools like Grammarly to check for errors and improve the brevity of the contract.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Impressive!

All we needed was this template. We easily customised it to fit our hourly rates, retainer fees, terms and conditions.

Sophie R. ✅ Verified Buyer

Next: Get your premium Freelance Contract template now!

Conclusion

Writing a winning freelance contract is a vital step toward securing a completed assignment/work. If you have been doubting the importance of a freelance contract, now you know how crucial it is.

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Next: Get your premium Freelance Contract template now!

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THE BEST FREELANCE CONTRACT TEMPLATE IN 2024

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