I built a free hourly rate calculator after watching freelancers underprice themselves for years

The most common mistake I see freelancers make isn't bad clients
or slow computers.

It's charging $25/hr when they should be charging $68/hr.

Not because they're greedy — because they genuinely don't know
how to calculate what they actually need to earn.

Most people set their rate by:

• Googling "average freelance rate"
• Looking at what competitors charge
• Picking a number that "feels right"

None of these account for your actual costs.

Here's what a real hourly rate calculation needs:

1. Your income goal (after tax)
2. Billable vs non-billable hours (most freelancers
   bill 50-60% of their working time, not 100%)
3. Business expenses — software, equipment, insurance
4. Taxes — self-employment tax alone is 15.3% in the US
5. Profit margin for growth and slow months

When you add all that up, most freelancers discover they
need to charge 40-60% more than they currently do just
to break even.

So I built a calculator that does this properly.

You put in your income goal, your actual billable hours,
your expenses, and your tax situation — and it tells you
exactly what you need to charge per hour.

It runs entirely in your browser. No account. No data
collected. Private by default.

Try it: kuberagent.com

---

What's your current method for setting your rate?
Curious whether anyone has a system that actually works.