//Research
what we could actually verify
Reference pages with dates and sources on them: the statutes, the surveys, the prices, and the widely repeated numbers that turned out to have nothing underneath. Where something could not be confirmed, the page says so instead of rounding it up.
Law
US freelance payment laws: where a written contract is now required, and what it buys you
In New York, Illinois, California and the City of Los Angeles, a client who hires a freelancer above a dollar threshold must put it in writing, pay within thirty days if the contract is silent, and can be made to pay double if they pay late. The four laws side by side, from the statutes, with the one state we could not confirm.
OpenLaw
Statutory late-payment interest in the UK and the EU, with the sums
If a business client in the UK or the EU pays your invoice late, the law already sets an interest rate and a fixed recovery sum, whether or not your contract mentions either. Here is what the statute says, with the figures, and the two places it does not reach.
OpenLaw
Are electronically signed contracts valid? What the statutes actually say
In the US, the EU and the UK, a contract cannot be thrown out solely because it was signed on a screen. That has been the written rule for over twenty years. Here are the texts, what they do and do not promise, and what makes a typed signature worth something if it is ever tested.
OpenPricing
The freelance pricing benchmarks that survived verification, and the ones that did not
We ran about seventy published freelance-pricing claims through adversarial verification. Sixteen survived. Nine were refuted outright. This is the list, in both directions, with the sources, so nobody has to take our word for either half.
OpenRates
Freelance designer hourly rates: what each survey is actually measuring
The same job title comes out at $29 an hour in one survey and $100 in another, and both were published with a straight face. The difference is who was asked, not who is right. The six figures we could verify, side by side, with their populations.
OpenGetting paid
Scope creep by the numbers: the real PMI figure and the fake one
About half of projects experience scope creep, according to the Project Management Institute's 2018 survey. You will more often see 72%, attributed to the same organisation. That number does not exist in their research. Here is what does, who it measured, and why none of it describes a two-person branding project anyway.
OpenGetting paid
How late do freelance invoices actually get paid? The numbers that hold up
Two figures survive checking: 29% of freelance invoices are paid at least a day late, and 62% of surveyed New York freelancers have lost income to non-payment. Most of the others you will read do not. What each one measures, the ones we refuted, and why there is no global late-payment rate.
OpenProposals
Proposal close rates: what is measured, who it measures, and the number that is not real
The only large proposal-outcome dataset in public comes from Proposify: 36% of proposals closed in the 2024 report and 34% in the 2026 one. Both measure B2B sales teams using one tool. The 43% freelance close rate you will read elsewhere is a misattribution of the same data. Nobody is measuring freelancers at all.
OpenTools
What the freelance business tools actually cost, with the date we checked
Every price on this page was read from the company's own pricing page on a stated day in August 2026. Five tools, the tier that actually includes proposals and invoicing, the payment fees where they are published, and the referral money that explains why the roundups look the way they do.
OpenLicensing
Fonts and stock in client work: what transfers to the client and what does not
You send the client the working files. The folder has the fonts in it. That is a licence breach, and it is routine. What the Adobe Fonts, Open Font License, Adobe Stock and Unsplash terms actually say about handing assets to a client, from the licence pages, plus the handover list that keeps you out of trouble.
Open