Guide: How to work with Freelances in Tech - Manfred

When and how to work with freelancers

The freelance model works especially well when you have a clear objective and a reasonably well-structured context. When you know what you need, why you need it, and for how long.

In those scenarios, a freelancer brings speed, focus, and expertise that usually doesn’t exist within the team. They can join quickly, start delivering from day one, and leave without creating an oversized structure behind them.

It also works well when the work has a clearly defined beginning and end. What we usually call “project-based” work. Not because freelancers can’t operate in more ambiguous environments, but because constant ambiguity tends to generate friction.

Example: if the project changes every week, if goals keep shifting, or if no one is clear on when something is actually finished, the problem wasn’t defined properly beforehand.

So before talking about rates, contracts, or tools, our advice is to answer this question first:
“Why do we want to work with a freelancer, and what do we really expect from that relationship?”

If you don’t have a clear answer, we can help you find it.

When it does make sense to work with freelancers

There are scenarios where the freelance model is a particularly good fit:

1. You need speed

You want to kick off a project immediately.
You need to cover a gap while hiring.
Or you need to solve a specific problem without going through a long hiring process.

2. The work is clearly scoped

The project has a clear start and end.
The objective is well defined.
Or you know there’s a specific deliverable.

3. You’re looking for very specific expertise

You need technologies or skills you don’t have in-house.
Or you want to optimize something you’ve already built but lack internal expertise.

You’re in critical moments (migrations, traffic spikes, launches) and you know that this expertise doesn’t make sense to internalize long-term.

4. You need flexibility

You have projects on the table that don’t justify a permanent hire because of their limited scope.
Or there’s a lot of uncertainty around future workload.

Freelancer, in-house, or consultancy

This question comes up a lot:
Should we hire someone internally, work with freelancers, or outsource to a consultancy?

Choosing the right model matters just as much as choosing the right person.

Freelancers are a good fit when you need autonomy, specialization, and speed.
In-house roles are key when you need continuity, ownership, and long-term knowledge building.
Consultancies make sense when you need to scale capacity quickly, with more rigid processes and multiple teams involved.

This table should help you visualize the pros and cons of each model.

If you want a deeper analysis, in this article we compare all three models in detail:
In-house, freelance, or outsourcing: which technical hiring model fits you best?

Factor	In-house	Freelance	Outsourcing
Speed	🐢	⚡	⚡
Cost	💸💸	💸💸💸	💸💸💸💸
Commitment	❤️	🤝	🤷
Output control	High	Medium	Low
Scalability	Medium	High (temporary)	High (dependent)
Knowledge retention	High	Medium	Low

What types of projects work best with freelancers

Projects with a clear beginning and end

Work that can be reasonably scoped in both time and scope. For example:

• Technical migrations.
• Product or architecture redesigns.
• Specific implementations.
• Launches with a clear deadline.

Workload spikes or temporary reinforcements

Moments when the internal team can’t keep up, but the volume doesn’t justify a permanent hire. For example:

• Backlog accumulation.
• Intense phases before a release.
• Parallel projects that can’t wait.

Highly specialized work

Tasks that require very specific and infrequent expertise. For example:

• Critical technical decisions.
• Audits.
• Solving complex problems.
• Contexts where mistakes are costly.

Work that doesn’t usually work well

Not because it’s impossible, but because it tends to create friction if not managed extremely well.

Diffuse and constantly changing work

If scope changes all the time, priorities aren’t clear, and it’s hard to know when the project is actually finished, freelancers often make uneven progress. Every change forces a renegotiation of expectations, focus, and sometimes even the collaboration model itself.

Structural, long-term roles

Work that requires continuous decision-making, strong ownership, or building internal knowledge. In these cases, a freelancer can work temporarily, but in the medium term it’s usually a sign that the role should be internalized.

Work heavily dependent on internal context

If the job requires navigating internal politics, deep knowledge of company culture, or constant coordination across many teams, it’s difficult for a freelancer to deliver their full value.

Signs that you should internalize the role

Some fairly clear signals:

• The work no longer has a clear end.
• The freelancer regularly makes strategic decisions.
• The team depends on that person to move forward.
• The collaboration becomes open-ended.

At that point, continuing with a freelancer is often a comfortable short-term solution and a medium-term problem.

Pricing models and budgets

Talking about money is usually uncomfortable. Many issues with freelancers don’t come from whether the hourly rate is high or low, but from not having aligned expectations about what is being paid for—and why.

Before negotiating, it’s important to be clear on one thing: not all work is priced the same, and freelancers usually set their rates based on their experience and the complexity of the project.

Hourly, daily, project-based, and monthly rates

Each model makes sense in different contexts.

Hourly or daily rates are usually used when workload is uncertain or variable. They’re flexible and easy to start with, but they require trust and oversight. Without clear objectives, the company may feel like it’s paying without really knowing why, and the freelancer may feel they’re being measured on time rather than value.

Project-based pricing works best when scope is well defined. The freelancer takes on more risk, and in return the company gains predictability. This model often incentivizes efficiency, but it requires solid upfront definition. Otherwise, constant renegotiations appear.

Monthly or retainer models are used when there’s ongoing collaboration—a fixed number of hours or a set level of commitment each month. They work well when the freelancer already knows the context and there’s mutual trust. If not, they can turn into a kind of disguised full-time role that doesn’t quite work as either freelance or employee.

What really influences pricing

A freelancer’s price doesn’t depend only on their technical level. There are other factors that carry much more weight than it might seem.

What matters is previous experience solving similar problems, the level of specialization, the urgency of the project, and the risk the person is taking on. Executing clearly defined tasks is not the same as making decisions that can affect the entire product or the business.

Clarity of the brief also plays a big role. The more diffuse the scope is, the higher the risk for the freelancer—and the more the price tends to increase as a protection mechanism.

Common mistakes when negotiating rates

One of the most common mistakes is trying to push the price down without revisiting the scope. When the price is lowered without adjusting expectations, someone ends up losing. Usually, it’s the project.

Another common mistake is not talking about money until the work has already started. That creates discomfort and a sense of imbalance from day one.

It’s also common to forget that a freelancer doesn’t sell hours—they sell availability, experience, and the risk they assume. Negotiating as if they were a fixed internal cost often leads to tense relationships.

Contracts and basic legal aspects

A contract is a sign of respect. It’s not always necessary, but if it’s the first time you’re working with a freelancer, it’s highly recommended. Including the project scope, the rate, and the agreements you’ve reached is healthy.

Most legal conflicts don’t arise from bad faith, but from assumptions that were never discussed. A good contract is healthy for both sides.

Commercial contract

In a freelance collaboration, there are certain things that should always be put in writing, even when the relationship is based on trust.

At a minimum, the contract should clearly state:

• What services are being provided.
• For how long, or under what conditions the collaboration ends.
• How and when invoicing happens.
• What happens if either party wants to cancel.

The goal is to avoid basic misunderstandings that are hard to undo later.

Confidentiality and data protection

In many projects, the freelancer will have access to sensitive information: code, customer data, internal metrics, or strategic decisions.

Most of the time nothing goes wrong, but you should still formalize:

• A confidentiality agreement.
• What information is considered sensitive.
• What happens if it’s shared without permission.

This protects the company, but also the freelancer, who knows exactly what they can and cannot do with the information they access.

Economic dependency and false self-employment

This is an area where extra care is needed. When a freelancer:

• Has fixed hours imposed.
• Uses tools and processes like a regular employee.
• Depends economically on a single client.

The relationship starts to look too much like standard employment—and that can lead to serious legal issues for the company.

A freelancer should not:

• Have an email address under the company’s main domain (many companies use something like external.company@).
• Work under a schedule imposed by the company.
• Have vacation days or public holidays assigned by the company.
• Work from the company’s office.
• Be subject to time tracking.

If the collaboration becomes long-term and very stable, it’s worth reviewing it with legal or tax advisors and asking whether the model still makes sense.

Freelance onboarding

Some companies spend weeks selecting a freelancer and then drop them into the project with no context at all. They’re independent, yes—but they still need onboarding if you want things to go well.

Good onboarding can make the difference between a freelancer being productive in days or taking weeks to ramp up. It’s when the freelancer understands how the company really works, what’s expected of them, and how they can add value.

Access, context, and minimum documentation

Day one matters more than it seems. If the freelancer spends their first hours asking for access or trying to understand how everything works, the collaboration starts off poorly.

At a minimum, they should have:

• Access to the necessary tools.
• Basic project documentation.
• Context about the product and the business.

Clear expectations from day one

Many points of friction appear because they were never discussed.

From the beginning, it’s worth making clear:

• What’s expected from the freelancer.
• What level of autonomy they have.
• What kinds of decisions they can make.
• What kinds of decisions need validation.

Integration with internal teams

When a freelancer joins an existing team, they bring a different way of working, prioritizing, and relating to the company. If that integration isn’t handled carefully, it’s easy for an implicit divide to appear between internal and external people.

Roles, responsibilities, and boundaries

For the collaboration to work, the internal team needs to understand what role the freelancer plays—and what is not expected from them.

• In which areas they have autonomy.
• Where they are expected to execute only.
• Where they should rely on the team.

Freelancers in product and technology teams

In product and technology teams, integration is especially delicate. Decisions are often tightly connected, and changes tend to impact many people.

What you should make sure to provide:

• They have a clear point of contact.
• They understand how decisions are made.
• They understand the roadmap, even if they don’t define it.

Final checklist for companies

After talking about models, expectations, and best practices, it’s useful to bring everything down to something simple.

This checklist doesn’t aim to cover every possible case. Its purpose is to help you quickly spot whether a freelance collaboration looks healthy—or whether it’s starting off on the wrong foot.

It’s not meant to be followed rigidly, but to help you ask the right questions at the right time.

Before hiring

Before talking to any freelancer, you should be able to answer these questions with reasonable clarity:

[ ] You know what problem you want to solve and why now.
[ ] You have a reasonable idea of the scope and what a good outcome looks like.
[ ] You know whether the work is one-off or points to something more structural.
[ ] You’ve decided which collaboration model fits best.

When starting the collaboration

A large part of a project’s success is decided in the first few days. It’s worth checking that:

[ ] The freelancer has access to everything they need to work.
[ ] They understand the product and business context.
[ ] They know who decides, who validates, and who to turn to if they get blocked.
[ ] Expectations on both sides are aligned.

Day-to-day collaboration

Once the collaboration is underway, these signals help indicate whether things are going well:

[ ] The freelancer makes progress without constant supervision.
[ ] Communication is regular and frictionless.
[ ] Scope changes are discussed and adjusted.
[ ] Feedback flows both ways.

Warning signs to watch out for

Some situations should raise a yellow flag:

[ ] The freelancer has become essential for everything.
[ ] No one else understands that part of the system.
[ ] The scope no longer has a clear end.
[ ] The relationship increasingly resembles disguised full-time employment.

Many companies work with freelancers reactively—when there’s urgency, when someone is missing, or when the team can’t keep up. The problem with that approach is that it turns freelancers into a patch rather than a real value lever.

Companies that work best with freelancers do the opposite. They don’t use them only to put out fires, but as part of how they scale, experiment, and adapt.

The key difference lies in moving from “looking for someone” to “knowing who to call.”
That’s exactly what we aim to build at Manfred: a network of trusted professionals you can turn to as soon as you need them.

If you’re thinking about working with freelance talent, at Manfred we’ve launched a new Freelance Recruiting service to help you find the right professionals so your project succeeds.