A freelance contract is the agreement between a self-employed creative or technical professional and the client paying for a project. It sets the scope, the price, how many rounds of changes are included, and who owns the finished work. This free freelance agreement is built for designers, writers, developers, video editors and other solo professionals who deliver files a client will keep using.
When do you need a freelance contract?
Any paid project where the client will use your work after you hand it over deserves a written freelance agreement. Small jobs included. The $600 logo is exactly where people skip the paperwork and later argue about whether the client can put that logo on merchandise or hire someone else to redraw it.
Picture a freelance designer who quotes $3,500 for a brand identity: logo, color palette and a one-page style guide. The client asks for “just a few tweaks” eleven times, then wants the source files and a social media kit too. A contract with two revision rounds, a clear deliverables list and an hourly rate for extras turns every one of those requests into a simple question: is this in the agreement, or is it a change order?
If the client is hiring you for general contract work rather than a creative project, the independent contractor agreement template may suit you better. If you’re selling advice or analysis rather than files, the consulting agreement template fits better. For ongoing operational work like bookkeeping or IT support, use the service agreement template. Photographers should use the photography contract template, which handles shoot dates, image licensing and model releases.
What should a freelance contract include?
Our freelance contract template has the sections below. Read the ownership one twice.
Project, deliverables and revisions
List every deliverable and its format (“logo in SVG, PNG and PDF; primary and one-color versions”). Then set the number of revision rounds included and the rate for extra rounds. Revision limits are the single most useful clause in a creative contract.
Timeline and client feedback
Dates in the template depend on the client responding within a set number of business days. If feedback is late, the schedule moves. That’s fair: you can’t hit a launch date if the client disappears for three weeks.
Fees, deposit and kill fee
You choose a flat project fee or an hourly rate, with a deposit due before work starts. The kill fee clause says what the client owes if it cancels midway: everything for completed stages plus a percentage of the current one. Pick a percentage you’d be comfortable defending to a reasonable client.
Who owns the finished work
Copyright exists from the moment a work is created and fixed in a tangible form, according to the Copyright Office, and the person who created it is generally the author. Clients often assume that paying for work means owning it. Not automatically.
The Copyright Office explains that a commissioned piece is only a “work made for hire” if it fits one of nine categories (contributions to a collective work, parts of a film or audiovisual work, translations, supplementary works, compilations, instructional texts, tests, answer materials for tests, and atlases) and both sides sign a written agreement saying it’s a work made for hire. A logo or a website design doesn’t obviously fit any of those, which is why labeling a freelance job “work for hire” often doesn’t do what people think.
Our template uses an assignment instead. Federal law says a transfer of copyright ownership isn’t valid unless it’s in writing and signed by the owner of the rights. The clause transfers the final, approved deliverables to the client once the client has paid in full. Rejected concepts, drafts and your pre-existing tools stay yours. You also get an option to show the work in your portfolio. If you’d rather license the work than transfer it (common for illustration and stock-style work), there’s a checkbox for that.
Independent contractor, confidentiality and boilerplate
The freelancer controls how and when the work is done, uses their own equipment, and handles their own taxes. Both sides keep each other’s private information confidential, and the clause includes the federal whistleblower immunity notice (18 U.S.C. 1833(b)) so it never reads as a gag on reporting a possible violation of law. Then the standard terms: entire agreement, governing law, notices and e-signatures.
What should freelancers and clients check?
The label in the contract doesn’t decide your status. The Department of Labor says agreeing in writing to be an independent contractor, including by signing an independent contractor agreement, does not make someone an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act. What matters is whether the worker is really in business for themself. If a “freelancer” works full-time hours for one client under close supervision, the contract won’t change that.
On taxes, the IRS says a business paying an independent contractor should first get a Form W-9 and keep it for four years, then report payments that reach the reporting threshold on Form 1099-NEC. Send the W-9 alongside the contract rather than inside it.
We have a longer guide on how to e-sign an independent contractor agreement that covers signing order, the W-9 step and classification in more depth.
How do you fill it in and get it signed?
Download the template in Word or PDF. Fill in the deliverables list before anything else, because the price, timeline and revision count all depend on it. Delete the checkbox options you don’t use.
Then send it as a PDF for signature. Freelance contracts are ordinary commercial agreements, and electronic signatures on them generally carry the same legal weight as ink; see are electronic signatures legally binding for the details. Ask for the deposit invoice to be paid at the same time the contract is signed, and don’t start work until both have happened. That one habit saves a lot of freelancers a lot of grief.
Download it, fill in the blanks, and send it for e-signature with any tool you like. (SignWren, the tool we’re building, is meant for exactly this job, and the waitlist is open.)
This template is general information, not legal advice. For a specific contract or dispute, talk to a lawyer licensed where you are.
Template from signwren.com. General information, not legal advice. Check your state's rules and adapt it before you use it.
FREELANCE CONTRACT
This Freelance Contract ("Agreement") is made on [date] between:
Freelancer: [Freelancer's full legal name or business name], with an address at [address] ("Freelancer"), and
Client: [Client's full legal name or business name], with an address at [address] ("Client").
1. Project
1.1 Freelancer will complete the following project (the "Project"): [short description].
1.2 Deliverables:
[List each deliverable, its file formats and quantities.]
1.3 Not included: [List related work that is not part of this Agreement, such as printing, hosting, copywriting, stock image licenses.]
2. Revisions
2.1 The fee includes [number] rounds of revisions per deliverable. A round means one consolidated set of feedback from Client.
2.2 Extra rounds, or changes to a deliverable after Client has approved it, are billed at [$ amount] per hour, and Freelancer will give an estimate before starting.
3. Timeline
3.1 Freelancer will start on [date] and deliver according to this schedule: [milestones and dates].
3.2 Client will give feedback within [number] business days of each delivery. If feedback is late, the remaining dates move by the same amount of time.
4. Fees and payment
4.1 Client will pay: ☐ a flat fee of [$ amount] ☐ [$ amount] per hour, estimated at [number] hours, with Client's approval needed to exceed [$ amount].
4.2 Deposit: [$ amount or percent] is due on signing and is credited to the final invoice. Work starts once the deposit is received.
4.3 Remaining payments: [schedule, e.g. balance due on delivery of final files]. Invoices are due within [number] days.
4.4 Late invoices may carry a late fee of [amount or percent] per month, up to the maximum allowed by law. Freelancer may pause work on overdue accounts after written notice.
4.5 Client pays for approved third-party costs (fonts, stock images, plugins, hosting) at cost: [list or "None"].
5. Cancellation and kill fee
5.1 Client may cancel the Project at any time with written notice.
5.2 On cancellation, Client pays for all completed milestones plus [percent]% of the fee for the milestone in progress (the "kill fee"). The deposit counts toward these amounts. Any deposit beyond what is owed is refunded.
5.3 Freelancer may cancel with written notice if Client seriously breaches this Agreement and does not fix it within [number] days of notice, or if Client stops responding for more than [number] days. Client then pays for work completed.
5.4 Rights in cancelled work: Client receives rights under Section 6 only in deliverables that have been fully paid for.
6. Ownership and use of the work
6.1 Choose one:
☐ Assignment. When Client has paid all amounts due, Freelancer assigns to Client all copyright and related rights Freelancer holds in the final, approved deliverables.
☐ License. When Client has paid all amounts due, Freelancer grants Client a ☐ exclusive ☐ non-exclusive, ☐ perpetual ☐ [number]-year license to use the final deliverables for [permitted uses], in [territory]. Freelancer keeps ownership of the copyright.
6.2 Until full payment, Freelancer owns all work, and Client may use drafts only to review them.
6.3 Drafts, rejected concepts, and Freelancer's pre-existing tools, code libraries, templates and methods ("Freelancer Materials") remain Freelancer's. If Freelancer Materials are built into a final deliverable, Client gets a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free license to use them as part of that deliverable.
6.4 Client confirms that it has the rights to any logos, text, images or other materials it supplies for the Project.
6.5 Portfolio: Freelancer ☐ may ☐ may not show the final work in its portfolio and marketing after the Project is public, and may not disclose Client's confidential information when doing so.
7. Confidentiality
Each party will keep private any non-public information the other shares for the Project and use it only for the Project. This does not cover information that is public, was already known, or must be disclosed by law. Nothing in this Agreement stops either party from reporting a possible violation of law to a government agency or making disclosures protected by law.
Whistleblower immunity notice. Under 18 U.S.C. 1833(b), an individual will not be held criminally or civilly liable under any federal or state trade secret law for disclosing a trade secret that is made (a) in confidence to a federal, state or local government official, directly or indirectly, or to an attorney, solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law, or (b) in a complaint or other document filed in a lawsuit or other proceeding, if that filing is made under seal. An individual who files a lawsuit for retaliation by an employer for reporting a suspected violation of law may disclose the trade secret to their attorney and use it in the court proceeding, if they file any document containing the trade secret under seal and do not disclose it except under court order.
8. Independent contractor
Freelancer is self-employed and not an employee, partner or agent of Client. Freelancer controls how, when and where the work is done, supplies its own equipment, is responsible for its own taxes and insurance, and may work for other clients.
9. Warranties and liability
9.1 Freelancer confirms the deliverables will be its original work or properly licensed, and will not knowingly infringe anyone else's rights.
9.2 Except for breach of Section 9.1, gross negligence or intentional misconduct, each party's total liability under this Agreement is limited to the fees paid or payable under it, and neither party is liable for indirect or consequential losses.
10. General terms
10.1 Entire agreement. This Agreement is the whole agreement about the Project and replaces earlier discussions.
10.2 Amendments. Changes must be in writing and agreed by both parties; email confirmed by both counts.
10.3 Governing law. The laws of [State] govern this Agreement.
10.4 Notices. Notices must be in writing and sent to: Freelancer: [email]; Client: [email].
10.5 Severability. If any part is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
10.6 Assignment. Neither party may transfer this Agreement without the other's written consent.
10.7 Electronic signatures. The parties agree this agreement may be signed electronically and in counterparts, and an electronic signature has the same effect as a handwritten one.
Signatures
Freelancer
Signature: ______________________________
Name: [full name]
Date: [date]
Client
Signature: ______________________________
Name: [full name]
Date: [date]