I undercharged for years so you don't have to.
I'm Aleksandar “Aleks” Simov. I've been building websites for clients since 2018 — 54+ launched, from $100 theme installs to $5,000 custom builds, and today a rate I'm in the middle of doubling. Every guide, template and number on this site comes from that work, not from theory.
From North Macedonia, five years in the UK, now based in Larnaca, Cyprus — working with clients across Europe and the US through Simov Studio.
The timeline — honest version
Eight years, five stacks, one lesson.
First paid work on Upwork: installing WordPress themes and importing demos — even demo products for "e-commerce" sites. They looked nice. The structure underneath was bad, and $100 a site was worse. I didn't know what I didn't know.
I stopped installing and started building: custom layouts, a real discovery process, sites shaped around the client's business instead of a theme demo. Prices moved to $400+. The work got better faster than the pricing did.
The projects changed: working online stores for real businesses, directories, blogs, membership sites. So did the invoices — $3,000 to $5,000 per build depending on complexity. The difference wasn't my skills alone; it was positioning, proposals, and saying no to $400 work.
I moved to what I now recommend to most freelancers: one anchor client on a full-time retainer at $50/hour — no employment contract, full freelance freedom — plus selected projects on the side. A steady base with all the upside kept.
Themes → Elementor → Bricks → Etch, and now AI in the middle of everything: design, code, and client communication. Working faster and better is what the market pays for now — it's why my rate is doubling. The stack changes every year. The pipeline stays the same.
Why this site exists
Every stage of that timeline had a mistake I paid for in cash: charging $100 because I had no rate data. Sending proposals that talked about me instead of the client. Working without deposits. Letting scope creep eat whole weekends. None of it was a skill problem — it was a missing-system problem.
GetFreelanceJobs is that system, written down. Everything on it is free: the guides, the calculators, the rate data. If 2018-me had found this site, he'd have skipped about three years of undercharging.
How content is made here
- Rate and price data is compiled from public rate surveys, marketplace data and my own client projects, and is labelled as market ranges — never as a survey of a membership that doesn't exist. The full method is on the methodology page.
- Where a guide tells a first-person story, it's my own invoice history, stated as such.
- Guides are updated when the market moves, with the update date shown. AI helps draft; experience decides what's true.
- If a number can't be documented, it doesn't ship. That rule is enforced by a check that fails the build, not by good intentions.