For freelancers
Is your freelance contract fair? Check before you sign.
A freelance contract can look fine and still leave you unpaid, working free on “revisions,” or without rights to your own work — the fair-vs-unfair line usually comes down to five clauses: payment terms, scope, IP timing, termination, and liability.
What decides it, clause by clause
- Payment — Check the deposit, the milestones, and the Net terms — not just the total. A contract that pays everything “on completion” with no schedule puts all the cash-flow risk on you.
- Scope & acceptance — Look for capped revision rounds and a deemed-acceptance deadline. Unlimited revisions or approval “at the client’s sole satisfaction” can hold your invoice open indefinitely.
- IP & termination — Ownership should transfer on payment, not before — and a fair contract pays a kill fee if the client cancels early.
This freelance agreement leans toward the client.
IP transfers before you're paid
Assigning ownership "upon creation, regardless of payment" means the client owns your work even if they never pay — and it can sweep in your reusable tools and templates.
Ask for
Make the transfer conditional: "All IP transfers to the Client upon receipt of full payment," and carve out your pre-existing background IP and portfolio rights.
- Open-ended scope on a fixed feeMedium · Scope
- Net-60 payment, no depositMedium · Payment
Analyze my contract free
Free: your first analysis, no card, no deadline to use it. Every analysis returns a clause-by-clause risk read, the protections this kind of agreement usually has that yours may be missing, and a “Read these first” summary of the heaviest issues — plus a PDF you can download on any plan.
Analyze my contract — free- Encrypted in transit & at rest
- Files auto-deleted after 30 days
- Never used to train models
- Informational — not legal advice