Storyhunter works hard to provide new and valuable opportunities for freelancers and production companies to manage and grow their businesses. Storyhunter charges on a sliding fee structure based on revenue with a specific client. Meaning, the more you earn from a specific client, the more money you make on subsequent projects after you cross a certain earnings threshold.

Fees

(The fees described here apply as of January 1st 2021. See further below for previous fees.)

Fees are calculated at the point of project completion. They are based on your lifetime revenue with a client including the current project:

• 10% if lifetime revenue plus new project value is less than $10,000 
• 5% if lifetime revenue plus new project value is $10,000 or more

Examples

• You have no previously completed projects with the client
• This new project value is less than $10,000: A 10% fee applies to this project.
• This new project value is $10,000 or more: A 5% fee applies to this project.
• You have one or more previously completed projects with the client
• The total of the previous project values plus this project value is less than $10,000:  A 10% fee applies to this project.
• The total of the previous project values plus this project value is $10,000 or more:  A 5% fee applies to this project.

Freelancer Service Fee Calculator

To calculate potential earnings for a given project, use the Freelancer Service Fee Calculator located at the top right of the project page.

Notes

When starting a new project while having other active projects with the same client, these ongoing projects are not counted. Only completed projects are counted.

But should your lifetime revenue change while a project is active, your fee for this project will be adjusted accordingly. E.g. as you complete another project with the same client while this new project is still active, the new lifetime revenue will be considered.

Exceptions

• Select Fees: For Select projects, an additional 5% Select fee will be charged. You can find more info on this here.
• Invited freelancers: If you have been invited to the Storyhunter platform by an existing client to facilitate payment and communication, no service fees will be applied for projects with that client.

If you have any questions about our fee structures, please contact support@storyhunter.com.

Why does Storyhunter charge fees?

We charge fees to maintain our operations, develop new features and support our sales team to find new jobs for freelancers around the world.

For some background, Storyhunter was founded by freelancer, for freelancers. We’re trying to solve the following challenges: finding new clients, developing trusting relationships with clients, working through paperwork with clients, finding new projects, pitching ideas to clients, building a global community and ensuring a timely and transparent payment process (often times outside of Storyhunter, freelancer can wait months to get paid from clients). We helped solve these problems by: creating freelancer profiles to showcase your work, building a verification system to add credibility to your portfolio,  matching you directly with clients, creating a system that forces clients to be transparent and clear with their postings, building a direct and group messaging system, developing budgeting tools, and designing a payment system to pay you within 30 days and give you full transparency as to  when you’ll get paid. 

For clients, we also develop software, called a freelancer management system, that helps companies adopt to a freelancer model by providing project management tools, thus bringing more jobs to freelancers, like you. We’ve built accounting software that allows clients to manage their budgets, we streamline their invoicing process so we can pay freelancers within 30 days, we standardize their freelancer contracts so they can confidently hire freelancers quickly and easily, and we approach work to bring more clients into the ecosystem through our sales and marketing efforts. 

All this, we hope, will provide you with a resource and a trusted partner to help you focus on doing the work you love, and let us deal with the boring stuff. 

Previous fees

For projects before January 1st 2021, the below rules are used:

• 15% if lifetime revenue plus new project value is less than $1,000 
• 10% if lifetime revenue plus new project value is between $1,000 to $10,000 
• 5% if lifetime revenue plus new project value is $10,000 or more

FAQ

I’ve noticed sometimes I am charged a service fee and sometimes I am not. Why is that?

We only charge freelancers service fees with clients we introduce them to through our postings or through our search engine that clients use to find freelancers. We never charge service fees to freelancers on expenses because we recognize that those are non-negotiable costs to freelancers, not services offered. The other time a freelancer will not have any service fee is when a client has “invited” the freelancer to the platform using their “add freelancer” tool (different from the “invite to posting” feature, which clients use by finding freelancers in search and inviting them). We only charge service fees to freelancers if our company or platform played a role in introducing the client to them.

Oh, so you have a way for clients to invite their existing freelancer network on to Storyhunter so that they can use your tool to simplify paying and hiring?

Yes, we do. Clients can also search through profiles, or look into their list of “saved” freelancers and invite freelancers to posting. Inviting and Paying Freelancers

What if I did know a client before I was hired by them on Storyhunter but a service fee still shows up? 

Sometimes clients forget to formally add freelancers to their network on Storyhunter or to sync their existing network with the platform, so Storyhunter’s system doesn’t know that there was a previous relationship. If that’s the case, email support@storyhunter.com to let us know. We will resolve it quickly.  You can get more information on getting invited to Storyhunter by a client here. 

OK, but I was just invited to a posting on Storyhunter by a client. Does that mean I don’t get charged any fee?

No, getting invited to a posting from a client a freelancer met through Storyhunter would still carry service fees. A freelancer has to have known and worked with the client before connecting with them on Storyhunter to not get charged the fee.