r/freelance
Almost every article about finding clients on Reddit recommends this subreddit. Almost every one of them is wrong — r/freelance bans hiring and soliciting work in both directions, and always has.
What the numbers say
r/freelance sees very few posts — about 0.4 a day — with heavy discussion on almost everything posted. Roughly one post a day attracting a median of fifty-plus comments is one of the highest engagement ratios anywhere on Reddit. Everything posted here is read by essentially the whole community.
| Measure | r/freelance |
|---|---|
| Members | 690k |
| Created | 2008 |
| Posts per day | 0.4 |
| Median comments | 54 |
| Text posts | 96% |
| Accepts | Links and text |
| Rules total | 9 |
| Rules on promotion | 4 |
What these numbers mean and why subscriber count is the wrong one is explained on the directory hub.
It is a subreddit about freelancing, not a marketplace
The rules are unambiguous. Hiring and soliciting work are banned, and the rule names all the variants explicitly: companies looking for freelancers, freelancers looking for work, and freelancers looking for partners or collaborators. Self-promotion of your portfolio, website, profile, blog or newsletter is separately banned. So is asking anyone to message you privately, and so is commenting to say you have messaged someone.
What it is instead is one of the best professional communities on the platform for the business of freelancing — rates, contracts, scope creep, difficult clients, tax, chasing invoices. At a median above fifty comments, questions get answered properly by people with real experience.
So participate here to get better at the job, and accept that no work will come from it directly. If you want the marketplace, it is r/forhire, and the rules here will tell you so themselves.
Promotion rules, in the moderators' own words
4 of r/freelance's 9 rules govern promotion, advertising or soliciting, quoted verbatim:
No hiring or soliciting work
Use /r/forhire to look for work or to find freelancers. This includes companies or individuals looking for freelancers, freelancers looking for work, or freelancers looking for partners or collaborators. Note that responding to posts or comments violating this rule or asking people to send you a pri
No advertising or self-promotion
**Examples** of prohibited content include: - your app or SaaS - your website or portfolio - your profile on a freelance site - a blog post you wrote - a article that mentions your company - your mailing list or newsletter - a Slack group, IRC channel, or other external chat - a book you wrote - a c
No soliciting private messaging
Do not ask people to send you a private message or if you can send them a message. Do not comment that you have sent them a message.
No referral URLs or shortened links
Referral URLs and other coded links are prohibited in this subreddit.
Snapshot only — check the live rules before posting.
When to post in r/freelance
Hours whose posts drew the most discussion, across the 100 most recent:
- 19:00 UTC (2pm ET / 11am PT) — averaged 101.4 comments per post
- 18:00 UTC (1pm ET / 10am PT) — averaged 80 comments per post
- 01:00 UTC (8pm ET / 5pm PT) — averaged 77.7 comments per post
A tie-breaker, not a rule — see why timing matters less than you would like.
Who should watch this subreddit
Freelancers who want to price better and get burned less often. Nobody who needs a client this month.
Related communities: r/forhire, r/consulting, r/copywriting, r/graphic_design.
Frequently asked questions
Can you promote your business in r/freelance?
No, in either direction. Hiring, soliciting work, promoting your portfolio or website, referral links and asking anyone to DM you are all separately banned. The rules redirect you to r/forhire by name.
Is r/freelance good for finding leads?
Either almost nobody reads it, or promotion is banned outright. Structurally impossible — the rules exclude exactly the behaviour lead generation requires.
How active is r/freelance?
About 0.4 posts a day from 690k members, with a median of 54 comments per post — heavy discussion on almost everything posted.
Find the subreddit that is worth your time instead
If r/freelance is not it, the free Subreddit Finder will suggest communities for your category, and RedditScout will score the posts once you have picked one.
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