The Real Cost of Payment Fees: What Freelancers Actually Keep

Two freelancers do the same R20,000 project. One takes payment through a big marketplace that charges a 20% commission and keeps R16,000. The other invoices directly and pays a card-processing fee of roughly 2.9%, keeping about R19,400. Same work, same price to the client — a R3,400 difference that goes entirely to how the money was collected.

Payment fees are the most overlooked line in a freelance business, precisely because they are taken off the top before you ever see the money. What you charge is not what you keep. Here is how to understand the gap and stop giving away more of it than you have to.

The two worlds of fees

Not all fees are remotely comparable, and lumping them together is how freelancers make expensive choices.

• Marketplace / platform commissions run high — commonly in the 10–20% range — because you are paying for the platform to find you clients and hold the relationship. That can be worth it early on. It stops being worth it the moment you would have kept the client anyway.
• Payment processing fees are a different order of magnitude — typically around 2.9% for a local card through a processor like Paystack. You are paying only for the plumbing that moves money, not for the client.

The critical insight: a 20% cut and a 2.9% fee are not "both just fees." One is a fifth of your income; the other is small change. Confusing the two costs real money over a year.

PayPal vs Paystack vs marketplaces

For a South African freelancer, the practical comparison usually comes down to a few routes, and the differences are stark: