What does freelancing really look like right now?

For the third-year running, we asked freelancers about their work, their businesses and how they really feel about being self-employed.

By Kim Ellis

This year, we can go beyond a single snapshot and start to see the trends. What’s changing, what’s staying the same and where people are thriving (or still struggling).

The 2026 report explores everything from services, pricing and finding work to confidence, client satisfaction and the support freelancers really want.

Here’s a bit of what you can expect:

• 5% of freelancers use referrals to find work, making reputation and relationships more important than ever.
• Coaching and mentoring has surged to 60.6%, while consultancy remains the most commonly offered service.
• 2% rated ease of finding clients at 5 or below, despite enjoyment of freelancing reaching a three-year high.

And rather than just give you access to this year’s report, we’ll put the links in for 2024 and 2025 too so you can get access to everything.

Get all three reports

Enter your details below and we’ll send you the 2026 L&D Freelancer Insight Report, plus access to the 2025 and 2024 editions.

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