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Ask HN: What is the difference between contractors, consultants, and freelancers?

3 points by putnam 9y ago

db48x 9y ago
Not much, but consultants tend to get paid more than freelancers.
iDemonix 9y ago
There's not much between them, especially freelancers and contractors, although I'd say consultants are generally more expensive and are often brought in to 'advise' rather than to 'do'.
BjoernKW 9y ago
'Freelancer' and 'contractor' more or less are synonymous terms although the former is more common in the software industry. The latter arguably is a bit less prestigious, too. The difference between a consultant and a freelancer is that a freelancer solves a technical problem while a consultant helps with solving a business problem (which might involve solving technical problems, too). Freelance jobs typically are more hands-on while consulting gigs tend to be more high-level. As others on this thread mentioned this is also why consultants usually get higher rates than freelancers. Consultants also come in an employee variety, i.e. as in working for larger consulting agencies. In that case and depending on their seniority within the agency their work can range from anything a freelancer or employed programmer would do to work a self-employed consultant would do.
krasicki 9y ago
The terms are interchangeable. You negotiate your own rates of compensation in all cases. The scope of your responsibilities are also based on the job requirements. Contractor is more tightly coupled to W-2 employee. Consultant more likely a consulting firm employee. Freelancer most likely a C2C contract.
bradknowles 9y ago
Speaking only for myself and my own personal experience, here’s my take: 1. Contractors are medium to long-term, and can usually be renewed indefinitely, over a period of years or decades. When I worked as a civilian employee in DoD, there were plenty of contractors who had worked on certain projects for many years, and they frequently provided the long-term stability for the project as the military and civilian employees changed more rapidly. They might be employed by one company this year and a different company the next, but they were the same people doing the same work, only this year it might be for CSC (or a subcontractor) and next year SAIC might win the contract — and turn around and employ the very same people through a different subcontracting company. Contracting is almost always technical in nature, although you could be a contractor project manager. 2. A consultant is there for a short period of time. They are in, work for a few hours or maybe a few days, and then they are gone. They don’t typically come back. You can have consultants who are self-employed, or they might be employees of a consulting company, but to the customer it doesn’t really matter much. Consulting can be technical in nature, or business oriented. Many consulting companies are smaller than contractor companies, but there are always exceptions. 3. A free-lancer is someone who might be working for multiple customers more or less at the same time, but they are only self-employed. They also typically get paid a flat fee for project work of potentially unspecified duration. Your wedding photographer is most likely a free-lancer. Much commercial art is done by free-lancers. I’ve worked for a consulting company, on two separate occasions — Collective Technologies back in the late 90s, and MomentumSI in the early twenty-teens. I’m now a contractor working for a large company headquarterd in Austin that was recently acquired by a much larger company from Seattle.
brucephillips 9y ago
You tell contractors what to do. Consultants tell you what to do.

3 points by putnam 9y ago

Not much, but consultants tend to get paid more than freelancers.

There's not much between them, especially freelancers and contractors, although I'd say consultants are generally more expensive and are often brought in to 'advise' rather than to 'do'.

BjoernKW 9y ago

'Freelancer' and 'contractor' more or less are synonymous terms although the former is more common in the software industry. The latter arguably is a bit less prestigious, too. The difference between a consultant and a freelancer is that a freelancer solves a technical problem while a consultant helps with solving a business problem (which might involve solving technical problems, too). Freelance jobs typically are more hands-on while consulting gigs tend to be more high-level. As others on this thread mentioned this is also why consultants usually get higher rates than freelancers. Consultants also come in an employee variety, i.e. as in working for larger consulting agencies. In that case and depending on their seniority within the agency their work can range from anything a freelancer or employed programmer would do to work a self-employed consultant would do.

krasicki 9y ago

The terms are interchangeable. You negotiate your own rates of compensation in all cases. The scope of your responsibilities are also based on the job requirements. Contractor is more tightly coupled to W-2 employee. Consultant more likely a consulting firm employee. Freelancer most likely a C2C contract.

bradknowles 9y ago

Speaking only for myself and my own personal experience, here’s my take: 1. Contractors are medium to long-term, and can usually be renewed indefinitely, over a period of years or decades. When I worked as a civilian employee in DoD, there were plenty of contractors who had worked on certain projects for many years, and they frequently provided the long-term stability for the project as the military and civilian employees changed more rapidly. They might be employed by one company this year and a different company the next, but they were the same people doing the same work, only this year it might be for CSC (or a subcontractor) and next year SAIC might win the contract — and turn around and employ the very same people through a different subcontracting company. Contracting is almost always technical in nature, although you could be a contractor project manager. 2. A consultant is there for a short period of time. They are in, work for a few hours or maybe a few days, and then they are gone. They don’t typically come back. You can have consultants who are self-employed, or they might be employees of a consulting company, but to the customer it doesn’t really matter much. Consulting can be technical in nature, or business oriented. Many consulting companies are smaller than contractor companies, but there are always exceptions. 3. A free-lancer is someone who might be working for multiple customers more or less at the same time, but they are only self-employed. They also typically get paid a flat fee for project work of potentially unspecified duration. Your wedding photographer is most likely a free-lancer. Much commercial art is done by free-lancers. I’ve worked for a consulting company, on two separate occasions — Collective Technologies back in the late 90s, and MomentumSI in the early twenty-teens. I’m now a contractor working for a large company headquarterd in Austin that was recently acquired by a much larger company from Seattle.

brucephillips 9y ago

You tell contractors what to do. Consultants tell you what to do.