Freelance Contract Checklist: 12 Must-Have Clauses (and 3 to Cut)

Most freelancers either use a contract that's way too short ("I'll do the thing for $X") or way too long (15 pages of legalese they don't understand). The right freelance contract is 2-3 pages and answers every question that could blow up the project. Here's the exact checklist we use.

The 12 clauses every freelance contract needs

1. Scope of Work (the most important paragraph)

List exactly what you're delivering. "Website redesign" is a lawsuit waiting to happen. "Five-page responsive marketing site including home, about, pricing, blog index, and contact page, with two rounds of revisions per page" is a contract.

2. What's NOT in scope

A short paragraph titled "Out of Scope" is the single biggest scope-creep killer. List the obvious things clients will ask for later: hosting, ongoing maintenance, copywriting, content migration. They're free additions until they're not.

3. Timeline with milestones

Break the project into 2-4 phases with target dates. This protects both sides: the client knows when to expect things, and you have natural payment triggers.

4. Payment schedule (always include a deposit)

Standard split for projects under $10k: 50% upfront, 50% on delivery. For larger projects: 33% / 33% / 34% tied to milestones. Never start without the first payment cleared.

5. Late payment terms

Invoices net 14 days, late fee of 1.5% per month after that. This is standard and clients won't blink. Without it, "I'll pay you next week" becomes 90 days unpaid.

6. Revisions limit

Two rounds of revisions per deliverable is standard. Beyond that, billed at your hourly rate. This is the #1 thing that turns "fixed price" projects into hourly disasters.

7. Independent contractor status

One sentence: "Contractor is an independent contractor, not an employee. Contractor is responsible for own taxes, insurance, and benefits." Protects you and the client from misclassification issues.

8. IP ownership trigger

IP transfers to the client ONLY upon final payment. Until then, you own everything. This is your single biggest leverage point if a client tries to ghost you on the last invoice.

9. Portfolio rights

Even after handing over IP, you keep the right to showcase the work in your portfolio and case studies. Most clients agree to this without thinking — but if you forget to ask, it can get awkward later.

10. Confidentiality (lite)

You won't share client's confidential business info. You don't need a separate NDA for this — one paragraph in the contract is enough for most projects.

11. Kill fee / termination terms

If either party walks away, what happens? Standard terms: 14 days written notice; client pays for work completed up to termination. Without this, terminations get ugly fast.

12. Governing law and venue

Your state, your county. If you're ever forced to enforce the contract, you don't want to fly to the client's jurisdiction.

3 clauses you can usually cut

1. "Force majeure" boilerplate

Unless you're shipping physical goods or scheduling a live event, this is pure filler. Skip it.

2. Arbitration clauses

They sound smart but for projects under $25k they create more friction than they save. Small claims court is faster and cheaper.

3. Non-compete

Unenforceable for freelancers in most states and immediately makes clients suspicious. Remove it.

Skip the lawyer fees

You don't need to draft a freelance contract from scratch. Use a template with all 12 clauses pre-baked, fill the form, download a PDF, done. Our free freelance contract template includes every clause above:

Once you have your template, save it. Don't re-write it for every project — just swap the client name, scope, and price. That's 5 minutes instead of 5 hours.