Freelancing in Lithuania: how to start freelance work and where to find orders

Freelancing (in Lithuanian, laisvai samdomas darbas) is work without an employment contract: you provide services to several clients, set your own price, find clients yourself and pay your own taxes. In Lithuania the words “freelance” and “freelancer” are searched for about two thousand times a month, and the international platforms Fiverr and Upwork several times more often.

This guide is for those who want to start freelancing from Lithuania: where to find your first orders, how much the platforms take, how to set a rate, what to put in a contract and how to make the activity official. Platform commissions and rules were checked in the platforms' own terms in October 2026.

What freelancing is and how it differs from employment

A freelancer is not an employee in the legal sense. The link with the client is not an employment contract but a service or copyright contract: the parties agree on the result, the deadline and the price, while how, where and when the work is done is decided by the freelancer.

The table shows why a freelancer's hourly rate has to be higher than an employee's hourly pay: it has to cover taxes, holidays, sick days, equipment and the hours you spend looking for clients.

What services you can provide

Freelancing works where the result can be delivered online and clearly described in advance. The most common fields:

• Texts: articles, advertising copy, SEO texts, editing, proofreading.
• Translation: translation of documents, websites, software, literature.
• Design: logos, brand identity, social media visuals, publication layouts, interface design.
• Programming and websites: website development, online shops, automation.
• Marketing: managing advertising campaigns, social media administration, SEO.
• Video and audio content: editing, voice-over, subtitles.
• Administration: virtual assistant services, data handling, customer service.

The three fields searched for most often in Lithuania – copywriting, translation and graphic design – have separate parts of the guide devoted to them.

Where to find orders: three routes

There are three ways to reach a client, and each has its price. Platforms have many clients, but you hand part of your earnings to the intermediary. Working directly you keep everything, but you look for clients and bear the payment risk yourself.

Beginners usually combine several routes: a platform provides the first orders and reviews, and over time a larger share of income comes from regular clients you work with directly.

How to start: five steps

1. Choose one service. “I write texts for online shops” is easier to sell than “I write everything”. A narrow specialisation lets you prepare samples and state a clear price.
2. Prepare 3–5 work samples. If you have not had any orders yet, create the samples yourself: a text for an invented product, a logo for an invented café. What matters is that it is clear this is a sample, not work for a real client.
3. Calculate your rate. The starting point is not “how much others charge” but how much you need to earn per month and how many hours you can realistically sell.
4. Create a profile on one platform and at the same time tell the people around you about the service – the first orders often come from people you know.
5. Make the activity official before you issue your first invoice. Self-employment under a certificate is registered through VMI's “Mano VMI” system.

How much to charge for the work

The price can be hourly, per unit (word, page, logo) or for the whole project. Which one to choose depends on whether the scope of work can be precisely defined in advance. When you calculate your minimum hourly rate, it has to include:

• taxes and social insurance contributions;
• the platform commission and payout fees;
• unpaid hours: proposals, correspondence, invoices, learning;
• holidays and sick days that nobody will pay for;
• equipment and software subscriptions.

How to turn these components into a specific number and what to put in a contract is explained in the part of the guide on contracts and prices.

Form of activity and taxes

Services provided regularly are an economic activity that has to be made official. The comparison by the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI) states:

• self-employment under a certificate allows any activity not prohibited by law, it is registered for an unlimited period and can be started from the day the application is submitted;
• a business certificate is issued only for a limited list of activities, and income received from companies is attributed to it only up to 4 500 € per year – so it is almost unsuitable for work with business clients;
• a small partnership (MB) or a private limited company (UAB) is worth considering when volumes are larger, you work with a team or you want to separate business and personal assets.

Which form suits you is explained in the ACS.lt article “Self-employment: registration certificate or business certificate”, and you can work out your income tax with the personal income tax (GPM) calculator.

Risks worth knowing about in advance

• A client who does not pay. When you work directly, only a contract, an advance payment and payment in stages protect you.
• Uneven income. One month there are too many orders, the next – none. In the first year it is worth having a reserve for several months.
• One big client. If it accounts for most of your income, losing it means losing almost all of your income.
• Work outside the platform. If a client found on a platform offers to pay “directly, without the commission”, you lose payment protection and put your account at risk.
• Forged bank details. Scammers break into an email exchange and send a “new account number”.

The last risk is not theoretical. A police incident report from October 2026 describes a case: a company in Trakai district received by email forged account details of its foreign partners and transferred 54 374 € to the specified account at a foreign bank. For a freelancer this matters from both sides: your client can receive a fake email “in your name”, and you can receive a fake invoice from a subcontractor.

The rule is simple: always verify a changed account number through another channel – call a number you already know. If the money has already been transferred, call your bank immediately and report it to the police via epolicija.lt or by phone on 112.

Additional income alongside orders

A freelancer's income depends directly on the hours sold. Some try to balance this with income that does not depend on hours: they recommend tools and products they use themselves and receive a commission. This does not replace orders, but it can cover part of the quieter months.