In recent years, there has been a trend of abandoning traditional, familiar jobs in retail stores, factories, and other day-to-day jobs, with a rush toward people wanting to become self-employed. Freelance work can bring in the first shekels for your independent business and also open the door to a career where you set your own working hours, set your own hourly or project rates, and decide how much you actually want to work. To succeed as a freelancer, you need to acquire an in-demand skill that interests you. After that, you will need to invest time in honing your skills and learning your chosen field as much as possible. In this article, we will go over 10 skills you can acquire and later work with as freelancers with a very respectable monthly income. But before we move on to the list of skills, it’s important to understand how we calculated the hourly rates shown in this article.
How did we calculate the hourly rate for each of the professions in the article?
We know the local Israeli freelance market well from our professional experience and research on digital freelance work in Israel. Alongside the Israeli market, you can also offer freelance services in the global market on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork—platforms that were once primarily intended for very low-cost services and are now considered high-quality sources for finding top-tier freelancers across a diverse price range. It is important to note that the rates shown in this article are based on our own research, represent market estimates, and are not necessarily the only rates you will encounter when hiring freelancers for your business or seeking freelance work yourself.
Top 10 Most In-Demand Freelance Skills
Before deciding which skill you want to acquire to serve your future freelance business and provide services to companies and businesses, review the list below of 10 highly in-demand freelance skills in Israel. Mastering one or more skills from this list will help you elevate your chosen independent career.
1. App Development
Average Hourly Rate: 200-1500 NIS.
For many years now, the world has been advancing in giant steps toward the small device. Mobile is experiencing unstoppable momentum, people spend significantly more time on mobile compared to other devices, and demand for app developers is rising as well. Companies and businesses are looking for freelancers engaged in app development, UI/UX wireframing and design, and mobile app testing. To work in such a desirable profession, you will need specific coding knowledge. iOS apps use the Swift programming language, while Android apps use Java or C++. You can start by learning one language, which will already help you integrate into development teams of large companies or take on small freelance projects for businesses wanting simpler apps. The average hourly rate in the Israeli freelance market is between 200 NIS and 1500 NIS per hour, and tens of thousands of shekels monthly in the salaried market.
2. Copywriting
Average Hourly Rate: 50-350 NIS.
Almost all online businesses and websites need content to promote their brand, and most do not have an in-house content writer or copywriter. Since content is an ongoing need for businesses, the role of marketing content writing is a great opportunity for freelancers looking for regular assignments. People who work in another profession and have good writing skills can write about their primary field of expertise for businesses and generate additional income as freelancers. What makes this job somewhat saturated in the market is the fact that you do not need specific certification to become a content writer or copywriter. Having extensive knowledge in a certain field and good writing skills is enough to get started.
3. Graphic Design
Average Hourly Rate: 100-1000 NIS.
Graphic design is a massive field containing several sub-fields where there is huge demand for hiring freelancers. Among these fields, you can find: web design, UX (user experience), UI (user interface), social media design, and more, which means that as freelance designers you can cater to a larger audience and your work will be diverse. To become an independent graphic designer, you will need to prepare a high-quality portfolio that showcases your skills and design abilities. In addition to the variety of work, the design software market is also growing rapidly, and alongside the familiar Adobe software, additional tools are joining such as Canva, MidJourney integrating AI, and more. The hourly rate spans a wide range because, due to the influx of designers in the market, there has been a drop in freelance hourly rates, but there are many designers in the Israeli market who do not compromise on their hourly rate even though the market is saturated.
4. Video Editing
Average Hourly Rate: 50-250 NIS.
As more businesses choose to create video content alongside text and images, the demand for video editors to help produce and edit videos is growing. Video editors take footage and cut, arrange, and style it the way the client wants. Video editors usually work with specific video editing software or use several different programs depending on client needs. Although there is high demand for this field in the Israeli freelance market, the hourly rate for freelancers in this domain is declining rapidly due to advancements in video creation and editing tools, which allow many businesses to create and edit their own videos.
Average Hourly Rate: 150-450 NIS.
Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing skill that deals with ranking a website organically on Google search. Since media costs on Google and social networks increase year after year, there is a growing demand in the market for SEO professionals who know how to rank websites effectively and bring business websites to top positions on Google. A good SEO specialist needs to know the field well, stay updated on SEO trends and Google updates, master technical and analytical aspects of SEO, work with tools that assist in SEO work, and provide detailed SEO reports for clients. The hourly rate for an organic SEO specialist in the Israeli market has seen tremendous momentum in recent years and is expected to rise. It’s important to note that many freelancers in the field prefer to charge clients on a monthly retainer basis rather than an hourly rate.
Average Hourly Rate: 60-200 NIS.
Many businesses and companies do not have the time or expertise to manage the company’s social media pages properly and effectively. This is where freelancers step in to manage social media accounts. Social media management is a role that can involve managing organic activity across various social networks, including replying to followers to increase user engagement and turn them into customers. In some places, this role may also include managing paid social campaigns (moving into the PPC world), but it is not as common for a social media manager in a company to also handle campaigns. To succeed as a freelancer in this field, you will need to know the different social platforms and their algorithms.
7. Shopify Development
Average Hourly Rate: 250-350 NIS.
In recent years, Shopify has become one of the world’s leading e-commerce platforms, and its growth as a platform for building online stores has taken a leap, creating huge demand for Shopify store builders and platform developers. Beyond compensation for building and developing advanced stores, as freelancers you can also charge for store management for the client, as well as combine affiliate partnerships with the platform itself, effectively earning a percentage of what your client pays Shopify in addition to your fee. The hourly rate range for Shopify developers is high due to strong demand and the scarcity of Shopify developers in Israel.
8. Crypto and Blockchain Development
Average Hourly Rate: 450-1500 NIS.
Blockchain is a programming framework/technology that manages and holds transaction data for cryptocurrencies. Despite the major drop in cryptocurrency values in recent years, cryptocurrencies have remained stable, and trading volume is increasing by huge percentages year over year. Although it is a relatively new field, blockchain is currently the best cryptocurrency transaction management technique, making crypto and blockchain developers highly sought after. Cryptocurrencies provide maximum transaction security, driving the integration of this technology into other industries such as finance, law, and many other sectors. Therefore, there is high demand for crypto and blockchain developers, and the pay is correspondingly high.
9. Data Analysis
Average Hourly Rate: 80-200 NIS.
Data analysis is another rapidly growing field in recent years, creating enormous demand for professionals in this domain with the ability to analyze data and draw relevant conclusions that help the company or business grow. Data analysts collect, organize, and interpret data in order to build informative reports for businesses, presenting trends and patterns that companies need to know for their growth strategy. The reason the hourly rate for freelancers in this field is relatively low is that this area is usually integrated into another role (such as campaign management), and only in large companies is this role allocated to a person who deals exclusively with it and not as part of an additional role.
10. Bookkeeping
Average Hourly Rate: 40-100 NIS.
Many people do not know how to file their tax returns and manage business accounts in the best possible way; therefore, another field that has grown significantly in recent years due to the rise of businesses is bookkeeping and accounting. There is high demand for freelance accountants and bookkeepers. Small business owners frequently hire freelancers to complete tax returns, manage payroll, maintain financial records, and prepare financial statements. The hourly rate for a bookkeeping freelancer is not particularly high, but onboarding clients on a monthly retainer can be very lucrative.
In Conclusion - In-Demand Freelance Professions
We have covered the in-demand freelance skills in Israel in recent years and what are projected to be the most sought-after freelance professions in the coming years. Alongside each profession, we also noted the average hourly rate in the Israeli market (estimate only), which can help you set your rate expectations according to the field in which you freelance. It is crucial to choose a field where you excel and that naturally suits you before offering freelance services to companies and businesses. Remember that the key to a successful freelance career is to never stop learning—when you invest in your learning, you invest in your career.
About the Author
Dvir Naaman, 27, graduate of the Digital Marketing course at HackerU College. Experienced in building WordPress sites, PPC advertising on Google, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Specializes in SEO at Fialkov Digital. Has extensive experience in e-commerce and dropshipping, and is the owner of Merchant Center—a website aggregating information on e-commerce platforms and advanced marketing systems to increase business conversions with an emphasis on e-commerce store sales.
