Maya K.
Senior Full-Stack Developer
$120/hr
★★★★★4.9
React
Node.js
Catalant Pricing and Catalant Fees for Companies Hiring Independent Consultants
Catalant pricing is a fee on each project, not a subscription. Catalant keeps 20% to 30% of the total project fees, a 25% to 43% markup on what the consultant earns, invoiced when the project agreement is signed. Employing a consultant you found there within 12 months costs 33% of their total cash compensation.
Catalant does not publish a price list, so the figures below come from its own consultant help pages and its customer terms of use. On a typical $25,000 consulting project the platform fee alone is $6,250 to $10,714.
Find your freelancer
Preview
Role
Budget
Start
Your top matches
2 of 3 can start this week All 3 available this month Flexible start dates
Andrei P.
Senior Backend Engineer
$135/hr
★★★★★5.0
Python
AWS
Jonas W.
Mobile Developer
$110/hr
★★★★★4.9
Flutter
iOS
Sofia R.
Product Designer
$95/hr
★★★★★4.9
Figma
Design systems
Nina H.
UX Designer
$105/hr
★★★★★5.0
Research
Prototyping
Tomás L.
Brand Designer
$85/hr
★★★★★4.8
Identity
Packaging
Daniel O.
Conversion Copywriter
$110/hr
★★★★★4.9
Landing pages
Email
Claire B.
Technical Writer
$90/hr
★★★★★4.9
SaaS docs
API guides
Priya S.
Content Strategist
$75/hr
★★★★★4.8
B2B blogs
SEO briefs
Lucas M.
Growth Marketer
$115/hr
★★★★★4.9
Paid social
CRO
Emma T.
SEO Specialist
$95/hr
★★★★★4.9
Technical SEO
Content
Rafael D.
Performance Marketer
$125/hr
★★★★★5.0
Google Ads
Analytics
Hana Y.
Video Editor
$85/hr
★★★★★4.9
Short-form
Motion graphics
Marco V.
Post-Production Editor
$95/hr
★★★★★4.8
Color grade
Sound design
Alice G.
YouTube Editor
$70/hr
★★★★★4.9
Retention edits
Thumbnails
Rachel N.
Small-Business Bookkeeper
$55/hr
★★★★★4.9
QuickBooks Online
Monthly close
Derek C.
Senior Bookkeeper
$75/hr
★★★★★5.0
Reconciliations
AR and AP
Monica F.
Freelance Accountant (CPA)
$105/hr
★★★★★4.9
Xero
1099 filing
Grace A.
Executive Virtual Assistant
$45/hr
★★★★★4.9
Inbox and calendar
Travel
Bianca T.
Operations Assistant
$38/hr
★★★★★4.9
CRM hygiene
Data entry
Jordan R.
Social Media Assistant
$42/hr
★★★★★4.8
Scheduling
Community
Elena M.
Technical SEO Consultant
$120/hr
★★★★★5.0
Audits
Core Web Vitals
Chris P.
SEO Content Strategist
$95/hr
★★★★★4.9
Topic clusters
On-page
Nadia V.
Link and Digital PR Lead
$105/hr
★★★★★4.8
Outreach
Authority
Dana R.
Google Ads Consultant
$130/hr
★★★★★5.0
Search and lead gen
Conversion tracking
Tomas O.
Paid Search Manager
$110/hr
★★★★★4.9
Shopping and PMax
Feed strategy
Sasha W.
PPC Specialist
$85/hr
★★★★★4.9
Account audits
Budget pacing
Mara B.
Meta Ads Consultant
$125/hr
★★★★★5.0
DTC scaling
Creative testing
Kyle V.
Facebook Ads Manager
$100/hr
★★★★★4.9
Advantage+ campaigns
Conversions API
Priya N.
Paid Social Specialist
$80/hr
★★★★★4.9
Lead gen funnels
Retargeting
Ravi K.
Senior Data Scientist
$140/hr
★★★★★5.0
Python
Forecasting
Laura O.
ML Engineer
$150/hr
★★★★★4.9
scikit-learn
MLOps
Sam B.
Analytics Data Scientist
$115/hr
★★★★★4.9
SQL
Dashboards
Tobias A.
Senior DevOps Engineer
$135/hr
★★★★★5.0
AWS
Terraform
Priya N.
Platform / SRE Engineer
$145/hr
★★★★★4.9
Kubernetes
CI/CD
Marcus C.
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
$125/hr
★★★★★4.9
Azure
GitHub Actions
Ava L.
Social Media Manager
$65/hr
★★★★★4.9
Instagram
TikTok
Diego M.
Content and Community Manager
$55/hr
★★★★★4.9
Content calendar
Community
Kayla R.
Paid Social Strategist
$85/hr
★★★★★4.8
Meta Ads
Reporting
Julian C.
Management Consultant
$165/hr
★★★★★5.0
Strategy
GTM
Rebecca A.
Operations Consultant
$130/hr
★★★★★4.9
Process design
SOPs
Victor P.
Financial / FP&A Consultant
$150/hr
★★★★★4.9
Modeling
Fundraising
Grace H.
Freelance CPA
$120/hr
★★★★★5.0
Tax prep
Advisory
Nathan D.
Tax Accountant
$110/hr
★★★★★4.9
S-corp
1040 and 1120
Lena P.
Fractional Controller
$135/hr
★★★★★4.9
GAAP close
Financial reports
Dana R.
Direct-Response Copywriter
$115/hr
★★★★★5.0
Sales pages
Email sequences
Marcus B.
Conversion Copywriter
$100/hr
★★★★★4.9
Landing pages
A/B testing
Sara K.
Ad and Brand Copywriter
$90/hr
★★★★★4.9
Paid social
Taglines
Ivan V.
Senior QA Automation Engineer
$105/hr
★★★★★5.0
Playwright
CI pipelines
Priya M.
SDET / Test Engineer
$95/hr
★★★★★4.9
Cypress
API testing
Dana K.
Manual and Exploratory QA Lead
$75/hr
★★★★★4.9
Test plans
Regression
Ravi T.
Certified Salesforce Developer
$125/hr
★★★★★5.0
Apex
LWC
Megan B.
Salesforce Technical Architect
$160/hr
★★★★★4.9
Integrations
Sales Cloud
Carlos O.
Salesforce Admin and Consultant
$95/hr
★★★★★4.9
Flows
Service Cloud
Lena C.
Senior UX Designer
$115/hr
★★★★★5.0
User research
Figma
Devon M.
UI and Interaction Designer
$100/hr
★★★★★4.9
Design systems
Prototyping
Amara K.
UX Researcher
$90/hr
★★★★★4.9
Usability testing
Journey maps
Elena B.
Senior Webflow Developer
$105/hr
★★★★★5.0
Webflow CMS
Interactions
Jordan R.
Webflow Designer and Builder
$90/hr
★★★★★4.9
Figma to Webflow
SEO setup
Tarek S.
Webflow Migration Specialist
$120/hr
★★★★★4.9
WordPress migration
Core Web Vitals
Sofia M.
Certified Legal Translator
$75/hr
★★★★★5.0
ATA certified
Spanish/English
Yuki T.
Localization Specialist
$68/hr
★★★★★4.9
App localization
Japanese/English
Rami A.
Medical and Technical Translator
$82/hr
★★★★★4.9
Life sciences
Arabic/English
Nadia P.
Senior Commercial Illustrator
$105/hr
★★★★★5.0
Brand illustration
Vector
Cole J.
Editorial and Spot Illustrator
$85/hr
★★★★★4.9
Editorial
Procreate
Hana L.
Children's Book Illustrator
$90/hr
★★★★★4.9
Character design
Book covers
Fund milestone 1 · $1,800 in escrow · $4,800 in escrow · $12,500 in escrow · released on your approval
$349/mo, or $174/mo billed yearly. Freelancers apply to your post and you pick who to hire.
How Catalant charges
Catalant fees are a share of the total, which makes the markup bigger than it sounds
Catalant's help pages for consultants describe the fee plainly. When a client engages an expert, Catalant keeps a fee of 20% to 30% of the Total Project Fees, and the total is the expert's fee plus Catalant's fee. The exact percentage is fixed in each client's contract with Catalant and is not negotiable project by project. Experts are told to bid their normal market rate and treat the fee as a markup on top.
The wording matters. Twenty percent of the total is 25% on top of the consultant's fee. Thirty percent of the total is about 43% on top. Several reviews translate "20% to 30%" into "$12,500 to $13,000 on a $10,000 project". The top of that range is wrong. At 30% of the total, a $10,000 consultant fee becomes $14,286.
Project agreement, 3-month strategy work
net 15- Consultant fee, as bid
- $25,000
- Catalant fee at 20% of total
- $6,250
- Catalant fee at 30% of total
- $10,714
- Total you pay
- $31,250 to $35,714
Catalant fee invoiced the day all parties sign. Late balances can accrue 1.5% a month.
By project size
Catalant cost per project, from a $5,000 sprint to a $150,000 program
Reviews put Catalant projects between about $5,000 and $150,000, with most engagements in the $10,000 to $50,000 range. Here is the total bill at the low, middle and high end of the fee band.
| Consultant fee | Total at 20% | Total at 25% | Total at 30% | Catalant fee range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $6,250 | $6,667 | $7,143 | $1,250 to $2,143 |
| $10,000 | $12,500 | $13,333 | $14,286 | $2,500 to $4,286 |
| $25,000 | $31,250 | $33,333 | $35,714 | $6,250 to $10,714 |
| $50,000 | $62,500 | $66,667 | $71,429 | $12,500 to $21,429 |
| $100,000 | $125,000 | $133,333 | $142,857 | $25,000 to $42,857 |
| $150,000 | $187,500 | $200,000 | $214,286 | $37,500 to $64,286 |
The fee scales with the project, so there is no size at which it becomes small. On a $50,000 market-entry study it is the price of a second, smaller project. That is the core difference from a subscription or a flat posting fee, where the platform cost stays fixed while the work grows.
Timing matters too. Catalant's customer terms say its fee is invoiced on the date the project agreement is signed by all parties, due in 15 days. The consultant is paid by Catalant as they submit payment requests you approve. So on a $25,000 project you owe Catalant $6,250 or more within two weeks of signing, before most of the work exists.
33%
of total cash pay to employ
12 mo
restricted period
If the consultant is great
Catalant's employment fee when you want to hire the consultant
Good interim work often ends with an offer. Catalant's customer terms set a non-circumvention period of 12 months from when you first identify an expert, or from the end of their last project, whichever is later. Employ that person inside the window and you owe Catalant 33% of their total cash compensation. Engage them as an independent contractor off the platform and Catalant assesses a finder's fee case by case.
| Role hired, BLS May 2025 median | Salary | 33% fee |
|---|---|---|
| Management analyst | $101,860 | $33,614 |
| Software developer | $135,980 | $44,873 |
| Financial manager | $166,570 | $54,968 |
| Marketing manager | $166,790 | $55,041 |
Total cash compensation includes bonus, so the real figure lands above these base medians. For context, retained executive search in the US is usually quoted at about a third of first-year cash, so Catalant is pricing the hire like a search firm. The terms waive the fee if employment ends within 30 days. Read that clause, and the scope of work, before signing. Keeping every statement of work and its renewal and non-solicit dates in proper contract management software stops a 12-month clock from surprising you when the operations team wants to make an offer.
Four ways to buy the same expertise
Catalant cost against a consulting firm, a direct hire and a flat plan
Take one three-month project where the consultant's own fee is $25,000. The work is the same. What changes is who stands between you and the person doing it.
| Route | Platform or overhead | Total for $25,000 of work | Who vets the consultant | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalant | 20% to 30% of total | $31,250 to $35,714 | Catalant, plus your review of bids | Large companies with strict vendor onboarding |
| Consulting firm | Firm overhead and partner margin in the rate | varies widely, rarely below the Catalant figure | The firm staffs the team | Board-level programs that need a brand name |
| Direct independent | Your time to source and vet | $25,000 | You | Teams with a network and a clear scope |
| SuperGig Business | $349 a month for the post | $26,047 | Vetted applicants, you pick and pay directly | Mid-sized companies with a defined project |
$4,188
Consultant fee above which Catalant's 25% markup costs more than three months of a $349 plan. At the 30% rate the line drops to $2,443.
$5,203
Saved on a $25,000 project at Catalant's lowest rate, $6,250 in fee against $1,047 in posting fees. At 30% the gap is $9,667.
$70.03
Loaded hourly cost of a US median management analyst ($101,860 times 1.43). A useful floor when judging a consultant's quote.
Fair is fair
Is Catalant worth it for your company
Catalant earns its fee when
- Procurement takes weeks to approve each new supplier, and Catalant is already an approved vendor under one master agreement.
- You run many consulting projects a year across business units and want one invoice, one set of terms and one place to compare bids.
- You need niche senior expertise (supply chain, pricing, regulatory) quickly and have no network in that area.
- Your company is large enough that a 25% markup is cheaper than a strategy firm's day rates. Reviewers describe Catalant's sweet spot as companies above about $250 million in revenue.
Go direct or use a flat plan when
- You can sign a consultant on your own paper in a day, so the vendor management you would be paying for has no value.
- The project is above about $4,200 of consultant time, where a percentage fee outgrows a flat one.
- You may want to hire the person afterwards, and a 33% employment fee would kill the offer.
- The work is a defined finance, marketing or operations role. Compare a fractional CFO or a fractional CMO retainer before you post a strategy project.
If you lean toward going direct, start with our vetted independent business consultants. You post the project once, compare the people who apply, agree the fee with them and pay them yourself. For marketing work, check what an agency would charge first in digital marketing agency pricing, and for platform percentages side by side see freelance platform fees compared.
Questions
Catalant pricing questions buyers ask
How much does Catalant cost?
Catalant has no subscription and no public price list. You pay the consultant's agreed fee plus a Catalant fee of 20% to 30% of the total project fees, which works out to a 25% to 43% markup on what the consultant earns. A $10,000 consultant fee becomes $12,500 to $14,286 in total.
What percentage does Catalant take?
Catalant keeps 20% to 30% of the total project fees, according to its own consultant help pages. The exact rate is set in each client's contract. Because the percentage is taken from the total, not added to the consultant fee, the markup on the consultant's take-home is 25% at the low end and about 43% at the high end.
How does Catalant make money?
Catalant earns a fee on every project a client starts with a consultant on the platform. The fee is a percentage of the total project fees, invoiced to the client when the project agreement is signed and due net 15. It also charges 33% of total cash compensation if a client employs a consultant within the restricted period.
Can I hire a Catalant consultant directly?
Only after a 12-month non-circumvention period, or by paying a fee. Catalant's customer terms charge 33% of total cash compensation if you employ a consultant you found there within 12 months, and a case-by-case finder's fee if you engage them as an independent contractor off the platform.
Is Catalant worth it?
Catalant is worth it for a large company whose procurement team would otherwise spend weeks onboarding a new consultant as a vendor, because Catalant acts as one supplier under one contract. For a small or mid-sized company that can sign a consultant directly, a 25% to 43% markup is a high price for that convenience.
What is cheaper than Catalant?
Hiring an independent consultant directly is cheaper for almost any project above about $4,200. On a three-month project, a $349 a month flat posting plan costs $1,047 in total, while Catalant's fee on a $25,000 consultant fee is $6,250 to $10,714. You give up Catalant's vendor management and do the vetting yourself.
Bringing in a consultant for a defined project
Post the project once and compare the vetted consultants who apply. Agree the fee, pay them directly and hire them later if it works, with no markup on their time. $349 a month for the post, no project fee.
Business is $349 per month, or $174 per month billed yearly (50% off), for a project post on the SuperGig project board, with no project fee.