The Best Freelance & Consulting Contract Template Collection

When you work with different brands and entrepreneurs, you need a contract in place to safeguard your business against misunderstandings and disputes. With HoneyBook, you can draw up professional client agreements quickly, and your clients can e-sign them from any device hassle-free. Whether you design graphics, develop websites, build apps, or write content, our consultant contract template collection is designed to help you get the legal stuff squared away easily.

contractTemplatePage.consultants.hero.imageAlt

Protect Your Business with a Freelance Contract Template

Get a legally-binding agreement in place quickly using HoneyBook’s contract templates. Design, write, and share contracts from a single dashboard. And then accept eSignatures to get projects started.

contractTemplatePage.consultants.postHero.imageAlt

Create Your Own Freelance Contract Template for Free

Need a simple contract you can brand with your logo? Use HoneyBook’s free downloadable templates. Simply pick a consulting contract sample or a freelance contract sample, customize the font with your chosen color palette, upload your logo, and add your preferred legalese into the fields. Then, email it to your clients to get their stamp of approval on the project.

Independent Contractor Contract Sample (PDF)

Contract your services to businesses and entrepreneurs? With this basic contractor template, you can get the project scope, timeline, pricing, and ownership squared away easily.

General Consulting Contract Example (PDF)

Offer insight and expertise to help your clients solve problems? Using this contract template, you can clearly define the services you provide, so you never have to worry about conflict or confusion.

Get Access to HoneyBook’s Freelance Consultant Agreement Templates

HoneyBook’s contract templates have the customization options, clauses, and fields you need to create professional, modern contracts. Check out just a few of our options, below.

Freelance Graphic Design Contract

Built for every type of graphic design project – from visual brand identity and UI design to marketing campaigns and motion graphic design – this template can be tailored to any graphic designer business.

Freelance Social Media Contract

For social media marketers who handle everything from content creation and calendar management to analytics, this template includes all the standard fields you need to form an agreement with your clients.

Freelance Marketing Consultant Contract

Designed for digital marketers, product marketers, email marketers, content marketers, and SEM specialists, HoneyBook’s freelance marketing contract template can help you create agreements for projects of all sizes and scopes.

Business Consultant Contract

From change management and training to business strategy and departmental expertise, this template is designed to help you create contracts for any combination of services.

Freelance Copywriter Contract

Whether you’re creating content for landing pages, digital ads, or email campaigns, this contract template will help you get the scope, pricing, and timeline of the project laid out easily.

contractTemplatePage.consultants.snag.imageAlt

HoneyBook: Premium Contract Management Software & Freelance Contract Generator (Free)

No matter how many clients you work with at a time, you need to have contracts in place to protect your business.
Using HoneyBook’s freelance agreement templates, you can quickly (and easily) draft contracts for projects of all scopes and sizes. You can edit pre-written ownership and liability clauses to fit your services, add additional sections to break down the deliverables, and populate the smart fields with your project timeline and cost. And when you have an agreement in writing, you can share your contract online via HoneyBook’s client portal and collect e-signatures for faster project kickoff.
If you need to grab a basic contract template, but don’t need the additional contract management support, HoneyBook also offers a consulting contract generator free of charge. With this feature, you can create simple contracts to cover your bases on last-minute projects and create a layer of protection around your business as you build your brand.
As a result, you can spend more time focused on your client projects, and less time stressing about legalese or contract formatting.

HoneyBook for Consultants

Want to Accept eSignatures?

Why You Need a Consulting Contract Template

When you’re working with clients, it’s important to set clear expectations on the scope, timeline, and cost of the project. Not only does it help the project run more smoothly, but it also protects you from client disputes and conflict.
Contracts make it easy to get these expectations squared away, as they put the terms and conditions of your collaboration in writing and document the approval of both you and your client. And since you can return to the contract anytime you need to, resolving confusion and disagreement with your clients is easy too.
The trick is: you need to know what to include in a consultant agreement form. Otherwise, you can end up wasting a lot of time on a document that won’t actually protect your business.
Here are 10 must-haves in every consultant contract template:
Both parties’ full legal names
Your client’s contact information (i.e. their phone number, email address, and physical address)
Scope of the project, including the deliverables, timeline, and services
Your pricing, payment terms, and payment due dates
Clause securing your ownership rights to your work, either to use in your own marketing campaigns or in your portfolio
Your policy for cancellations, including qualifications for refunds
Confidentiality or NDA regarding both parties proprietary information
Liability indemnification clause
Your client’s responsibility to your contractual agreement
Space where you and your clients can sign the agreement

How to Create a Freelance Agreement

Unless you offer freelance legal services, creating a legally binding contract can be stressful and time-consuming. HoneyBook’s contract management features make it easier by helping you draft up professional, airtight client agreements in 3 simple steps.

Select a Contract Template

Choose a sample contract from HoneyBook’s collection and load it to HoneyBook’s contract editor. Then, modify the design to fit your style preferences. Everything from the font and banner image to the logo and background color can be changed to make your contract look custom-made.

Add Your Terms and Conditions

Edit pre-built clauses and create custom clauses for your payment terms, ownership rights, proprietary information, deliverables, timeline, and cancellation policy. Then, autofill your clients’ information into the smart fields for faster contract drafting.

Share and Sign Online

When you have all your terms and conditions in writing, share it with your clients online. They can e-sign it from HoneyBook’s client portal, and you’ll be notified the moment they do.

4 Must-Have Independent Consultant Contract Templates

From generic contract templates to NDAs, there are a lot of agreement forms out there for freelancers and consultants to choose from. This can make it difficult to know what you need to protect your business and your clients. Below we’ve included a shortlist of must-have contract templates for freelancers and consultants to help you know when and how to use each of these contracts.

General Contract Templates, like freelance copywriting and freelance graphic design contract templates, allow you to form a standard agreement with a client for a specific project or set period of time. With these contracts, you can define everything from the scope and timeline of the project to the cost. And since any number of clauses and provisions can be added, general contract templates can be used by nearly any freelancer in any industry.

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) Templates are designed to keep proprietary information from being shared in an unauthorized manner. With non-disclosure agreements in place, both you and your clients can freely share business information with one another, as the contract guarantees that no sensitive information can be used or shared. Whether you’re working with established brands or disruptive startups, having an NDA in place is always a smart idea.

Retainer Contract Templates, unlike standard contract templates, are written to form a long-term relationship between you and your clients. With retainers, you can work on an ongoing basis for a particular business – writing content, designing graphics, and offering other valuable expertise – to help them build their brand. And since retainer contracts are built on a monthly budget or set number of deliverables instead of a single project, you don’t have to draft up a new contract every time you start a new deliverable.

White-Label Contract Templates are unique. Rather than forming an agreement between you and your client directly, they essentially put you in the position of a subcontractor, where you create content for your client’s clients. Since they are more complicated, though, this means they can also be more confusing to create. Fortunately, with the right legal counsel, you can draft a white-label template to reuse as needed.

How to Customize a Freelance Social Media Contract Template

While templates come equipped with the foundational elements you need to create a professional client contract, they aren’t designed to match your business perfectly. Customizing the design elements can fix that by making your contracts look and feel on-brand.
Here’s how to customize your contract template with HoneyBook.
Pick a sample contract from HoneyBook’s freelance marketing contract template collection
Pick a background color that matches one of your neutral brand colors, so the text is easy to read
Change the banner image to one of your own photos or a branded stock image that reflects your style
Adjust the text color to match your primary brand color and use an accent color for your headers to give your contract an extra pop of color
Upload your logo into the designated space to give your contract the final touch

Turn Freelance Contract Template Word Docs Into Sleek, Modern Client Agreements With HoneyBook

Free Contract Templates

Grab a contract template from HoneyBook’s collection that fits your project. Then, edit the document until it includes all the provisions and clauses you need.

Editable Design

Customize the consulting contract example by modifying the design elements from HoneyBook’s dashboard. Upload a branded banner image, add your logo, and adjust the font and background colors to match your personal brand.

Pre-Written Terms and Conditions

Use the built-in liability, indemnification, cancellation, and severability clauses in HoneyBook’s contract templates to simplify contract writing. And add in extra terms and conditions as needed.

Smart Fields

Populate each contract template with your client’s information by selecting HoneyBook’s predefined field and clicking your client’s name. Then, fill in specific details like payment amounts and due dates by entering field values into preselected spaces.

E-Signatures

Share your contract online and collect electronic signatures from your clients to make contract signing and project kickoff easy.

Turn Freelance Contract Template Word Docs Into Sleek, Modern Client Agreements With HoneyBook