How side work on Side.work works
Side.work is a marketplace where companies hire senior specialists for a few hours a week. You are on the specialist side. You create a profile, pick the roles you want, set your weekly hours and your hourly rate, and publish it for matching.
Companies post a role with hours per week and a budget. They get a ranked shortlist of verified profiles, with weekly availability bars and rates visible. When your profile fits, they send you an intro. You can also apply to open roles from your dashboard.
Nothing starts until you agree, and no one can add hours to your week without your consent. You read the intro, ask questions, and decide. If you both want to go ahead, you sign a contract with a weekly hours cap and a notice period. The rest of the flow is on the how it works page.
Your profile shows four kinds of verification: work email domain, LinkedIn profile, live portfolio links, and payout identity. Companies see which checks you have passed, so a complete profile earns more trust than a long list of skills. Keep your availability bar current, because an out-of-date bar wastes your time and theirs.
Who is this for? Experienced people with a track record in a function, who want a smaller amount of well-paid work. It is not a place for entry level tasks. This is not a bidding race. You do not write a proposal for every posting and compete on the lowest price. Your rate is on your profile, and companies choose with that number in front of them.
What roles and rates look like
Side.work is built for senior people. Typical roles include fractional CFOs and controllers, fractional CMOs and demand generation leads, fractional CTOs and senior engineers, HR and recruiting leads, product designers, data analysts, sales leaders, and general counsel.
Rates follow senior US part time ranges. As a guide, fractional CFOs and CMOs often work at $175 to $300 an hour, fractional CTOs at $180 to $300, fractional HR leads at $110 to $190, and demand gen leads at $110 to $190. These are market ranges, not promises. Your rate is whatever you set and a company accepts.
The monthly math is simple. Hourly rate times hours per week times 4.33. Ten hours a week at $200 an hour comes to $8,660 a month for one client. Many people run one or two clients at a time rather than a long list.
If you want help picking a number, read how to set your rate for side work. Browse role pages like fractional jobs and part time remote jobs to see what each path involves, including typical hours, expectations, and how people present themselves to companies.
Hours, availability and your day job
You control your hours. Each profile shows weekly availability as a bar, so a company can see that you have 6 hours open, not 30. If your week changes, you update the bar. Contracts carry a weekly hours cap, so the work cannot quietly grow past what you agreed.
Most side work happens in evenings, early mornings, or one protected block during the week. Part time remote work suits this well because meetings can be batched and deep work can be done when you choose. Be honest with yourself about your real capacity. Five hours you deliver reliably beat fifteen you cannot.
If you have a day job, read your employment agreement before you take any client. Look for moonlighting, conflict of interest, and invention assignment clauses. Side.work asks every specialist to confirm that their side work does not conflict with their employment terms. This is general information, not legal advice. If a clause is unclear, ask an employment lawyer or your employer.
Contracts, timesheets and payouts
Every engagement runs on a written contract made on the platform. It states the role, the hourly rate, the weekly hours cap, and a notice period for ending the work. A default NDA and IP assignment are attached, so confidentiality and ownership of the work product are clear from day one. Read them, and ask for changes through the company before you sign.
You log your hours each week in a timesheet. The company approves it. Then the company pays one invoice that covers the approved hours plus the platform fee. You do not chase invoices, and you do not send reminders.
Payouts go to a connected bank account. Identity is checked by our payment processor when you set up payouts, which is part of why profiles can be called verified. You keep 100 percent of your agreed rate. The platform fee is charged to the company on top, and it depends on the company plan.
Read more on the security page and in contracts for fractional work.
The Specialist plan at $9 a month billed yearly
Specialists pay for a Specialist plan. It costs $9 a month billed yearly ($108 a year), or $19 a month if you prefer to pay monthly. There is no free plan. Yearly billing saves 50 percent, and you can cancel anytime. The plan runs to the end of the period you paid for.
The plan covers a verified profile in matching, 30 applications a month, alerts for new roles that fit, contracts, timesheets, and payouts. You keep 100 percent of your rate. Side.work does not take a cut from you.
Before you pay, you can try a one-time free match preview from the homepage with no account. Payments are final, so check the plan details on the pricing page first.
We do not promise a number of jobs, a level of income, or how fast companies reply. Demand depends on your field, your rate, and how clear your profile is. Start with the role pages, such as side gigs for professionals, then build your profile.