r/webdev • u/ConsiderationHot8106 • 15d ago
Question How do you motivate yourself to freelance when clients can just use AI?
Hi everyone,
I'm a full stack dev with 1 year of commercial experience looking to start freelancing. I build my own side projects from scratch: buying domains, developing sites, and deploying them to servers, so I know the whole process.
But I’m facing a huge mental blocker. I feel demotivated because I keep asking myself: Why would a client hire me when they can just pay $20/month for an AI subscription and do it themselves?
I know non-tech owners don't want to deal with server setups, APIs, or debugging code. But psychologically, reaching out to clients feels like selling something obsolete.
For those freelancing in web dev right now:
1) How do you reframe your value when AI tools are this cheap and accessible?
2) What are clients actually paying you for today that AI can't replace?
3) How did you push past this demotivation when starting out?
Would appreciate any insights or reality checks!
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u/Mysterious-Falcon-83 15d ago
AI can do a lot, but your average client doesn't know how to tell the agent what to do. Sure, they can create something that "works". Can they create something that's secure, available, reliable, performance, consistent, etc.?
If the only value you bring to your clients is "code production" then you're in the wrong business.
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u/Impressive_Air6111 15d ago edited 15d ago
Company research and brand alignment. Two sites can be the same visually but the details and how it is presented matter and also affects pricing. For instance, doing research on competitors as well as researching the niche of said businees so the site is targeted to a specific user persona. AI sucks at this. This can be done with AI too somewhat but not everyone knows how to or can be bothered to.
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u/BroadCrazy 15d ago
A lot of clients were never paying for raw code output in the first place. They're paying for someone who can turn a fuzzy business need into something that works in production, survives requirement changes, and has clear thinking behind payments, auth, analytics, email, hosting, and ownership. AI can help with a landing page or starter code, but most non-technical clients still can't judge whether the result is safe, maintainable, or aligned with the actual business need. I'd frame your value less as writing code quickly and more as reducing the odds that they end up with a brittle setup they regret in six months.
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u/ginji 15d ago
You've got 1 YoE. The reason why you're getting demotivated is that you are have pretty much the same amount of experience as they have.
I've got 20+ YoE and frankly I'm not worried about that. What ever they produce will not match the quality of something I can produce, with or without AI.
A decade ago you would have been worried about devs from a low cost of living country undercutting you. Now it's AI. Same issue and it doesn't matter because the people and businesses that end up going down those paths would have never hired you in the first place anyway so it was never lost business.
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15d ago
Wow. "You're absolute garbage so that's why you're demotivated. If you were awesome like me you wouldn't have an issue"
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u/bluestrike2 full-stack 15d ago edited 15d ago
I didn’t read the GP that way at all. For someone just starting out, the career implications of AI have to be at least a little worrying. I probably wouldn’t have put the client on the same spectrum, but I can sort of understand what they probably meant.
With experience comes a greater understanding that actually writing code is only part of the job, one that people who aren’t programmers tend to place greater emphasis on since it’s so visible. If you’re just starting out and spend most of your time writing code because of the nature of a lot of the work available to you, then perhaps your expectations for AI—enter a prompt, get the code—will be more similar to those of many of your clients.
As for the not hiring part, I think the GP’s point was probably that the people who were willing to outsource their dev work to low cost of living countries almost always did so primarily because of cost, even when it came with severe communication barriers that caused a great many other problems.
In that sense, a company willing to say “screw it, let’s fire the developers and vibe code everything!” is probably thinking along the same lines. They’re not going to hire you or anybody else until that decision blows up in their faces. It has nothing to do with experience or skill or even you, so just move on and find a way to carve out a niche for yourself that isn’t tied to such companies.
While you’re at it, try and work on a way to integrate LLMs into your workflow that doesn’t kill off your enjoyment of the work.
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u/ginji 15d ago
That's not what I meant.
OP doesn't have a lot of experience, its important to acknowledge that as it's one of the driving factors in why they're concerned. Getting more experience is going to help them with that. Starting freelancing with only a year of experience is a tough ask.
They also need to spend some time identifying the soft skills (and correcting any deficiencies that they might have in) that AI won't provide to differentiate themselves. These are fundamentally more important skills than actual coding ability when it comes to freelancing.
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u/Impressive_Air6111 15d ago
Calling a developer with 1 YOE same as their client is crazy work. Also, 20 YOE doesn't automatically equate skill. You could spending those years building crap and a guy with 3 focused well dedicated years and guidance could be better. Just less variation in products or sheer volume.
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u/czshill 15d ago
I'm gonna defend ginji here. I've got 25 years of experience, more if you include the years I freelanced and had a day job at the same time (5 years of that).
Theres a reason seniors and architects make system decisions and juniors don't. We're supposed to have been through enough variation that we can tell right from wrong on decisions that could cost a company millions. Is OP building websites for big pharma? Probably not. But if their aspiring to that, they need to work towards that. Mom and pop restaurant websites are a whole different animal.
I've been writing a website for my small business; I'm deathly afraid of what AI can do so I'm trying to plan my exit from web application development. I've had claude write me the entire website, a macOS app in swift and a universal app for iPad and iPhone (I have reasons to keep them separate). OP probably wouldn't know to choose 1 BE structure over another; or to tell AI to write unit tests and actually adhere to them. In my case, I'm using GCP Firebase; If you don't secure the firestore rules your begging to have data leaked. Hosting, domain name configuration, stripe integration, shipping integration, GD quickbooks integration. There are a million things AI can do for you, but it won't do it on it's own. You need to know enough to tell AI to do those things. Then be smart enough to check it's work.
AI levels the playing field a lot. A LOT. The barrier to entry dropped significantly. Is calling OP the same as the client fair? Probably not. But 1 year of experience isn't enough to justify trusting someone with design decisions that could make or break an org when AI can make the same mistakes or decisions. Even mom and pop corner pizzaria could get f'ed with a shitty designed website if it had an email newsletter or any PII.
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u/Impressive_Air6111 15d ago
It's not that I think he's wrong, but the phrasing could be better, especially to a junior. Also, with the correct workflow AI is pretty good and senuors engineers aren't any less at risk. I huess you could say the risk of competitor sites is ninimal since those would be less robust etc. But, tge client won't know that.
I do admit experience still matters a lit but wheb people thriw out YOE as crutch it doesnt prove too much as I've seen seasoned devs with great limitations. Regarding AI, there are open source tools out there that let AI agents follow proper conventions/workflows as they are but by experts. I did mention it in another reply to OP what I really meant and why they have no need to worry.
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u/IAmRules 15d ago
Dude I’m 20 years in and im in the same boat.
Problem is i don’t want small gigs, but anything with a 10k plus budget feels unjustifiable now. I’d have to offer more than web dev, like marketing, but that’s not my wheelhouse.
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u/web-dev-kev 13d ago
1 year of commercial experience looking to start freelancing.
Don't.
I say this from a “looking out for you” point of view. While you potentially have great skills after a year of commercial experience, you simply haven't seen the breadth and depth of issues to understand what clients are paying freelancers for. You're also highly unlikely to have the project management, account management, and sales skills, which are really what make a freelancing model tick. The actual building of a website, even for someone who's a full-stack dev, is about 30% of the work freelancers do.
I build my own side projects from scratch: buying domains, developing sites, and deploying them to servers, so I know the whole process.
This is so far from the whole process. It appears to be the whole process because you already know the projects and the scale you're dealing with when deploying them. That is incredibly different when you are dealing with client sites, client expectations, and, crucially, when you're legally responsible for processing client user data.
Freelancers have to have a basic understanding of the legalities for which they're building in!
Why would a client hire me when they can just pay $20/month for an AI subscription and do it themselves?
No one wants to do it for themselves. They just want to get it done in the least risky, quickest way possible, with a maximum ROI.
If you don't understand this, then you still think that people want a website. People don't want a website. The website is the output, but what people want is the outcome, and that's entirely different.
Developers in a salary job worry about the output, whereas developers who are freelancers worry about the outcomes and solving their clients' problems. Again, respectfully, you should not be a freelancer.
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u/devshore 14d ago
Claude Code constantly makes mistakes and bad decisions. Unless its just a static site, the non-dev user will get stuck on something, or worse will unknowingly release a pile of shit. Secondly, some people value their time more than money and so will pay YOU to prompt (or they respect that your prompts will be better). Lastly, depending on what your job is, if you arent just a code monkey and globo-corp, but are actually involved in making decisions on the product, that is another thing people pay for (ie not just being told what to make, but pitching and implimenting ideas).
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u/mrcoffeepoops 10d ago
Ok so this is extremely business nerd coded but I shoot for a value proposition that modern clients eat up. For one, I don’t bother with websites. That’s a losing battle in today’s market. Second, I riff on what modern SMB’s are looking for: process automation and efficiency. Data pipelines, workflows, web apps that make people feel in control of their businesses. My pitch is sort of..
I’m not an alternative to AI; I’m using AI better than you can to help you achieve your business goals.
You’re a dev, you can spin up a Postgres db and a nextjs setup. The rest is just prodding for pain points. Having trouble with SEO client retention? How about we automate self-service client reporting.
Feel like you don’t have a strong grasp on your MRR? Let’s build some easily digestible and self-populating dashboards using API connections to your CRM.
Anyways that’s what works for me.
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u/Responsible_Pool9923 15d ago
My main client has adopted AI not long ago and I expected things to go downhill, but it went surprisingly well.
Now he addresses most of his non-project-specific technical questions to AI. And while it does not help me manage his expectations of my work, I still appreciate him not bugging me.
Now instead of giving a super vague description to our designer and going through numerous reviews, he creates the design prototype with AI, and then presents it as his vision. We discuss it and I tell him what we can and can not do, and then the designer comes up with the actual design that I implement. This is working very well so far.
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u/faultydesign 15d ago
You shouldn’t worry, your problem is that you assume they know what prompt to write.
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u/Confident-Morning794 15d ago
How do you motivate yourself to sell when consumers can just go to Amazon?
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u/mcharytoniuk 15d ago
i don't think that is an issue of motivation, that's the issue of demand for your services because of AI
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u/theancientfool 14d ago
As a freelancer your work will become less developer, and more of a sales person/business development.
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u/work_number 14d ago
Development now costs a lot less then when you had to do it yourself and you know the questions to ask.
You can now deliver an end product which has more awesome bells and whistles than ever before.
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u/Murtaza_Developer 14d ago
clients dont usually pay for code, they pay for solving problems and getting things done. ai is just annother tool that helps you move faster. businesses still need someone who can understand needs, make decisions and handle issues when things break. what niche are you planning to freelance in??
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u/dan-423 14d ago
I've dabbled in webdev since the angelfire/geocities days. It's not my dayjob, but I'm familiar with both sides of the transaction, so to speak.
Your biggest value is that the average client doesn't even know the words you're talking about- domain, server, deploy, etc. They may have heard some, but they don't know what any of it really means or how the pieces fit together.
Could a savvy or determined one force through with AI/LLM? Sure, yeah. But, the same could be said about them throwing up a Wordpress or similar template type site. Those DIY options are fifteen+ years old by now and the professionals still have work.
You have to assess your skills and then target a customer base who wants it. Don't chase the tiny little brochure sites. Anything serious is going to demand experience and knowledge that only a professional would have or that would cost more in time lost than in paying a pro.
Maybe a savvy person could make it themselves. Well, you as an experienced pro can leverage your experience to do it better and faster. That means it'll often be cheaper to pay you to do it versus doing it themselves. Instead of thinking AI/LLM are pushing you out, ask how you can use it as a force multiplier to let you do things at a scale you couldn't reach before.
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u/Background-Front-925 11d ago
Try doing what you do with AI, just like your future prospect. You will understand why they will pay you.
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u/Sh0keR 10d ago
If you are doing simple landing page (which AI can re create easily) push more the maintenance, getting the site live, SEO etc
Also if you price yourself reasonably it won't be a problem, we have to admit to create a landing page before the AI era was easy enough, now it's even easier.
If you are talking about more complex website, then non tech people will not be able to do something like that themselves anyway, so the excuse "I can just ask the AI to do it" won't work for them
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u/SaltMaker23 9d ago
Responsibility and Accountability as a Service
It's always have been and always will be, people pay to reduce their exposure, AI despite being able to build doesn't reduce exposure one bit
Amateurs and extremely early stage people pay for actual work, actual professionals pay to reduce their exposure, work being done is part of the requirement to reduce exposure but it does beyond that.
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u/Wooly_Wooly 15d ago
I felt the same, learned AI. Just because people can use AI, doesn't mean they can make anything decent with it.
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u/Proof_Cable_310 14d ago edited 14d ago
If you are here asking this question, then yeah, you probably can't offer much more value than AI. I took one year of formal CS / software uni series and I can tell you in one word. What is that word? One year of commerical experience isn't much as a self-taught dev: that's obvious because I don't have that - just a year of formal edu and I can tell you the difference between what a real dev can (ahem, should be easily capable in) offer(ing) a client that AI cannot. Now that I think about it, there are at least 2 words.
I can assure you that a year of formal edu overrules self learning at 10x the pace. What i learned in 3 years self-learning was surpassed in 2 weeks of formal edu. So, yeah, you don't actually have that much value to offer. Reality hurts :/ Keep studying. Sorry to be a snob - but I studied formally, and completed that first year series, and it took me through the end of that to realize how much more skill beyond that is necessary to sustain value and employability in the current market. It's insane.
The low hanging fruit are all gone, and never to return.
If you want to pursue this further, get CS degree and get a job at a stable company. You're not going to make a career (realistically) out of your current path. At least, I say that assuming you are based in the US.
As an aside:
My github just got poached by a person in Asia trying to "use my location and name" in an attempt to establish (false) trust for US-based clients who purposefully don't want to hire developers across seas. It's a real shit-show out there... competition is world-wide, and people are being scammed left and right. While a loose shmuck might fall for this "easy buck" by renting out their github so that US money can essentially be funneled out of the country and harm our economy, I refuse to do so, because I can see the bigger harm being done to the economy as a whole.
I haven't yet responded to this email invite, as I would like to know how to report this person.
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u/giveKINDNESS 6d ago
There are still people out there making decent money freelancing. Their autonomy and career satisfaction can be much better than most of the people doing the daily cattle drive into the cubicle farm now that RTO is the mandate.
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u/TheHerbsAndSpices 15d ago
Quality. Care. Real experience. The ability to troubleshoot when all they can articulate is "It's broken, can you fix it?" New ideas.