The Gig Economy, Developer Edition

The Gig Economy Has Come for Developers

I used to think the gig economy was just about delivery drivers and ride-sharing. But the development world is changing fast too. Global platforms like Toptal and Upwork have been around, and in Korea, platforms like Wishket, Kmong, and Freemoa are growing.

According to the Korea Software Industry Association, there were about 187,000 IT freelancers as of 2025. That's roughly 42% more than in 2020. About 23% of all IT workers in Korea are freelancers.

I Tried It Myself

Last year, while still employed full-time, I took on two weekend projects through Wishket. An admin dashboard build for 4.3 million won and an API refactoring job for 2.8 million won. Total: 7.1 million won.

Hourly rate came out to about 43,000 won. Slightly higher than my company salary converted to an hourly rate. But there's a catch.

Communication time isn't included. Client meetings, Slack responses, spec change discussions. I spent about 1.7x pure coding time on these. Factor that in and the hourly rate drops to about 25,000 won. Lower than my day job. (That was a deflating realization.)

The Platform Fee Structure

Wishket takes about 3.3% of the project amount. Upwork charges 20% for the first $500, then 10%, dropping to 5% after $10,000 cumulative. Global platforms charge significantly more.

But from what I can see, bigger than fees is client risk. On one of my Wishket projects, the specs changed three times mid-project. Work outside the agreed scope kept getting requested with "can you just add this too?" I asked for additional compensation and things got awkward.

Platforms do mediate, but it's not perfect. In the end, writing airtight contracts is the only real protection.

Full-Time Freelancing Is a Different World

Doing side gigs on weekends is a completely different universe from going full-time freelance. What I heard from a senior developer who made the switch was eye-opening.

Monthly income varies wildly. Good months: 12 million won. Bad months: zero. Annual average is around 7.5 million won, but the income instability takes a serious psychological toll.

You also have to pay all social insurance yourself. Health insurance alone is about 350,000 won per month. Add national pension and employment insurance, and it's over 550,000 won. When you were employed, the company covered half -- now it's all on you, and it hits different.

No severance pay either. Leave a company after 3 years and you'd get around 6-7 million won in severance. As a freelancer, it's zero. You should be factoring this into your hourly rate, but in practice that's not easy to do.

Is the Gig Economy Good or Bad?

Honestly, it's both. For experienced seniors who want flexibility and can command higher rates, it's an opportunity. But for juniors who lack experience, going gig too early can mean missing crucial growth opportunities.

Things you learn at a company -- code review culture, team project experience, mentoring -- these are hard to get as a freelancer.

It comes down to personal choice, but you need to understand the risks either way. For now, I think staying employed while occasionally taking freelance side projects is the right fit for me. But whether I'll still feel that way in five years, I honestly don't know.