Should You Show Your Prices Publicly?

Yes — for most creator offers, showing your price publicly beats "DM for pricing." A visible number removes the guessing and awkwardness that stop followers from ever reaching out, while a hidden price only makes sense for genuinely custom work like brand deals, where the scope isn't fixed until you talk. Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start.

No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. pricing

Plenty of creators default to "DM for pricing" because it feels safer — it avoids sticker shock, keeps room to negotiate, and sidesteps the discomfort of putting a number next to your name in public. The marketplaces those same creators sell on do not offer that option: Fiverr's Help Center states that on a Gig "the minimum starting price is $5, though some categories have a higher minimum," so no Fiverr Gig can go live without a public number attached (Fiverr Help Center, "Creating a Gig"). If the largest freelance marketplace treats a posted price as the price of entry, a creator page can too — on Brillay you set the number yourself on each Paid Question or custom request. Commissions on your own page at your own price, with the brief collected at checkout and the work paid for before you start.

Why does "DM for pricing" lose followers before they even ask?

"DM for pricing" loses followers because it turns a one-tap purchase into a cold-outreach conversation. The follower has to compose a message, wait for a reply, and risk an awkward exchange — all before knowing whether the offer fits their budget. A posted price removes those three steps and lets the follower decide alone, immediately. On Brillay, that decision goes straight to card payment as a guest, with no follower account to create.

Missing price information is a documented, measurable reason people walk away from a purchase. Baymard Institute's distribution of online checkout abandonment reasons places "I couldn't see / calculate total order cost up-front" at 12% of US online shoppers, in a dataset where the leading preventable reason is "extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees)" at 40% (Baymard Institute, "50 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics 2026"). Baymard Institute also calculates an average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate of 70.22% across 50 separate studies of ecommerce cart abandonment. Baymard Institute measures retail checkout rather than creator offers, so treat the 12% figure as directional evidence that hidden costs create friction, not as an estimate for creator sales.

A missing price can remove a listing from discovery entirely, not just slow the sale. Google Merchant Center Help states that "all products need to have a price in order to show in ads or free listings," and that products without a valid price attribute "won't show in ads or free listings until a price has been added" (Google Merchant Center Help, "How to fix: Missing product price"). Google's rule is the clearest statement anywhere that on the open web a hidden price is not a negotiating position — it is an absence.

A follower facing a DM-only price hits that friction earlier than a checkout shopper does, because no checkout exists yet.

Do the platforms creators already sell on let you hide a price?

No — the major creator and freelance platforms all make a public price a required field, not an option. Fiverr, Cameo, Patreon, and Etsy each require a seller to enter a number before a listing, profile, or tier can accept a payment, which means most creators are already selling at published prices somewhere. Your page, your price, no application and no follower minimum.

Fiverr sets a floor and a ceiling in writing. Fiverr's Help Center states that a Gig's "minimum starting price is $5, though some categories have a higher minimum", and Fiverr's custom offer rules run from a "minimum of $5 USD up to a maximum of $20,000 USD" (Fiverr Help Center, "Creating and managing custom offers").

Cameo puts price-setting on the talent and publishes the result. Cameo's Terms of Service state that "you set your price for a Message, provided your price on the App for iOS must be an available Apple SKU (i.e., ending in US$0.99)". Cameo's model is a public, per-creator price on a profile page — the exact thing "DM for pricing" avoids.

Patreon treats the number as one of only two things a creator must supply. Patreon's Help Center states that to make a first membership tier, "all you need to get started is the monthly price and tier description — you'll find these are prefilled with $5". Etsy is the same in a retail wrapper: Etsy's listing form instructs sellers at the Price field to "set the amount buyers will pay for your item here," and states that "the price will appear in your preferred currency".

Does listing prices publicly actually build more trust?

Listing prices publicly builds trust because buyers say opaque pricing is the thing they most want changed. A visible price signals confidence in what you charge, while a hidden price invites a follower to assume the number is negotiable, inflated, or embarrassing to say out loud — three assumptions you never get to correct.

Buyer research puts transparent pricing at the top of the complaint list. TrustRadius's 2025 report Bridging the Trust Gap: B2B Tech Buying in the Age of AI, based on complete verified responses from 2,058 technology buyers surveyed in January 2025, reports that 49% of software buyers said the number one thing they would change about buying software is the lack of available transparent pricing information (TrustRadius, Bridging the Trust Gap: B2B Tech Buying in the Age of AI). TrustRadius surveyed business software buyers rather than followers buying creator offers, so treat the 49% as directional evidence that hidden prices frustrate buyers, not a measurement of follower behaviour.

On pricing specifically, the Better Business Bureau states the consequence plainly:

"Companies that are not upfront about their pricing foster mistrust with their customers and lose the opportunity to build customer loyalty." — Better Business Bureau, How transparency and trust impact customer satisfaction and retention

The Better Business Bureau's point scales down to creator work: a follower who has to send a DM to learn what a creator's offer costs is already deciding whether to trust the number that comes back.

Is there ever a good reason to keep a price private?

Keeping a price private is justified when the deliverable genuinely isn't fixed yet. A brand pitching a paid collaboration, a client requesting unusual scope, or a project with an unknown timeline each need a conversation before any number means anything. A routine, repeatable creator offer is different: hiding its price is avoidable friction, not necessary discovery.

Hidden pricing looks tolerated rather than preferred, even where custom quotes are the norm. TrustRadius's 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect Report, built on complete verified responses from 2,164 technology buyers surveyed in March 2024, found that 51% of buyers making enterprise-priced purchases chose "I wish all vendors had transparent pricing" among the things they would change about tech buying. Enterprise software is the strongest case anyone makes for quoting privately, and just over half of those buyers still named transparent pricing as the thing they would change.

Even platforms built on public prices keep a separate private lane for unscoped work. Fiverr's custom offer is that lane — a one-to-one quote between $5 and $20,000 USD sent to a specific client rather than published on the Gig. Brillay separates the two cases with Brand Collaboration Inquiries, a “Work with Me” form on your Brillay page that collects a brand’s budget, timeline, and deliverables into a separate brand inbox.

How do you price something that varies request to request?

When the scope varies, publish separate fixed-price Custom Work for the common versions of the work, then state exactly what each price includes. A $25 portfolio review and a $50 detailed critique can be two separate Custom Work listings, each with a fixed scope, price, and delivery time. A starting price beats no price.

Buyer research says a ballpark beats silence when the exact number genuinely varies. TrustRadius's 2025 report Bridging the Trust Gap: B2B Tech Buying in the Age of AI addresses that case directly:

"Transparent pricing can be a challenge for vendors with complex models, especially in the enterprise range where pricing depends on many factors. That said, vendors can help buyers by giving them a ballpark range or base level for pricing." — TrustRadius, Bridging the Trust Gap: B2B Tech Buying in the Age of AI

Marketplaces turn that ballpark into published tiers. Fiverr's own seller guidance tells freelancers to "create at least three packages at different price points to capture a wider audience" — three visible numbers, not one hidden one.

Brillay's Paid Questions use one set number: the creator sets the price and reply time, and the listed price is what a follower pays upfront before you see the question. For work with a genuinely wide range — a detailed rewrite versus a quick note — split it into two Custom Work listings, since each service carries its own title, description, price, delivery time, and one-time delivery. Two clearly priced tiers keep every number visible; one listing marked "varies" keeps none of them.

Does a visible price scare off higher-paying followers?

A visible price probably does not scare off higher-paying followers, though no public study measures price visibility for creator offers specifically, so Brillay presents this as a recommendation rather than a measured result. A published number tends to sort followers by fit: buyers who want that exact offer pay it, and buyers who want more ask about a larger version.

The platforms with the highest-paying individual buyers publish prices anyway. Fiverr's custom offer ceiling is $20,000 USD per offer, and its published Gig floor is $5 — a 4,000x span that a single public price field is expected to carry. Cameo likewise leaves the number to the creator rather than hiding it, stating in its Terms of Service that "you set your price for a Message".

If a public price feels too low for your highest-intent followers, our advice is to add a second, clearly priced tier above it rather than hide the lower price. Two visible prices remove the guessing that "DM for pricing" creates and give a bigger spender an obvious next step instead of a private negotiation. For the mechanics of introducing that higher tier, see how to raise your prices without losing followers; if you're tempted to move the number the other way instead, should you lower your prices to get more orders is worth reading first.

What should a public price actually include?

A public price should include three things at once: what you charge, what the follower receives, and how long delivery takes. A bare number with no scope — "$15" — leaves nearly as much uncertainty as no price at all, because the follower still cannot tell what is covered or when it arrives.

EU consumer law names the same bundle as the legal minimum for an online sale. Article 6(1) of Directive 2011/83/EU requires a trader, before a consumer is bound by a distance contract, to provide "the main characteristics of the goods or services" and "the total price of the goods or services inclusive of taxes" in a clear and comprehensible manner (EUR-Lex, consolidated Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights). Directive 2011/83/EU binds traders selling to EU consumers rather than every creator page, but it is a clear statement of what regulators consider the minimum a buyer needs before paying: what it is, and what it costs in total.

Delivery timing carries measurable weight in the largest public dataset that ranks abandonment reasons. Baymard Institute's distribution of abandonment reasons places "delivery was too slow" at 20% of US online shoppers, behind only "extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees)" at 40%. A stated delivery time answers the delivery-timing question before a follower has to guess at it.

At minimum, pair the price with:

• The deliverable — one written reply for a Paid Question, one video for a Personalized Video, or one defined delivery through Custom Work.
• The format — a written reply privately for a Paid Question, or a delivery note plus up to five files (video, audio, images, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint; video/audio up to 20 minutes) for a custom request.
• The delivery time — your set reply time for a question, or the delivery time you choose for a service or shoutout, which Brillay caps at up to 5 days.

Price, deliverable, and delivery time stated together turn a number into an offer a follower can decide on immediately, rather than one more thing they would have to message you about.

What if you're not confident your price is right yet?

If you are not confident your price is right yet, publish it anyway and revise it later. On Brillay, you can edit your published price later, so choose a clear starting number, watch which fixed offer followers buy, and adjust it when needed.

Editing a published price is free and expected on the platforms that require one. Etsy's Help Center states that "you can edit any part of a listing at any time" and that "there's no cost to edit a listing". Fiverr's seller guidance treats raising a published rate as the normal path, instructing freelancers that "as your reputation grows, revisit your rates and increase them accordingly".

Brillay's own documentation states the same policy for both offer types. Brillay's feature pages explain that your price isn't locked in — you can update it from your dashboard whenever you want, so treat a first price as a starting point rather than a permanent commitment. For Personalized Videos, the price and delivery time are yours to set from the start, and you can rename, re-price, and edit the offer anytime from your dashboard. If broader conditions are what's making you second-guess the number, should creators adjust prices during a bad economy looks at that question specifically.

Any price example on this page is illustrative only, not a guarantee — a fair starting price depends on your niche, audience, and the specific deliverable. How to price your first paid offer walks through setting that first number without over- or under-charging, and how to price services without undervaluing your time covers the deliverable side once the offer is live.

Frequently asked questions

Creators ask five questions most often about publishing prices: whether hiding a price preserves negotiating room, whether a low public price cheapens the offer, what the law and the FTC actually require, what posting a priced offer costs on Brillay, and how tips and goals differ from a fixed price. Short answers follow.

Isn't "DM for pricing" better because it lets me negotiate?

Rarely, for a routine offer, because negotiation adds a step most followers will not take. Baymard Institute finds 12% of US online shoppers have abandoned an order because "I couldn't see / calculate total order cost up-front," compared with 40% who abandoned because extra costs were too high. Keep a private lane the way Fiverr does — its custom offers run from $5 to $20,000 USD and are sent to one client rather than published — and post a fixed price for everything else.

Won't a low public price make me look cheap?

A visible price sets an expectation; it does not fix your ceiling. Fiverr's own seller guidance tells freelancers to "create at least three packages at different price points to capture a wider audience". Add a second, higher-priced tier next to the first rather than hiding the base price — both stay visible, and the follower chooses based on what they need.

Does regulation actually require businesses to show total pricing?

In specific industries and jurisdictions, yes. The FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect on May 12, 2025, and the Commission describes its scope directly:

"The Rule prohibits bait-and-switch pricing and other tactics used to hide total prices and mislead people about fees in the live-event ticketing and short-term lodging industries." — Federal Trade Commission, Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees to Take Effect May 12, 2025

The FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees covers live-event ticketing and short-term lodging, not creator offers, so it imposes no obligation on a Brillay page. It does show what US regulators think hidden pricing costs people: the Federal Trade Commission estimates the Junk Fees Rule will save consumers up to 53 million hours per year of wasted time spent searching for total prices, savings the agency values at more than $11 billion over the next decade (FTC, "Federal Trade Commission Announces Bipartisan Rule Banning Junk Ticket and Hotel Fees"). In the EU the baseline is broader: Article 3(1) of Directive 98/6/EC states that "the selling price and the unit price shall be indicated for all products" offered by traders to consumers (EUR-Lex, consolidated Directive 98/6/EC on consumer price indication).

What does it cost to post a priced offer on Brillay?

Publishing the offer itself costs nothing. Brillay's platform fee applies only when a follower actually pays for it, at the rates shown in the fee line near the top of this page and on the pricing page. Card processing is a separate charge from Stripe, whose published US pricing lists 2.9% + $0.30 per successful domestic online card charge (Stripe pricing), and international cards, currency conversion, and other methods are priced differently.

Should Tips and Goals show a price too?

Tips use suggested amounts rather than one fixed price: a supporter chooses how much to give, with nothing to deliver in return. A Goal shows one named funding target with a progress bar, funded by supporters' contributions rather than a single fixed price.

Create your free Brillay page and swap "DM for pricing" for a number your followers can act on today.