Why prices vary so much
If you ask five providers in India for a LinkedIn ghostwriting quote, you will likely get five very different numbers. That is not because some are honest and others are not. It is because the word 'ghostwriting' covers very different amounts of work. One provider may mean a writer who turns your bullet points into a post. Another may mean a full service that researches your audience, interviews you, plans a quarter of content, writes, designs carousels, schedules and reports.
Before comparing prices, it helps to separate the work into parts: strategy, research, interviews, writing, editing, design, scheduling, community replies and reporting. Then ask each provider which parts they cover. A fair comparison is only possible once the scope is the same.
The main pricing models
Per-post pricing is common among freelancers. You pay a set amount for each post. This is simple and good for testing, but it tends to leave planning, scheduling and measurement to you. If you are a busy founder, those tasks often slip, and the posting stops.
Monthly retainers are common among agencies and experienced independent writers. You pay a fixed monthly fee for an agreed number of posts plus the surrounding work. Retainers usually include a minimum term, often three months, because a writer needs time to learn your voice and because results on LinkedIn build slowly.
Project pricing is used for one-off work such as a profile rewrite, a LinkedIn newsletter launch or a set of posts around a funding announcement or product launch. It suits leaders who want a strong starting point and plan to continue on their own.
Some providers also offer hourly consulting for coaching, voice workshops or content audits. This is useful if you prefer to write yourself but want an expert eye on your plan.
What drives the price up or down
Volume is the obvious factor. Eight posts a month is very different work from twenty posts a month plus a newsletter. But volume is not the only driver.
Research depth matters. A post built on a real study of what your buyers read, what your competitors say and what questions come up in your sales calls takes more time than a post written from a general topic list.
Seniority and sensitivity matter too. Writing for the managing director of a listed company, or for a founder in the middle of a fundraise, requires more care, more review and closer coordination with legal or communications teams.
Formats add cost. Carousels need design. Long-form articles and newsletters need structure and editing. Comment writing, where the provider drafts your replies to other people's posts, adds daily work.
Finally, the number of review rounds and the speed you expect affect the price. A provider who must turn around drafts within hours for reactive posts needs more capacity than one who works on a weekly cycle.
Related service: Sterling Byline pricing
Hidden costs to watch for
The biggest hidden cost is your own time. A cheap writer who needs heavy rewrites can cost you more hours than writing yourself. Ask for a sample in your voice before you commit, and judge how much editing it needs.
Tools can be another hidden cost. Some providers expect you to pay separately for scheduling, design or analytics software. Ask whether these are included.
Watch out for anything that asks for your LinkedIn password, promises a fixed number of followers or likes, or uses engagement groups. These are not just poor value. They can put your account at risk under LinkedIn's user agreement and make you look careless to the people you most want to impress.
Questions to ask before you sign
Ask how many posts are included each month and what formats they cover. Ask who exactly writes the posts, and whether AI tools are used in research or drafting. There is nothing wrong with AI-assisted work if it is disclosed and a person is responsible for the quality, but you should know.
Ask how your voice will be captured, how many rounds of edits are included and how quickly drafts are returned. Ask who owns the content. The answer should be you.
Ask about the minimum term and the notice period. Ask what reporting you will get and how often. And ask what the provider needs from you each week. A clear answer to that last question tells you a lot about whether the arrangement will actually work.
Our guide on how to choose a LinkedIn ghostwriter includes a longer checklist.
How to judge value rather than price
Value on LinkedIn is rarely about likes. For most founders and executives in India, value shows up as better conversations: a candidate who mentions your posts in an interview, a prospect who arrives already understanding your approach, an investor who has followed your thinking for months, or an invitation to speak at an event.
Those outcomes are hard to put a number on, so set a few simple signals at the start. You might track the number of relevant people who comment, the inbound messages that mention a post, or the meetings where a post came up. Review them every quarter.
It also helps to think in terms of time saved. If a retainer frees three to four hours of your week and produces better writing than you would have had time to produce, the comparison is not with zero cost. It is with the value of those hours spent on sales, hiring or product.
What we charge, and why we publish it
Many agencies in India do not list prices, which makes comparison hard. We publish ours on the pricing page so you can decide quickly whether we are a fit. Our plans are monthly retainers in Indian rupees with a ninety-day minimum and then month-to-month terms.
Every plan includes a voice guide and a profile rewrite, because those foundations make every later post better. Higher plans add carousels, a LinkedIn newsletter and long-form articles. We publish posts only; comments and replies stay with you. All prices exclude applicable taxes.
If you would like to see the quality before thinking about price, request three free sample posts on our contact page. They are written from your public profile, at no cost and with no obligation.
A simple budgeting approach
If you are setting a budget for the first time, start with the outcome you want in the next six months. If the goal is simply to be visible and credible when people look you up, a lighter plan with a strong profile and one or two posts a week is often enough. If you are raising money, hiring senior people or selling to large companies, a fuller plan with more posts and longer formats is usually worth it.
Commit to one plan for at least a quarter, review the signals you set, and then adjust. The worst outcome is not spending too much or too little. It is starting, stopping after three weeks and concluding that LinkedIn does not work, when the real issue was that nothing was given enough time.
A worked budgeting example
Consider a founder of a B2B software company in Pune selling to mid-size manufacturers. Her goal for the next two quarters is to make sure that every prospect who looks her up before a demo finds clear, recent thinking about factory operations. She does not need daily posts. She needs a strong profile, two posts a week and a monthly carousel explaining a common operations problem.
She gets three quotes. The first, from a freelancer, is per post and covers writing only. The second, from a large agency, covers everything including video she does not want. The third is a retainer covering profile, strategy, eight to ten posts, one carousel and scheduling. Once she writes down the hours she would spend planning and scheduling with the first option, and the features she would never use in the second, the third is the closest match, even though it is not the cheapest headline number.
The lesson is general. Write your scope down first, ask every provider to quote against the same scope and include the value of your own time in the comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Is per-post or monthly pricing better?
Per-post pricing suits testing or occasional needs. Monthly retainers suit leaders who want consistent posting with planning, scheduling and reporting handled for them.
Are taxes included in quoted prices?
Not always. Ask every provider whether applicable taxes are included, so you can compare like with like. Our published prices exclude applicable taxes.
Written by the Sterling Byline team with research support from AI-powered assistants. How we use AI.