SASU vs EURL for French Freelancers: Which Saves You More Money?

TJMetre — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:42:18 +0000

If you're a freelance developer or consultant in France, choosing between SASU (Société par Actions Simplifiée Unipersonnelle) and EURL (Entreprise Unipersonnelle à Responsabilité Limitée) is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll make.

I analyzed data from 9,200+ French freelancers to find out which structure actually puts more money in your pocket.

The Key Difference: Social Contributions

The fundamental difference comes down to how you pay yourself:

SASU: You pay yourself a salary. Social contributions are ~75% on top of net salary (effectively ~43% of gross). Dividends are taxed as capital gains (flat tax 30%).
EURL: You pay yourself as a TNS (Travailleur Non Salarié). Social contributions are ~45% of net income. Dividends above 10% of capital are subject to social contributions.

When SASU Wins

SASU is generally better when:

You earn above €120k/year in revenue and can optimize with dividends
You want maximum social protection (unemployment insurance if structured correctly)
You plan to sell your company someday (share transfer is simpler)
You value credibility with large corporate clients

When EURL Wins

EURL is generally better when:

Your revenue is between €50k-€120k/year
You want to maximize immediate net income
You don't mind lower retirement benefits
You want simpler accounting (option for micro-fiscal regime under certain thresholds)

Real Numbers: €100k Revenue Comparison

For a typical freelance developer billing €100,000/year with €5,000 in expenses:

Metric	SASU	EURL
Revenue	€100,000	€100,000
Expenses	€5,000	€5,000
Social contributions	~€28,000	~€22,000
Corporate tax	~€5,000	~€5,500
Net income (after all taxes)	~€48,000	~€54,000
Retirement points/year	Higher	Lower

Note: These are simplified estimates. Your actual numbers depend on family situation, city, expenses, dividend strategy, and more.

The Tool I Built

Instead of guessing, I built TJMetre — a free simulator that compares all four French freelance structures (SASU, EURL, micro-entreprise, and portage salarial) side by side.

You enter your daily rate, city, family situation, and expenses, and it calculates:

Net income after ALL taxes and contributions
Retirement projections
Where you rank compared to 9,200 other French freelancers

It's free, no signup required, and all calculations use official 2026 tax rates from urssaf.fr and impots.gouv.fr.

Key Takeaways

There's no universal "best" structure — it depends on your revenue, family situation, and priorities
The difference can be €5,000-€15,000/year — worth spending time to calculate properly
Don't pay €500 for a comparison your accountant could give you — or use a free tool like tjmetre.fr
Revisit your choice annually — what was optimal at €80k revenue may not be optimal at €150k

Have questions about French freelance tax optimization? Drop a comment below — happy to share more data from our benchmark.

How Much Do French Freelancers Really Earn? Data from 9,200 Responses

TJMetre — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:37:35 +0000

We built TJMetre, a free and open-data tool that benchmarks freelancer daily rates in France. After collecting 9,212 responses from French freelancers, here's what the data tells us.

Key Findings

Median Daily Rates by Profession (2026)

Profession	Median Daily Rate	P25	P75
Developer (Full-Stack)	550 €	450 €	700 €
Data Engineer	600 €	500 €	750 €
DevOps / SRE	620 €	500 €	750 €
UX/UI Designer	500 €	400 €	650 €
Project Manager	550 €	450 €	700 €
Consultant SAP	700 €	550 €	900 €

The Hidden Cost: Legal Structure Matters

The same gross daily rate gives very different net incomes depending on the legal structure:

Micro-entreprise: lowest charges (~22%) but capped at €77,700/year revenue
EURL (IS): moderate charges, flexible dividend/salary split
SASU: highest charges (~75% on salary) but best social protection
Portage salarial: simplest setup, but 8-12% management fees on top of charges

For a freelancer billing €550/day (220 days/year = €121,000 gross):

Structure	Net Annual Income	Effective Tax Rate
Micro-entreprise	N/A (over ceiling)	—
EURL (IS)	~€72,000	~40%
SASU (all salary)	~€58,000	~52%
Portage salarial	~€61,000	~50%

The City Premium

Paris freelancers earn 25-40% more than those in other cities, but the cost of living gap is only ~15%. Lyon, Bordeaux, and Nantes offer the best income-to-cost ratio.

How We Built It

TJMetre is built with:

PHP backend with a custom MVC framework
Open data from URSSAF, INSEE, France Travail (17 government data sources)
522 SEO landing pages generated from profession/city combinations
Real-time tax simulation engine covering all French business structures

The calculation engine is open source and uses official tax parameters updated from government sources (URSSAF, BOFiP, service-public.fr).

Try It

You can benchmark your rate and simulate your net income at tjmetre.fr — it's 100% free, no signup required.

The simulator compares all 4 legal structures side-by-side and shows you exactly where your money goes: social charges, income tax, corporate tax, dividends, and net income.

Data from 9,212 responses collected via TJMetre's freelance rate survey. All calculations use official 2026 tax parameters.

DEV Community: TJMetre