How these judgements were made
Two of the three numbers on this site are judgements, not measurements, and it matters that you know which is which before you make a decision on them.
What is measured and what is judged
Income is sourced. Every annual and hourly band comes from published research, credited per figure, and shared with our sister site Coaching Rates. 8 of 10 niches have one. The other 2 do not, and we leave those blank rather than estimating.
Depth and crowding are ordinal judgements. They are scored one to five, derived from the competitiveness table in the 2026 Coaching Business Report plus the entry requirements each niche is documented as having. No published study counts coaches by niche, so there is no headcount behind “picked over”. It is a relative position, and it is ours.
We use them anyway because the alternative is worse. A niche page that lists income and says nothing about competition or barriers is how people end up as the thousandth new life coach of the month.
What this cannot tell you
It cannot price your sub-niche. “Life coaching” spans someone charging $75 an hour and someone charging $500 to the same job title. Specificity moves the number more than the category does.
It under-counts self-employment. The salary aggregators behind these bands read posted roles and self-reported figures, which skews toward employed and hybrid coaches and away from full-time private practice.
It is a snapshot. The newest niches here are moving fastest, which means the crowding scores on those will age soonest.
Where the income figures come from
Primary study
- ICF Global Coaching Study 2025The profession’s census. Headcount, revenue, credentialing and client-load figures trace here.Year2025Sample—
- Mordor Intelligence coaching market forecastSource of the forward market-size projection only.Year2024Sample—
- GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks 2024Cross-industry email benchmarks, not coaching-specific.Year2024Sample—
Salary aggregator
- PayScale coaching salary dataSelf-reported compensation. Skews toward employed and hybrid coaches.Year2025Sample—
- Salary.com coaching compensationYear2025Sample—
- ZipRecruiter posted-role coaching salariesPosted roles, so it under-represents self-employed practice income.Year2025Sample—
- Glassdoor coaching salary reportsYear2025Sample—
Verified sample
- Coachful verified life-coach session ratesPublished session rates collected directly. Small sample; treat as illustrative of spread, not of the population.Year2026Samplen=18
- Coachful verified business-coach session ratesPublished session rates collected directly from 60+ business coaches.Year2026Samplen=60
- Career Contessa published coach ratesPublicly listed rates from a single marketplace, so it reflects that marketplace’s positioning.Year2026Samplen=35
Community estimate
- Coaching community data and practitioner reportsPractitioner forums, community surveys and calculated estimates. No large-scale public study exists for these figures.Year2026Sample—
Which niches carry a published number
- Life coachingSourcePublished band
- Health and wellnessSourcePublished band
- Women's healthSourceNone published
- ADHD and neurodivergentSourceNone published
- Career coachingSourcePublished band
- Financial coachingSourcePublished band
- Relationship coachingSourcePublished band
- Business coachingSourcePublished band
- Leadership coachingSourcePublished band
- Executive coachingSourcePublished band
Citing this
Quote anything here. We ask that you name the underlying study alongside us for income figures, and that depth and crowding are attributed to us as judgements rather than to the research as findings, because they are not in it.
Disagree with a score? Tell us why. We will change it and say that we did.