Working as a freelancer in Spain

Paying ~260+ euros to social security is NOTHING.

Because it covers EVERYTHING - healthcare, unemployment insurance, taxes, disability, sick leave (yeah you get sick leave), retirement - basically anything social security system provides.

Even if you are earning quite high, say like ~4000+ euros, you still pay the same amount. Though, you can raise it to make your eventual retirement pension higher. If your income raises too much, of course you'd be asked to set up a company since you cant be earning ~20,000 euros a month and still pay ~260 euro autonomo.

I would say that the autonomo is one of the advantages of being a freelancer in spain - i dont know any other such system anywhere in the world which provides this good social security to people working on their own.

And yeah, there is tarifa plana - for people who are starting self-employment or a business first time - for ~1.5 years, your payment increases with small amounts. So its a big help. Anyone who did not register as autonomo in spain before, can get tarifa plana.