If you’re looking for a new way to find top talent, you might consider ZipRecruiter or LinkedIn for sourcing candidates. Both platforms have their own unique strengths and weaknesses, and there are strong cases for using one platform over the other in certain circumstances. We’ve done the research so you can make the best decision for your company.
LinkedIn vs. ZipRecruiter at a Glance
LinkedIn is well-known as a professional networking site, and it excels at helping businesses find potential candidates for specific roles. LinkedIn also offers powerful tools for researching companies and employees. However, its search functionality can be a little clunky and, from a job seeker’s point of view, the platform isn’t always the best at surfacing relevant job postings.
ZipRecruiter is a popular job board that also offers tools for finding candidates. It has an easy-to-use interface and powerful search capabilities, making it a great choice for businesses that are looking to fill specific roles quickly. However, ZipRecruiter doesn’t have the same networking features as LinkedIn, so it can be less useful for businesses that are looking to build long-term relationships with candidates.
Overall, LinkedIn is a better choice for businesses that are looking for specific candidates for specific roles while ZipRecruiter is a better choice for businesses that are looking to fill specific roles quickly. However, there are cases where each platform can be used effectively.
ZipRecruiter
Free Trial
Four days
Free Listings
No
Pricing Starts At
$299
per month
Four days
No
$299
per month
ZipRecruiter is a platform that helps businesses find and hire top talent. It offers a free four-day trial so you can test out the platform before committing to a subscription. If you don’t plan on continuing after the trial, import candidate information into your applicant tracking system (ATS) because the data will disappear as soon as the trial expires.
Pricing starts around $16 per job per day, which is okay if you have an in-demand job likely to get a lot of applications within days. If your job is specialized and might take a while to fill with the right candidates, ZipRecruiter can quickly become a more expensive option.
To solve this issue, you can opt for a plan where you have multiple job slots for a set monthly price. This can be a more affordable option if you’re hiring for multiple positions at once. These monthly plans start at $299 per month for a single, reusable slot, and go up to $1,569 per month for multiple slots.
- Attractive user interface
- Search through applicants by keywords
- Rate incoming applications and the AI will learn to deliver better candidates over time
- Reviews indicate sales and customer support are not helpful and quick to rush you to make a purchase/upgrade or disconnect
- All applicant information disappears after the free trial
- Plan pricing is only available when you create an account
Free Trial
30 days
Free Listings
Yes
Pricing Starts At
$140
per month
30 days
Yes
$140
per month
LinkedIn has both free and paid solutions for recruiting quality candidates. If you hire every once in a while, consider its “Job Posts” option, which allows you to post one free job at a time. If you hire more regularly, you might want to try the “Job Slots” and “Recruiter” features. These make it easy to promote your job, find talent, engage with candidates and manage applications.
LinkedIn’s lowest-cost paid plan is Recruiter Lite, which is $140 per month or $1,440 per year. LinkedIn also offers Recruiter Professional Services for staffing firms and Recruiter Corporate for corporate companies. For pricing, you must contact its sales team.
After posting a job for free using Job Posts, you can promote the listing so it shows at the top of search results, candidates receive personalized job-seeker emails, push notifications go to relevant job seekers and you can target candidates by job post criteria. Set a budget, and only pay when a candidate clicks on your listing. You aren’t charged for clicks when the user isn’t logged in, nor when the same candidate views the listing multiple times.
- Paid plans have a 30-day free trial
- Great for executive recruiting
- Huge network of professionals interested in furthering their skills and careers
- Recruiter plans are more expensive than other provider plans
- Recruiter Lite limited to third-degree contacts
- Pricing isn’t shown up front; you must contact sales for higher-tiered plans
How the Services Stack Up
| ZipRecruiter | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Free Plan
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
Free Trial
|
Four days
|
30 days
|
|
Pricing
|
From $16 per job per day
|
Starts at $0 and you must contact sales for Recruiter pricing
|
|
Résumés in Database
|
More than 32 million
|
Not reported, but it has more than 740 million active members
|
|
Candidate Evaluation Tool
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Number of Job Boards It Posts To
|
More than 100
|
None; posts remain on LinkedIn
|
|
Sponsored Listings
|
Pro plan comes with “TrafficBoost” credits, otherwise purchase à la carte
|
Pay-per-click
|
Free Plan
ZipRecruiter does not offer any free plans. LinkedIn allows employers to use Job Posts to list their open positions for free, but they must pay to sponsor the listing if they want higher visibility.
Free Trial
ZipRecruiter has a four-day free trial, which means you can post a single job listing. As soon as your trial is up, you will lose access to candidate information unless you continue with a paid plan. LinkedIn has a free 30-day trial for its paid plans, provided you’re a new user.
Pricing
It’s difficult to locate pricing for both LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter because you must give your information or start a trial to access pricing. When reaching out to ZipRecruiter’s sales team, we weren’t given any answers and were dismissed trying to retrieve prices for each of its plans. Upon extensive investigation of real customer reviews, this is a common complaint about both its sales and customer support teams.
LinkedIn pricing for its paid plans depends on the number of jobs you post, how often you hire and the size of your organization. For this reason, you must contact its sales team. Based on customer reviews, large recruiting companies can expect to pay thousands.
Featured Partners
1
BambooHR
Yes
Yes
ATS
2
Pinpoint ATS
Yes
Yes
24/7 customer support, easy-to-use interface, fast and flexible workflows, hundreds of integrations
3
ClearCompany
Yes
Yes
Employee engagement
Résumés in Database
While users can upload their résumés to LinkedIn and apply for jobs in a single click (depending on the employer’s settings), it’s not really a résumé database like ZipRecruiter, which boasts over 32 million résumés on file. LinkedIn does say it operates globally and has over 740 million active members.
Candidate Evaluation Tools
Both LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter have screener questions to help weed out candidates who don’t meet your basic requirements. The latter has deal-breaker questions to automatically hide candidates who either don’t answer the question or answer it incorrectly. LinkedIn has built-in skill assessments to validate a candidate’s prowess in certain areas.
Number of Job Boards It Posts To
ZipRecruiter cross-posts your job listing to over 100 different job boards, including boards specific to veterans. LinkedIn does not post the job with any third parties but promoted posts will send emails or push notifications to match candidates.
Sponsored Listings
For sponsored ZipRecruiter job listings, you must purchase TrafficBoost credits, unless you have the Pro plan, which comes with 100 credits. A TrafficBoost is good for 100 views of your listing or up to 30 days, whichever comes first. Only buy the credits you need, because these expire after three months.
LinkedIn has sponsored listings on a pay-per-click basis. You set the budget and can adjust it at any time.
Bottom Line
Both ZipRecruiter and LinkedIn are popular choices for sourcing talent. If you’re looking to build a strong relationship with candidates and want the best possible chance of making an offer, LinkedIn might be worth considering. If you’re looking for qualified talent on a tight timeline and want to cast a wide net, ZipRecruiter could be your best bet.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Which is better: ZipRecruiter or LinkedIn?
It depends on your personal preferences and needs. ZipRecruiter is a better choice for businesses that are looking to fill roles quickly, while LinkedIn is ideal for employers who want to build relationships and target certain candidates for specific roles.
How long does a free job posting stay on LinkedIn?
A free LinkedIn job posting will last for 30 days, but you’ll get better results by sponsoring the listing, which is done on a pay-per-click basis. A sponsored listing will be removed after six months, unless you remove it manually.
