ZipRecruiter Review 2024: Features, Pricing & More

ZipRecruiter is a job site that aims to match businesses with the right people for their open roles. Its AI matching finds and reaches out to specific job candidates to apply for your open position as soon as it goes live. Its network is one of the largest in the world for job seekers, so the opportunities to find a large number of applicants and increase your chance to find the right one is better than most.

Use one of ZipRecruiter’s customizable templates to post your open position, and it’ll send your job opening to more than 100 job sites. Its AI technology then scans thousands of résumés based on skill, education and experience and invites candidates to apply. As an employer, you can auto-send a pre-written message to your top candidates.

The candidates appear on your dashboard, and you can sort and rate them. ZipRecruiter will send similar applicants based on the ones you liked.

ZipRecruiter for Job Seekers

With one-click apply, job seekers can apply for a position using their résumé on file. To find these job opportunities, they can search on the ZipRecruiter website or use the mobile app. “Phil,” ZipRecruiter’s AI recruiter, helps candidates find opportunities, pitches their résumés to employers and invites them to apply to applicable positions.

As soon as an employer views an application, the candidate receives a notification so they know where they stand in the recruiting process.

ZipRecruiter for Employers

In addition to posting your open position to more than 100 job sites, it sends job alert emails and mobile notifications to candidates. And depending on the plan you choose, you can use TrafficBoost to help fill urgent or difficult-to-fill positions. Its highest-tiered plan integrates with your external applicant tracking system so you know where candidates stand at all times.

If you’re unsure what to put in a job post, ZipRecruiter has more than 500 customizable job description templates. ZipRecruiter also has screening questions you can add to your job post. This way, you can sort through only the most qualified candidates.

The pricing with ZipRecruiter is ‌ straightforward and you know exactly what you’re going to pay when you start posting jobs. That is very unlike the competition where most users pay based on a set advertising budget that is taken up when candidates view or click on your job posting. To view pricing, you need to first create an account.

Pricing depends on the number of job postings you need. After your free trial, its Standard plan costs $16 ($21.19 CAD) per day per job. Its Premium plan costs $24 ($31.79 CAD) per day per job after the free trial. ZipRecruiter bills the card you place on file once your bill reaches $500 ($662.13 CAD), or when you cancel, whichever comes first.

If you forgo the four-day free trial and expect your job will take a while to fill, you can choose ZipRecruiter’s monthly discounted rate instead. You pay a flat monthly rate for each job posting. The rate is $299 ($395.95 CAD) per job per month for its Standard plan, $419 ($554.97 CAD) per job per month for its Premium plan and $719 ($952.33 CAD) per job per month for its Pro plan.

ZipRecruiter has an Employer Help Centre with documentation about getting started, account setup, posting and managing jobs, managing candidates, job posting plans, the résumé database and subscription and billing. You can also call or chat live with an agent for support. Live chat is available 24/7.

Pros

ZipRecruiter’s best feature is the AI matching, which helps bring the right candidates to you instead of you having to spend hours searching through a résumé database. But if you buy the Premium option, you can also access a database of résumés that you can download, if you prefer. You can also try the platform for free during your first four days.

When you post a job on ZipRecruiter, it becomes available on more than 100 job sites, which opens up your reach to find the right applicants even more. Plus, you can get access to hundreds of job templates to help you get started. It’s an easy platform to use and you could potentially get applicants within minutes of posting a job.

Cons

While ZipRecruiter has a lot to offer, the competition typically offers more. Most competitors, such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Indeed, offer more features and end up giving you more if you can afford their advertising costs. If you want just the basics of posting a job, and then wait for applicants to come in, then ZipRecruiter is a great option. However, if you need more robust features, then you’ll likely find a better solution somewhere else.

Additionally, ZipRecruiter isn’t a good fit for every type of job. Traditionally, it’s a great place to post manual labor or entry-level jobs, but professional jobs just don’t have as many job seekers on the platform. You can see right on the homepage what types of jobs are trending on the platform at any given time. At the time of writing, trending jobs included things such as “Psychic,” “Cannabis Grower” and “Appointment Setter.”

ZipRecruiter costs start at $299 ($396 CAD) per month for a set number of credits. For a large business with a lot of openings, it will be more expensive than that, and for a small business with a single job opening, it will be a bit expensive. There are also limited controls to make your job post stand out from others since you can’t pay more money to get to the top of the search queries.

While the network of job seekers is very large compared to many competitors, the types of jobs might not be a good fit for everyone. Many professional-level positions will struggle on ZipRecruiter because those aren’t the main types of jobs that attract the platform’s job seekers. It’s a much better fit for manual labor, entry-level or specialty positions.

ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed

Compared to ZipRecruiter, Indeed charges per click or application. Not every job posting is eligible for cost-per-application pricing. With ZipRecruiter, you have set packages you can purchase.

Indeed helps you have the best possible recruiting campaign through its AI calculations. It’ll tell you what your budget should be based on similar job historical hiring data. If a candidate doesn’t match your minimum requirements, you can have Indeed automatically decline candidates on your behalf.

ZipRecruiter vs. LinkedIn

LinkedIn caters to business professionals, so the caliber of applicants is typically higher than ZipRecruiter, making it perfect for executive and corporate jobs. LinkedIn not only helps you attract candidates, but it’ll help you hire them and keep them engaged when they’re employed. ZipRecruiter doesn’t offer any further guidance beyond hiring applicants. As with SimplyHired, LinkedIn operates on a pay-per-click basis.

ZipRecruiter vs. SimplyHired

SimplyHired has a cost-per-contact model. This means you can post as many jobs as you want and only pay when you want to reach out to a candidate. Unfortunately, the costs for this can vary quite dramatically depending on the type of job and where your position is located. SimplyHired is best for entry-level and warehouse jobs, whereas ZipRecruiter is ideal for manual labor, retail or hospitality positions.

If you want a simple-to-use job posting system that is easy to get started and will get you applicants immediately, then ZipRecruiter might be the right fit. It will depend on the types of jobs that you’re seeking applicants for as well. ZipRecruiter is a good fit for specialty, entry-level or manual labor jobs, while more professional positions are less popular on the platform.