The Best Recruiting Platforms for Employers Seeking Workers
If you ever need to hire someone online, you’ll quickly find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer number of ways there are to do that. There are so many different job boards and online recruiting platforms, and they come in all shapes and sizes. How are you supposed to know which one is best for your needs?
We were curious, so we did a side-by-side comparison of six popular job-search sites — how they work, what they cost and what audiences they’re aimed at.
Whether you’re a hiring manager for a major corporation or just a mom-and-pop operation looking to hire a freelancer for a temporary gig, we’ve got you covered.
Look, employee referrals can be a nice way to fill your open positions. But these days you need to go beyond that — way beyond. Welcome to the world of social recruiting. These are the recruiting tools of today. We’re listing the options here in reverse alphabetical order because this way, the one that’s kind of our favorite comes first.
1. ZipRecruiter: Post a Job on Dozens of Boards
ZipRecruiter is useful if you need a job opening to be posted widely so you can hire someone quickly. ZipRecruiter isn’t a job board itself. Instead, it’s a marketplace that allows employers to post a job opening to multiple online job listings at the same time.
ZipRecruiter uses artificial intelligence to decide where to post your job vacancies, and it uses its matching technology to analyze millions of data points to find the best potential matches for your job.
It’s free for employers to try for four days. After that, there are various packages you can buy, depending on your needs. ZipRecruiter offers three different monthly plans, based on how many jobs you want to advertise.
You can pay extra for sponsored posts to give your job postings premium placement on job sites. There’s also a “traffic boost” option that allows you to send out job postings via email, attracting more applicants. You can also sort through resumes on your ZipRecruiter dashboard.
Once you post jobs, ZipRecruiter’s AI can promote your listings and send job alerts to candidates who are more likely to be interested and qualified. The AI tools can also help you right-size your recruitment efforts to keep your spending efficient and on budget.
Do you already have recruiting software? If so, ZipRecruiter will help you integrate your current applicant tracking system into its platform.
Pros
You can post your job listings to over 100 boards at once, although the site’s AI can help you scale your recruiting efforts and decide which of multiple job boards you should really focus on.
Here’s a useful recruiting tool: Unlike many other job search websites, ZipRecruiter’s resume search subscriptions offer unlimited searches.
Cons
Depending on what you’re looking for, there are several different pricing options, and not all the prices are posted online. In some cases, you’ll need to ask ZipRecruiter’s sales department for a quote.
ZipRecruiter’s Prices
ZipRecruiter has three monthly plans — Standard, Premium and Pro. Prices are based on how many jobs you need to post and how many sites you want your job opportunities to be posted on. Prices start as low as $16 per day for one reusable job post.
“First we work with you to understand your specific hiring goals, strategy and budget,” ZipRecruiter says on its website. “From there, we customize your campaign based on the number of jobs you have, the type of jobs you need to fill, the location, and industry. Plans can be tailored for a monthly subscription or pay-for-performance depending on your hiring goals.”
2. Monster: Simple to Use
Monster delivers many of the same core features as other job boards. For many recruiters and employers, its standout feature is simplicity.
Creating a job posting is simple. You can choose from more than 2,000 templates to build your job ad. You can also let Monster suggest candidates for your company’s open positions based on factors you specify: skills, location, experience and more.
Monster has its own applicant tracking system to help manage your recruitment campaign. If you want to use your chosen ATS instead, you’ll need to use another job board.
Monster offers a library of training content to empower hiring managers and recruiters to make the most of the site’s tools and features. Plus, the company offers customer support by phone or email during business hours in case you get stuck.
Monster also has a native applicant tracking system to help you manage the traction your job ads may get. However, the site offers no support for third-party tracking systems, which could be more than a minor headache if your company already has a relationship with recruitment software vendors.
Pros
You’ll have access to over 2,000 job description templates to post your job openings faster, and you don’t have to look elsewhere for an applicant tracking system.
Cons
Some employers report finding Monster difficult to navigate. Also, another important consideration about Monster is its relatively low traffic volume. Its monthly number of visitors doesn’t even come near the slow months of some of the heavyweights like ZipRecruiter and Indeed.
Plus, there’s no support for third-party tracking systems, and the outsourced screening solutions could be considered a negative for some employers.
Monster’s Prices
Monster has three tiers of membership for employers who are looking for job candidates, with the more expensive tiers offering more tools and options.
Monster’s monthly subscription starts at $279 for a single job posting and increases based on the number of active job openings and the ability to send them to other job search sites with their Performance Boost capability. Monster also has the ability to post ads on the job site, so an employer only pays when someone views their job listing.
- $279: Starter package includes one slot for a job posting, 50 resume views per month
- $399: Standard package includes three job slots, placement on partner sites for 30 days, ability to view 150 resumes per month
- $649: Premium package includes five slots, placement on partner sites for 30 days, 250 resume views monthly
3. LinkedIn: the Ultimate Networking Site
Here’s where social recruiting comes in handy. LinkedIn is the biggest professional networking site in the world, with more than 750 million members in 200 countries.
It can help employers connect with qualified candidates, especially for white-collar positions. Those professionals are the ones who mostly use the networking site.
You can pay to use “LinkedIn Recruiter,” which is typically used by larger companies; or “LinkedIn Recruiter Lite,” which is for smaller companies. With LinkedIn Recruiter, you can create an unlimited number of job postings.
You can create a job posting for free using a service called LinkedIn Jobs, but know that LinkedIn uses a pay per click model to promote your job vacancies.
Pros
It offers a manageable “pay per click” model to promote job listings on a vast professional networking platform.
Cons
Not all its prices are posted online. Depending on what you’re looking for, you’ll need to get a quote from the sales department.
LinkedIn’s Prices
On LinkedIn, you can post one job at a time for free. Free job posts appear in search results on LinkedIn, and they allow you to filter and manage job applicants. But they become less visible in search results over time to give newer job postings the opportunity to be seen by visitors to the site. Once your job posting gets 75 applicants, it gets removed from search results.
You have to reach out to LinkedIn to get a price quote for LinkedIn Recruiter, which is typically used by larger companies, and which allows you to create an unlimited number of job postings. However, a slimmed-down version called LinkedIn Recruiter Lite costs $119 per month, or $99.95 per month if you sign up for a year.
LinkedIn also has a service called LinkedIn Jobs, where you can post a job for free and then pay per click to promote it. It’s social recruiting on a smaller scale.
4. Indeed: Free but Crowded
Launched in 2004, Indeed is a free employment board that also offers paid, premium options to make life easier for job hunters and employers alike.
Because it’s free, employers gain access to a diverse candidate pool that’s brimming with talent. And job seekers don’t have to pay to apply for jobs, upload their resume to Indeed’s database, or create job alerts for roles they’re interested in.
For employers, the free features of Indeed take the risk out of testing the waters of the talent pool. But its premium features, such as sponsored postings and a subscription to Indeed’s resume database, are what really make Indeed useful for employers in their recruiting process.
Other top features of Indeed’s job board include company pages, support for HR software like third-party applicant-tracking systems, and Instant Match, a tool that matches candidate resumes to your job ads.
Free solutions for employers include adding screener questions and the ability to message and virtually interview candidates. It’s not possible to repost jobs from other websites onto Indeed.
Indeed also simplifies the screening process by grouping qualified applicants to the top of a dashboard, automatically declining applicants and helping to schedule interviews all within their website.
Cons
Employers can post a basic job opening for free on Indeed, making it an ideal platform for hiring managers who are operating on a budget. But as great as the free option is, that also means the competition is stiff to get your job postings seen. How many other employers are competing for the eyes of qualified candidates? The entire recruitment process depends on your ads getting seen by the right eyes.
Pros
Indeed’s solution to that problem is a paid job post. For as little as a few bucks a day, employers can post sponsored jobs and make sure the job postings get in front of the most applicants who are job searching. When you pay for a post, you can invite people to apply for your job after finding resume matches.
Indeed’s Prices
Indeed starts out free. There’s no charge for posting a help-wanted ad on the site.
If you want to post jobs and attract more eyeballs to your job posting, though, it costs. Indeed has a pay-per-click model where pricing is based on user engagement with job posts. The total cost is based on the budget you set and the amount of time you choose to advertise the job.
Also, 30 resume views per month costs $100, while 100 resume views per month costs $250.
5. Craigslist: a No-Frills Experience
Founded in 1995, Craigslist is best known for being a classified-ads marketplace where people can find nearly anything — furniture, rooms to rent, missed connections and even legal help.
But a major portion of Craigslist’s business is as one of the top job search sites where people can find part-time work, manual labor, side gigs and more.
Craigslist Jobs is a cost-effective solution for employers looking to fill jobs. There are no subscriptions required, just a flat fee for each job posting. You don’t even need to create an account to post jobs if you don’t want to.
Employers looking to hire via Craigslist job postings can get an unlimited number of emails from potential candidates. On the downside, you won’t be able to search through any sort of resume database to find qualified local candidates.
Employers on a small budget will also benefit from Craigslist’s affordability. For as little as $10 each, you can post as many jobs as you want — but you’ll have to do a lot more leg work when it comes to sorting through unqualified applicants and manually handling the entire hiring process.
Pros
Craigslist is by far the cheapest option for employers looking to speed up their hiring process.
Cons
Craigslist job postings are strictly a no-frills experience. You go without flashy features like resume searches or the ability to manage applicants. There is no candidate relationship management system of any kind.
Craigslist’s Prices
A 30-day job posting costs between $10 and $75, depending on the location. Individual listings can’t be swapped out for new ones — instead, employers will need to create a new posting, but they can post as many jobs as they want at any given time. All you need to do is pay with your credit card for a new listing.
6. Careerbuilder: a Boutique Recruitment Solution
CareerBuilder is a job posting site that leverages a mix of custom tools, analytics, third-party software integration and flexible payment options to help employers find qualified candidates.
CareerBuilder.com sees about 8.5 million U.S. users monthly and provides access to about 80 million candidate resumes.
The site offers employers access to over 80 million resumes and social media profiles. Like ZipRecruiter, it can share job postings with other job boards around the internet (although to a lesser extent).
There are hiring solutions for companies of all sizes, from small businesses up to enterprise organizations. You can choose one of its tiered, full-service packages or build your own by picking the number of job ads and monthly resume searches you want.
CareerBuilder offers a large database of resumes, access to linked social profiles, support for a host of third-party applicant tracking systems, automated emails and instrumental add-ons like candidate sourcing.
However, it limits the number of resumes you can view monthly, while sites like ZipRecruiter offer unlimited views to make it easier to find the best candidates.
Helpful solutions, like CareerBuilder’s candidate-screening service, “Source and Screen,” can enhance your recruitment campaign with candidate screening, job-post promotion, scheduling and branding.
Pros
CareerBuilder has more of a boutique feel with bespoke recruitment solutions and lots of add-ons, such as outsourced screening solutions and AI-based talent discovery tools.
Cons
On the downside, CareerBuilder is considerably smaller than sites like LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter and Indeed.
CareerBuilder’s Prices:
- $219: “Lite” package includes one job ad, 500 resume database searches, alerts and custom candidate lists.
- $299: Standard package includes three job postings, 500 resume searches, alerts and custom candidate lists.
- $599: Pro package includes five job postings, 500 searches, alerts and custom candidate lists.
- $375: “Build Your Own” package starts with one job posting and 30 days of resume search access.
Comparing Them Side-by-Side
Want to see how these job search sites stack up head-to-head? This chart highlights some of the key differences between each of these employment websites.
| Resume Search | Applicant Tracking System | Third-Party ATS Support | Native Screening Tools | Artificial Intelligence
Assistance |
Pricing Model | |
| ZipRecruiter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Subscription |
| Monster | Yes | Yes | No | Limited | No | Subscription |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Subscription | |
| Indeed | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Performance-based |
| Craigslist | No | No | No | No | No | Performance-based |
| CareerBuilder | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Subscription |
The Bottom Line
With millions of open positions and a serious shortage of workers, businesses across the country are struggling to recruit the employees they need.
Like we said earlier, employee referrals and such are nice, as far as that goes. But these days, social recruiting is a key part of the entire recruiting process.
Hiring managers, you have so many choices. Hopefully this will help narrow it down for you.
Side gigs, part-time and manual labor tend to have more options in a Craigslist job search, while options like Indeed or ZipRecruiter are better known for full-time positions.
One question you might ask yourself is, How easy is it to use?
Ease of use is just as important for job seekers in their job search as it is for employers during recruitment. Job search websites like ZipRecruiter simplify things by allowing employers to post to over 100 boards at once, while it empowers job hunters to search those same boards with its job search engine.
Mike Brassfield ([email protected]) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
