ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed: A Head-to-Head Comparison
If you’re an employer searching for talent, you’ll have to meet job seekers in the places they frequent. ZipRecruiter and Indeed are two of the top job boards that job seekers visit regularly.
Some test the job market monthly; others explore it once or twice a week; and others are on ZipRecruiter and Indeed almost every day, looking for the right opportunity.
While these two job posting websites are both hot spots for job seekers, there are some key differences in the way they work and the people they attract. Exploring these differences can help you get a firm idea of which job board you should direct more resources toward to find new talent quickly and efficiently.
Our comparison of ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed will help you make an informed decision on which job board will suit your business needs best.
What is ZipRecruiter?
While similar to popular sites like CareerBuilder and Monster, ZipRecruiter is more of an employment marketplace than a conventional job board. Rather than finding jobs or job seekers on ZipRecruiter, you find them through ZipRecruiter.
The platform syndicates job postings across multiple job-search sites, so your job openings can reach people at various hubs all across the web. It uses AI to help determine where your job openings go and who they’re promoted to.
You can buy sponsored posts to give your help-wanted ads premium placement. You subscribe to ZipRecruiter for a flat fee on ads or choose its pay-for-performance option to focus your recruitment spend on ads that attract engagement from job seekers.
ZipRecruiter’s AI will promote your job posting and send job alerts to people who are more likely to be interested and qualified. The AI tools can also help employers right-size their recruitment efforts to keep spending efficient and on budget.
The platform can also assist in the tracking needs of businesses of all sizes, and it offers hands-on help to integrate your current applicant-tracking system into its platform.
What is Indeed?
Instead of AI at its core, Indeed is built on its job board — and it’s one of the biggest online job boards around for employers and job hunters alike.
The Indeed Hiring Platform helps employers tap into that job board to find qualified candidates who are available. Recruiters can expedite the screening process, automatically moving candidates forward who indicate they meet preset conditions in hiring questionnaires.
To streamline the interview process, Indeed has video conferencing tools built right in. The virtual interview tools offer employers the ability to reference a candidate’s resume and attach notes to their profile during a call, all from within the platform.
Like ZipRecruiter, Indeed lets you pay to bump up the placement of your job posting in search results, and you can create targeted ads to advertise to more qualified candidates.
As for applicant tracking systems, Indeed is compatible with dozens of applicant-tracking systems.
Pros and Cons
Pitting ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed in text alone can feel too abstract to see the key differences between the two employment platforms. So we’ve created a table to help underscore the differences.
| Key Features | ZipRecruiter | Indeed |
| AI Matching | ✔ | X |
| ATS Support | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mobile Friendly | ✔ | ✔ |
| Premium Customer Support | ✔ | X |
| Screening Solutions | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sponsored Postings | ✔ | ✔ |
| Skills Tests | X | ✔ |
| Company Pages | X | ✔ |
| Pay Per Performance Ads | ✔ | ✔ |
| Syndicated Postings | Up to 100 partner job boards |
Glassdoor |
Screening Solutions: ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed
Candidate screening can slow down the process of filling whatever role your organization needs, but cutting corners here could send you right back to square one, if you waste time interviewing unqualified applicants.
Both Indeed and ZipRecruiter offer screening solutions to expedite this process, without letting an unqualified candidate smooth-talk you into an interview. These tools can complement a standard phone screen by fielding some of the most basic questions for you.
ZipRecruiter’s AI matching technology gives the platform an additional edge with screening solutions. It finds relevant candidates and promotes your job listing to them.
Sure, people with few or no qualifications will still put their names in the hat. But you could find a stronger pool of candidates with the AI matching technology helping moderate the screening process.
Candidate Reach
Alhough ZipRecruiter isn’t an online job board in the conventional sense, its network keeps it on a level playing field with job boards like Indeed and CareerBuilder. While Indeed has built one of the largest job boards around, ZipRecruiter has expanded its reach to talent all across the web.
With ZipRecruiter, a single job posting can be syndicated on over 100 partner job boards. So while Indeed has size, ZipRecruiter’s syndication network can help you reach people who use Indeed as well as those who haven’t even heard of the site.
ATS Integration
Both ZipRecruiter and Indeed support dozens of applicant tracking system solutions.
Through ATS integration, both Indeed and ZipRecruiter will let you post and maintain job listings through their platforms. These solutions can help ensure that your job posts are up to date, eliminating friction for job applicants and making the interview process more efficient.
Both ZipRecruiter and Indeed’s ATS integration can also generate valuable data for employers, from monitoring job-posting quality to helping you tap into a resume database. The analytics can show you how well candidates respond to your job alerts or job ads and help you uncover ways to improve them.
FAQs
If you still have a few lingering questions, we’ve provided some answers to commonly asked questions people have when comparing ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed.
Is ZipRecruiter Better Than Indeed?
These two employment platforms offer two different paths to get you to the same destination: onboarding a quality hire. Determining which route is more efficient will depend on your unique business needs.
Indeed offers a singular job board that’s massive in its viewership, while ZipRecruiter empowers companies to cast a much wider net to reach candidates on over 100 job boards.
One reason why an employer may find more success with ZipRecruiter over Indeed is that the former routinely purges inactive lists. That means candidates spend more time applying for active jobs and less time chasing ghosts.
Another reason some may say ZipRecruiter is better for employees is that the platform can pull job listings from Indeed.
Does ZipRecruiter Pull From Indeed?
In the past, ZipRecruiter and Indeed partnered on job postings. However, ZipRecruiter no longer posts job openings on Indeed. If you want to reach both audiences and tap into each site’s massive resume database, you’ll need to post jobs to both employment platforms.
What is the Best Website for Hiring?
There’s no singular job site that is the best, as it largely depends on the specific needs of your company. However, there are tiers of quality when it comes to job sites, and both ZipRecruiter and Indeed are firmly in the top tier.
Does Anyone Actually Get Hired from Indeed Job Postings?
Though listings may not be curated as frequently as ZipRecruiter’s, people get hired via Indeed all the same. And the same is true for ZipRecruiter. Both of these sites are popular because of how well they help employers and employees find each other.
The Bottom Line:
ZipRecruiter and Indeed have a lot in common. However, there are some fundamental differences you’ll notice when you pit ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed.
Hiring managers and HR directors will love how ZipRecruiter’s AI streamlines the process of creating job postings, reaching qualified talent and tracking candidates. With help from ZipRecruiter specialists and the company’s AI technology, you’ll get a full range of help in building a hiring campaign for your organization’s unique needs.
