Comparing ZipRecruiter vs. LinkedIn for Employers Seeking Workers

There’s still a worker shortage in the United States. There are millions of unfilled job openings, with businesses across the country struggling to recruit the workers they need.

Is your business looking to hire new employees — qualified candidates who are a good fit for the job?

In that case, you’ve no doubt considered using a popular online recruitment platform like ZipRecruiter or LinkedIn. But what’s the difference between the two? Which one is best for your needs?

In this guide, we’ll go in-depth and do a side-by-side comparison between these two platforms — how they work, what they cost and what audiences they’re aimed at.

Let’s start with an overview of each:

ZipRecruiter: Post a Job on Multiple Job 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 boards 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.

ZipRecruiter for Employers

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.

The platform can also help you keep track of applicants, and it’ll help you integrate your current applicant tracking system into its platform.

ZipRecruiter for Job Seekers

The site is free for job seekers. You can search for job posts based on factors like desired salary, location or various keywords.

You can post a profile on the site that potential employers can see. You can post your resume, references, social network handles or a profile picture, among other things.

LinkedIn: the Ultimate Networking Site

LinkedIn is the biggest professional networking site in the world, with more than 750 million members in 200 countries.

LinkedIn for Employers

LinkedIn 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.

LinkedIn for Job Seekers

Once you create an account on this networking platform, you build a profile and link yourself to other professionals you’ve worked with or who you know. Networking is a good way to look for a job, and LinkedIn says roughly half of hires on the site result from a personal connection.

Looking for a job posting? You can look on the LinkedIn Jobs page to get recommendations for job listings that might appeal to you.

LinkedIn is free for job seekers, although LinkedIn Premium costs $29.99 to $59.99 per month for job seekers. With those plans, you get more tools to help your profile stand out, you get the ability to message LinkedIn members you’re not connected to, and you get more information on the people who are viewing your professional profile.

ZipRecruiter vs. LinkedIn: Pros and Cons

Each of these popular recruitment platforms have their pluses and minuses, depending on what you’re looking for.

ZipRecruiter’s Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Artificial intelligence helps you scale your recruiting efforts	Free trial only lasts four days
Can reach more than 100 job boards	No ability to post a company page
Has customizable job description templates for employers to use	Can be more expensive than other options

LinkedIn’s Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Offers a vast networking platform	Can be confusing whether to sign up for LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, LinkedIn Premium or LinkedIn Jobs
Offers a manageable pay per click model to promote job listings	Not all prices are posted online

ZipRecruiter vs. LinkedIn: Applicant Tracking

Does your company use an applicant tracking system like Bullhorn, ClearCompany or Greenhouse? Both ZipRecruiter and LinkedIn work seamlessly with dozens of third-party applicant tracking systems.

Using ATS integration, these online platforms 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 LinkedIn’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.

ZipRecruiter vs. LinkedIn: What It Costs

This is the most challenging part for job posters like you to grapple with, because there are so many different pricing options, and not all the prices are posted online. In some cases, you’ll need to ask each company’s sales department for a quote.

Free options are few. Both recruiting platforms offer free trials: ZipRecruiter lets you post jobs for free for four days. LinkedIn offers a one-month free trial for its “Recruiter Lite” option.

ZipRecruiter’s Pricing

ZipRecruiter has three monthly plans — Standard, Premium and Pro. Prices are based on how many jobs you need to post and how many job boards or job 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.”

LinkedIn’s Pricing

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 job seekers. 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.

ZipRecruiter vs. LinkedIn: You’ve Reached Customer Support

With ZipRecruiter, you can reach customer service via the phone, live chat or email. The website also has a thorough FAQ as well as “how to” guides.

You can contact LinkedIn via live chat support, but not on the phone. The website has a help center where you find “how to” guides or submit a query.

ZipRecruiter vs. LinkedIn: Resume Search

Want to do a resume search? ZipRecruiter has a vast resume bank and provides unlimited resume searches for clients who purchase one of its premium plans. If you’ve purchased the cheapest plan, you’ll have to buy resume searches.

LinkedIn doesn’t have a huge resume database like ZipRecruiter. But on LinkedIn, you can use the site’s search tools to look through users’ profiles and find potential job candidates.

ZipRecruiter vs. LinkedIn: The Bottom Line

If you’re an employer looking for an effective place to post jobs, these are two solid options.

LinkedIn allows you to contact potential candidates who fit your needs, so you can encourage them to apply. It also allows you access to a vast network of professionals.

However, ZipRecruiter offers you the ability to get your job posting out to more than 100 job sites. Also, hiring managers and HR directors can take advantage of how ZipRecruiter’s AI streamlines the process of creating job postings, reaching qualified talent and tracking candidates.

Either choice can find you the employees you need.

Mike Brassfield ([email protected]) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.