Free vs. paid hiring tools on LinkedIn for recruiters

Your guide to unlocking the tools and resources you need, for any recruiting goal or budget.

Animation of two recruiters - one is using LinkedIn free hiring tools and the other is using LinkedIn paid hiring tools.

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Finding the right hiring tools

There are many ways for hiring managers and recruiters to find, attract, and recruit top candidates on LinkedIn. Let’s break down the difference between free and paid tools by taking a look at two different people — Felix and Penelope.

Felix uses free hiring tools.

Felix only hires once or twice a year, so he doesn’t feel it’s necessary to make a strategic investment. These hiring tools meet his recruitment needs, but he has to finish many tasks manually.

• Share jobs with his network.
• Search for candidates within connected circles.
• Send unlimited messages within his network.
• Manage communications and pipeline status manually.

Penelope uses paid hiring tools.

As part of a company with a talent acquisition team, Penelope has steady hiring needs and will be hiring for three or more roles this year. She wants a more strategic approach and a hiring ecosystem.

• Find the right candidate with 40+ advanced search filters.
• Send 150 monthly InMail messages to any of LinkedIn’s 1 billion+ members (and enjoy better response rates).
• Share projects with teammates.
• Access tailored talent pool and company insights.

Here's what Felix and Penelope can do.

Illustration of a male recruiter sitting at a desk and working on his computer.

With free hiring tools,
Felix can:

With free hiring tools,
Felix can:

Illustration of a female recruiter sitting at a desk and working on her computer.

With paid hiring tools, Penelope can:

With paid hiring tools,
Penelope can:

Free | Member access

Access 3rd-degree connections.

• View profiles from his extended network up to a 3rd-degree connection across LinkedIn.

Paid | Member access

Access over 1 billion LinkedIn members.

• Get unlimited access to all of our 1 billion+ members through LinkedIn Recruiter.

Free | Search

Leverage six search filters.

• On LinkedIn.com, conduct high-level searches using six filters, including job title, industry, and name.

Paid | Search

Leverage 40+ search filters, and more

• In LinkedIn Recruiter, hone in on the right candidates quickly with 40+ advanced search filters.
• Get automatic candidate matching and recommendations that let you pinpoint candidates by their expertise, interest levels, and geographical location.

Free | Messaging

Message 1st-degree connections.

• Contact 1st-degree connections using LinkedIn’s messaging platform.

Paid | Messaging

Message anyone on LinkedIn.

• Reach out to anyone on LinkedIn with 150 messages per month — and get 40% higher response rates when using AI-assisted messaging and automations through LinkedIn Recruiter.

Free | Jobs

Post a free job.

• Post 1 free job at a time for a maximum of 30 days.
• Free job posts appear in non-promoted search results with limited visibility.

Paid | Jobs

Target jobs to relevant candidates.

• Pay to promote an unlimited number of jobs at a time, get placement at top of LinkedIn job search results, target qualified candidates, and get charged only for job views.

Hiring at scale? Contact sales to learn more about a consistent or surge need.

Free | Collaboration

Track hiring processes manually.

• Manage communications and track pipeline status and applicant response rate manually, using external spreadsheets and messaging platforms.

Paid | Collaboration

Make insight-driven decisions.

• Share candidate profiles and feedback with teammates in one pipeline.
• Use LinkedIn Talent Insights to make informed decisions based on personalized industry and market trends.
• Get on-demand, intuitive reports about effective InMail templates, applicant demographics, and more.

Free | Company Pages

Create a LinkedIn Page.

• Create a LinkedIn Page to share the big picture about his business.
• Post open roles on his LinkedIn Page feed to connect with potential candidates more quickly.

Paid | Career Pages

Attract talent with Career Pages

•  Create a Career Page to highlight company culture and get 8x more applicants.
•  Pipeline interested candidates who are 3x more likely to accept an InMail.
•  Leverage your employees to drive awareness of opportunities with Work With Us Ads.

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Use the right recruiting tools for you.

Whichever tools best suit your needs, we offer hiring and recruiting tools for every step in the process. Find and engage the right candidates, build your brand, and make even smarter talent decisions with LinkedIn’s data and insights.

Need more information?

Reach out to our talent specialists to learn more about paid solutions from LinkedIn.

Request a demo

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