LinkedIn is the largest professional network, and it is no stranger to many subscription options. Naturally, every LinkedIn Premium subscription plan is a monthly-based service. However, have you ever thought about how wonderful it would be to try LinkedIn Premium free of charge?
Luckily, you can. Here are six different ways to get LinkedIn Premium free. As a bonus surprise, we’ve even thrown in a way you can even get a LinkedIn Premium discount. But surprises do not end there…
LinkedIn Premium subscriptions explained
The words “LinkedIn Premium” became synonymous with Premium Business plan. However, LinkedIn Premium is a true name for all LinkedIn subscriptions plans. So, to avoid confusion, we will make a note of what type of LinkedIn Premium subscription you can get for free with the methods described below.
First, let’s see what every LinkedIn subscription plan has to offer.
- Premium Career plan allows you to find jobs easier, access salary information, and job-seeking communities. In addition you can be a featured applicant, and learn from the LinkedIn Learning platform.
- LinkedIn Premium Business plan has many features. Sone of them include 15 InMail, premium search filters, company insights, and access to LinkedIn Learning courses.
- Recruiter, aka LinkedIn Premium for big company recruiters is a real booster. It contains 150 InMails, advanced filters, saved searches, alerts, reference searches, and much more.
- LinkedIn Premium for small company Recruiters, aka Recruiter Lite is the more affordable version of Recruiter. It contains less features than Recruiter, but it has better features VS price ratio.
- Sales Navigator is also know as LinkedIn Premium for Sales Professionals. Among other benefits, it includes the possibility to create lead lists and a large number of advanced search filters for LinkedIn prospecting done right.
Did you know that we have detailed comparisons of every LinkedIn subscription plan? Be sure to check them out:
- For our sales folks: LinkedIn Sales Navigator VS Premium For Lead Generation
- And all our recruiters out there: LinkedIn Premium VS Recruiter Lite VS Recruiter
How to get LinkedIn Premium free?
LinkedIn really tries to give back to the community. And giving away LinkedIn Premium free for use is one way they do it. However, it is worth noting that, even though each of the ways described below will allow you to use LinkedIn Premium free, it won’t be forever.
Nevertheless, there is plenty of time to test out and decide if you wish to use this subscription package to jump-start your career or for LinkedIn lead generation. Let’s jump to the ways you can try LinkedIn Premium free.
LinkedIn Premium free trial
If you wish to test out the features, you can always opt-in for the LinkedIn Premium Free Trial. This way, you can explore every subscription plan and find which one suits you best.
The free trial lasts for 1 month, and everyone can initiate it. In addition, you would need to insert your credit card details at the beginning of the trial.
After the free trial ends, your subscription will start automatically. Consequently, your credit card will be charged. Thus, if you decide not to pay for the subscription plan, you need to cancel the LinkedIn Premium free trial before it ends. You can also cancel the free trial at the beginning of the trial period, as you will get the entire month for free either way.
Furthermore, if you start a LinkedIn Premium free trial, you won’t be able to have another one for at least the next 12 months.
Starting LinkedIn Premium free trial - Steps
Here’s how you can start your LinkedIn Premium Free Trial.
Firstly, click the profile icon at the top of the homepage. Then, select the Settings & Privacy option.
Secondly, click the Account preferences. Then, navigate to Subscriptions & payments and click the Change button next to Upgrade for free option.
Next, the new page will open up. LinkedIn will ask you what you would like to achieve with an upgrade so it can suggest the plan for you. Thus, you can choose the subscription from the recommended section. Or you can check out all the plans and select one from there.
Here is where you can read more about the Premium plans. So, choose one that best suits your needs. Since Premium Business is versatile and many job hunters, recruiters, and sales managers use it, we will use it as an example.
Lastly, click on the Start my free month button, enter the credit card details and complete the upgrade.
In addition, please note that the price displayed below the button doesn’t include the tax or VAT. So you need to be aware of that if you wish to continue to a paid subscription afterward.
Getting LinkedIn Premium free from employees
One of the perks of working for LinkedIn is that almost every employee gets the LinkedIn Premium free subscription for 6 months. In this case, most of the employees give away these coupons to give back to the community.
However, many have certain conditions you need to fulfill to receive a LinkedIn Premium free coupon. Nonetheless, this is a great way to help those that need it the most.
To find an employee that is giving away LinkedIn Premium free coupons, first go to your LinkedIn search bar. Then, type either #linkedinpremium or #PlusOnePledge and hit enter. Click on Posts, and either sort them by latest or those posted in the last week.
Then, you can reach out to that person and ask them to provide you with that coupon. Simple as that.
The best-case practice is being honest and providing detailed information on why you need LinkedIn Premium free. In addition, describe your life circumstances and how you will use that to develop your career.
Linkedin Premium free for military veterans
LinkedIn joined forces with SheerID, an identity verification platform, for a special occasion. They wanted to offer 12-month access to LinkedIn Premium free of charge for all U.S. military veterans. In addition, all those granted to use LinkedIn Premium free will also have access to more than 16,000 courses.
The reason behind this initiative is that LinkedIn understands how difficult it is to move from military to civilian life. Thus LinkedIn took steps to help U.S. military veterans as much as possible. In addition, LinkedIn offers LinkedIn Premium free use for military spouses, as well.
Here are the benefits that military individuals can expect using the special LinkedIn Premium free membership:
- Access to Premium Career subscription for free during the 12 months;
- Getting noticed by recruiters;
- Building a network;
- Find and apply for jobs easier;
- Learn new skills;
- Support in the military to student life transition;
- Veteran-focused learning content;
- Additional resources to help you on your new career path.
So, how to apply for the LinkedIn Premium free program for veterans? All you need to do is to go to their Veterans subscription page and fill in the required form.
Tip: Be sure you reference that you are a veteran or have military experience on your LinkedIn profile before applying.
Lastly, please note that if for any reason, you already started a LinkedIn Premium free trial or subscription, you would need to cancel it first before applying to the LinkedIn Premium free veterans program.
Students and graduates can use LinkedIn Premium free too
Sometimes LinkedIn forms partnerships with different educational institutions as a part of their student program. The result of this partnership is that students and graduates can use LinkedIn Premium free for a 12-month period.
To check if your school partnered up with LinkedIn, go and ask if they have access to these subscriptions. If your university says they do not have access or partnership, ask them to reach out to LinkedIn. This way, they can check if they can become a part of the program and offer students LinkedIn Premium for free.
Keep in mind that you need to have an email from the school's domain to be granted free LinkedIn Premium subscription.
If, however, this doesn’t work for you, you can always check for other active LinkedIn Premium free programs for students.
For example, LinkedIn partnered up with Amazon to allow students to use subscriptions for free. So, if your Amazon account is Prime Student, then you are eligible to get a LinkedIn Premium free subscription for 6 months.
All you need to do is sign in to your Prime Student and LinkedIn account and redeem your Premium Subscription.
Yet, keep in mind that if you have an active Premium subscription plan, then you won’t be eligible for this offer.
Visual Studio users get LinkedIn Premium free of charge
Visual Studio Dev Essentials is a developer program created by Microsoft. Among the benefits, they provide various tools and training courses, and the LinkedIn Learning center is one of them. In other words, LinkedIn offers a Premium Career plan free for all Visual Studio Dev Essentials users.
This way, you get access to the LinkedIn Learning courses, acquire certificates and develop your skills. This offer lasts for 1 month, and you don’t need a credit card to start the subscription for free.
To use this LinkedIn Premium free offer, firstly, you need to have a Microsoft account. Once you create it, go to Visual Studio Dev Essentials and click the Join or access now button. Once there, navigate to the Benefits page. Then, find the LinkedIn Learning offer and click the Activate button.
After you’ve done it, you will go to the LinkedIn page, where you can activate the subscription.
Quarterly-based LinkedIn Premium free subscription for journalists
If you are a journalist who strives to perfect the craft, and join the journalist community, then, LinkedIn has a nifty solution for you. They offer access to journalist network, insights, and webinar. In addition, you get LinkedIn Premium free. LinkedIn offers this promotion each quarter.
However, only qualified health journalists can apply for the webinar and receive a free one-year subscription to LinkedIn Premium Business. In other words, qualifications include but are not limited to the following conditions:
- Firstly, to attend the webinar, you need to be a member of the LinkedIn for Journalists group;
- Secondly, your profile must demonstrate your journalism career path.
To apply for the webinar, you need to pay close attention to the application window for each quarter. You can do so by visiting the LinkedIn LinkedIn For Journalists page.
Bonus: Getting Sales Navigator for free
Here is the surprise for all you Sales Navigator lovers. Apart from starting the 1-month Sales Navigator free trial, you can also get Sales Navigator 2-month free use. This is only possible if your connections refer you through the Sales Navigator Referral program.
Here is how someone can provide you with a Sales Navigator referral or vice versa in 2 easy steps. First, go to your Sales Navigator platform, and click the Referrals button.
Next, type the person’s name you wish to refer to try this LinkedIn Premium free subscription. The only thing left to do is to hit the Send button. Each Sales Navigator user gets to send 10 referrals.
And, that’s it. Your connection will receive the confirmation email with the joining link that will lead to the activation page.
However, there are certain conditions you need to fulfill to receive a 2-month free Sales Navigator subscription:
- You are the 1st-degree connection to the referrer;
- not currently using any LinkedIn Premium subscription;
- Haven’t used a LinkedIn Premium free trial in the past 12 months.
How to get LinkedIn Premium discount?
As you can see, there are many ways to try LinkedIn Premium free. However, LinkedIn limits every account to only one such promotion per year. Nonetheless, if you are unsure if you would like to pay the full price, you can always get a discount.
Here is how you can do it.
First, go to your Settings & Privacy page. Next, under Subscriptions & payments click the Cancel Subscription button.
Next, the new window will open up. Continue the cancellation process.
Lastly, LinkedIn will ask you for the reason you wish to cancel. Respond with It’s too expensive.
Once you do, LinkedIn will give you a 50% discount for 2 months. This will be more than enough to decide whether you wish to pay the price or not.
FAQ
How do LinkedIn's Premium features specifically benefit different types of professionals, such as marketers, sales professionals, or recruiters, beyond the general descriptions provided?
LinkedIn Premium specifically aids professionals by providing enhanced tools for better targeting and networking. Marketers gain insights for more effective campaigns, sales professionals access detailed company and individual data for outreach, and recruiters get in-depth search capabilities to find ideal candidates, making each role's efforts more fruitful and efficient.
Are there any hidden costs or common pitfalls to be aware of when using these methods to get LinkedIn Premium for free, especially regarding the need to cancel subscriptions before they automatically renew?
Seeking LinkedIn Premium for free requires vigilance regarding trial periods and automatic renewals. Users must actively manage their subscriptions to avoid unexpected charges, as forgetting to cancel after a trial can result in automatic conversion to a paid subscription, leading to unwanted expenses.
Can these methods for obtaining LinkedIn Premium for free be combined or used sequentially to extend the free period, or is there a strict limit on how many promotions a user can access over a certain timeframe?
Leveraging multiple promotions for extended LinkedIn Premium access is subject to LinkedIn's monitoring of promotional usage. While users might attempt to sequentially use offers to maximize free access, LinkedIn's systems are designed to recognize and potentially restrict such activity, enforcing limits on the accessibility of consecutive promotions over a specific period.
Conclusion
LinkedIn really tries to give back to the community, and various LinkedIn Premium free promotions are the proof of that.
However, please be aware that LinkedIn keeps track of if and when somebody uses one of these promotions. If, for example, you used a 1-month free trial, LinkedIn won’t allow you to repeat it or get any other promotion from our list. Not for 12 months at least.
Furthermore, LinkedIn is not big on giving refunds. So, be careful to cancel the promotion in time. Otherwise, you will be charged after the free period ends. If, for any reason, you think that LinkedIn Premium is not for you, keep track of the date or set a reminder alert.
Lastly, keep in mind that if you are already a Premium user, you’ll need to cancel your Premium subscription. Only after you wait for the billing cycle to end will you be able to activate LinkedIn Premium free promotions.
That said, enjoy your LinkedIn Premium free promotions!
Are you a recruiter or a sales manager who wishes to outreach your candidates or prospects on autopilot and close more deals? Welcome! We are Skylead. Let’s chat and see how we can help you with your outreach. Contact us via chat or test out Skylead for free directly!
And don’t worry. Whatever LinkedIn subscription you are using, be it Sales Navigator, Recruiter, Recruiter Lite or Premium Business, you can use it with Skylead.
Whether a complete beginner in LinkedIn prospecting or an experienced sales rep in search of a fresh approach, this LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium comparison is aimed at giving insight into the valuable features of each plan, so you can make informed decisions on which subscription suits your LinkedIn lead generation best.
The majority of sales reps would probably tell you to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator right off the bat. This LinkedIn subscription was, indeed, originally created to help you find qualified prospects for your business through its advanced filtering options, placing prospects into lead and account lists for a more personalized approach, creating alerts so you know what your target users are up to, and many more that will be listed and thoroughly explained down below.
However, this doesn’t mean that LinkedIn Sales Navigator always wins in the LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium “battle” or that merely investing in it will bring you the desired results. The majority of outcomes will depend on your social selling skills and certain market factors. Ours is to make a LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium comparison. Yours is to pick which one makes sense for YOUR lead generation.
The one thing we know for sure is that you must give up your LinkedIn basic account. The free plan doesn’t support a higher number of searches, let alone anything more than that. If you wish to just be there on LinkedIn and wait to be discovered, sure, go ahead. Stick to your free plan. For anything more than that, you will need to upgrade to pretty much any other LinkedIn subscription.
Now, let’s see which one suits your business needs the most.
LinkedIn Premium: Best features for lead generation
LinkedIn Premium consists of two sub-plans, LinkedIn Premium Careers and LinkedIn Premium Business. The first one is created to help you get hired. The second one to build a strong LinkedIn network and advance your business. That’s why we will be focusing on LinkedIn Premium Business.
Both the LinkedIn plan price and the VAT depend on the country in which your account has been registered.
Our Team which is based in Serbia is approximately paying the following amount for each LinkedIn Premium Business.
- monthly cost - around $60 per month + VAT as specified by our country.
- annual cost - around $570 + VAT yearly as specified by our country.
Let's go through LinkedIn Premium Business features that are useful for lead generation.
Monthly InMail credit
LinkedIn Premium gives you 15 paid InMail credits per month that can be accumulated to up to 45 credits in 3 months. Any LinkedIn member can receive a paid InMail, but only LinkedIn Premium, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter plans can send them. Each time you get a reply, you get that InMail credit back.
Each Premium user gets 800 free InMails that can be sent only to members whose profiles are set to “open”. If you wish to be able to receive an InMail from any member on LinkedIn, set up your profile for it.
The number of Paid InMails varies depending on the plan. This is where Sales Navigator for sure wins the LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium “battle” (more on this below). Since each LinkedIn member can receive a paid InMail, we advise our users to use it as the last resource. Therefore, Linkedin InMails are usually as one of the very last steps/conditions in our Smart Sequences. InMails also turned out to be a clever move if you want to get in touch with members, usually, decision-makers who are hard to be reached out to. Check out our InMail templates for sales to get inspired.
The “Who Viewed Your Profile” feature
If you are a Premium Business subscriber, you’ll have a detailed insight into LinkedIn members who viewed your profile. Maybe you appeared in their feed, their search results, maybe you came as recommended by someone, they were checking out your company’s website, or your profile was shown in the “People also viewed” or “People you may know” feature. Either way, they showed some kind of interest in you. Reaching out to them turned out to be a LinkedIn prospecting practice that brings results. This is where you can see Who Viewed Your Profile on LinkedIn.
Unlimited search
LinkedIn Premium offers unlimited search unlike LinkedIn basic that limits you to 10 searches per month. If you are a LinkedIn free plan user, you’ll need to wait until you can continue browsing other LinkedIn profiles.
Company insights
All LinkedIn Premium members can go to any LinkedIn company page and check out the company’s insights here. Companies that hire, grow, and receive funding are generally more likely to consider innovative solutions, hire counselors, and automate certain processes. That's why, taking into account specific company insights can be valuable for your next business move.
This can be useful for lead generation because you can see data such as:
- Total employee count
- Total employee growth in the last 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years
- Employee distribution and head growth by function
- And other data that could be significant for your lead generation.
LinkedIn learning
LinkedIn Learning is LinkedIn's free online learning platform. It provides video courses taught by industry experts available to LinkedIn Premium users. Their main goal is to provide different skill sets necessary for scaling up your business and for advancing your career.
This is what your LinkedIn learning platform dashboard looks like.
You can see the skills you choose to improve, you can add new skills on your right, while in the top right corner you will find the preset weekly goal. The weekly goal is not something that LinkedIn asks you to commit to, it is more of a personal goal you set for yourself.
Click on Learning history. Then, click on Show recommended courses. LinkedIn will suggest specific courses based on your professional path and the previously set preferences.
This is what LinkedIn’s top picks for me look like.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Best features for lead generation
In this LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium comparison, we must highlight right away that LinkedIn Sales Navigator for sure has more lead-generation-oriented features since it’s been created specifically for it.
So, yes, to answer your question, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is for sure the most suitable for lead generation and sales in general by all parameters.
However, we decided to write this LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium comparison so you can make informed decisions about whether to invest in something as advanced as Sales Navigator or stick to LinkedIn Premium features for lead generation. Why is that?
The truth is, that a great number of Sales Navigator subscribers don’t use the platform to its full potential. Some of them are not familiar with it enough. The others actually don’t need all super-advanced Sales Navigator features for their lead generation. And the Sales Navigator is pretty pricey…
When you upgrade to Sales Navigator from your existing plan, you will NOT be paying for both plans. This can be quite confusing for the first-timers since Sales Navigator seems like a completely different platform. However, you will have at your disposal all the above LinkedIn Premium features in addition to the following perks offered by Sales Navigator only.
Our Team which is based in Serbia is approximately paying the following amount for Sales Navigator Core.
- monthly cost - around $79 per month + VAT as specified by our country.
- annual cost - around $877 + VAT yearly as specified by our country.
Advanced filtering
The first benefit of Sales Navigator is its 29 Lead Filters and 15 Account Filters, out of which 27 total are Sales Navigator only. If your niche requires pretty specific lead profiles, Sales Navigator is the right subscription for you.
Saved search
The Saved Search option allows you to save specific criteria that get you as close as possible to your ICP and then send leads and accounts that match those criteria to one place. You can name your Saved Search in a way to help you distinguish between other saved searches you have. Every time you enter the Saved Searches dashboard, you will see the number of leads that were added since the last time you opened that specific saved search. You can also see when you last accessed that particular list.
Lead lists and account lists
Something similar to the previous feature is the Lead List and Account List options. Keep specific leads or accounts that match your lead generation criteria in one place and under one name.
Monthly InMail credit
The concept of free and paid InMail credits is the same as explained above. The only difference is that Sales Navigator offers 50 paid InMails credits that can be accumulated to up to 150 in 3 months. LinkedIn gives you back InMail credits each time a user answers. Additionally, each Sales Navigator subscriber gets 800 free InMail credits that can be sent only to users with open profiles. Therefore, LinkedIn Sales Navigator number of InMail credits for sure wins the LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium battle.
Connect your CRM
Among the three plans, Sales Navigator Core, Sales Navigator Advanced, and Sales Navigator Advanced Plus, only the last two support the option of connecting your CRM. Once you’ve connected your database, Sales Navigator will match the list of leads with their LinkedIn profiles and enable you to perform any action you would normally be able to through a regular Sales Navigator. Sales Navigator supports the majority of CRMs. If you don’t have one or are not sure which one to consider, we’ve listed the top 10 CRMs on the market with all their advantages and disadvantages to help you out with this choice.
Set alerts for leads & accounts
Set alerts for leads and accounts of your choice, and Sales Navigator will make sure to regularly update you on every activity the platform finds relevant. It could be anything from job changes, post shares, growth insights for companies, etc. Save your leads into a lead or account list, bookmark them, leave a note, or reach out, directly from your feed. It is an excellent way to know what your leads of interest are up to and wait for the right moment to approach them.
View similar
The View Similar option is available for accounts only. It is the right choice once you’ve defined your ICP down to the smallest detail. Let’s say you found that ideal company that you would like to replicate if you could. In a way, you can. Click on the three dots next to the company name in the Sales Navigator search results. Choose View Similar. Sales Navigator will list other companies whose attributes match as close as possible the ones of the original one.
Leave notes
Sales Navigator gives you an option to leave notes next to the leads and accounts of your choice. This way, you know at any moment what stop they’re at on their buyer’s journey.
Set up your sales preferences
Sales Navigator offers the opportunity to set up your sales preferences and choose the types of leads and accounts you wish to see more of on your feed. This option will give you significant insight into people and companies from your target industries, without you having search them manually. Sales Navigator will automatically push up to 100 leads that match your Sales Preferences into a list named Recommended Leads. The system generates this list and automatically refreshes every week.
Blacklist specific leads and accounts
Blacklisting specific leads, accounts, or Lead or Account lists can be an excellent way to avoid certain leads. These can be people you already spoke to, your competitors, partners, existing customers, etc. Sales Navigator doesn’t have the Blacklist feature per se. However, you can create one by taking advantage of the possibility to exclude certain parameters or entire lists from your search.
Smart links
A Smart Link is a link to a document (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, or image file) or a downloadable (a video, zip file, CSV, etc.) that you can insert in a LinkedIn InMail message.
Only Sales Navigator Advance and Advance Plus support Smart Links.
The main advantage of the smart link is the option of tracking link clicks, the amount of time the recipient spent viewing the content, the date and the time that the recipient accessed the content, etc.
Also, if the user that clicked on your content logged into their LinkedIn account first, you will be able to see basic info from their profile such as name, title, company, and public profile picture. Additionally, you'll have the option of sending a free InMail, if they have an open profile, or a paid one.
If they didn't log into their LinkedIn accounts, they must insert their full name and email address before accessing your content.
This is an awesome way for sales and marketing teams to collect significant insights into people that are showing interest in their product.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium: Downloadable comparison table
Summary
At the end of this LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium comparison, we must emphasize that the choice of your LinkedIn Account will highly depend on your intentions on LinkedIn. Not all Sales Navigator users know these hacks nor are they taking full advantage of the platform itself.
Whether you opt for LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator after reading this LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium comparison, or maybe even Recruiter, if you are searching for the best talent for your business, know that Skylead supports all three plans and can make your outreach faster and easier.
Skylead is an AI-inspired Sales Engagement Platform that takes over all boring and time-consuming sales tasks and allows you to focus on closing the deal.
Do you wish to know more about how to use Skylead? Are you curious how Skylead can get you faster to your sales goals? Check out our website or schedule a FREE demo appointment with our Sales Reps.
We’re waiting for you!
What is the real difference among LinkedIn Recruiter, Recruiter Lite and Premium Business?
Finding the right employee can be a tough job. More so, if you use a more traditional hiring method, such as job posting websites. We don’t say that these methods don’t work. However, they require a ton of effort and time to comb through applicants’ skills and experience.
Besides, the time spent going through these applications can lead to the prolonged time needed for hiring. Undoubtedly, for businesses, this means an extended period without employees and work to be done, aka money loss.
That is where LinkedIn jumps in. Many HR professionals swear by this as the world’s most popular professional network. More so than any other platform out there. Thus, LinkedIn created a separate platform for all the HR professionals where they can do their LinkedIn prospecting and outreaching - Recruiter.
However, is the LinkedIn Recruiter really the best LinkedIn subscription for HRs? Or can the same job be done with Premium or LinkedIn Recruiter Lite? Let’s be the judge of that together, shall we?
Today, we are covering what LinkedIn Subscription options exist for hiring managers, their pros and cons, and what you should consider when choosing the right type of platform.
LinkedIn Premium Business subscription
This LinkedIn subscription is, first and foremost, created for individuals who wish to boost their skills, connect with like-minded people or companies, and extend their network. It offers many features that a free LinkedIn account does not. And it is a decent upgrade if you wish to step up your LinkedIn game in any way you can imagine - be it for sales, networking, or job-seeking efforts.
Who is it for?
Premium LinkedIn subscription is a good tool for any job seeker, business leader, or entry-level sales manager. Even though the LinkedIn Premium Business plan is not for hiring managers specifically, it can do a nice job with posting jobs and reaching out to your candidates. Here’s how.
LinkedIn Premium pros
Unlimited people-browsing
If you have a basic LinkedIn account, you will notice that you can have up to 10 unlimited searches a month.
However, as a Premium Business subscriber, you will have unlimited searches for profiles up to the 3rd-degree connection type. This way, you can search and connect to the right candidates faster.
Free job posting
You can post a job free of charge using the LinkedIn Premium subscription. Apart from the job description, It gives you additional options to fill in, including screening questions and skills required.
The good thing about this process is that LinkedIn offers an option to reject candidates and send them a predefined message automatically, which saves you a lot of time. However, it lacks personalization.
After you publish a job post, LinkedIn will show it only to your network. Yet, if you want your job to be more visible, you need to pay to promote it. To clarify, you determine the budget you wish to invest, and LinkedIn only spends it when someone clicks on your job post.
If you decide to promote it, LinkedIn will publish your job ad on certain LinkedIn pages or via email and push notifications to find you the best candidates. Otherwise, LinkedIn will notify your connections that you’re hiring. Consequently, your network can help increase posts’ visibility by sharing. Thus you can reach qualified candidates easier.
InMail credits
If you are looking for a specific person that ends up being outside of your network, nor do you share a group with them, LinkedIn will provide you with an option to reach them out by using InMail. Check out our complete guide on how LinkedIn InMail works.
InMails, aka LinkedIn emails, can be useful when you want to reach out to potential employees you think are the best fit for the job. Also, they are good when you do not wish to risk getting your email in a spam folder or do not have the email address, to begin with.
Unlike LinkedIn basic accounts, Premium Business offers 15 InMail credits a month. It’s not a lot, as other subscription plans provide much more. Still, it is more than enough for small to medium-size companies that do not have frequent hiring or headhunting needs.
Furthermore, LinkedIn will return you the InMail credits you spent if you receive a response. And if you need inspiration for your outreach, check out our InMail templates.
Finally, LinkedIn allows you to gather InMails. In other words, if you haven’t used InMails over the course of 3 months, you can have up to 45 InMails in stock. However, that is the limit, and you cannot accumulate more than 45 InMails over a longer period.
“Who's Viewed Your Profile” feature
If you are a Premium Business subscriber, you will be able to see everyone who viewed your profile. You will be able to see information such as their job title and how they found you. If they have an open profile, that is. This feature is valuable for your HR persona as the potential best employees might find you first.
Company insights
Sometimes, the hiring competition is high, and job positions are undersaturated. Thus, you can use a Premium Business subscription to access competitive intelligence and an inside look at companies, their hiring trends, and current employees. In other words, you will be able to see:
- Companies’ growth rate over 2 years;
- The number of employees and hiring trends in the last 2 years;
- Employee retention.
Multi-language courses
As one of its main features, LinkedIn Premium business offers a wide range of courses that any professional can complete and master various skills - over 16.000, to be precise. Furthermore, these courses are led by different industry experts, and some of them provide completion certificates.
In addition, the completed courses are listed on each user profile. So, as a hiring manager, if you are interested in pumping up your skills, you can do so in a blink of an eye and see which candidate did the same.
LinkedIn Premium Business cons
If we talk only about recruiting needs, this LinkedIn subscription plan has some constraints that do not exist in other plans.
Firstly, if you decide to find and reach out to the candidates yourself, Premium Business doesn’t have much to offer in terms of search filters. With only 11 filters available, you will be able to search candidates only by:
- Type of connections;
- Connection of the specific person in your network;
- Location;
- Current company;
- Past company;
- School;
- Industry;
- Profile language;
- Open to option for pro bono consulting/volunteering and joining a non-profit board;
- Service categories;
- Keywords, such as name, title, and company.
In addition, this LinkedIn subscription plan does not support advanced search filters, like Years of experience or Skills filters. After all, such filters are crucial for recruiters. Moreover, you do not have the Smart suggestions or search options. Thus the Boolean search option becomes quite limited. In other words, you won’t be able to search for the long Boolean strings, or the same strings won’t work as they would in LinkedIn Recruiter.
Secondly, if you wish to check your candidate's status, you will not be able to, as Premium Business doesn’t support candidates’ pipelines or job projects. To explain - a project is a workspace that LinkedIn created for its Recruiter subscriptions. They are used to track candidates throughout the hiring process, making it a nifty feature for HRs.
Moreover, LinkedIn Premium Business has no candidates recommendation option, nor does it offer to save candidate search and alerts.
How much does Linkedin Premium cost?
LinkedIn Premium Business subscription costs $60.47 per month + VAT as specified by your country. If you wish to pay annually, you will have 20% off, making the total price $579.81 + VAT yearly.
Do not forget the additional budget cost if you wish to sponsor a job post to reach a wider audience.
Is Linkedin Premium worth it?
Overall this LinkedIn subscription is useful for any professional, including hiring managers who are just starting or have low-volume hiring needs.
You will undoubtedly get your money's worth with courses, company insight, InMails, and free job posts. However, if you require more filters, candidates pipeline, templates, and access to a wider audience, you might want to reconsider upgrading to the LinkedIn subscription plans below.
Did you know that you can use Premium plans for free? Check out our article to find out 6 ways to get LinkedIn Premium free of charge.
Recruiter Lite LinkedIn subscription
The LinkedIn Recruiter Lite subscription serves as a downgraded version of the LinkedIn Recruiter. However, downgraded doesn’t mean bad. It is more than a decent tool for hiring managers who wish to connect with a more narrow candidate group and manage candidates’ pipelines and job projects.
In addition, LinkedIn Recruiter Lite supports every feature found in Premium Business and more.
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite - Who is it for?
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite is best for any hiring manager with medium-size businesses and small-to-medium hiring needs.
Recruiter Lite pros
Managing projects
This LinkedIn subscription offers the option to manage your job posts and candidates into projects. In other words, projects are categorization tools that HRs use to organize candidate profiles into folders to review them, check their status and push them into the pipeline.
In addition, Recruiter Lite has a limit on the number of projects you wish to create, as it's a single-account dashboard. To clarify, you can create up to 100 projects at once.
Advanced search filters
Unlike the previous LinkedIn subscription, Recruiter Lite has a list of advanced filters which you can use to narrow down your candidates’ search. So you can find the right talent by using 23 different Recruiter Lite search filters.
However, LinkedIn doesn’t have that much-advanced filtering capability as opposed to Sales Navigator filters or Recruiter itself.
Saved search alerts
Recruiter Lite has a nifty feature that allows you to be among the first recruiters to know when a certain candidate changes their job status.
In other words, search alerts included in this LinkedIn subscription will track changes in the candidates' profile, saved in your talent pool. If a candidate changes their profile status to Open To New Roles, LinkedIn will notify you, thus helping you to get ahead of your recruiter competitors.
In addition, Recruiter Lite subscribers can have a maximum of 10 saved search alerts.
Smart recruiting - Recommended matches
Recommended Matches is a Recruiter feature that suggests candidates tailored to your searches or job posts in your project.
If you are a Recruiter Lite subscriber, LinkedIn will recommend 25 candidates each day. You can then save those candidates to your project pipeline or reach them out via InMail.
More InMails in a recruiter’s bowl
As an upgrade from the Premium Business Subscription, Recruiter Lite will provide you with 30 InMails per month. Moreover, if accumulated, you can have as many as 90 InMail credits to spend.
Saved templates
To make the outreach easier, LinkedIn Recruiter Lite introduced message templates that you can create and send out to your candidates. In other words, message templates serve to send bulk info to candidates without having to rewrite the same message over again.
These messages may not be as personalized as you’d like them to be, but they serve their purpose. However, stick around until the end of the text to find out how you can make them even more personalized.
Downsides of Recruiter Lite
If we compare LinkedIn Recruiter Lite with Premium Business, you can see the great advantages for recruiters. However, if compared to Recruiter, this LinkedIn subscription has a couple of downsides worth mentioning.
Firstly, Recruiter Lite is a one-user account only. It does not have the option to add multiple seats in one account.
Secondly, even though LinkedIn Recruiter Lite has the analytics feature, it is limited. In other words, you can only analyze LinkedIn InMails and job posts' performance.
Speaking of limits, some recruiters would argue that the advanced account filters available in Recruiter Lite are not enough to find ideal candidates. And in addition, more useful filters could be found in the Sales Navigator LinkedIn subscription.
Lastly, if you are using one of the applicant tracking systems on the market, unfortunately, you will not be able to integrate it with Recruiter Lite. However, this option is available for Recruiter subscribers.
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite cost
You can purchase a LinkedIn Recruiter Lite subscription for around $140 per month. However, we say “around” as the price varies depending on your location and country’s VAT policy.
To buy or not to buy LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
It certainly is an upgrade for hiring managers to use Recruiter Lite if they previously used a Premium Business subscription. With wider access to the network, projects, more advanced filters, and InMails, as well as recommended matches, among other features, it justifies this LinkedIn subscription price.
However, is it enough for certain hiring managers to settle down with this LinkedIn subscription? If you are HR working in a small to medium-size company, we say, “Why not try?”.
And if you are still indecisive, you should know that LinkedIn may offer a Free Trial for a month - you just need to contact their support and check for eligibility. Thus it is worth your time to try out Recruiter Lite for sure. Only then will you be sure if this subscription is best for you and whether you should upgrade/downgrade.
LinkedIn Recruiter
As LinkedIn’s ultimate “power” tool for hiring managers, Recruiter is a much more advanced version of Recruiter Lite. Indeed, it supports everything mentioned in previous LinkedIn subscriptions and so much more. But, as it always has been, everything comes at a cost.
Furthermore, LinkedIn Recruiter has two variants - Professional and Corporate, which differ slightly.
Who is the LinkedIn Recruiter best for?
LinkedIn Recruiter can be useful for medium-sized companies with high-volume hiring needs. However, it is best suited for large enterprises, as their hiring needs are pretty high.
Advantages of LinkedIn Recruiter
Multiple accounts per seat
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite only permits one user per seat. However, LinkedIn Recruiter allows users to have multiple accounts per seat. Furthermore, the users under one seat can collaborate and exchange data used in these accounts, which is a great feature for companies with many multi-level hiring managers.
Unlimited recommended matches
Unlike the Lite version, which provides 25 recommended matches, LinkedIn Recruiter will show an unlimited amount of recommended candidates each day.
40+ advanced search filters
Undoubtedly, one of the best LinkedIn Recruiter features is advanced filters. With 40+ filters on the table, this subscription plan will save up your candidates' search time. In other words, you will have filters such as who is more likely to engage or notes filter so you can configure the search and find the perfect candidate.
In addition, LinkedIn will provide you with access to the entire network to research. So you will not have to struggle with your only 3rd-degree-connection-type in Recruiter Lite.
ATS integration
LinkedIn allows you to streamline your hiring process by integrating LinkedIn Recruiter with the applicants tracking systems. You can access the information you need within seconds without switching between the platforms. Furthermore, LinkedIn doesn’t charge any fee for the integration. However, an additional fee may apply depending on the ATS provider.
In addition, customers who integrate LinkedIn Recruiter with an ATS system can also filter for candidates found in their ATS or exclude them from the search.
Advanced reports
With LinkedIn’s advanced reporting system, you can analyze Jobs, InMails performance, pipeline, usage, and team’s Recruiter utilization and performance, with tips and resources to improve performance.
Candidate reviews from other HRs
LinkedIn Recruiter allows you to share profiles for feedback with any LinkedIn user. This feature is allowed thanks to the Hiring Manager LinkedIn Recruiter role. With this role, you will be able to request feedback about the candidates from the hiring managers they worked with in the past. In addition, you can share profiles and Projects directly with other users who have a Hiring Manager role.
LinkedIn Recruiter disadvantages
With a robust LinkedIn subscription, like Recruiter, there have to be some concerns and disadvantages that hiring managers report regularly.
Firstly, LinkedIn recruiter pricing is pretty steep as opposed to other subscriptions. In addition, recruiters reported that it is not cost-effective unless you use it daily.
Secondly, LinkedIn Recruiter is a yearly contract thing. If, for example, you decide you do not wish to use it anymore during this period, you will not be able to get out of the contract. Also, speaking of the business side, some recruiters reported that they had customer support issues which is what you do not want to hear if you are investing that kind of money.
On a more technical side, if recruiters search for the same candidates, the search result would be the same. This happens because Recruiter’s algorithm puts the same people at the top of the search.
Lastly, the number of InMails you get might seem high, and you can accumulate them. However, let us look at the other side of the coin. Since LinkedIn Recruiter is used by multiple accounts in enterprise companies, with, for example, 5+ hiring managers, the numbers of 100 and 150 InMails are not that high. Moreover, hardly anyone will have the chance to accumulate any number of InMails in that kind of working environment.
How much does LinkedIn Recruiter cost?
If you try to find the exact prices for LinkedIn Recruiter Professional And Corporate, you should give up. The reason is that, to find out the price, you need to contact their sales team.
Nevertheless, the talk of the town is that LinkedIn Recruiter cost ranges from $835 to $900 per month, depending on your hiring needs.
Is Linkedin Recruiter worth it?
If it is to believe “the word on the streets”, LinkedIn Recruiter indeed is expensive. Not to mention that you will most likely be imprisoned with a yearly contract. So if, for example, you do not find some features worth the cost or change your mind, you won’t be able to get out of the contract.
However, if you:
- Work in a large company with the constant need for hiring;
- Have multiple recruiters who need to share projects, notes, searches, InMails;
- Possess ATS;
- Wish to narrow down your search with more advanced filters;
- Access to the entire network;
Then LinkedIn Recruiter will be worth it. Otherwise, you might want to think about going with lower LinkedIn subscription plans.
LinkedIn subscription summary
LinkedIn is indeed the best choice for your recruiting efforts (e.g. generating leads on LinkedIn, outreaching candidates...). Why? Since people tend to update their profiles more regularly, unlike their job boards or candidates' profiles in the company system. There is no doubt about that.
However, choosing the right LinkedIn subscription for recruiting can be tricky in the long run. Besides, it depends entirely on your and the company’s needs. If, for example, your hiring needs are constant, and you have an entire team of HRs, you should think about choosing the true Recruiter subscription. On the other hand, if you are a stand-alone recruiter and have little to no hiring needs, then Premium Business will do just the work.
Lastly, if you have consistent hiring needs but are willing to sacrifice all those showstopper features, you can subscribe to Recruiter Lite. It truly has some constraints, but it is more than an upgrade from Premium Business.
And just a reminder: you can try out any LinkedIn subscription free for a month. This way, you can decide which option best suits your needs.
Nonetheless, if you are the hiring manager who wishes to use either Premium Business, Recruiter Lite, or Recruiter itself for your hiring process, then you should know one last thing. There is a way that you can use to improve your candidates' outreach experience and streamline your work, and it is called Skylead.
To clarify, it will help you outreach your target candidates on autopilot and let you focus more on your interviews. Be sure to check out how to create a Skylead campaign here.
If you wish to use Skylead to outreach your candidates and add personalization, come by and try out Skylead for free. We would be happy to see you 🙂