ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed at a Glance

ZipRecruiter and Indeed are both user-friendly, reputable sites for posting jobs and attracting applicants. 

Indeed is an aggregator. It pulls job postings from ZipRecruiter and other job boards, giving you a single place to look for your recruiting efforts. It has 57 million monthly users and over 245 million resumes. 

Conversely, ZipRecruiter doesn’t aggregate postings. When you post a job to ZipRecruiter, it lives on ZipRecruiter’s website, which over 162 million job seekers and 3.8 million businesses use. The post also feeds into over 100 other websites, including Indeed.

Another major difference between Indeed and ZipRecruiter is price. Indeed is free to use, but ZipRecruiter charges a fee for each job post.

ZipRecruiter Pros and Cons

While ZipRecuiter is a leader in the hiring industry, it does have its pros and cons. Here are a few factors to keep in mind:

Pros

• Sends your listing to over 100 job boards for a wide reach 
• Doesn’t aggregate other listings, so your open positions are less likely to get lost in a sea of posts
• Uses AI to find candidates for hard-to-fill positions
• Can boost your listing to get more candidates to see it

Cons

• Doesn’t have a free plan
• Comes with an additional fee to boost your listing
• Has a smaller resume database than Indeed with about 43 million resumes

Indeed Pros and Cons

Indeed is another job search giant. But, just as with ZipRecruiter, it has some advantages and disadvantages, including: 

Pros

• Doesn’t charge for job postings
• Has a new per-application boosting function that only charges you for views and clicks to your listings that result in applications
• Comes at an affordable price for businesses that have a limited recruiting budget
• Has a large database of over 245 million resumes

Cons

• Aggregates from other platforms, resulting in an overwhelming number of positions for applicants to comb through
• Doesn’t offer the per-application boosting model for all positions
• Can cost more to boost posts based on the role, title and location

ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed Pricing Comparison

Let’s take a closer look at Indeed and ZipRecruiter pricing, starting with this table:

ZipRecruiter offers a two-day free trial. During this time, you can post a single listing. Once your two days are up, you must commit to a paid plan. This short turnaround is likely not enough time to receive many qualified applicants.

ZipRecruiter is not transparent or consistent with its plan pricing. We talked to two different sales representatives via live chat who said the starting price was anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over $1,000. Either way, this is steep, considering that Indeed lets you post as many jobs as you want for free. You only have to pay for boosting, which, like with ZipRecruiter, varies in price by role, location and other factors.

ZipRecruiter vs. Indeed Features Comparison

ZipRecruiter and Indeed share many of the same features — some free and some paid. However, Indeed in particular also has some unique capabilities. Here is a summary of this information:

Coworker Collaboration

Maybe your company has several internal recruiters. Or, maybe you want the hiring manager or external recruiting agency to be able to help with candidate sourcing. In all cases, you can have multiple recruiters on the same Indeed or ZipRecruiter account. Adding additional users through Indeed is free. However, it may require an upgrade on ZipRecruiter. 

Dashboard

The dashboard is the heart of your Indeed or ZipRecruiter account. It is where you see candidates in every stage of the hiring process, including:

• Recently applied but not reviewed
• Turned down
• Recruiter interview scheduled
• Hiring manager interview scheduled
• Skills assessment in progress

Candidate Sorting and Rating

Both sites offer screening questions to vet potential candidates early in the application process. Choose from a list of questions, or write custom ones. Once you have the question, write the desired answer. If a candidate does answer in your desired way, Indeed and ZipRecruiter can automatically filter them from your pool. 

On top of screening questions, Indeed does skills assessments. If candidates pass the initial screening, you can have them complete a skills test directly on the platform. This capability is not available on ZipRecruiter, though.

The final feature of note in this category is the rating system. At each stage of the recruiting and hiring process, both Indeed and ZipRecruiter allow candidate rating. With Indeed, you assign each candidate as “yes,” “no” or “maybe.” ZipRecruiter is similar with a thumbs up, neutral or thumbs down.  

ATS Integration

Even with Indeed and/or ZipRecruiter, recruiting professionals usually still have an applicant tracking system (ATS). The main difference between an ATS and a job board is that you search for candidates on a job board, while you bring candidates to you with an ATS. An ATS usually has more hiring capabilities as well. 

Both Indeed and ZipRecruiter integrate with common ATSs, such as Greenhouse, Breezy HR and BambooHR.

Candidate Communication

The central dashboard on both job boards is where you can message potential candidates. Use a template, or write an original message. Indeed also has a unique video feature to interview candidates virtually after screening them.

Here is a summary table of the main features we mentioned above:

The Bottom Line

The recruitment processes on both Indeed and ZipRecruiter are similar. The main difference is that Indeed is an aggregator, so it has a bigger pool of job seekers. It also has a few more features, such as video interviews and skills assessments, and it’s free to use.