Glassdoor vs. Indeed: Price, Features, & What’s Best in 2018

Glassdoor is an employer review site with salary tools and a free job board. It’s best for businesses focused on employer branding and encouraging job seekers to join them. In comparison, Indeed is a free job board that provides employer reviews and salary tools. It’s best for those with open positions they need to fill.

How We Evaluated Glassdoor vs. Indeed

Small businesses need a way to find new and qualified employees fast. In addition, it’s important to small business owners that prospective employees are able to find their open jobs, obtain information about their company and be encouraged to apply to open positions. Both Indeed and Glassdoor provide solutions to help employers recruit.

Based on the needs of small business, the criteria we used to evaluate Glassdoor vs. Indeed include:

• Price: Both have free options and plans that are affordable for small business
• Ease of use: Both are intuitive, making it easy for job seekers and employers to use
• Job posting: Both allow businesses to post and advertise open jobs
• Company page: Both provide a company page to use for job postings and employer branding
• Company reviews: Both publish reviews from current and former employees
• Job seekers: Both have plenty of job seekers using the site; Indeed has 200 million job seeker resumes while Glassdoor has 57 million
• Salary tools: Both provide tools for employers and employees to determine what a job should pay in terms of salary
• Company reviews: Both provide a section for current and prior employees to share their feedback about the company

Glassdoor vs. Indeed at a Glance

We recommend business users work with both Indeed and Glassdoor, albeit for slightly different reasons.

When to Use Glassdoor

Glassdoor started as a website to let employees provide anonymous reviews of their company for other prospective employees to read. Therefore, it’s the perfect place to manage your employment brand. In addition, like Indeed, it has salary tools, job postings and business tools that let you create the perfect company profile. You can advertise open jobs on Glassdoor. However, it doesn’t have a way to search resumes of passive job seekers and reach out to them like Indeed does.

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“Glassdoor is helpful to get perspective from past employees and an insider look at the interview process of an organization; how to prepare for the interview, how long the process takes in real life, what types of questions will be asked and so on.

“In the last year, Glassdoor has pushed their job posting site as well. I think they’re having a branding ‘transitional’ issue because they’re not known as a posting site. I always tell candidates to take the Glassdoor comments with a grain of salt as 99 percent of the comments are coming from ‘former’ employees, which means people who have resigned and/or been terminated.”

— Kathleen Steffey, CEO, Naviga Recruiting

When to Use Indeed

Indeed is the number one job board in the United States. As many as 3 million businesses post their open jobs on Indeed and it has more than 200 million job seeker resumes, which is about four times that of Glassdoor. You can use Indeed to post unlimited jobs for free whereas Glassdoor’s free version is restricted to three job posts. On Indeed, you can advertise jobs by setting your own budget instead of paying for a package as required on Glassdoor.

You can also view job seeker resumes, create a company and careers page, determine what salary to pay and improve your employer brand. Therefore, it’s best to use Indeed when you’re actively seeking candidates.

Try Indeed

“From a hiring manager or recruiting standpoint, Indeed.com is definitely the ‘bigger is better’ right now of the job boards and continues to grow; if you post on Indeed, you will get a volume of applicants, but that does not mean they are high quality. Glassdoor seems to get a higher quality of job applicant, but less volume than Indeed.”

— Christy Hopkins, CEO, 4 Point Consulting

Glassdoor vs. Indeed — Which is Better for Job Seekers?

In addition to being a job board, Indeed aggregates jobs from other job posting sites and cross-posts them on Indeed. From a job seeker’s point of view, Indeed is probably the better place to look for a job. More employers post jobs on Indeed than any other job board. Even Glassdoor posts its open positions on Indeed.

However, once you find a job you like, it’s good to check out the company’s reviews on both sites. In fact, on Glassdoor, you’ll get insight into what the company’s interview process is like.

“As a job seeker, I like to use both simultaneously. For me, Indeed serves as a wonderful platform to search for and find interesting jobs. Once I am interested in a company with a job opening found on Indeed, I head over to Glassdoor to search for the company and get a feel for its employee reviews and culture.

“If, as an employer, you want to know which job posting site provides the best results for your company, you may want to sign up for a free applicant tracking system (ATS) like Freshteam. Freshteam lets you track the candidate recruiting source (what website you found them on). You can then determine which job boards provide better candidates.”

— Stacy Caprio, Business Coach, Stacy Caprio Inc.

Try Freshteam

Indeed vs. Glassdoor: Pricing & Features

You can sign up for a free employer account on both Indeed and Glassdoor. The free account allows you to claim your company page and online reviews. You can also post jobs for free and the salary tools for free as well. However on Glassdoor, the free job postings only last seven days. After that, you have to upgrade to a paid package.

However, if you want to advertise your open positions, you’ll have to pay extra regardless of which job posting site you use. Advertising ensures your job posting is seen by a larger audience, increasing the likelihood that qualified job seekers will apply.

Indeed Pricing & Features

Indeed pricing starts at free and costs as little as $5 per day to sponsor a job, which is what Indeed calls their job advertising. You can also pay for a feature that allows you to contact job seekers who haven’t applied to your job. This costs between $100 and $250 per month for 30 to 100 contacts.

Job Posting

There’s no limit to the number of jobs you can post for free on Indeed. Glassdoor, in contrast, limits the free postings to three. With Indeed, there’s no time limit either. Jobs you post appear in general search results, candidates can apply online or mobile, and you can manage your candidates through the recruiting pipeline, directly from your Indeed account, similar to an ATS.

Salary Tools

Indeed’s salary tools are similar in look and feel to that of Glassdoor. However, Indeed’s salaries are based on more than anonymous employee reporting. They’re also based on real job ads that employers have posted for these same positions. In addition, they typically include twice as many data points, likely improving their accuracy.

Salary tools on Indeed showing what an SEO job pays.

Company Page

The company page on Indeed is very much like the company reviews page on Glassdoor. It provides current and former employee reviews, salaries, photos, open jobs and a Q&A section where job seekers can ask questions.

FitSmallBusiness Company Page on Indeed.

All this information is displayed on a snapshot as shown above. In addition, applicants can follow the company using the Follow button at the top of the page. That way, they’ll know when new jobs are posted, for example.

You can claim, update and customize your company page for free with Indeed. In comparison, customization of your company reviews page on Glassdoor requires you to upgrade to a paid plan.

Job Advertising

Advertising a job on Indeed is based on a pay-per-click model. Indeed calls it “Sponsoring a Job.” How it works is that you set a budget, say $5 per day and pay-per-clicks that range from 25 cents to $1.50. The price of a click is based on the competition in that job market, not unlike advertising on Google.

For example, paid clicks cost less in a small rural market than in a major urban area like San Francisco or New York. To learn more read How to Get the Most Out of Your Indeed Job Posting.

Featured Employer

Like display ads on Glassdoor, you can pay to become a featured employer on Indeed. What that means is that you’ll have an ad displayed on the sidebar whenever someone searches for your company or whenever one of your sponsored jobs appears in the search results.

Resume Search

Resume search is a feature that sets Indeed apart from Glassdoor and most other job boards. You can search resumes for free. Then, when you find a candidate you’d like to contact, you can pay a monthly fee. For $100 per month, you can contact up to 30 job seekers while $250 allows you to contact up to 100. That’s helpful when you want to reach out and encourage top talent to apply to your open job posting.

Applicant Tracking

Like Glassdoor, Indeed integrates with third-party ATS’s like Freshteam, ApplicantPro and SmartRecruiter. However, you may not need to use an ATS system, as Indeed includes robust applicant tracking features. These ATS features are free when you post a job. They allow you to track candidates through your recruitment pipeline. Indeed even provides pre-employment screening tests.

Glassdoor Pricing & Features

Posting a job is free on Glassdoor for up to seven days. It’s also free to claim your employer account. After that, Glassdoor costs $249 to $600 per month depending on how many jobs you want to post and what specific features you want to add on.

Glassdoor’s pricing is neither transparent nor posted on their website. It’s also based on your location. For example, it costs more to post jobs in New York than in Kansas. Therefore, you will have to talk to their sales department to determine the number of job postings, your location and the feature-set you need.

Here’s a comparison of Glassdoor’s Free vs. Enhanced features offered.

Glassdoor Pricing Table

Here are some of the features they offer.

Job Posting

Job posting is free, up to seven days for one to three jobs. That’s great if you have a one-time hiring blitz and want to get receive free resumes from job seekers. However, longer-term, if you want to use the platform for all your job postings, you’ll have to pay for a package.

That can run from $249 per month on up, depending on your business location and how many jobs you want to post at once. If you’re using the site solely for job posting, Indeed is a great alternative that’s free.

Salary Tools

Like Indeed, the salary tools are free. Glassdoor designed the salary tools based on the need for employees to find out what they can expect to be paid. Their data is based on salaries reported anonymously by workers with the same or similar job titles. Here’s an example.

Salary tools on Glassdoor show what SEO jobs pay.

Company Page

Your company page is where you can share information about your company with job seekers. You can claim your company page for free on Glassdoor as well as on Indeed. The company page is where job seekers learn more about your company and its culture. On Glassdoor, they can even find out how difficult it is to interview for a job.

In comparison, Indeed provides more basic information. Here’s what our FitSmallBusiness company page looks like on Glassdoor. However, to customize your company page, you’ll need to contact Glassdoor for a sales quote.

FitSmallBusiness’ company page on Glassdoor.

Hopkins adds:

“From a job seeker perspective, the reviews of companies on Glassdoor are incredibly useful to have a hidden way to know more about the company culture — is a company really doing what they are telling you during the interview process?

“In fact, we look up our recruiting clients on Glassdoor to learn more about them and why they need a talent acquisition firm’s help as well as we do for our HR consulting clients. It provides us with invaluable information to hear from other levels of the organization than the ones we are usually signing the contract with.”

Job Advertising

While it’s free to post a job on Glassdoor, advertising that job makes sure that it shows up at the top of job seeker search results. Packages that include job advertising cost $249 per month and up on Glassdoor. You can target job seekers by role, location or industry. You can view data on how your ads are performing and boost your jobs so that they’re featured in search results and/or sent to candidates via job alert emails.

Display Advertising

Glassdoor provides display advertising that targets individual job seekers based on variables like location, occupation and other demographics. It can even put your ad on a competitor profile, so that job seekers see your ad when researching other companies.

Enhanced Profile

The Enhanced profile lets a business customize its Glassdoor company profile, view analytics and promote open jobs through advertising.

Resume Search

Once applicants apply to a job, you can view their resume online. However, you cannot search for candidates and contact them if they haven’t applied for a job you’ve posted. Indeed, in comparison, allows you to view all resumes for free.

Applicant Tracking

Glassdoor has an ATS partner program but does not have applicant tracking tools built in, as Indeed has. Glassdoor can integrate with multiple ATSs such as RecruiterBox and ApplicantPro. They also interface with HR systems like BambooHR that have ATS features. This is helpful once you’ve gathered the applicant’s data. There’s no need to manage duplicate data entry.

Indeed vs. Glassdoor: Ease of Use

From a job seeker point of view, both sites are easy to use. However, from an employer point of view, the job posting is a bit more complex on Glassdoor. Creating an account and advertising a job is managed by setting up a free account on Indeed. On Glassdoor, you can set up a free account, but if you want to advertise a job, you need to talk to someone in sales to buy a package.

Indeed Ease of Use

Indeed has a clear interface with menus for both job seekers and employers. In addition, it has a mobile app for job seekers to search for employers and apply for jobs. It also has a mobile app for employers to post jobs and to manage candidates who have applied.

Indeed has a streamlined user interface for job seekers and employers.

In contrast to Glassdoor, Indeed’s employer page focuses on the features a business needs, with step-by-step instructions for posting a job, searching resumes and showcasing your employer brand on your Company page. You can also view hiring resources, pricing, products and more from the employer page.

Glassdoor Ease of Use

Glassdoor makes it easy for job seekers to find jobs and post reviews. It has a mobile app for job seekers, but not for businesses/employers to manage their job postings or applications. In addition, Glassdoor’s webpage contains a dashboard with tools to allow job seekers to set up a job alert, follow companies, write a review and upload a resume, as examples.

Glassdoor has an easy-to-use system for job seekers.

In contrast, the employer page on Glassdoor is a bit salesy. You can sign up, post jobs, respond to reviews or talk to sales. Menus at the top of the employer page allow employers to view products, resources, a blog, online help and claim their free employer account.

Indeed vs. Glassdoor: Customer Service

Because Indeed and Glassdoor both serve two distinct audiences, it’s important to know how they provide service to each. Job seekers looking for work and employers looking for workers. Here’s how their customer service compares:

Indeed Customer Service

Indeed provides customer support from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. Support is provided to both job seekers and employers. Their support service call center also supports both English and Spanish speakers. Users can call, submit an email request or use Twitter to send their issue to @IndeedSupport.

Like Glassdoor, Indeed also provides a robust Employer Help Center organized by topics such as contacting candidates, posting and managing jobs and company pages.

Glassdoor Customer Service

Glassdoor provides customer support by having you fill out a form online. You can also contact them by phone. Job seekers are not provided with an option to call. They can fill out a form or use the help topics only.

If you linger on the Glassdoor site “For Employers” page long enough, a Chatbot will pop up. However, it appears not to respond to questions outside its programming; instead, it will set up a sales call or redirect you to the website for an answer. It’s not a very helpful Chatbot.

Indeed vs. Glassdoor: Customer Reviews

It’s a bit unfair to rate Indeed and Glassdoor side-by-side, as Indeed provides more features for free and has been in the job posting business much longer. However, here’s what we found.

Indeed Customer Reviews

In general, Indeed has more reviews and higher customer ratings on third-party review websites. Customers rate it between three and five out of five stars depending on which review site you look at. That’s much higher than Glassdoor. Employers tend to like the value and the number of candidates. Job seekers like its ease of use. However, the employees at Indeed rate it 3.5 out of five; that’s slightly lower than employees rate Glassdoor as an employer.

Glassdoor Customer Reviews

Based on third-party review sites, including Consumer Affairs, Glassdoor doesn’t have stellar reviews of its website or service. It’s rated about two out of five stars on average. Some customers like their customer service and others don’t. Job seekers claim that employers can remove bad reviews. On a positive note, employees of Glassdoor rate working at the company four out of five stars.

The Bottom Line

Indeed and Glassdoor are both great tools for recruiting. We find Indeed to be the best job board for employers due to their free job postings, resume search tools and free applicant tracking features. Like Glassdoor, Indeed also has salary tools and company reviews. However, we recommend small businesses claim their free company page on both sites. It’s a great way to manage your employer brand.

Although job postings and other tools are free on Indeed, advertising on any job board will improve your chances of finding the best job candidates. To that end, Indeed provides $50 in free sponsorship credit when you sign up. You can sign up now, post jobs for free and use the sponsorship credit at any time.

Try Indeed and Get $50 in Free Sponsorship Credit