What Is ZipRecruiter: Features, Pricing & How It Works

With this feature, you don’t have to manually post your job ads to each job site. After you create and post your job listing on ZipRecruiter, its platform will automatically distribute it across its partner job sites. You can even share your job posts on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Unfortunately, ZipRecruiter doesn’t post to big job boards, such as Indeed, Monster, and CareerBuilder. You also have to pay extra if you want to advertise job ads on veteran job sites like Job Soldier and Veterans Enterprise. Most of ZipRecruiter’s partner sites are smaller and niche job boards such as Resume.com, Lensa, ITJobCafe, LiveTrucking, Jobrapido, BetterJobs, and JobHat. While these sites may not get a lot of traffic individually, when added up, it equals a lot of eyes on your job posting.

If you have tough-to-fill job vacancies, its “TrafficBoost” tool helps your job postings get increased placement and maximum visibility across ZipRecruiter’s partner job boards. This feature also promotes your job listing for up to 30 days or until it receives your selected number of views (e.g., 100, 200, or 300 views for one job post).

Unless you subscribe to its Monthly Pro plan, you have to purchase “TrafficBoost” credits—which cost anywhere from $300 to $500, depending on the competition in your local area.

ZipRecruiter has a library of over 500 job description templates that you can customize to fit your job posting requirements. You also have the option to not use the template and come up with your unique description. If you have already created an active job post on ZipRecruiter and need to build a similar one, you can easily copy the said listing and update its job details as needed.

ZipRecruiter automatically searches its job description database and suggests a pre-written template that fits your job posting.

ZipRecruiter’s AI-driven candidate matching technology is designed to help minimize the time needed for you to sort through applicant resumes. It scans its database of more than 36 million resumes and sends you profiles of candidates who match your requirements (such as skills, job experience, and education). You can then invite those candidates to apply for the job. You may also use ZipRecruiter’s “Invite to Apply” tool to headhunt top talent. This is a feature not found on many other job boards such as Indeed or Glassdoor.

Inviting candidates to apply to your open positions is easy on ZipRecruiter.

In addition to AI-based candidate matching, you can search through ZipRecruiter’s resume bank to look for candidates who may fit your hiring requirements. Using a resume search helps you find job seekers who are passive candidates, meaning they haven’t applied to your position but might—if you contact them.

ZipRecruiter provides you with job ad slots that you can easily reuse. You’re also not locked into a 30-day job posting limit. This means that you can immediately post a new job as soon as you complete the hiring process for an existing job listing.

You can sort and review candidates through ZipRecruiter’s easy-to-use dashboard. You can also rate and organize candidate profiles using thumbs-down (uninterested), thumbs-neutral (unsure), and thumbs-up (interested) buttons. Its smart technology even learns from your ratings, enabling it to send applicant resumes that are similar to those that you rated positively.

You can easily change the ratings for candidates through your ZipRecruiter dashboard.

If you have a company website, you can promote your open positions there using the embeddable ZipRecruiter widget. Just copy the job widget code directly to your webpage and, voila, your website has a recruiting page. You also don’t have to worry about having to edit the open jobs in the widget in case there are updates. All changes that you make in your ZipRecruiter job postings will automatically be updated on your company site through its widget.

Go to ZipRecruiter’s website and click on the “Post a Job” button located on the upper right of your screen. A popup will prompt you to create an account where you can input your business name and select the number of employees your company has via a drop-down menu. After choosing your company’s employee headcount, follow the onscreen instructions to create a ZipRecruiter account.

Once you create an account, you’ll see your dashboard. You can create and post your first job under the “Jobs” menu. ZipRecruiter allows you to post most job types—except domestic and home/residential-based roles such as housekeepers and nannies.

With ZipRecruiter’s 4-day free trial, new users can create and post jobs at no cost.

ZipRecruiter’s “Create an Employee Account” page

Input the job title, job location, and type of employment. If the job is remote, you’ll still need to list a company location, but you can add the word “remote” to the job title and as the work address on your post.

For job location, you can type a full address or City/State or ZIP code.

Writing a good job description is important to attract the best candidates and keep those who do not qualify from applying. What’s key is to make your job description short, informative, and interesting. Use clear section headings and bulleted details that list job functions and any required education or work-related certifications.

Similar to remote jobs, if your open position is a commission-only job, the words “commission only” need to be included in the job description section. If not, ZipRecruiter will flag the posting.

If you’re lucky, ZipRecruiter will already have a similar job description for you to start with. You can use the templates and customize to your specific job opening. You can even save previous templates in case you need to recruit for the same position multiple times.

ZipRecruiter also lets you select which benefits your company offers to potential employees. You don’t have to type in the information manually since its benefits options have checkboxes that you can easily select.

ZipRecruiter’s job description template

Click the checkboxes to highlight the benefits you offer.

Many employers decide to provide a salary range or rate of pay for job roles. One of ZipRecruiter’s features is that it allows you to put in a compensation range for your job posting. Although entering a pay rate is optional, you get better results if you include at least a range.

ZipRecruiter has a graph that shows what similar jobs pay compared to the salary or range yours does.

After you have entered the compensation details, you can add skill keywords to help you target the job seekers you want. ZipRecruiter even provides recommended skills based on your job description. You can either use its suggestions or manually type in the skills specific to the job.

The hiring company section is where you can input information about your business that will entice job seekers to want to join your company. Aside from providing a little background and company history, you can share what it’s like to work at your company and if flextime or remote work is an option.

You have to add these details only once, and ZipRecruiter will add the information to every job that you post.

Before your job post goes live, you need to choose whether you want to try ZipRecruiter’s free trial or purchase a paid plan. If you choose the free trial, keep in mind it’s free only for four days and you need to provide your credit card information. You can sign up for a free trial of the Standard plan that includes only one reusable job slot or the Premium tier that comes with premium job placements and access to ZipRecruiter’s resume bank.

If you don’t cancel your free trial before the four-day period ends, ZipRecruiter will automatically charge your credit card for the selected plan.

Before you can post your job, you have to let ZipRecruiter know which user will receive the system’s new applicant email alerts. Note that this defaults to the system administrator, but you can easily add new users into the system—provided your plan allows multiple seats. Once you do that, choose the “Save & Post Now” button and ZipRecruiter will automatically distribute your open jobs to its network of more than 100 job boards.

ZipRecruiter has several online tools to help increase traffic to your job post and encourage passive job candidates to apply to your job ads. Here are some of the options.

• Optimizing Job Postings
• Adding Screening Questions to Job Posts
• Posting on Social Networks and via Email
• Reviewing Resumes and Contacting Passive Applicants

Right after you post your job, you’ll see a small note encouraging you to optimize your job listing. One of the options include a “TrafficBoost,” which is an additional advertising service that keeps your job post at the top of the job boards and promotes it to job seekers via daily email alerts.

Note that you only get “TrafficBoost” credits if you subscribe to a Monthly Pro plan. You can also buy credits if you select the Monthly Premium plan.

ZipRecruiter supports these screening question formats:

1. Free-form text
2. Multiple choice
3. Date-specific
4. Number-specific
5. Yes/No
6. File upload answers

While it offers a list of common screening questions that you can choose from, ZipRecruiter allows you to create your own. You can even input possible answers that you can mark as correct choices. This helps you screen out unqualified applicants so you aren’t looking through resumes of job seekers unlikely to be a good fit.

You can share ZipRecruiter job postings through your business’ social media accounts (like Facebook and Twitter) and via email. These options don’t require additional fees, plus you can easily do this through the “Jobs” menu on your ZipRecruiter dashboard.

Directly share your job posting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or email.

Looking for and contacting passive job seekers with active resumes is a great way to encourage qualified applicants to apply. With ZipRecruiter, you can search through its database of over 36 million resumes as many times as you want (except for Standard subscribers who don’t have access to this feature). However, you’re granted a specific number of resume views per month, depending on your plan.

To help narrow search results, ZipRecruiter lets you screen thousands of resumes in several ways, such as looking for candidates with the specific skill keywords that you added to a job description. You can also search for qualified candidates by:

• Location: You can choose to find candidates within commuting distance from your office.
• Prior job title: This is helpful if you want someone who has already held a specific job.
• Prior company: Use this option if you’re actively recruiting from a specific company that you know has great talent.
• Freshness: You can select only those with recently updated resumes so that you get job seekers who are more likely to respond.

After you have successfully posted your open position on ZipRecruiter, interested applicants can start applying to your job ad. The system also sends you candidate emails for the job post, though you can view applicant details on your ZipRecruiter dashboard through the “Candidates” menu. You can even see candidates who are applying in real time.

Send Automated Emails to Candidates

Responding to each applicant via email (even the ones you reject) is a great way to promote your employer brand. It also feels more personal than a standard applicant rejection letter. With ZipRecruiter, you can create custom email messages or use its template for replying to those who applied to your job post. It also has an auto-reply feature that sends automated emails to candidates.

Track Applicants Throughout the Process

If you opt for a paid ZipRecruiter plan, then you get features similar to a full-blown applicant tracking system (ATS) that lets you rate, sort, and track candidates throughout the hiring process. You can monitor the status of applicants by using drop-down options (i.e., reviewed, rejected, phone screen, interview, offer extended and hired. In addition to adding custom labels and notes, you can rate applicants to distinguish between the ones you’re interested in, not interested in, and unsure about.

However, if you have an existing ATS, ZipRecruiter supports integration with third-party software. Its ATS partners include:

• ApplicantPro
• Avature
• Breezy HR
• Bullhorn
• ClearCompany
• Everhire
• Greenhouse
• JazzHR
• JobScore
• MightyRecruiter
• Zoho Recruit

ZipRecruiter has a comprehensive job performance report. If your job posting doesn’t get many results, then you may need to modify your job description to make it more specific or pay extra to boost traffic to your job ad.

This screenshot shows the performance of two jobs we posted that received several organic applications. Had we used a “TrafficBoost,” the results of that extra spend would also have appeared on the report.