ZipRecruiter Review: Is It the Right Recruiting Software for Your Business?
Charlette has over 10 years of experience in accounting and finance and 2 years of partnering with HR leaders on freelance projects. She uses this extensive experience to answer your questions about payroll.
Juvy has over 10 years of content writing experience and was a licensed teacher. She has evaluated and written about dozens of payroll and HR software solutions for small business to provide the best answers to your software questions.
This article is part of a larger series on Hiring.
ZipRecruiter is an online employment marketplace and recruitment platform that allows you to post job listings on 100+ job sites with just one submission. With its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technology, you can easily find the best candidates for your job openings. Its daily fees start at $16 (monthly fees start at $299), and it’s best for recruiters and businesses that need a wide network to source talent.
ZipRecruiter Overview
What We Like
- Ease of use
- Smart AI matching technology for finding qualified candidates
- One click to reach 100+ job boards
- Offers customizable job templates
What's Missing
- Pricey compared to similar software
- Access to specialty job sites (like veteran job boards) cost extra
- Very limited free trial period (four days)
- Auto-renews your monthly plan
Deciding Factors
- Pricing: $16–$24 daily or $299–$899 monthly
- Features: AI-driven matching technology, one-click job posting, TrafficBoost tool to advertise jobs, comprehensive knowledge base
- Customer Support: Email, chat, phone number
What We Recommend ZipRecruiter For
Finding a platform that can efficiently distribute your job ads and help you find qualified candidates fast is critical for business owners. ZipRecruiter offers that and more with its AI candidate matching tools, unlimited candidate applications, and one-click job postings that share your open roles to multiple job boards. This explains why it’s one of our top-recommended job posting sites. Its monthly plans even provide you with sub-tiers and levels, allowing you to select the number of job posts you need and how your listings will be distributed.
In short, ZipRecruiter is best for:
- Businesses that need to post jobs, even niche ones, to several job boards: With just one click, ZipRecruiter will instantly distribute your job listings to more than 100 job boards, some of which are specialty sites that target certain demographics (i.e., veterans). It also captures all your candidate data—saving you from having to collect and filter applications from multiple job sites.
- Companies that regularly hire: ZipRecruiter’s monthly packages come with reusable job slots (from one to more than 50 per month), making it a great option for businesses that are scaling and growing their workforce.
When ZipRecruiter Would Not Be a Good Fit
- Companies with limited recruiting budgets: ZipRecruiter’s monthly packages can be pricey, with fees starting at $299 per month for one job posting. While it also offers pay-as-you-go “Usage” plans (the lowest tier costs $16 per job post daily), this can get expensive, especially if you have several open jobs to fill and it takes longer than a week. If you’re looking for cost-effective options, consider Indeed, or check out our list of top free job posting sites.
- Those wanting to hire hourly workers like line cooks, retail workers, housekeepers, and cleaning staff: While you can post listings that target applicants looking for hourly jobs in ZipRecruiter, we recommend Snagajob since it specializes in connecting businesses with hourly workers. Plus, it has a database of 6 million job seekers and smart matching tools to help you find qualified candidates.
Looking for something different?
Read our guide to the best recruitment software to find a solution that fits your hiring needs.
More ZipRecruiter Top Alternatives
 |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|
Best for | Businesses looking for free job posting and applicant tracking tools | Companies with fewer than 50 employees that need to streamline complex hiring processes | Companies that need reporting features that are EEO and OFCCP compliant |
Monthly fees from | None to post jobs; $100 for contacting passive candidates | $71 + $1.20 per employee | None to post jobs and search resumes |
If ZipRecruiter is too pricey for your business, take a look at our top-recommended free job posting sites for employers.
ZipRecruiter Pricing
Fees and the full details of ZipRecruiter’s plans aren’t published on its website. However, its help articles indicate the starting price of its monthly plans is based on your business location, the industry you belong to, and the number of job posts, user seats, and resume views you need. These monthly packages have sub-tiers (Simple, Starter, Team, Company, and Enterprise) based on the number of job posts you need.
ZipRecruiter also offers “Usage” plans that follow a pay-per-job-post per-day scheme, according to the rep I spoke with. Both options have sub-levels, depending on the type of job ad distribution chosen.
Monthly Packages | Usage Plans | |
|---|---|---|
Pricing | Starts at $299 per month | $16 and $24 per job post daily* |
Job Ad Distribution Levels (described below) | Standard, Premium, and Professional (or Pro) | Standard and Premium |
Numbers of Job Posts | Simple: 1 Starter: 3 Team: 4–10 Company 11–20 Enterprise: 50+ | 1 (ala carte) |
One-Click Job Postings to 100+ Job Boards | ✓ | ✓ |
Candidate Applications | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Resume Bank Access | None for Standard | None for Standard |
Monthly Resume Views | 25 views for Premium; 200 views for Pro | 25 views for Premium |
Additional Resume Views | $1 per resume | N/A |
User Seats | Starts at 1 | 1 |
“Traffic Boost” Credits | 3 for Professional | N/A |
Smart Dashboard Access | ✓ | ✓ |
*Usage plans are billed either on a monthly basis, when your account reaches $500, or upon cancellation—whichever comes first.
Choosing the right job distribution level is important as it can help improve your job posting reach and hiring timelines. With ZipRecruiter, you get three options:
- Standard: This is ideal for those who have easier-to-fill and entry-level job vacancies with a low level of hiring urgency in noncompetitive markets.
- Premium: You get better job posting reach by having access to ZipRecruiter’s resume database of 36 million and higher priority placement than Standard—making this a great option for semi-urgent job vacancies in semi-competitive markets.
- Professional: This is good for businesses that need to hire employees fast, as it provides you dominant placement on job boards for urgent and hard-to-fill roles in competitive markets.
Usage plans are great for businesses that hire infrequently. You pay only for job posts that you need, plus your job listings can be distributed in either non- or semi-competitive markets.
Compared to the usage plans, ZipRecruiter’s monthly packages are more complex since the pricing is based on the job ad distribution level and job posting allocation you need. After having chatted with ZipRecruiter’s customer representative, I was able to get pricing details for its Simple tier that includes one job posting credit.
Simple Tier (One Job Post Credit Monthly) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Distribution Level | Standard | Premium | Pro |
Monthly Pricing | $299 | $419 | $719 |
User Seats | 1 | 2 | 8 |
One-Click Job Postings to 100+ Job Boards | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Unlimited Candidate Applications | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Smart Dashboard Access | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Resume Bank Access | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
Monthly Resume Views | N/A | 25 | 200 |
“TrafficBoost” Credits | N/A | N/A | 3 |
Note that you can’t purchase additional credits if you have used all your job posting credits for the month. You can, however, upgrade your subscription if you need more, and then just downgrade to your original plan. However, ZipRecruiter will automatically close and remove open jobs—in the order of oldest to newest—that are over the job posting limit.
Want to learn more about ZipRecruiter’s plans?
Our What is ZipRecruiter guide provides a detailed explanation of its pricing scheme and paid add-ons.
ZipRecruiter Features
Some may ask, “Is ZipRecruiter legit?” and wonder whether it’s an effective job posting site. To answer that question, yes, it is. ZipRecruiter is a well-known recruiting solution that connects you to millions of job seekers. It aims to enhance your talent sourcing and recruitment management processes, enabling you to efficiently find quality candidates to fill job vacancies.
To help you determine if it is the right recruitment tool for you, let’s take a look at some of its essential features.
Since Our Last Update:
ZipRecruiter has rebranded its “Invite to Apply” tool, which lets you email candidates directly, as simply “Email Candidate.” We also added several gifs and screenshots to provide readers with a deeper understanding of ZipRecruiter’s features.
ZipRecruiter finds matching candidates right after posting your job.
With ZipRecruiter, you don’t have to post your job ads to each job site manually. After you create and post your job listing, its platform will automatically distribute it to more than 100 top job sites.
- Job site network: Apart from letting you share job postings across social networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), ZipRecruiter distributes your job ads to several job boards. Here are some of its partner sites:
- Adzuna
- Better Jobs
- EmploymentCrossing
- FlexJobs
- LiveCareer
- Hireable
- Jobrapido
- Jobvertise
- Juju
- neuvoo
- Resume.com
- Trovit
However, posting jobs on veteran job boards (such as JobPath, EmployExcellence, and HireVeterans) costs extra. You have to contact ZipRecruiter for a quote.
In addition to expanding your job posting reach, advertising job ads can help you find qualified candidates faster. With ZipRecruiter’s “TrafficBoost” solution, your job ads get maximum visibility and increased placement across the provider’s partner job boards.
ZipRecruiter’s AI-powered candidate matching technology is designed to help minimize the time needed for you to sort through applicant resumes. It will scan its resume bank of more than 25 million resumes to find candidate profiles that match your requirements (such as skills, job experience, and education).
You can use ZipRecruiter’s rating system (thumbs up, down, and neutral) for better AI matching.
You can sort, review, and rate candidates through its easy-to-use dashboard. Its smart technology also learns from your ratings, enabling it to send applicant resumes that are similar to those that you rated positively.
With ZipRecruiter, you’re not locked into a 30-day job posting limit. You can immediately post a new job as soon as you complete the hiring process for an existing job listing.
After ZipRecruiter’s AI-driven smart matching technology completes its scan of resumes and sends you profiles of those who meet your hiring criteria, you can then invite said candidates to apply for the job. You can also utilize the “Email Candidate” tool, to headhunt top talents.
You can email candidates directly if you’re seriously interested.
You gain access to a library of over 500 job description templates that you may customize to fit your job posting requirements.
Use ZipRecruiter’s job description templates to quickly add a job listing.
ZipRecruiter has many partner systems. These include:
- ApplicantPro
- Betterteam
- Breezy HR
- Bullhorn
- ClearCompany
- iCIMS
- Jobscore
- Pereless
- Recruit CRM
- StaffingSoft
ZipRecruiter Ease of Use
- One-click posting to 100+ job boards
- AI candidate matching
- Online guides and help articles
- Phone, email, and live chat support
What makes ZipRecruiter a great recruiting solution for small business owners and recruiters is its one-click job posts function that makes distributing job ads to more than 100 job boards easy for users. Creating a job listing is also a straightforward process, with ZipRecruiter providing a step-by-step guide, including access to job descriptions that you can customize based on your hiring needs.
In addition, ZipRecruiter’s machine learning platform automates candidate searches. Its AI tool learns from your resume searches and sends you profiles of candidates who fit your hiring requirements.
If you need assistance or have questions about its features, you can send an email, start a live chat, or call ZipRecruiter’s support team. Online help articles are also easily accessible through its website and via the ZipRecruiter dashboard.
What Users Think About ZipRecruiter
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Efficient job posting tools; posts jobs to a wide variety of job boards with one click | A bit pricey for small businesses; boosting job ads can get expensive |
| Easy to set up and use | Quality of candidates is less than ideal |
| Good customer support; customer reps are patient and helpful | Candidates matches are sometimes inaccurate |
Many users who left ZipRecruiter reviews online like its user-friendly interface and efficient job posting tools. While they appreciate its resume search filters and smart candidate matching technology, the search results aren’t always accurate, and the recommended candidates sometimes don’t fit their hiring requirements. Others said that its pricing plans are expensive compared to similar job posting solutions.
At the time of publication, ZipRecruiter earned the following scores on popular user review sites:
- Capterra: 4.2 out of 5 based on roughly 10,500+ reviews
- G2: 4.7 out of 5 based on about 800+ reviews
- Trustpilot: 4.7 out of 5 based on around 10,000+ reviews
Bottom Line
ZipRecruiter is a good recruiting solution for those looking to streamline their job posting and candidate sourcing processes. It allows business owners to distribute job ads to over 100 job boards, enabling them to find qualified candidates and close job vacancies faster. ZipRecruiter accomplishes that through its efficient online tools that include one-click job postings, customizable job description templates, AI-matching technology, and a database of more than 30 million resumes.
To learn more about its functionalities, ZipRecruiter offers a free trial that lets you explore all of its features at no cost for four days. Note that you have to provide your credit card details for the free trial.
