This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
With millions of unfilled job openings and a serious shortage of workers, businesses across the country are struggling to recruit the employees they need.
Is your business struggling to find qualified job candidates? In that case, you’ve no doubt considered using a popular online recruitment platform like Monster or LinkedIn. But what’s the difference between the two? Which one is best for your needs?
Another website that addresses many of the options on both sides, in one location, is ZipRecruiter. If neither Monster nor LinkedIn has everything job seekers or employers need, it may be a better choice to find qualified candidates or land your next role. Read on to understand which job board will help you achieve your professional goals.
In this guide, we’ll go in-depth and do a side-by-side comparison between these two platforms — how they work, what they cost and what audiences they’re aimed at.
Let’s start with an overview of each:
What is Monster?
Monster delivers many of the same core features as other job sites like Indeed, CareerBuilder and ZipRecruiter. For many recruiters and employers, Monster’s standout feature is simplicity.
Creating a job listing is simple. You can choose from more than 2,000 templates to build your job ad. You can also let Monster suggest candidates for your company’s open positions based on factors you specify: skills, location, experience and more.
You can get a taste of what Monster has to offer through a free trial, but you can’t post a job for free. While there are no fully free options, Monster offers plenty of support resources to keep your recruitment efforts fruitful and cost-effective.
Monster has its own applicant tracking system to help manage your recruitment campaign. If you want to use your chosen ATS instead, you’ll need to use another job board.
Monster offers a library of training content to empower hiring managers and recruiters to make the most of the job board’s tools and features. Plus, the company offers customer support by phone or email during business hours in case you get stuck.
Monster for Employers
Since Monster was one of the first job sites out there, it seems most employers have posted job listings on there at some point, to help in their recruiting process.
Monster and LinkedIn have a lot in common when it comes to their main service, but the key difference is that some features are only available with higher cost plans on Monster. For example, the ability to proactively search through resumes, text and email job seekers or narrow your search parameters can only be used when paying for a Standard or Premium plan.
You can also reuse job listings on Monster instead of having to recreate a new post for additional similar jobs.
LinkedIn: the Ultimate Networking Site
LinkedIn is the biggest professional networking site in the world, with more than 750 million members in 200 countries.
Once job seekers join LinkedIn and create LinkedIn accounts, they can build a profile and link themselves to other professionals they’ve worked with or who they know. Networking is a good way to look for a job, and LinkedIn says roughly half of hires on the site result from a personal connection.
The site appeals mainly to white-collar professionals who are looking to weed out low quality jobs. It’s free for job seekers, although LinkedIn Premium offers more tools and costs extra.
LinkedIn for Employers
LinkedIn can help employers connect with quality candidates, especially for white-collar positions. Those professionals are the ones who mostly use the networking site in their job search.
You can pay to use “LinkedIn Recruiter,” which is typically used by larger companies; or “LinkedIn Recruiter Lite,” which is for smaller companies. With LinkedIn Recruiter, you can create an unlimited number of job postings.
You can create a job listing for free using a service called LinkedIn Jobs, but know that LinkedIn uses a pay per click model to promote your job vacancies.
Pros and Cons
Each of these popular recruitment platforms have their pluses and minuses, depending on what you’re looking for.
Monster’s Pros and Cons
Pros
Offers a free trial so you can see what it’s like, although you can’t post a job for free
You can reuse job postings instead of having to create new posts for additional similar jobs
Cons
You can’t use your chosen applicant tracking system
Some features are only available with higher-cost plans
LinkedIn’s Pros and Cons
Pros
Offers a vast networking platform
Offers a manageable pay-per-click model to promote job listings
Cons
Can be confusing whether to sign up for LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, LinkedIn Premium or LinkedIn Jobs
Not all prices are posted online
What They Cost
This is the most challenging part for recruiters to grapple with, because there are so many different pricing options, and not all the prices are posted online. In the case of LinkedIn, you may need to ask its sales department for a quote.
Free options are few. You can create a job listing for free using a service called LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn offers a one-month free trial for its “Recruiter Lite” option. Monster doesn’t have a fully free option for employers. (ZipRecruiter, for example, lets you post jobs for free for four days.)
Monster’s monthly subscription starts at $279 for a single job posting and increases based on the number of active job openings and the ability to send them to other job search sites with their Performance Boost capability. Monster also has the ability to post ads on the job site, so an employer only pays when someone views their job listing.
Here’s a head-to-head comparison between the two:
Monster’s Prices
$279: Starter package includes one slot for a job posting and 50 resume views per month
$399: Standard package includes three job slots, placement on partner sites for 30 days and ability to view 150 resumes per month
$649: Premium package includes five slots, placement on partner sites for 30 days and 250 resume views monthly
LinkedIn’s Prices
On LinkedIn, you can post one job at a time for free via LinkedIn Jobs. Free job posts appear in search results on LinkedIn, and they allow you to filter and manage job applicants. But they become less visible in search results over time to give newer job listings the opportunity to be seen by candidates in the job market. Once your job posting gets 75 applicants, it gets removed from search results.
You have to reach out to LinkedIn to get a price quote for LinkedIn Recruiter, which is typically used by larger companies, and which allows you to create an unlimited number of job listings. However, a slimmed-down version called LinkedIn Recruiter Lite costs $119 per month, or $99.95 per month if you sign up for a year.
LinkedIn also has a service called LinkedIn Jobs, where you can post a job for free and then pay per click to promote it.
Applicant Tracking
Does your company use an applicant tracking system like Bullhorn, ClearCompany or Greenhouse? LinkedIn works seamlessly with dozens of third-party applicant tracking systems.
Monster has its own applicant tracking system to help manage your recruitment campaign. If you want to use your chosen ATS instead, you’ll need to use another job board.
Using applicant tracking, these online platforms can help ensure that your job posts are up-to-date, eliminating friction for job applicants and making the interview process more efficient. They’ll help you find the right candidate.
An applicant tracking system can also generate valuable data for employers, from monitoring job posting quality to helping you tap into a resume database. The analytics can show you how well candidates respond to your job alerts or job ads and help you uncover ways to improve them.
Customer Support
You can contact a Monster customer service representative via email or on the phone. Phone hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST Monday through Friday. Monster says it responds to emails within one business day.
You can contact LinkedIn via live chat support, but not on the phone. The website has a help center where you find “how to” guides or submit a query.
Resume Search
Want to do a resume search? LinkedIn doesn’t have a huge resume database like, say, ZipRecruiter does. But on LinkedIn, you can use the site’s search tools to look through users’ profiles and find potential job candidates.
With Monster, the ability to proactively search through resumes, text and email job seekers or narrow your search parameters can only be used when paying for a Standard or Premium plan, which cost $279 and $399 per month, respectively.
The Bottom Line
If you’re an employer looking for an effective place to post jobs, these are two solid options.
LinkedIn allows you to contact potential candidates who fit your needs, so you can encourage them to apply. It also allows you access to a vast network of professionals.
As for Monster, it’s one of the most popular job hunting websites in the world, attracting 35 million visitors per month. However, bigger isn’t always better. Some employers report finding Monster difficult to navigate.
Now, with the ability to simply syndicate job listings, create sponsored jobs, boost team collaboration and take advantage of the job site’s artificial intelligence, there’s a reason why ZipRecruiter has been named the No. 1 website for employers’ hiring needs. It has a nearly perfect rating on TrustPilot, taking it to the top spot above all the other job boards.
Any of these choices can find you the employees you need.
Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.