LinkedIn premium is LinkedIn’s paid subscription service that offers additional features beyond the free version. The premium plans provide users with more advanced professional networking capabilities like being able to see more profile views, having unlimited InMail messages, advanced job searching and recommendations, and access to online courses. But with a price tag ranging from $29.99 to $79.99 per month, is LinkedIn premium worth it? Do people actually pay for it and find value in the additional features? Let’s explore these questions in more detail.
Who Uses LinkedIn Premium?
LinkedIn currently has over 722 million users, but only a small percentage pay for premium subscriptions. Based on LinkedIn’s reported revenue numbers, it’s estimated that around 17 million users pay for some level of premium access. This represents around 2% of LinkedIn’s total user base.
The majority of premium users tend to be:
- Recruiters – Recruiters and HR professionals rely heavily on LinkedIn for sourcing and contacting candidates. Premium allows them to send more InMail messages and see extended profiles.
- Job Seekers – For those actively searching for a new job, premium provides benefits like being able to see everyone who viewed your profile, advanced filtering of job postings, and access to online courses.
- Sales Professionals – Premium supports sales efforts by providing additional information on leads and contacts, allowing more InMail messages, and seeing when messages are opened.
- Business Owners – Premium can assist business owners with promoting their company, finding new clients, connecting with industry experts, and establishing thought leadership.
- Career Changers – When trying to transition into a new industry or role, premium gives additional insights into companies and hiring managers to help make connections.
While individual users make up a portion of premium subscribers, many business and enterprise customers also pay for company-wide access to LinkedIn’s premium capabilities to support their recruiting, marketing, and sales efforts.
The Cost of LinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn offers four premium subscription levels for individual users:
Plan | Cost Per Month |
---|---|
Premium Career | $29.99 |
Premium Business | $44.99 |
Sales Navigator Professional | $64.99 |
Sales Navigator Team | $79.99 |
The Premium Career plan is the most basic paid option focused on job seekers. Premium Business adds many more capabilities like being able to message anyone, see more contact insights, and get support from LinkedIn experts.
For sales professionals, Sales Navigator provides the most robust set of features for finding new clients, integrating with CRM and sales tools, and analyzing relationship networks. This is LinkedIn’s most expensive premium offering at $79.99 per month for the Team plan.
In addition to individual subscriptions, LinkedIn charges for premium access at the company level. Enterprise sales start at hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
The Pros of Paying for LinkedIn Premium
So why do around 17 million professionals and businesses pay for LinkedIn premium access? There are several key benefits that the premium options provide:
More Profile Views and Insights
One of the most popular premium features is being able to see everyone who has viewed your profile. With the free version, you can only see the last 5 profile views. Premium shows you the last 90 days of profile views so you can understand who is looking at your profile and how it is resonating.
Premium also provides more analytics into how your profile performs compared to others in your industry. You can benchmark profile views, connections, and content performance.
Unlimited InMail Messages
The ability to directly message anyone on LinkedIn, even if they are not in your immediate network, is a major advantage of premium. The free version only allows you to message your 1st-degree connections. With premium, you have unlimited InMail messages to reach out to recruiting prospects, potential clients, experts in your industry, and anyone else that would be strategic to connect with.
Advanced Job Searching
For job seekers, LinkedIn Premium provides more robust tools for finding the right opportunities. You can filter job searches by salary, date posted, company size, location, and other advanced criteria.
Seeing job posting insights like how many applicants there are and how your profile stacks up against other candidates’ profiles can give you an advantage. Premium also lets you know when contacts at a company view a job you applied for to signal if recruiters are interested.
Learning and Development
Access to LinkedIn Learning comes included with Premium subscriptions. LinkedIn Learning provides over 15,000 online courses in areas like leadership, software, creativity, and data science. For professionals looking to develop new skills or switch careers, the training content can be very valuable.
Expanded Network and Reach
By being able to message beyond just 1st-degree connections, premium enables directly contacting thought leaders, executives, and decision makers you want to build relationships with. Your effective network and visibility greatly expands.
For sales professionals, Premium Sales Navigator makes it easy to identify new accounts and buyer contacts, see relationship networks within accounts, and reach decision makers. The expanded network access and insight can directly translate into more sales.
The Cons of LinkedIn Premium
While LinkedIn Premium offers some useful benefits, there are also limitations to consider:
High Monthly Cost
Ranging from $29.99 to $79.99 per month, LinkedIn’s premium plans have a relatively high cost, especially for individual subscribers. For job seekers or those just looking to expand their professional network, the price tag might not provide enough value.
Still Need to Build Connections
While InMail messages allow you to directly contact anyone, you still need to build relationships and network with connections. Paying for premium alone won’t necessarily give you access to your dream job or high-value clients. Effective networking and relationship building is still required.
Data Privacy Concerns
To provide the depth of analytics and insights, LinkedIn Premium gathers a significant amount of data on user activity and profiles. This raises privacy concerns over how much personal data LinkedIn tracks. Not everyone will feel comfortable with this level of visibility.
Sales Focus
Several of the premium features like seeing profile view analytics and expanded InMail messages are primarily focused on supporting sales prospecting and outreach. For users that don’t work in sales roles, some features may not provide as much value.
Upselling and Lock-in
Some users report aggressive upselling tactics from LinkedIn to upgrade to premium and reluctance to let users downgrade or cancel subscriptions. This can leave some users frustrated and feeling locked-in to keep paying.
Alternatives to Paid Premium Access
Given the high monthly costs, are there ways to get benefits similar to LinkedIn Premium without paying? Here are some tactics to consider:
Be Strategic With Free Version
Get the most out of LinkedIn’s free tools before paying for premium. Focus on building out your profile, regularly post high-value content, and engage with other users and posts to establish connections and demonstrate expertise.
Focus on Quality Connections
Rather than paying for InMail to spam contacts, be selective in requesting introductions and recommendations to build authentic relationships with those you want to connect to. Quality is better than quantity of connections.
Use Advanced Google Searches
Many LinkedIn users have their profile publicly visible, so you can use advanced Google searches to find profiles and contact info for professionals you want to connect with.
Engage on Forums and Groups
Actively participate in LinkedIn Groups and forums related to your industry to build connections and establish thought leadership without paying for Premium.
Export Data to Excel
LinkedIn allows exporting profile and network data to Excel for additional analysis. While not as robust as Premium analytics, this provides basic insights without an added cost.
Focus on In-Person Networking
Attend industry events, conferences, and networking meetups to directly build authentic professional connections. Leverage the power of in-person interactions rather than just digital networks.
Conclusion
While LinkedIn Premium provides helpful benefits for expanding your professional network and opportunities, the high subscription cost means it may not be worth the investment for everyone. But by being thoughtful on building quality connections on the free version and supplementing with other tactics like in-person networking and public profile searches, many of the same benefits can be achieved without paying. For the few million professionals and companies that opt for premium access, it likely provides enough value in sales, recruiting, and thought leadership to justify the costs. But evaluating if free alternatives can meet your professional goals is a good first step before committing to a paid LinkedIn Premium account. The premium capabilities may be nice to have, but not fully mandatory for LinkedIn success.