LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members worldwide. While anyone can create a basic LinkedIn profile for free, LinkedIn also offers several premium membership options that provide additional features and benefits. LinkedIn’s premium options are designed for professionals who want to get the most out of LinkedIn for networking, job searching, business marketing, and sales.
LinkedIn Premium Career
LinkedIn Premium Career is LinkedIn’s flagship premium offering. Premium Career gives you access to features that help you advance your career including:
- See Who Viewed Your Profile – Know who has been looking at your profile so you can focus your networking efforts.
- InMail Messages – Send direct messages to anyone on LinkedIn, even if you’re not connected.
- Salary Insights – View salary ranges for different job titles.
- Advanced Profile Filters – Use more filters like years of experience and company size to drill down your search results.
- Skills Assessments – Take short assessments to validate your skills.
- Interview Preparation – Get tips on preparing for job interviews.
- Resume Review – Get feedback on your resume from LinkedIn.
Premium Career has two pricing options monthly or annually:
- Monthly: $29.99 per month
- Annually: $239.88 per year (comes out to $19.99 per month)
Overall, Premium Career is designed for job seekers and professionals looking to boost their careers. The ability to see who has viewed your profile and message recruiters directly with InMail can give you a leg up in your job search and networking efforts.
LinkedIn Premium Business
LinkedIn Premium Business caters towards sales professionals, recruiters, marketers and business owners. Key features of Premium Business include:
- InMail Messages
- Advanced Profile Filters
- Contact Info for anyone on LinkedIn
- Who Viewed Your Profile
- Skills Assessments
- Premium Badges to display your verified skills
- Company Follow Settings
- Lead Recommendations – Get recommendations for leads based on your ideal customer profile.
- Saved Lead List – Save leads directly on LinkedIn.
Pricing for Premium Business:
- Monthly: $64.99 per month
- Annually: $599.88 per year (comes out to $49.99 per month)
Premium Business helps sales professionals identify leads, recruiters source top talent faster, marketers promote their brand and business owners attract new customers. It’s the premium product optimized for business use cases.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn’s sales-focused premium subscription. It includes all the Premium Business features plus additional sales-specific tools like:
- Advanced Lead and Account Search
- Unlimited InMail Messages
- Sales Intelligence Insights
- TeamLink Collaboration
- Auto-generated Team Introductions
- Contact Insights
- Lead Recommendations
- Saved Lead List
Sales Navigator pricing options:
- Professional: $64.99/month or $599.88/year
- Team: $249.95/month or $2,499/year (5-20 seats)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing (20+ seats)
Sales Navigator is designed to help sales teams identify the right prospects, build relationships faster, and close more deals. It’s LinkedIn’s most robust premium offering for sales professionals.
LinkedIn Recruiter
LinkedIn Recruiter is the premium subscription for recruiters and talent acquisition professionals. Key features include:
- Advanced searching and filtering of LinkedIn profiles
- Saved searches for repeatable sourcing
- Candidate tracking system
- TeamLink collaboration
- Unlimited InMails
- Instant Profile Highlighters
- Interview prep questions
- Team Reports & Analytics
Recruiter is available in three packages:
- Professional: $119.95/month or $1,199.40/year
- Team: $1,199.95/month (up to 20 recruiters)
- Corporate: Custom pricing (for talent acquisition teams above 20)
Recruiter streamlines sourcing, tracking, and pipeline management for recruiters hiring across different functions and industries.
Comparison of LinkedIn Premium Options
Features | Premium Career | Premium Business | Sales Navigator | Recruiter |
---|---|---|---|---|
Advanced Profile Search | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
InMail Messages | 25/month | 25/month | Unlimited | Unlimited |
See Who Viewed Profile | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Contact Info for Anyone | ✖️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
TeamLink Collaboration | ✖️ | ✖️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Lead Recommendations | ✖️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✖️ |
Saved Lead List | ✖️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✖️ |
Analytics & Reporting | ✖️ | ✖️ | ✖️ | ✔️ |
As shown in the table above, Premium Career focuses on individual job seekers while Premium Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter cater to teams and organizations. Sales Navigator has the most sales-specific tools like Contact Insights and Auto-generated Team Introductions. Recruiter provides analytics and reporting tailored for recruiting teams.
Who Needs LinkedIn Premium?
Here are the main types of professionals who benefit most from LinkedIn premium options:
- Job Seekers – Premium Career helps job seekers stand out with features like Who Viewed Profile, InMail messages, advanced profile search and interview prep.
- Sales Professionals – Premium Business and Sales Navigator provide sales tools for finding leads, contacting prospects, sharing content and tracking deals.
- Recruiters – Recruiter transforms LinkedIn into a candidate tracking system with sourcing, InMail, pipeline management and analytics.
- Marketers – Premium Business assists marketers with company follow settings, lead recommendations and profile analytics.
- Business Owners – Premium Business helps connect with prospects, promote content, share company updates and demonstrate thought leadership.
Essentially, anyone who uses LinkedIn extensively for their career or business can benefit from upgrading to a premium membership. Casual users or those just maintaining a basic presence may not need premium features.
Are LinkedIn Premium Memberships Worth It?
For most professionals, the return on investment from a LinkedIn premium subscription exceeds the cost. When considering the value, look at how the premium features impact your ability to:
- Find new job opportunities
- Connect with more clients, leads and strategic partners
- Source, engage and recruit top talent
- Build your brand and thought leadership
- Drive more sales opportunities
Premium memberships deliver results like:
- 27% more profile views
- Up to 40% more InMail responses
- 30% more search appearances
- Expanded network reach
- Valuable competitive intelligence
For job seekers, the ability to message recruiters directly or see who has viewed your profile can get you hired faster. Sales professionals can generate more qualified leads. Recruiters may fill open roles quicker.
The return on your premium investment will depend on how strategically you use the advanced features. But for most professionals who actively leverage LinkedIn, premium memberships more than pay for themselves.
Key Considerations When Choosing a LinkedIn Premium Membership
When selecting the right LinkedIn premium option, consider the following:
- Individual use or teams? Premium Career is for individuals only. Other options enable collaboration across teams.
- Number of InMails needed. More InMails allow you to message more members.
- Main goal: Sales, recruiting, job seeking? Each premium option targets different use cases.
- Key features needed. Do you need lead recommendations, talent pool tracking, or interview prep?
- Level of analytics. Sales Navigator and Recruiter provide robust analytics on engagement.
- User size. More seats usually come with volume discounts.
- Budget available. Premium Business offers strong value and may suit smaller budgets.
Evaluate premium free trials to experience the features firsthand. For most professionals, the expanded access and capabilities justify the cost. But carefully assess which option best aligns to your individual needs.
Conclusion
LinkedIn premium memberships provide valuable tools and insights for career development, sales, recruiting, and thought leadership. The premium options include:
- LinkedIn Premium Career
- LinkedIn Premium Business
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- LinkedIn Recruiter
Key features like InMail messages, advanced profile search, expanded analytics, and team collaboration can give you a distinct competitive advantage.
While basic LinkedIn accounts are free, premium memberships yield additional capabilities that professionals rely on for networking, prospecting, recruiting, and career growth. Evaluating the premium options based on your budget, goals, and needs can determine the ideal package. Most users find the investment in a paid LinkedIn subscription worthwhile, delivering significant value across their roles and priorities.