LinkedIn offers several premium subscription plans that provide additional features beyond the free basic account. The premium plans are designed for different types of professionals and offer different benefits depending on your needs. In this article, we will compare the key differences between the main LinkedIn premium plans – Professional, Sales Navigator Professional, Recruiter Lite, and Recruiter to help you decide which plan is right for you.
Overview of LinkedIn Premium Plans
Here is a quick overview of the main premium plans offered by LinkedIn:
| Plan | Primary Use Case | Main Features |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Professional | For professionals looking to manage their brand and network | – Profile badge to stand out – Expanded network with InMail messages – Advanced profile and network analytics |
| Sales Navigator Professional | For sales professionals prospecting new accounts | – Unlimited InMail messages – Advanced search filters and alerts – Contact insights and lead recommendations |
| Recruiter Lite | For occasional recruiters and small teams | – InMail messages – Limited search filters – Basic recruiting analytics |
| Recruiter | For dedicated talent acquisition professionals and teams | – Unlimited InMails and search filters – Recruiting analytics and pipeline management – Team collaboration tools |
Now let’s explore the key differences between these plans in more detail.
Comparing Professional and Sales Navigator
The LinkedIn Professional and Sales Navigator plans share some features, but Sales Navigator is tailored specifically for sales professionals. Here’s an overview of how they compare:
Messaging
– Professional includes 25 InMail messages per month to contact anyone on LinkedIn, even if you’re not connected.
– Sales Navigator includes 50 InMails per month.
The extra InMails with Sales Navigator allow sales professionals to contact more prospects and accounts per month.
Search and Alerts
– Professional has basic LinkedIn search to find profiles and filter by criteria like location, company, title, etc.
– Sales Navigator takes search a step further with advanced filters tailored for sales prospecting, such as company growth, technologies used, keywords, lead creation dates, and more. Sales Navigator also allows you to save complex searches.
– Sales Navigator also includes alerts when new prospects that match your filters appear on LinkedIn. This keeps your prospect pipeline full automatically.
Insights
– Professional provides basic profile analytics like who’s viewed your profile.
– Sales Navigator offers contact insights when viewing member profiles to highlight connections in common, recent job changes, and news mentions. This helps prioritize outbound messaging.
– Sales Navigator also recommends leads that are most likely to convert based on your saved searches and search history.
Overall, Sales Navigator provides more robust search, alerts, and insights to help sales connect with the right people on LinkedIn. The Professional plan has basic features but Sales Navigator is worth the upgrade for sales professionals actively prospecting accounts.
Comparing Recruiter Lite and Recruiter
LinkedIn’s Recruiter Lite and Recruiter plans provide features specifically designed for talent acquisition professionals and teams. Here’s an overview:
Search and InMail
– Recruiter Lite includes 30 InMails per month and standard LinkedIn Recruiter search filters.
– Recruiter offers unlimited InMails and advanced Boolean search operators to target candidates more precisely. Recruiter also allows you to save complex searches.
The unlimited InMail and advanced searching in Recruiter facilitates contacting and sourcing larger volumes of candidates compared to Recruiter Lite.
Analytics and Insights
– Recruiter Lite provides basic analytics like InMail metrics.
– Recruiter includes robust analytics on your talent pipeline performance – applicants, InMails sent, source of hire reporting, and more. This helps optimize your recruiting funnel.
– Recruiter also shows LinkedIn Profile Analytics for candidates like skills, experience, groups, etc. to assess fit.
The deeper analytics and insights within Recruiter helps recruiters identify and engage high quality candidates more efficiently compared to Recruiter Lite.
Team Collaboration
– Recruiter allows collaboration within a team of recruiters. You can share candidates, jobs, searches, notes, and discuss candidates on the platform.
– Recruiter Lite is designed for individual recruiters versus teams.
The collaboration features make Recruiter more suitable than Recruiter Lite for a team of recruiting professionals working together.
Overall, Recruiter Lite covers basic LinkedIn recruiting needs, but Recruiter is worth the upgrade for recruiters handling high volumes of hiring and those working in agency/team settings.
Unique Features by Plan
While the LinkedIn premium plans share some features in common, each plan also has some unique benefits:
LinkedIn Professional
– Profile badge to denote you are a LinkedIn Pro member
– Get measurable insights on your profile performance with analytics
– Take online courses included with premium to build your skills
The Professional plan helps individual professionals enhance their brand and learning through LinkedIn.
Sales Navigator
– Team Link allows sales teams to share documents and collaborate
– Customizable sales alerts triggered by prospect actions
– Integrations with sales engagement platforms like Salesforce and Marketo
These features optimize Sales Navigator for collaboration and productivity by sales teams.
Recruiter Lite
– Recruiting bookmarklet to easily save candidates while browsing LinkedIn
– Basic API access for limited integrations with HR systems
– Team collaboration add-on available
Recruiter Lite focuses on lightweight LinkedIn sourcing for individual recruiters. The collaboration add-on starts to enable teamwork.
Recruiter
– Talent pool management with automated lists and nudges
– Recruitment marketing tools to build your employer brand
– Full API access, integrations, and configuration options
Recruiter provides enterprise-level features for recruiting teams to source, manage, and close candidates efficiently.
Looking at each plan’s unique features demonstrates how LinkedIn tailors their premium offerings based on the goals of different professional audiences.
Billing and Access
The LinkedIn premium plans also differ in their billing and access options:
Billing
– The Professional and Sales Navigator plans are paid monthly or annually with individual billing.
– Recruiter Lite and Recruiter require annual contracts, with options for individual or team billing. Multi-year discounts are also available for Recruiter.
User Access
– Professional and Sales Navigator allow only one user account per premium plan.
– Recruiter Lite and Recruiter can be purchased for individual users or teams. Recruiter supports unlimited user seats with enterprise pricing.
For individual subscriber plans like Professional, you cannot share premium access across multiple users. But recruiters can purchase team access to Recruiter products, with enterprise options for larger organizations.
Conclusion
While LinkedIn offers multiple premium plan options, the Professional and Recruiter products are likely the best fits for most individual subscribers. Professional provides a big upgrade for individual professionals through content, branding, and network expansion. Recruiter gives substantial sourcing and recruiting advantages for talent acquisition pros through search, pipeline analytics, and team collaboration.
Sales Navigator stands out if you’re in a sales role needing to contact prospects and close business through LinkedIn. And Recruiter Lite can meet basic needs for individual recruiters on a budget. Evaluate the features against your professional goals and volume to decide which premium plan delivers the highest value.
Key Takeaways
– Professional is ideal for individual branding, content access, and network growth.
– Sales Navigator optimizes prospecting and selling through robust search, alerts, and sales insights.
– Recruiter Lite offers basic LinkedIn sourcing capabilities for individuals.
– Recruiter provides enterprise-level talent sourcing, analytics, and team collaboration.
– Professional and Sales Navigator are for individuals. Recruiter Lite and Recruiter enable team access.
– Compare features and use cases to decide the best premium plan for your needs.
