With three premium plans to choose from, deciding which LinkedIn premium subscription is right for your needs can be tricky. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll compare the key features of LinkedIn Premium Career, LinkedIn Premium Business, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator to help you determine the best LinkedIn premium plan for you.
What are the LinkedIn premium plans?
LinkedIn offers three paid subscription plans:
- LinkedIn Premium Career
- LinkedIn Premium Business
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Each plan builds on the features of the previous one, so Premium Career offers more benefits than free LinkedIn, Premium Business offers more than Premium Career, and Sales Navigator offers the most robust set of features.
LinkedIn Premium Career
Premium Career costs $29.99 per month and is designed for individual professionals who want to manage their own careers more effectively. Key features include:
- See who’s viewed your profile
- Get insights on how you compare with other applicants
- Take skill assessments to showcase verified skills
- Get resume and cover letter feedback
- Access over 15,000 professional courses
- Get 1-on-1 coaching with industry experts
LinkedIn Premium Business
Premium Business costs $59.99 per month and adds features targeted at small businesses and teams. Additional capabilities include:
- See unlimited member profiles
- Use advanced search filters and alerts
- Send InMail messages to anyone
- Create customized company and showcase pages
- Post job listings
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator costs $79.99 per month and has the most robust toolset optimized for sales professionals. Extra features consist of:
- Saved lead and account lists
- sales automation and CRM integration
- Lead recommendations
- Advanced search filters for leads
- Team collaboration tools
Who should choose LinkedIn Premium Career?
Premium Career is the best choice for professionals focused on advancing their own careers, rather than selling to or managing teams. Specific types of users who can benefit include:
- Job seekers – Premium Career helps you stand out during your job search by letting you see how your profile and skills match up against job postings. The expanded profile views give you insights on who’s looking at your profile so you can follow up.
- Career builders – For those looking to develop new skills and move up within their current company or industry, Premium Career offers unlimited access to over 15,000 expert-led courses. The 1-on-1 coaching also provides tailored guidance for your career path.
- Networkers – Growing your network is easier with the expanded search and profile view capabilities. Premium Career lets you find and connect with more relevant professionals in your industry.
- Remote workers – Premium Career can help remote employees feel less isolated through useful tools like resume feedback and skill assessments to stay visible and marketable.
Overall, Premium Career is designed for anyone who wants more insights and support for charting their own career journey as an individual contributor.
Who should choose LinkedIn Premium Business?
Premium Business works best for small company owners, hiring managers, recruiters, and other professionals who need to leverage LinkedIn for broader business goals. Key users include:
- Small business owners – Premium Business allows entrepreneurs and solopreneurs to create a company page and showcase their business to attract new customers.
- HR professionals – Recruiters and talent acquisition teams can post unlimited job listings and use advanced filters to find qualified candidates more easily.
- Marketers – For small marketing teams, Premium Business provides tools to create customized showcase pages, follow companies, identify influencers, and build their brand.
- Startup founders – Early-stage startups can use Premium Business to network, recruit team members, and get the word out about their new venture.
Premium Business gives smaller organizations and teams capabilities previously only accessible to larger corporate accounts. It’s the ideal plan for boosting a company’s LinkedIn presence.
Who should choose LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
Sales Navigator is the best LinkedIn premium option for sales professionals because it combines specialized sales tools with individual career building features. Key users include:
- Account executives – Sales reps can use Sales Navigator to identify new prospects, get notified when leads change jobs, integrate LinkedIn with CRMs, and collaborate with their teams.
- Business development reps – BDRs can use lead recommendations and advanced filters to build targeted prospect lists and kickstart their outbound process.
- Sales leaders – Sales operations and enablement leaders can track team performance on LinkedIn, get visibility into social selling, and leverage LinkedIn data in their sales stack.
- Sales development reps – Lead qualification and outreach is streamlined for SDRs with Sales Navigator’s alerts, InMail, and list building capabilities.
For anyone in a sales role, Sales Navigator delivers the tools to hit prospecting and revenue goals by leveraging the power of LinkedIn’s professional network data.
Comparison of key features
Here is a side-by-side overview of some of the most important benefits offered by each premium plan:
| Feature | LinkedIn Premium Career | LinkedIn Premium Business | LinkedIn Sales Navigator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profile views | See who’s viewed your profile | See unlimited profiles | See who’s viewed your profile + unlimited profiles |
| Searching & filtering | Basic filters | Advanced filters | Sales-focused filters + lead recommendations |
| Messaging | 10 InMail messages/month | 30 InMail messages/month | Unlimited InMail messages |
| Learning & development | 15,000+ expert courses | 15,000+ expert courses | 15,000+ expert courses |
| Team collaboration | – | Share job posts and searches | Sales team tools |
| List building | – | Follow companies | Saved lead and account lists |
| Integrations | – | – | CRM integration |
Do you need multiple premium plans?
While each premium plan builds on the others, purchasing multiple plans is usually overkill and not cost effective. Here are some scenarios where using two plans could make sense:
- A sales manager may want Sales Navigator plus Premium Career to benefit from leadership tools as well as career coaching and learning.
- A recruiter at a small startup could pair Premium Business (for recruiting) with Premium Career (for their own profile and network growth).
- A sales rep may individually purchase Sales Navigator while their company has a Premium Business account to manage the company page and post jobs.
However, for most professionals, having both a Premium Career and Premium Business subscription would be redundant. And having all three plans is almost always overkill and hard to justify.
Conclusion
Determining the right LinkedIn premium plan depends mainly on your professional role and goals. Here’s a quick recap of who each product is designed for:
- LinkedIn Premium Career – Best for individual contributors focused on their own career growth and networking.
- LinkedIn Premium Business – Best for small business owners, recruiters, HR, and marketing pros who need tools for their whole company.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator – Best for sales professionals who want to tap into LinkedIn data to hit prospecting and revenue goals.
Do you need to expand your LinkedIn capabilities beyond the free tools? Start by thinking about your day-to-day objectives and choose the premium plan designed to empower professionals like you. The investment can pay dividends by connecting you with the right people, resources, and insights to achieve your career or business goals.