Key takeaways
- ZipRecruiter and Indeed offer top hiring tools, but ZipRecruiter excels in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered candidate matching, while Indeed provides broad job visibility.
- ZipRecruiter is best for targeted hiring with its AI-driven job distribution and automated recommendations to connect employers with qualified talent.
- Indeed is best for broad reach and budget flexibility, with free job posts, pay-per-click job ads, and a vast résumé database to find and hire applicants.
ZipRecruiter vs Indeed: Which is better?
Indeed and ZipRecruiter are two popular online job listing sites that allow you to post open job opportunities and source applicants, but they service different hiring needs. In comparing ZipRecruiter vs Indeed, the main difference lies in their approach to posting job ads and managing candidates.
If you want hands-off, AI-powered tools to find qualified candidates, ZipRecruiter’s smart matching tools and automated recommendations can streamline your search. It also distributes your job postings to over 100 job boards with just one click.
On the other hand, Indeed’s online platform is a job aggregator that compiles job ads from different job boards. It’s also known for its extensive résumé database and free job postings. While it offers paid options for increased job ad visibility, its strengths lie in its cost-effective flexibility and wide range of covered industries.
Finding the best job posting sites for your business depends on your preferences, such as budgetary restrictions or the amount and quality of sourced candidates. To help you gauge whether or not Indeed or ZipRecruiter is for you, I’ve outlined some of their differences below.
Featured partners
Pricing
Subscription-based
Sponsored ad-based with free job posting
Candidate sourcing
Job post distributor
Job post aggregator
Candidate management
Employer dashboard and built-in applicant tracking system (ATS)
Employer dashboard and ATS hybrid
Applicant experience
Apply in ZipRecruiter
Occasionally have to apply on other sources
Reporting
Job posting and applicant tracking insights
Job market trends and job posting insights
Learn more
ZipRecruiter: Best for targeted candidate matching
ZipRecruiter excels in its ability to match job postings with suitable candidates through advanced algorithms. Its intuitive AI tool parses applicant résumés, determines if they may be a match for the open role, and invites candidates to apply. If you have massive hiring quotas and need to fill positions quickly, these features can amass a qualified candidate pool with little effort.
It also has a wide job posting distribution network of over 100 job boards. This means you can post your open positions, and ZipRecruiter automatically syndicates them to all of the job boards in its network.
Despite these functionalities, the large volume of applications that ZipRecruiter sources for an open job position can be overwhelming. This may be a turn-off if you need more time or resources to screen candidates closely. However, larger employers may appreciate the number of applications, as it allows them to be choosier in their selection without worrying about a lack of qualified applicants.
Want to learn more? Check out our ZipRecruiter review.
Pros
- AI candidate matching and invite-to-apply tools
- Job candidate ranking
- Attentive customer service
- Customizable job post templates
- ATS integrations, such as Greenhouse, JazzHR, Zoho Recruit, and Breezy HR
Cons
- Non-transparent pricing
- Lacks free job postings
- Résumé database access and ATS integrations are included in higher tiers
- Does not post to competing job boards, like Indeed, Monster, or CareerBuilder
Indeed: Best for broad visibility
Indeed is renowned for its extensive reach, being one of the most visited job sites worldwide. It’s an ideal hiring tool if you’re looking to cast a wide net to attract a diverse pool of applicants. Indeed also offers free job postings, which makes it a good option for those with limited budgets to source qualified candidates.
In addition, you have access to Indeed’s free job hiring insights tool, where you can view trends in job-specific roles. This allows you to strategically pinpoint marketplaces without posting your open position on multiple job boards. Similar to ZipRecruiter, Indeed integrates with some of the best applicant tracking systems, such as Greenhouse, Workday, and iCIMS.
There is one major drawback: Because Indeed is a free tool for both recruiters and job seekers, it is easy for job openings to get lost in the mix of competing job posts. Unless you pay to get your job posting sponsored, Indeed may not be the right fit for sourcing talent for urgently needed positions.
Pros
- Built-in interview scheduling tools
- Budget-controlled pricing
- Large candidate pool — bigger than ZipRecruiter’s
- Candidate filters and screener questions
Cons
- Does not distribute job posts elsewhere
- Customer service is limited to online help forums or through email
- Google Chrome Indeed Recruiter Extension can only transfer data to a limited number of ATSs, such as Greenhouse, Bullhorn, and Workday
ZipRecruiter vs Indeed: A detailed comparison
Pricing
ZipRecruiter and Indeed follow different pricing ideologies. ZipRecruiter has a subscription-based tier model, whereas Indeed’s pricing requires the purchase of ad space to reach a wider audience. Which model works better depends on several factors, such as hiring needs, budgetary constraints, and the nature of the open role itself.
Pricing
$15-24 per post per day; monthly packages start at $299*
Free to post;
sponsored job postings start at $5 per day or $150 per month
Free plan
No
Yes (job posting only)
Budget control
No
Yes
Résumé database access
Included in higher tiers
$120 or $400 per month
*Pricing is based on a quote we received.
Candidate sourcing
Although ZipRecruiter and Indeed are job boards in name, how they source candidates differs significantly. As a job distributor, ZipRecruiter focuses on getting job posts to appear in as many places as possible. Meanwhile, as a job aggregator, Indeed collects as many job posts from around the web as possible to appear in one place. Determining the best method ultimately depends on how you plan to interact with each solution during the recruitment process.
ZipRecruiter automatically distributes your job posts to over 100 job boards across the web, except for competitors like Indeed, Monster, and CareerBuilder. ZipRecruiter’s primary goal is to get as many relevant job seekers to see the job post as possible. To aid in this effort, ZipRecruiter uses AI to scan résumés from other job boards and invite qualified candidates to apply.
Depending on the subscription tier, you can leverage additional tools, such as TrafficBoost, which promotes job postings to a larger audience, increasing visibility for specialized roles. This can be beneficial if you have significant hiring needs, as it improves the chance of finding a qualified candidate for your job post.
However, because ZipRecruiter casts such a wide net when searching for candidates and does not regulate the number of applications received, HR teams may face a high volume of candidates. It offers screening capabilities to whittle down candidates but small businesses without an in-house recruiter may struggle to manage the influx, whereas larger companies with more hiring resources may appreciate the steady pipeline of potential hires.
While Indeed lets you post job ads for free on its platform, it doesn’t distribute these to other job boards like ZipRecruiter does. It only aggregates job listings from across the web. In other words, Indeed functions similarly to a job search engine where job seekers can see open roles from hundreds of online job boards, including specific industries such as engineering, medicine, education, or nonprofits.
This approach may be beneficial to job seekers looking for a one-stop platform to view open positions, but it may be a drawback for recruiting teams. You are at risk of getting your job postings lost in the mix because Indeed does not distribute their postings elsewhere. Unless you sponsor your job posting and use extra features like Indeed Smart Sourcing for instant candidate matches or Indeed Ads to increase visibility, you are limited to search result pages in either Indeed or Google. If you are looking to source candidates quickly, you may need to post your open positions to both a career aggregator site like Indeed and a job distributor like ZipRecruiter to increase qualified applicant counts.
ZipRecruiter. Here’s why: By posting to multiple other job search sites, ZipRecruiter garners more traffic to a job post, so you can receive potential candidates quickly. In contrast, as a job aggregator, Indeed’s approach is more job seeker-friendly, but this can hurt your chances of sticking out among competing postings.
Candidate management
When comparing ZipRecruiter vs Indeed in terms of managing candidates, neither are complete applicant tracking systems. They only offer the essential tools to help you evaluate and connect with qualified candidates.
Both solutions utilize an employer dashboard that collects candidate applications in one location to be filtered and screened. Although ZipRecruiter and Indeed leverage screening questions to assist in ranking qualified candidates, Indeed includes additional features like interview scheduling to streamline the hiring process.
Employer dashboard
Yes
Yes
Screening questions
Yes
Yes
In-app candidate messaging
Yes
Yes
Interview scheduling
No
Yes
Candidate matching
Based on AI-driven recommendations
Based on automated keyword searches
ZipRecruiter provides two ways to screen candidates: via ZipRecruiter’s AI or through screening questions, which help reduce the number of applicants for manual screening. The options range from simple yes-or-no questions to free-form questions to understand a candidate’s experience better. You can even create “deal breaker” questions, allowing you to easily determine whether the candidates fit your requirements based on their answers.
Meanwhile, ZipRecruiter’s AI parses résumés and places potentially great matches higher up in the dashboard over others. After reviewing the résumés, you can then rate the pre-sorted candidates to train the AI to select applicants who fit your criteria more accurately.
However, unless ZipRecruiter is integrated with a full ATS, you will have to manually move candidates through the hiring pipeline, arrange interview schedules, collect additional assessments, and conduct background checks or reference checks. Because of this, ZipRecruiter may not be cost-effective for small businesses that use it as their only hiring tool.
Compared to ZipRecruiter, Indeed bridges the gap between a regular job board and an ATS. You can create screener questions, similar to ZipRecruiter, to narrow down qualified candidates. Indeed also allows you to select deal-breaker questions to deprioritize candidates who do not answer satisfactorily.
However, Indeed makes managing candidates a bit easier than ZipRecruiter. If you mark applicants that you’re interested in, Indeed will automatically decline the others for you. It also has native interview scheduling and virtual interview tools, allowing you to streamline hiring without integrating third-party services. Indeed even has a library of interview questions for various positions you can use for free.
Indeed has the feel of a large-scale ATS without the associated cost. With features to manage candidates from application to job acceptance, it makes the recruiting process more efficient, even for businesses with limited hiring needs.
Indeed. Here’s why: While ZipRecruiter may have slightly more advanced AI candidate management tools, Indeed’s smart applicant tags and interview scheduling functionalities make it easier for you to pinpoint qualified candidates who will move to the next hiring stage. Moreover, because these features are all native to Indeed, you don’t have to spend time or money bouncing from one solution to another.
Applicant experience
To reach suitable candidates, consider what aspects are most important to job seekers when interacting with job listing sites. The best sites allow job seekers to quickly identify positions that fit their skill set, assist in making their applications stand out, and provide opportunities for engagement with hiring employers.
ZipRecruiter and Indeed are free for job seekers and include mobile applications to easily apply to positions from any device. Beyond this, ZipRecruiter and Indeed offer different functions to attract job seekers.
Mobile app
Yes
Yes
Company pages
No
Yes
AI assistant
Yes
No
Because it is a job distribution platform, when job seekers use ZipRecruiter, they can apply to positions initially posted to the site and not drawn from other job boards. This means they can send applications with details uploaded to their ZipRecruiter profile, such as résumés, without having to repeatedly fill out the same information. For some job posts, they also have the option to apply with one click, further speeding up the application process.
Job seekers can even take advantage of ZipRecruiter’s personal recruitment assistant, Phil. This AI tool helps applicants find job opportunities that best fit their career goals, experience, skills, and interests. It automatically sends job alerts via email, optimizes profiles by adding skills based on their résumés, and even pitches top job seekers directly to employers.
These functionalities help applicants save time, enabling them to exert minimal effort in applying to several jobs. They can even find new opportunities faster, even when they’re not actively looking, given ZipRecruiter’s AI tool that suggests relevant job posts that fit their skill sets.
Indeed may not have ZipRecruiter’s AI recruiting assistant for applicants, but it provides job seekers with online resources to verify employer offerings and check company reviews. Like its sister company, Glassdoor, Indeed lets employers create company pages where applicants can view open positions, access average salary information, and read reviews posted by current and former employees.
Plus, Indeed shows results of its workbeing survey online, allowing job seekers to view the company’s overall rating for worker happiness, job satisfaction, compensation, management, work-life balance, and workplace culture. With these data readily on hand, applicants can make informed decisions during their job search instead of blindly applying to as many positions as possible.
It’s a tie. Here’s why: Because both platforms are free for job seekers, they are likely to use both during their search. Moreover, each offers beneficial services to job seekers—from ZipRecruiter’s AI to improve efficiency to Indeed’s company database for insight into a business’s culture. If you can, you should consider utilizing both platforms to source the most complete candidate pool.
Reporting
Unless integrated with an ATS, both ZipRecruiter and Indeed offer little in the way of reporting analytics. However, through each platform’s respective recruiting pages, you can gain fundamental insights into the performance of your job postings, such as how long a job post has been active and the number of candidates who applied.
Here’s a quick overview of the metrics available in each platform:
Job market trends
Yes
Yes
Job performance pages
Yes
Yes
Job post impressions
No
Yes
Click-through rate (CTR)
No
Yes
Number of applicants
Yes
Yes
Spending per job
N/A
Yes
Despite its price, ZipRecruiter’s reporting capabilities are sparse. Unless investing in a market analysis with specialists in ZipRecruiter’s enterprise solution, smaller businesses can access a basic report showing job location, date posted, TrafficBoost credits used, number of applicants, and conversion percentage.
ZipRecruiter provides a glimpse of salary ranges for similar positions based on the job and location when initially posting a job ad. Beyond that, you may need to integrate with an ATS to produce more meaningful metrics on talent acquisition, such as average time to fill, time to hire, or cost per hire.
Smaller companies without an ATS needing actionable insight into their recruitment strategies and efforts may have to resort to manual performance tracking methods. ZipRecruiter may not be the answer for companies requiring specific metrics to outperform their competition through a strategic hiring campaign without a large-scale budget.
You can access Indeed’s Hiring Insights as long as you have a free account with Indeed. Hiring Insights gives you a macro-view of how a particular job is doing to help you stay ahead of the competition. For example, you can use its insights map to compare talent pools, trendlines, competition scores, average salaries, and top search terms.
For more granular insights, use Indeed Analytics to gauge the performance of posted job ads. Compared to ZipRecruiter’s job performance page, Indeed’s reports are considerably more thorough. In addition to location and number of candidates, it shows job post impressions, click-through rates, and cost per click. You can then easily weigh the cost of your hiring efforts against the value of the applicants collected and adjust hiring tactics accordingly.
Indeed. Here’s why: With free access to job market trend reports, Indeed makes it easy for you to research and create targeted hiring campaigns before posting a job ad. Unlike ZipRecruiter, Indeed posts job ads in areas that will make the most impact without spending time and money promoting them elsewhere.
ZipRecruiter vs Indeed: Ready to choose?
Is ZipRecruiter better than Indeed? That depends. Comparing Indeed vs ZipRecruiter isn’t easy because they have a lot of similar features and attract substantial talent pools. Both platforms can help you reach a diverse range of applicants, but the best choice depends on your hiring priorities. ZipRecruiter is ideal for efficiency with AI-driven candidate matching, while Indeed offers strong value with its broad reach and free job postings.
However, while ZipRecruiter and Indeed are great ways to advertise your open job positions, their candidate management and reporting capabilities are rather simplistic. For more advanced features, check out our top candidate relationship management systems and best recruiting software guides to browse solutions to enhance your hiring processes.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Indeed vs ZipRecruiter
