LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 800 million users worldwide. Having a presence on LinkedIn is crucial for anyone looking to advance their career or grow their business. LinkedIn offers several subscription plans that provide users with additional features and benefits beyond the free account.
For individuals and businesses looking to establish or enhance their LinkedIn presence on a budget, the Premium Career plan is the most affordable paid option. At just $29.99 per month, the Premium Career plan unlocks several useful capabilities without breaking the bank.
In this article, we will compare the key features and pricing of the different LinkedIn subscription plans to help you determine which option best fits your needs and budget.
LinkedIn’s Subscription Plans
LinkedIn currently offers four paid subscription options for individual users:
- Premium Career – $29.99/month
- Premium Business – $39.99/month
- Sales Navigator Professional – $64.99/month
- Recruiter Lite – $99.95/month
In addition, LinkedIn offers several premium plans for businesses and enterprise customers with prices based on the number of user seats. However, for the purposes of determining the most affordable option, we will focus on the individual user plans.
Premium Career Plan Overview
The Premium Career plan is the least expensive paid individual subscription on LinkedIn at $29.99 per month when billed annually. Key features of the Premium Career plan include:
- Profile badge – Lets other users know you have a paid Premium subscription.
- Expanded profile views – See how many times your profile has been viewed and by whom.
- Job Insights – Provides detailed information on salary, required skills, and more for specific job postings you’re interested in.
- Unlimited profile searches – Search LinkedIn profiles without restrictions.
- InMail messages – Send direct messages to any LinkedIn member without needing to connect first.
- Resume review – Get expert feedback on your resume to highlight skills and opportunities.
Premium Career Pricing
The Premium Career plan costs $29.99 per month when billed annually or $34.99 per month with monthly billing. It can be purchased directly from LinkedIn.com without a contract.
There is also an option for Premium Career plus additional LinkedIn Learning access for $39.99 per month billed annually.
Premium Business Plan
The Premium Business plan builds upon the Premium Career features and adds several benefits tailored for business owners, entrepreneurs, freelancers and independent professionals. Key Premium Business features include:
- All Premium Career features – Profile badge, expanded profile views, job insights, etc.
- Business profile badge – Designates your profile as a business account.
- Talent Insights – Unlocks data on talent pools to help you identify the right hires.
- Business profile analytics – Gain insights on your company’s LinkedIn profile views and follower growth.
- Profile audit – Assesses how your LinkedIn presence can be optimized to attract customers.
Premium Business Pricing
The Premium Business plan costs $39.99 per month when billed annually. There is also an option with LinkedIn Learning bundled in for $49.99 per month annually.
Sales Navigator Professional
Sales Navigator Professional is LinkedIn’s flagship sales tool. It provides in-depth sales intelligence to find prospects, build relationships, and close more deals. Key features include:
- Lead recommendations – Uncovers accounts and contacts most likely to convert to sales.
- Advanced search filters – Finds prospects based on industry, job role, location, company size, and more.
- Saved Lead Lists – Organizes prospects into customizable folders and priority levels.
- PointDrive presentations – Creates customized sales presentations by pulling content from LinkedIn profiles.
- TeamLink collaboration – Allows groups of colleagues to strategize on accounts together.
Sales Navigator Pricing
Sales Navigator Professional is priced at $64.99 per month when billed annually. It is designed for individual salespeople rather than full teams or enterprises.
Recruiter Lite
Recruiter Lite provides tools tailored for hiring managers and recruiters to source, engage, and manage candidates more efficiently. Key Recruiter Lite features include:
- Advanced search filters – Finds candidates by experience, skills, education, location and other attributes.
- InMail messages – Contact passive candidates who aren’t actively job searching.
- Talent Pool organization – Maintains candidate lists segmented by tags and priorities.
- Interview scheduling – Streamlines scheduling candidate interviews through automated calendars.
Recruiter Lite Pricing
At $99.95 per month with annual billing, Recruiter Lite is LinkedIn’s most expensive individual subscription plan. However, it provides a fairly complete recruiting toolkit for the price.
Comparing Key Features
When evaluating the different LinkedIn paid plans, it’s helpful to view a direct comparison of the key features in each option:
Feature | Premium Career | Premium Business | Sales Navigator | Recruiter Lite |
---|---|---|---|---|
Profile Badge | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Expanded Profile Views | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Job Insights | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Resume Review | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Lead Recommendations | No | No | Yes | No |
Advanced Search Filters | No | No | Yes | Yes |
InMail Messages | 15 per month | 25 per month | 50 per month | 300 per month |
Saved Lead Lists | No | No | Yes | No |
Talent Pool Organization | No | No | No | Yes |
Which is the Cheapest LinkedIn Plan?
Based on the pricing and features compared above, the Premium Career plan is clearly the most affordable paid subscription offered by LinkedIn. At only $29.99 per month when billed annually, Premium Career provides robust capabilities to enhance your LinkedIn presence and unlock more value from the platform.
Here are some key reasons why Premium Career is the cheapest full LinkedIn plan:
- Less than $30 per month for annual billing
- No long-term contracts required
- Valuable profile enhancement features like badge and expanded views
- Job insights to boost career opportunities
- 15 InMail messages to contact members outside your network
- Resume review service for expert feedback
For most professionals, the Premium Career plan delivers the most bang for your buck and unlocks LinkedIn’s core value-added features at the lowest price point.
Who is Premium Career Best Suited For?
While Premium Career offers great value, it’s not necessarily the ideal choice for every LinkedIn user. Here are the types of users who can benefit the most from a Premium Career subscription:
- Job seekers – The profile badge, job insights, resume help and InMail messages help candidates stand out.
- Young professionals – Early and mid-career users can enhance their profile and kickstart networking.
- Independent contractors – Freelancers and solopreneurs can appear more professional to prospective clients.
- Career changers – People switching industries can highlight relevant skills and connections.
- Personal branding – Those wanting to polish their profile and online persona on a budget.
Premium Career covers the core LinkedIn features that deliver value across many use cases. It misses some bells and whistles tailored for sales professionals and recruiters, but offers tremendous bang for buck for most subscriber needs.
What are the Alternatives to Premium Career?
If you find Premium Career is missing features you need, here are some top alternatives to consider:
- Premium Business – Upgrade for job advertising, business analytics and professional branding capabilities. Just $10 more per month annually.
- Sales Navigator – For sales professionals who need sales intelligence, prospecting and automation. $64.99/month annually.
- Recruiter Lite – Recruiters and hiring managers should get robust sourcing and candidate management. $99.95/month annually.
- Microsoft 365 – MS Office 365 subscribers get basic LinkedIn features with their plan at no added cost.
- Free Account – For users mainly focused on basic profile building and networking features.
The right LinkedIn plan depends on your specific professional needs and budget. But Premium Career is the clear money-saving choice for those wanting paid features without high costs.
Is Premium Career Worth It?
At just under $30 per month when billed yearly, Premium Career offers notable benefits for the price. When weighing the value you can reasonably expect to achieve from the key features, Premium Career represents a solid investment for many LinkedIn users.
Specific elements that make Premium Career a worthy upgrade include:
- Expanded profile views – Seeing who is looking at your profile enables you to focus your networking and develop more relationships.
- Job insights – Uncovering inside details on job postings helps you tailor your application and negotiate salary or benefits.
- InMail messages – Reaching beyond your current network is game-changing for sales prospecting and job seeking.
- Resume review – Expert feedback on your resume can reveal weaknesses you may miss and improve your candidacy.
For most working professionals, being able to convert even 1-2 more opportunities over a year thanks to Premium Career capabilities can easily justify the reasonable $29.99 monthly subscription cost.
Key Premium Career Benefits
- Boosts visibility with profile badge and expanded views
- Provides insights to advance your job search or sales process
- Enables critical outreach beyond your current connections
- Delivers expert resume review to improve your candidacy
- No long-term contract required
Considering its affordability and useful features, Premium Career offers solid ROI for many LinkedIn users.
Conclusion
After reviewing the key features and pricing of LinkedIn’s paid subscription plans, the Premium Career option clearly stands out as the cheapest full membership. For only $29.99 per month when billed annually, professionals can unlock LinkedIn’s core paid features to boost their profile, improve their resume, gain insights on opportunities, and expand their reach.
While Premium Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite provide more robust capabilities, Premium Career offers tremendous value covering essentials for networking, personal branding, job seeking and client prospecting. For those needing to maximize their investment, Premium Career provides the most affordable way to tap into LinkedIn as a professional.