Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.
With more job seekers than ever isolated at home, employers turn to platforms, such as Glassdoor and Indeed, to attract talent, make hiring decisions and build their employer brand. Both platforms are easy to navigate and have different strengths or weaknesses depending on your business’s goals.
Indeed vs. Glassdoor at a Glance
Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. owns both Glassdoor and Indeed, so you’ll find the companies complement each other well. Glassdoor is ideal for building your employer brand and Indeed is perfect for sourcing your next hire. Both companies deserve a place in your hiring repertoire.
While Glassdoor lists open positions, if you click on the link to post a job, it’ll direct you to Indeed. When you post a job on Indeed, it’ll cross-post to several job boards, including Glassdoor. It’s free to list a job, although you can pay to sponsor the listing on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis. This means you only pay when the ad performs, such as when a candidate views the open position. Sponsor your ad for as little as $5 per day.
With Glassdoor, create a free employer account and showcase your company info and mission, review requests and get profile analytics. There are also paid plans to further build your brand.
Glassdoor
Free Trial
No
Free Plan
Yes
Pricing Starts At
Contact sales for quote
No
Yes
Contact sales for quote
Editor's Take
If the Great Resignation has taught us anything, it’s that company culture is everything. To obtain and retain exceptional talent, you need to build a culture that encourages employee growth, and Glassdoor is the perfect place to start. It allows you to highlight your employer brand and showcase the value of working at your company.
Glassdoor is free for job seekers; they can search for jobs, research companies and read anonymous reviews. There’s also a free plan for employers, where you can give your company info and mission, include a logo, provide updates, answer reviews, use community-submitted photos, and include diversity and inclusion programs and goals. Another feature of the free plan is the ability to show off promotional badges, such as your commitment to workplace transparency or other causes.
Paid plans let you feature reviews, create custom content, get follower demographics and compare the competition and keyword analysis of reviews. For paid plans, you must contact sales for a quote.
Pros & Cons
- Offers a free plan
- Reviews help determine the organizational changes needed
- Focuses on increasing brand awareness
- Must contact sales for paid plan pricing
- Brand advertising not available under the free plan
- No applicant tracking system (ATS)
Indeed
Free Trial
Free Plan
Yes
Pricing Starts At
$5
per post per day
N/A
Yes
$5
per post per day
Editor's Take
Indeed is the perfect platform for sourcing your next hire. It has a massive pool of candidates and allows you to post jobs to many job boards at once. Indeed also includes a résumé database and lets you search for candidates using keywords, including skills, work experience and education.
If you’re looking for a paid plan, Indeed offers a couple. The most popular is the pay-per-click (PPC) plan, which sponsors your job listing. This way, you can invite candidates to apply, and job seekers get desktop and mobile job alerts.
The other paid plan is creating a hiring campaign. You’ll work with Indeed to pick jobs from your career site or ATS and sponsor jobs best suited for the platform. Together, you’ll create a budget and choose the jobs to sponsor. For pricing, contact Indeed’s sales team.
Pros & Cons
- Verify a candidate’s aptitude with skills assessments
- Over 200 million résumés in its database
- It’s free to post jobs
- Difficult to tell if a candidate isn’t local
- Some employers complain of budget upsells by sales team
- The cost of add-ons can get expensive
How the Services Stack Up
Glassdoor | Indeed | |
---|---|---|
Free Plan | Yes | Yes |
Free Trial | No | Not needed, it’s free |
Pricing | Must contact sales for a quote | Only pay-per-click for sponsored listings |
Résumés in Database | Not advertised | More than 200 million |
Candidate Evaluation Tool | No | Yes |
Sponsored Listings | Paid plans include brand advertising | Pay-per-click |
Skills Tests | No | Yes |
Both Glassdoor and Indeed provide free plans with optional upgrades. With Indeed, you pay to sponsor a listing on a PPC basis, or you can create a hiring campaign to parse available positions on your ATS and budget for sponsoring those listings. Glassdoor’s paid plans focus on employer branding. For these plans, you need to contact sales for pricing.
Indeed’s biggest boon is its skills test, which verifies a candidate’s skill set through tests. For some candidates, these can frustrate, but it’s invaluable to an employer who wants to hire the right person. With over 200 million résumés in its database, it helps to have a candidate evaluation tool to sort through applications based on what you need in an employee.
Featured Partners
Advertisem*nt
1
BambooHR
Onboarding
Yes
Employee Records
Yes
2
Pinpoint ATS
Applicant tracking
Yes
Onboarding
Yes
Standout features
24/7 customer support, easy-to-use interface, fast and flexible workflows, hundreds of integrations
3
ClearCompany
Applicant tracking/onboarding
Yes
Performance management
Yes
Standout Features
Employee engagement
4
ZipRecruiter
Free trial
Yes
Trusted by
4.3M+ Businesses
Standout features
Al-driven smart matching, technology, Resume database, 24/7 customer support
5
Wellfound
Free ATS
Yes
Easy onboarding
Yes
Standout features
Pitch templates, auto-schedule, AI search & sourcing, 1:1 sourcing expert, 10x candidate response rate
Bottom Line
Glassdoor and Indeed deserve a spot in your hiring arsenal because each company is complementary to attracting and obtaining the right talent. You’ll use Glassdoor for employer branding, and Indeed for managing the hiring process from start to finish.
Next Up in Business
- Indeed Review For Employers
- LinkedIn Review: Best Professional Network Money Can Buy
- Agile Certifications For Project Management Professionals
- What Is Talent Acquisition? Everything You Need To Know
- How To Post A Job On Indeed And Find Top-Notch Candidates