LinkedIn Jobs / Recruiter
Largest passive talent pool. Recruiter Lite at the low end, full Recruiter at the upper. Slot-based job postings supplement seat licences.
Job Boards
Engineering Job Board Pricing 2026
Job-board allocation typically lands at $1,000-$3,000 per engineering hire. This is the per-platform list-pricing landscape, with applicant volume and cost-per-applicant ranges.
| Platform category | Model | Monthly | Cost / applicant | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Jobs / Recruiter | Pay-per-click + flat post + Recruiter seats | $170 - $1,000+ / seat | $8 - $25 | High, especially for passive candidates |
| Indeed | Free organic listing + sponsored pay-per-click | $150 - $600 sponsored | $3 - $15 | Medium-High |
| Dice | Monthly subscription + posting credits | $395 - $800 (typical list pricing) | $10 - $35 | High for tech-specialist roles |
| Stack Overflow Jobs / Talent | Flat fee per posting / talent search subscription | $400 - $900 per posting | $15 - $50 | Very high (developer community) |
| Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent) | Free + premium tiers | $0 - $299 | $5 - $20 | High, equity-motivated candidates |
| Hired.com / Talent marketplaces | Success fee on placement | $0 upfront | Per-placement fee | Very high (pre-vetted) |
Pricing reflects publicly stated list prices and 2026 industry-cited ranges. Negotiated contracts often discount 10-25%.
Per-platform notes
What each platform is actually good at
Indeed
Highest applicant volume. Free tier exists but performs 30-40% worse than sponsored. Strongest for junior and mid roles.
Dice
Tech-specialist platform with sharper signal-to-noise. Smaller pool but stronger filters for backend, cloud, infrastructure.
Stack Overflow Jobs / Talent
Low volume, very high quality. Mandatory salary disclosure self-filters. Strong for mid-senior backend and full-stack.
Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent)
Best free-tier ROI in the market for early-stage. Direct founder outreach. Equity transparency self-selects pool.
Hired.com / Talent marketplaces
Reverse marketplace. Candidates apply to you. Low volume, very high signal. Good supplement to agency search.
Recommended stacks
Job-board stack by hire volume
What an engineering hiring team should run at three volume tiers. Build up rather than buying everything at once.
Startup (1-10 hires/year)
$500 - $1,500/month
- LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
- Wellfound free tier
- Indeed sponsored at $150-300/mo
- GitHub Jobs equivalent for niche dev roles
Wellfound for equity-motivated; LinkedIn Lite for passive. Skip Dice and Stack Overflow until volume justifies.
Scale-up (10-30 hires/year)
$2,000 - $5,000/month
- LinkedIn Recruiter (full)
- Indeed sponsored $500-1,500/mo
- Dice for backend / cloud / infra roles
- Stack Overflow for senior backend
Track cost-per-qualified-applicant, not raw cost-per-applicant. A/B test job-post copy.
Enterprise (30+ hires/year)
$8,000 - $20,000+/month
- Enterprise LinkedIn team licence
- Indeed managed campaigns
- Dice subscription
- Programmatic-advertising platforms (Appcast / Joveo categories)
Programmatic advertising automates spend across 30+ boards and optimises bids in real time. Justified once monthly spend clears $8k.
Job-board spend in your full TCO
The calculator slots ad spend, sourcing-tool seats, and per-channel fees into a six-line ledger so you can see where boards actually fit.