Indeed Alternatives for Employers in 2026

Google lists job openings in a job search area of its results. To get in, add JobPosting structured data to each job page on your careers site. You don't pay Google for this, and it says it doesn't accept payment to rank a site higher.⁹ When a job closes, show a past "validThrough" date, return a 404 or 410, or remove the markup. Our guide on how to post jobs on Google covers each step, and our free job posting schema generator writes the markup.

Search ads can show your job ad when people search for the role. With cost-per-click bidding, you set a maximum bid and pay per click, often less than the maximum. In the US and Canada, job ads can't target gender, age, parental status, marital status or ZIP code.¹⁰ We build our Google Ads for recruiting inside those rules from day one.

Meta brought job listings back to Facebook on October 13, 2025, for people in the US. Employers list jobs from Marketplace, a Page or Meta Business Suite, and job seekers browse a Jobs tab on Marketplace. Meta aims it at entry-level, trade and service jobs. Listings are public to adults 18 and over, and some job types aren't eligible. The announcement mentions no fee. You create a job in the Facebook app, not on a computer.¹¹ The steps are in our guide on how to post a job on Facebook.

Paid reach is a separate ad. Job ads run in Meta's Employment special ad category. Ages are fixed at 18 to 65+, and all genders are included. ZIP codes and lookalikes are off, and the minimum radius is 15 miles in the US and Canada.¹² Our Facebook recruitment ads run inside that category.

You can have only one free job post open at a time. To reach more people, promote the job with a daily or total budget. LinkedIn charges per click and says "clicks and views are one and the same." Self-serve billing comes within 48 hours of closing the job, 30 days after posting or at a $500 balance.¹³

Jobs LinkedIn pulls in from your ATS or careers site are called Basic Jobs. Greenhouse calls them Limited Listings. They show in job search and on your company Page, but not in recommendations. LinkedIn may require some jobs to be promoted, such as staffing firms' jobs. If you claim a Basic Job, LinkedIn lets you promote it.¹⁴ Greenhouse says Limited Listings are free, can't be sponsored and show in search after paid jobs.¹⁵ We compare the two in LinkedIn Limited Listings vs promoted jobs.

ZipRecruiter's latest annual report describes two models. Subscription plans have a flat rate set by plan size and a daily, monthly or annual term. Terms usually run from one day to 12 months. Subscription contracts can be canceled only at the end of the term, with no refunds. Performance pricing charges per click, usually up to a cap per campaign. The report mentions free trials but lists no rates.¹⁶ Ask for a written quote. Our ZipRecruiter vs Indeed guide compares the two.

A board for one field reaches people who already look there, such as nurses, drivers or electricians. Each board sets its own price: a flat post, a pack, a job slot or a fee per click. Before you buy, ask three things. How does it charge? What counts as a click? Does it send your job on to other sites?

Programmatic means software buys, places and adjusts job ads across many sites from one budget. DirectEmployers says most campaigns use performance pricing, "typically cost-per-click or cost-per-apply."¹⁷ One 2026 limit: from December 31, agency feeds can't carry ATS-integrated jobs to Indeed at all.¹ Ask any provider which sites it uses, what you see per job, and how fast closed jobs come down.

Ours runs on job-distribution tech we built, with ads only on open jobs: see programmatic job advertising. The trade-offs are in our guide to programmatic vs job boards.

An open house or job fair has no per-click fee. You pay for the space and the promotion. Point every ad and flyer at one live event page. Our hiring event QR code generator makes a code for that page. Want the room full? That's our hiring event marketing.