Struggling to find the right recruitment platform and considering what’s better between XING and LinkedIn?
XING is great for recruiters looking for candidates from a more localized European job market, while LinkedIn has been a safe and reliable platform for recruiters for over two decades.
We hear you. Finding the right recruitment platform can be nerve-wracking, especially when you’re on a tight timeline or budget.
So in this guide, we’ll analyze the differences between XING and LinkedIn to determine your go-to platform for effective recruitment.
Table of Contents
XING for recruiters – what is it, and is it worth it?
XING is an online job platform for candidates and recruiters in German-speaking countries. The platform also hosts candidate profiles from a few major locations in Europe.
With over 21 million members and 20,000+ companies, XING is one of the leading job networks in Europe.
XING for recruiters is offered as a service called Onlyfy, where you can post job adverts to attract and source talent.
XING helps recruiters find candidates not just based on their CVs but also by matching each other’s work cultures and ethics—a much-needed requirement for compatibility.
Advantages of using XING for recruitment
1. A more concentrated talent pool
If your company is based in Europe, it’s best to use XING for recruitment rather than Indeed or Google jobs, as they are more competitive. As previously mentioned, XING is mainly for German-speaking and European countries.
2. Active and interested job seekers
Candidates on XING are more suitable for outreach as they may already be actively looking for a job change, thus helping you fill out a position quickly.
3. Ability to reach passive candidates
XING lets you automatically share job alerts for your job ads on relevant candidates’ entry pages, enabling you to reach out to passive candidates as well.
Does XING have any disadvantages?
We noticed there were a few cons of using XING for recruitment:
- It hampers reach as it targets a purely localized job market. When you search for roles outside German-speaking countries, you get minimal to no results. Considering the rise in remote work, XING is not ideal if you’re looking to fill a remote job or a position outside Germany.
- A language barrier may exist. Most XING users’ first language is German, which affects outreach and response rates.
- Inability to scrape potential candidate contacts for outreach, as XING does not offer a feasible search feature for recruiters building a talent pool.
- It’s very expensive. Onlyfy, XING’s recruitment platform, bills you based on the number of job ads you post. For example, a single ad with a 30-day term costs 699 EUR.
LinkedIn for recruiters – what is it, and is it worth it?
LinkedIn is a widely used recruitment platform for sourcing talent. The best part about LinkedIn is that it’s also a professional networking platform—perfect if you’re looking to connect with potential candidates before approaching them with job opportunities.
LinkedIn’s advanced search is no match to most recruitment tools in the market. You can drill down potential candidates and build your talent pool quickly by running multiple searches based on skills, locations, backgrounds, experiences, interests, and more.
Advantages of using LinkedIn for recruitment
Does LinkedIn have the upper hand over XING? The short answer is yes!
Here are the major advantages of using LinkedIn for recruiting:
1. No language barriers
LinkedIn lets you search and connect with potential candidates regardless of their location or language, unlike XING. You can use the “Job language” filter to get more precise results in less time.
2. Access to a larger talent pool
XING has about 21 million users, while LinkedIn has 1 billion users worldwide. So naturally, recruiters have access to the world’s largest talent pool, which contains diverse, skilled professionals waiting for the right job opportunity.
3. More advanced and targeted search filters
You can refine your candidate search by adding several advanced search filters that match your requirements. LinkedIn’s free search filters paired with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s filters can fetch you ultra-specific candidate contacts that are all set for outreach.
For example, you can run a search based on location, years of experience, industry, and more.
4. Better potential to personalize messages and attract candidates
XING and its recruitment service mainly focus on job ads rather than outreach. Meanwhile, LinkedIn lets you filter candidates and learn about their interests and work experiences through their profiles.
Further, it offers a platform for you to directly contact the candidate by sending a personalized connection request, thus making room for meaningful conversations that could lead to hiring.
5. Access to candidate interests
Candidates love sharing their recent achievements on LinkedIn as posts, articles, or updates to their profiles.
As a recruiter, you may be looking for candidates who have cleared a specific certification or attended a workshop. In such instances, LinkedIn’s search lets you use specific keywords across LinkedIn users’ posts. You can use these results to drill down candidates suiting your recruitment needs.
6. Potential to scrape candidates for outreach using an automation tool
Unlike XING, which offers no proper feature to search candidates actively applying for roles, LinkedIn is a much better alternative where you can search, filter, and scrape contacts.
How?
Using a LinkedIn automation tool like Expandi, you can just copy your LinkedIn search URL and paste it into your Expandi campaign to scrape the list of filtered candidate contacts and get them outreach-ready.
Just follow these few super simple steps that can take you a couple of minutes:
- Sign up for Expandi’s 7-day free trial
- Select your required filters and run a search on LinkedIn or the LinkedIn Sales Navigator if you use that.
- Copy the resultant LinkedIn search or Sales Navigator search URL as is.
- Click Search on your Expandi account, followed by Add new search. Next, select Basic search or the Sales navigator search.
- Name your campaign and click Next.
- Paste the search URL copied in the first step and click Search. Wait for it to start and finish scraping candidate contacts.
- Once done, click Import and mail filtered contacts as a CSV file. Finally, just enter your email ID to receive a list of freshly scraped candidates ready to be contacted.
Once you have your contacts ready, it’s time to reach out to them on LinkedIn. And guess what? Expandi takes care of this, too!
You can create personalized candidate outreach and follow-up campaigns right on Expandi.
Read this step-wise guide on how to plan and build a candidate communication flow.
7. InMail messaging to directly contact potential candidates
If you’re a LinkedIn Premium user, you can easily contact potential candidates on LinkedIn via InMail even if you’re not connected to them.
This feature cuts down the time taken to start conversations with potential candidates. Upscale InMails with personalization, and you’ll be sure to make a great first impression and boost response rates. For example, add fun GIFs, relevant images, and personalized intro lines to stand out.
8. LinkedIn has exclusive premium plans for recruiters
LinkedIn offers two plans for recruiters:
- LinkedIn Recruiter Lite for $170/mo – Suitable for recruitment on a small to medium-sized scale. You can use 20+ advanced filters, access job insights, post job ads, and browse any number of contacts.
- LinkedIn Recruiter for $835/mo – Suitable if you plan to recruit on a larger scale. It lets you set up bulk message sending and offers ATS integrations.
As you can see, both services are still more cost-effective than XING despite their advanced functionalities.
9. You can publish job posts for free using Limited Listings
LinkedIn Limited Listings is another great feature for recruiters. If you’re low on budget or just started to explore LinkedIn, Limited Listings is the perfect place to explore job postings.
You can post job ads for free using Limited Listings. These ads are shown to candidates who are actively browsing LinkedIn looking for a specific open position or opportunity.
It appears as a separate section if a candidate runs a “Jobs” filter. However, these free job ads are not prioritized by LinkedIn over paid ads and are only visible to active seekers.
10. LinkedIn offers a community feel
LinkedIn provides a safe space for like-minded professional people to come together and share ideas. As recruiters, you could join relevant LinkedIn groups or attend events to grow your network.
Posting regularly on LinkedIn and interacting with others’ posts is also great for staying active on the platform and attracting the right talent through educational content.
11. Easy to create and manage your company page
Most candidates seeking jobs actively may visit relevant company pages looking for more information. So use this advantage by regularly updating your company page on LinkedIn.
For example, you could post about current open positions, the company’s recent achievements, mention leadership changes, etc.
12. LinkedIn has a higher outreach response rate than most mediums
Studies show that LinkedIn InMails have a 25% more response rate than emails or calls.
This could be because LinkedIn is a professional platform where active and passive candidates come together to network. Whether the candidate is active or passive, a personalized LinkedIn outreach message from a recruiter can always increase the chances of a response.
The differences between XING and LinkedIn
| Reach: | Mainly German-speaking countries or within the EU region. Has about 21 million members | A global reach regardless of candidates’ or companies’ locations. Has an active user base of 1 billion |
| Posting job ads: | Yes, but no free plan or trial | Yes, has free and paid options |
| Cost: | One job ad can cost 699 EUR and up | LinkedIn has many paid plans with cost-effective pricing. LinkedIn Sales Navigator starts at just $70/mo |
| Ease of use: | Less intuitive and may not be suitable for international users outside Germany | A very user and beginner-friendly interface |
| Browsability and filtering: | Limited search filters to source candidates | Multiple advanced filters to get tailored search results |
| Candidate outreach: | You must use an additional tool – Onlyfy, to reach out to potential candidates | LinkedIn messages and InMails lets you connect and reach out to suitable talent right on the platform |
| Ultimate benefit to recruiters: | Best for recruiters needing a targeted regional approach to finding talent | You can integrate LinkedIn with outreach tools to automate efforts. Also, your job ads can reach a global audience |
So now, the question is if XING or LinkedIn is better for your recruiting efforts. Let’s find out.
XING vs. LinkedIn—what’s better for your company?
XING is better only if you want to post job ads and attract a very specific regional audience. As mentioned before, it’s also not very cost-effective.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, provides vast opportunities for recruiters and offers a global reach. Be it outreach, networking, filtering candidates, or posting job ads—it’s a gold mine of opportunities to recruit quickly and at scale.
So, the battle between LinkedIn vs. XING for recruiting ultimately boils down to your company’s goals and budget.
But the biggest plus of using LinkedIn for recruiting is the ease with which it allows you to automate your efforts.
And Expandi can make this happen!
Run advanced filters to refine your candidate pool and use Expandi to scrape them. Build a fully functioning, automated candidate outreach pipeline with Expandi’s outreach campaigns in less time and at a lower cost.
See this in action today—Grab Expandi’s 7-day free trial!
