A reference sheet on LinkedIn and its alternatives

Independent summaryReviewed August 2026
Prices are US list rates
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One page, condensed. Purpose, cost and limits for the platforms most often compared, plus the three things worth checking yourself before choosing any of them.

Platforms at a glance

Platform	Built for	Cost to the individual	Main limit
LinkedIn	General professional identity, listings, content and light community in one account	Free tier; Career about $29.99 to $39.99, Business about $59.99 to $69.99	Breadth rather than depth; search and outbound messaging limited without a subscription
Indeed	Aggregated job listings drawn from career pages and partner boards	Free for job seekers	No networking layer; duplicates and expired posts need filtering
Glassdoor	Employer research: reviews, reported pay and interview accounts	Free for job seekers	Reviews reflect who chose to write them and may be dated
Wellfound	Startup and early stage roles, commonly with pay and equity shown	Free for candidates	Little coverage outside startups and technology
Xing	Professional networking in German speaking markets	Free tier with paid options	Regional by design; limited relevance elsewhere
Handshake	Students and recent graduates, through university partnerships	Free for students	Not suited to experienced or senior roles
Meetup	Local groups and in person professional events	Free to attend; organiser subscription applies	Value depends entirely on local activity; no job listings
Slack and Discord communities	Ongoing conversation with peers in a shared field	Usually free to join	Hard to discover, often invitation only, not publicly searchable
Behance and Dribbble	Showing creative work as the credential	Free tiers available	Only meaningful in visual disciplines; no hiring process layer
Substack and email tools	Publishing to an audience you can export and keep	Free to publish; share of paid subscriptions	No discovery engine; growth depends on promotion elsewhere

Choosing by task

Applying widelyAggregator plus a network profile, both at the free tier
Researching an employerReview platform, read alongside the company's own material
Startup rolesStartup-focused platform where pay is published
Hiring occasionallyPer post or sponsored listing rather than a seat licence
Hiring continuouslySeat-based recruiting product, if role volume justifies it

Freelance clientsMarketplace for volume, portfolio and own site for margin
Building an audienceFeed for discovery, email list for retention
Meeting peers locallyEvents platform, checked for activity in your city first
Early careerUniversity-linked platform plus aggregator
Outside the US and UKCheck the dominant domestic platform in your market

Three checks worth more than any comparison

The same method works for freelance clients and for communities. Replace employers with the people you want to reach.

Check the unit on any statistic. Registered members, monthly visits and monthly active users are different measures. LinkedIn reported more than 1.3 billion members via Microsoft's FY2026 third quarter disclosure and does not publish a global monthly active figure.

Check the date on any price. Cohort pricing during 2026 means two subscribers can see different rates for the same plan, and regional pricing differs substantially from US list rates.

Check whether the advice names a region. Recommendations written for one market frequently name platforms with no presence in another.

Disclosure. This reference sheet is published independently. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by LinkedIn Corporation, Microsoft, Recruit Holdings or any other company listed, and none of them reviewed it before publication.
All company names, product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and appear here solely to identify the services described.
Information was reviewed in August 2026 from publicly available product and pricing pages. Prices shown are United States list rates excluding tax and change without notice. Confirm current terms with the provider, for example at linkedin.com or indeed.com.
No company paid for inclusion, ordering or wording. Descriptions of purpose and limits reflect published documentation and editorial judgement, not measured performance. Nothing here is career, financial or legal advice, and no outcome is promised or implied.