If you’re a business professional looking to network, obtain leads and makes sales, LinkedIn is a must have item in your business toolkit. It’s also super helpful for job seekers and recruiters. But is it worth upgrading to LinkedIn Premium?
I’m Jonathan Pollinger, Social Media Trainer and first of all, let’s take a look at the free version of LinkedIn. With LinkedIn being the only social network focused on business, the free version is a great starting point for professionals as you can benefit from the following:
LinkedIn’s Standard (Free) Features
- build your professional personal and/or corporate brand with Profiles and Pages
- search for and view profiles of other LinkedIn members
- message LinkedIn connections and see each others’ posts
- grow and maintain a large professional network
- find and reconnect with previous colleagues
- take part in relevant discussions in Groups
- request and provide endorsements and recommendations
- save up to three searches and get weekly alerts on those searches
The majority of people stick with the free version but there are good reasons for considering the paid version of LinkedIn for business users, called Business, and often referred to as LinkedIn Premium. There are also subscription account options for job seekers (Career), sales (Sales Navigator) and recruitment professionals (Recruiter).
There are a number of features that are unlocked by upgrading to LinkedIn Premium but in summary; these ‘paid’ accounts help you to grow your network, advance your career, improve your skills and do better business. Here are the specific features that you can benefit from:
LinkedIn Premium’s Business Features
1) InMail – this is a significant benefit which gives you the ability to message any of LinkedIn’s 706 million members. The only exceptions are high profile people like Richard Branson. InMails are 7 times more likely to be read than email plus they are 2.6 times more effective than email and cold calling according to LinkedIn. You can target your InMails by using LinkedIn’s search features plus recipients receive an email as well as the InMail so they are hard to avoid. You’ll receive 15 InMails per month and get a credit to your account when you receive a reply. If you don’t use your credit it’s rolled over to the following month, for a maximum of 3 months. So the most InMails you can have for use at any time is 45.
2) Access to LinkedIn Learning – LinkedIn Learning provides a huge range of professionally produced online video tutorials presented by industry professionals on a wide range of business subjects. For example, there are 150 virtual training courses on Project Management and 121 courses on Microsoft PowerPoint. It’s an excellent resource to improve your business skills and only available with a subscription.
3) More Search results – When you use LinkedIn Search with the free version, the maximum number of profiles that are displayed in results is 100 but with LinkedIn Premium there are no restrictions.
4) Access to LinkedIn’s Salary Checker – Even though there’s another LinkedIn Premium subscription called Premium Careers, there are 3 features included in Premium Business that can help you with your career. Firstly, you can view a detailed breakdown of salaries by job title and location using LinkedIn’s Salary Checker. Great for negotiating your next pay rise and for checking the salary of new roles you’re applying for. Secondly, you get access to Job Insights. See 5) below for more information. Thirdly, you can use LinkedIn’s CV Builder. These 3 features are not available on the free version of LinkedIn.
5) Access to Job insights – You”ll get to see whether you’d be the top applicant for roles according to your experience and skills which shows you have an edge over other candidates. You can view any such roles on the LinkedIn Jobs page if you have Premium. You’ll also see the number of people who’ve applied to the job you’re viewing, a list of top skills among the applicant pool, including those you have in common plus the experience and education levels of applicants. This data is extremely useful if you are considering or applying for a new role.
6) Build your CV – LinkedIn’s CV builder is a quick and easy way to create your CV using your LinkedIn Profile. Once you’re done you can download as a pdf or print. The tool also provides you with handy tips and useful examples.
7) More Saved Searches – Once you’ve set up a suitable Advanced Search (see point 3) you can use Save Search. This is much more convenient than having to enter your search criteria manually each time. Whether you are on free or LinkedIn Premium, new results are emailed to you too. With the free version you can save 3 searches. On Premium you have 7; handy for targeting different business sectors or roles and a real time saver.
8) More results for ‘Who’s viewed your profile’ – LinkedIn restrict the display of both the number of people who have viewed your profile and their profiles on the free version. To see everyone who has viewed your profile in the past 90 days you’ll need Premium. This is a great feature for building your network and obtaining leads.
9) Access to Company Insights – LinkedIn Premium provides valuable insights on your competitors’ LinkedIn Company Pages with details on employees, notable company alumni and job openings.
Should you upgrade to LinkedIn Premium?
In recent months, LinkedIn have become more commercial and have restricted some of the features available to free members. For example, there’s been a reduction in the number of search results. LinkedIn are also encouraging LinkedIn members to upgrade. For example, you could get a message encouraging you to upgrade if you are running a large number of searches or regularly using ‘Who’s viewed my Profile’. LinkedIn Premium users are also benefiting from new features such as =Salary Checker (see 4 above) and CV Builder (see 6 above) so as time goes on, the argument for upgrading becomes stronger.
I’d suggest that you make the most of LinkedIn’s free version and before long you should start to see benefits and you’ll find yourself using it every day. At this point, you should strongly consider upgrading to one of the subscription accounts.
The good news is that LinkedIn now provides everyone with a free one month trial. Once the trial is over you’ll pay a subscription per month (see below for rates of the main Premium plans) if you don’t cancel. But before you hit the upgrade button, make sure that you have a daily plan including targets for how you are going to make maximum use of your upgraded LinkedIn. For example; who are you going to find using Advanced Search and how many searches are you going to run, who are you going to send InMails to and how many are you going to send?
At the end of your trial month, you’ll then be able to make a decision on whether to continue. If you’ve obtained leads, made sales or found a recruit then the decision will be easy but don’t forget the many other benefits that could well be worth the investment.
How much does a LinkedIn Premium subscription cost?
| Career | Business | Sales Navigator Core | Recruiter Lite |
| £29.99 | £29.99 | £69.99 | £109.99 |
Updated on 1 November 2022: All subscription plan prices are quoted as monthly payments BUT are paid annually.
How to cancel your LinkedIn subscription
If for any reason you need to cancel your subscription, just follow these instructions to revert to the standard account:
- Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage
- Select Premium subscription settings from the dropdown
- Under Manage Premium account on the right rail, click Cancel subscription
- Click Continue to cancel.
Make the most of LinkedIn
To learn how to make the most of LinkedIn, get in touch with Jonathan Pollinger – Social Media Trainer, to book some LinkedIn training or drop into my virtual office for FREE 10 minutes of LinkedIn training.
I want to use linked in to search for new customers but I don’t want my competitors to see my network (customers). Is this possible ?
Hi Nigel. Sure, Search is independent your settings regarding who can see your connections.
It is nigh on impossible to make a speculative enquiry to an employer without the benefit of the Premium uplift.
Yet Linked In seem utterly incapable of recognising that a £25 monthly outlay to use LI Premium is a non-starter for people in receipt of Universal Credit or other social security benefits.
It’s simply unaffordable. I’ve challenged them multiple times about this, but pleas for a much lower rate for unemployed job seekers just falls on deaf ears.
You make a good point and it’s more than £25 per month these days. Thanks for the comment John.
You are – almost – promoting something that just isn’t worth it for most people.
LinkedIn has just 2 stars on UK trustpilot. I wonder why?
John Fox is right. Paying over £25 a month which is an eye-watering £300 when the bill arrives is not feasible if you receiving UC or other benefits.
There are plenty of free alternatives available. Depending on your industry, some professionals have Facebook groups which is a great way to keep up to date
Yes, LinkedIn subscriptions are expensive and more than £25 now. I agree that Facebook Groups have a lot of value, especially for communities.
22 year long standing tier one It professional, I was an early adopter, but I will not pay £300 a year either. It is way too high for an individual user fee. The benefits over and above the free version are certainly not worth £300, year on year on year! It is a very greedy business model and makes LI come across in a very negative way, one that suggests exploitation rather than enablement is at their heart.
Noting the comments about universal credit, if LI had any care or consideration, or even any interest in building good will they would allow those people with the universal credit to use premium for free. Why not? They can afford it, and it would the very first thing I have seen from LI that shows any care towards the user group whatsoever.
Let us just say it again, £300 a year for a simple user account is simply deluded. There are very things in this world (IT/SW/socmed) that justify such a high price. For goodness sake I can get a state of the art VPN for a few £ a month. If LI dropped the fees to a reasonable level then adoption could rocket. However, for me they have already burned their bridge by showing their true colours – exploitation and greed.
One more thing, as a masters educated software professional (SAP/SF/Logica/Cap Gemini and others) I feel I am involved with those people at the top of the industry in terms of “prestige” and innovation. I therefore feel I know a thing or two about UX/UI HCI and what is good and bad design. LI is an almight mess by my standards. Poor design, poor layout, out of date documentation, incorrect helpfiles, broken pages.
If they want £300 a year from millions of people, they really ought to look at the value proposition of what they offer for what they want, because the two things do not tally up to a worthwhile proposition at all.
I use it, but I really really do not like their ethos or attitude.
Jonathan Pollinger, you are obviously financially benefiting as I’ve read your answers for several years now, always short and never responsive to the actual question. I have been with the service since inception and tried the free upgrade every year it never was and never will be worth paying for. Unless obviously like you there is a financial benefit, or as with most top tier it’s an affordable luxury the company/person can afford. I’m hoping someone will come up with a rival version suited to mainstream business persons.
Happy New Year a polite response is not necessary.
I attempted to use the LinkedIn free premium month offer just to see what it gave, and at the end they attempted to charge me £144 a MONTH subscription through Apples subscription system.
All I really wanted to do was see who was viewing my profile!
Insane business model, and really not designed for average employees who want to network. I had expected a basic £5.99 netflix type cost, or maybe £9.99 at a push to see profile views and search for jobs … but £144… how do they justify that?
Anyway, rant over.
Is it possible, either with free LinkedIn or with one of the paid-for options, to set up sub-groups of contacts? A lot of what I want to do with LinkedIn would require me to direct messages to only some of my contacts – offers, for example, that don’t apply to every market.
Thank you!
Hi Philip. It’s only possible to send a message to multiple connections at the same time…if you don’t have a direct connection eg 1st connection, you can’t send a group style message.
HI Jonathan, which package would you recommend for a smaller company, mostly using for targeted sales/lead gen?
For what it is, Sales Navigator is pricey so I would suggest making the most of standard LinkedIn, but really making the most of it so several hours per day by team or even a sales person. You’re then be in a better position to judge if upgrade to Sales Navigator is worth it.
I’d stick with the free version…make the maximum use of that then look at Sales Navigator.
Given how many self-employed have been disadvantaged by the lockdowns and uncertainty imposed by the pandemic and the IRP35 tax changes in the UK, I appreciated organisations who are making fee reductions to facilitate a return to work. Sadly Linked-in with their Premium fee is not one of them.
I agree. LinkedIn should do more as the premium products are expensive.
Your prices are long out of date Jonathan – the lowest price is $39.99/month if you pay for a year at once (more if not) – insane pricing.
I’m still seeing £29.99 for Career and Business (in fact a reduction of £10) but Recruiter Lite has gone up by £30. Thank you for the prompt to update which I’ve now done.
Do you happen to know if there are discounted rates for multiple users at a single business at all?
Probably. LinkedIn have been open to a group discounted rate for situations like this so I suggest you get in touch.
Brilliant, thanks Jonathan!
You’re welcome Chris and great to connect on LinkedIn!
Hi there, do you happen to know if there are discounted rates for multiple users at a single business at all? Thanks, Chris