Talking to the wrong website vendor will cost you dearly
Your recruitment website should not get more expensive because your agency is getting bigger, or because you are bigger than your competition.
If the recruitment website vendor told you that you need to pay more for how many jobs you post, how many staff you have, how many pages you use, how many visits your site gets, or how many features you use, you are talking to the wrong vendor.
If you are speaking with an advisor who promotes this kind of vendor, you are speaking with someone who is promoting the wrong vendor.
If you pay a membership fee to an entity that promotes these vendors, they are promoting the wrong vendor, and they are often paid to do so.
We have built over 667 recruitment websites since 2004. We have seen every pricing model the industry has produced. And we have watched agencies pay two, three, sometimes five times more than they should because they chose a vendor whose pricing punishes growth instead of supporting it.
The "Success Tax" Problem
Most recruitment website vendors use one or more of these pricing levers:
- Per-job-post pricing. The more roles you advertise, the more you pay. Your vendor's cost to host an extra job listing is negligible. Yours is not.
- Per-seat pricing. You hire a new consultant, your website bill goes up. The vendor's cost to add a user login is near zero. But you pay for it every month.
- Per-page pricing. You invest in content to build your SEO authority, and your monthly fee increases. The vendor profits from your marketing investment.
- Traffic-based pricing. Your SEO works, your traffic grows, and your website cost rises. You are being charged more because your marketing is succeeding.
- Feature gating. Basic functionality sits behind premium tiers. You pay extra for things that should be standard on every recruitment website.
Every one of these models does the same thing: it makes your website more expensive as your agency grows. That is not aligned pricing. That is a success tax.
What "Fair Pricing" Actually Looks Like
Fair pricing is based on the actual cost of delivering the service, not on how big or successful your agency is.
At RecruiterWEB, every plan includes:
- Unlimited job posts. Post 5 roles or 5,000. Same price.
- Unlimited staff members. Hire 50 new consultants. Your website bill does not change.
- Unlimited pages. Build 500 pages of SEO content. No per-page charge.
- Unlimited traffic. Your site gets 100,000 visits a month. No overage fee.
- Unlimited features. Every feature we build is available on every plan. No premium tiers, no add-ons, no hidden upgrades.
- Unlimited support. Call us, email us, as often as you need. No ticket limits. No support tiers.
- Design Studio as standard. On every plan. Not an upgrade.
We do not pay for memberships to promote us. We do not pay advisors to recommend us. Our clients recommend us because the platform delivers.
What RecruiterWEB Actually Costs
| Plan | Monthly cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Start-up | £149 + VAT (£50 discount in year 1) | Pre-built layout, your branding, all features |
| Themed | £199 + VAT | Professional theme, customised to your brand, all features |
| Semi-bespoke | £399 + VAT | Custom design within a proven structure, all features |
| Fully Bespoke | £699 + VAT | Designed from scratch to your specification, all features |
No upfront build fees. No per-job charges. No per-seat charges. No traffic limits. No feature gating.
Every plan includes ATS integration, Google for Jobs, GDPR compliance tools, Design Studio, and full support. The only difference between plans is the design process.
And if your agency grows and you want a higher design tier, you upgrade without losing your investment. Your content, your SEO rankings, your ATS integration, your domain authority. Everything carries forward. No rebuild. No migration risk.
For a full side-by-side comparison with other vendors, see our vendor comparison guide.
The Real Cost of Choosing the Wrong Vendor
The wrong vendor does not just overcharge you monthly. The compounding damage is worse:
1. You underinvest in content because pages cost extra
If your vendor charges per page, you post fewer pages. Fewer pages means less topical authority, fewer long-tail rankings, fewer AI citations, and less organic traffic. Your competitors who publish freely outrank you within 12 months.
2. You limit job visibility because posting costs extra
If your vendor charges per job, you are selective about what goes on the website. Roles that could have attracted organic candidates never get posted. You pay job boards instead. The total cost of acquiring candidates goes up, not down.
3. You avoid scaling because growth triggers higher fees
If your vendor charges per seat or per traffic tier, every growth milestone comes with a website cost increase. That creates a perverse incentive to keep your website small, quiet, and underutilised.
4. You lose SEO when you eventually switch
The Advocate Group lost 11 years of SEO rankings when their previous provider mishandled a website migration. They came to RecruiterWEB, recovered all rankings within 90 days, and generated six figures in placement fees within three months. But those seven months of lost visibility were seven months of lost candidates, lost clients, and lost revenue. The longer you stay with the wrong vendor, the more you have to lose when you leave.
How to Audit Your Current Vendor
Ask your current provider these six questions:
- If I double my job count next month, does my monthly cost change?
- If I hire 10 new consultants, does my monthly cost change?
- If I publish 50 new content pages for SEO, does my monthly cost change?
- If my traffic doubles because my SEO is working, does my monthly cost change?
- Which features are not included on my current plan?
- What happens to my content and SEO rankings if I leave?
If the answer to any of the first four is yes, you are paying a success tax. If the answer to question five is a list of features behind a paywall, you are paying for artificial scarcity. If the answer to question six is unclear, you have a migration risk you have not accounted for.
The Bottom Line
RecruiterWEB could charge per job, per seat, per page, and per visit. The platform supports it. We choose not to because it is not honest pricing.
We want our clients to post every job, hire freely, publish aggressively, grow their traffic, and use every feature we build. Their success is our success. A pricing model that punishes growth is a pricing model that works against its own customers.
You have a choice. You can pick a vendor who sets fees based on fair pricing, or you can pick a vendor who charges you more for being successful.
We prefer that you keep all the rewards from your success.
View our plans | Compare vendors | Talk to us
Frequently Asked Questions
What is wrong with per-job-post pricing for recruitment websites?
Per-job-post pricing penalises growth. The more roles you advertise, the more you pay, despite the vendor's underlying hosting and platform costs not increasing proportionally with job volume. At RecruiterWEB, every plan includes unlimited job posts. An agency posting 5,000 roles pays the same monthly fee as an agency posting 5.
Is it normal for a recruitment website vendor to charge per staff member?
It is common, but it is not fair. Per-seat pricing means your website cost rises every time you hire a new consultant. The vendor's cost to add a user login is negligible. At RecruiterWEB, every plan includes unlimited staff members. Hire 50 new consultants and your website bill does not change.
Why do some vendors charge based on website traffic?
Traffic-based pricing monetises your marketing success. Your costs rise as your site performs better, even though higher traffic does not mean the vendor's delivery costs rise proportionally. This creates a perverse incentive to suppress your own marketing. At RecruiterWEB, every plan includes unlimited traffic. If your SEO investment delivers 100,000 visits a month, your monthly cost stays the same.
Should my recruitment website get more expensive as my agency grows?
No. Your website cost should be based on the service being delivered, not on the size or success of your agency. A fair pricing model charges for the platform, the design process, and the support. It does not charge for how many jobs you post, how many people you employ, how many pages you publish, or how much traffic you generate. Every RecruiterWEB plan includes unlimited usage across all of these.
How do I know if my current recruitment website vendor is overcharging me?
Ask your vendor six questions: Does my cost change if I double my job count? If I hire more staff? If I publish more pages? If my traffic grows? Which features are not included in my plan? What happens to my content if I leave? If any of the first four answers is yes, you are paying a success tax. If features are gated behind premium tiers, you are paying for artificial scarcity. RecruiterWEB includes everything on every plan with no usage limits.
