Is LinkedIn premium worth it?

You used to be able to do a lot with a free LinkedIn account. But nowadays, you can’t get very far on LinkedIn without a premium subscription of some kind.

In this article, we’ll look at whether LinkedIn premium is worth it and depending on your goals, is there a better option.

If you are using LinkedIn for your career, a free account won’t cut it. The free account has limited access to features such as messaging and profile viewing.

Why would you buy Premium?

LinkedIn Premium offers you an unlocked version of LinkedIn. You can connect with more people, search more accurately and see who has been viewing your profile. LinkedIn Premium is only worth the money if those things are important. For example, if you are searching for a new role or you are a senior executive looking to raise your profile, LinkedIn Premium does give you an advantage over free.

Over the years LinkedIn has moved the goal posts on what you can do on a free account compared to LinkedIn Premium. One of the big limits is capping your access to features. The majority of the features of a free account are the same as premium. The only difference is that you can use them more. 

Of course, there are some Company Insights, Profile Viewing, Connection Message Personalisation and InMail you can access that you can’t with free. But in my 10 years of speaking and training people to use LinkedIn, I’ve found that the people who need these features find Premium lacking.

In my opinion, LinkedIn Premium isn’t worth it. If you are trying to build out your network, build your thought leadership or get connected with very senior people, LinkedIn Premium just doesn’t cut it.

Finding who you're looking for

LinkedIn Premium just isn’t worth the investment, especially compared to Sales Navigator. Inside LinkedIn the search features are very similar whether you are using a free account or premium. Whereas Sales Navigator has features that will help you find exactly who you’re looking for. 

I can find companies that are growing, contracting, I can find executives' new in post and I can search the globe to find the people I want to grow and network with.

You can’t do that easily with LinkedIn Premium.

Let’s take the search for example:

LinkedIn Premium has one added feature, search by seniority. The rest of the features I can use the free version. The only difference with the results is that Premium users can see more results.

Now let’s look at Sales Navigator:

It’s obvious that Sales Navigator is a superior product. You get all the benefits of LinkedIn Premium, but with better filters to find exactly who you want to talk to.

How do you value your time

I often get people saying to me that LinkedIn Premium is expensive. It really isn’t if you value your time. LinkedIn Premium allows you to leverage the platform more than a free account. If you are happy to spend more time on the platform trying to do things and you can spare the time, stick with free. If your time is finite I would advise you to skip Premium and go straight for Sales Navigator. I can find CEOs in a few clicks and unlike Premium, I can search on Sales Navigator and find the most active users that are posting. You can’t do that with a free account or LinkedIn Premium.

Is LinkedIn Premium worth it? 

Not as much as Sales Navigator is worth it.