LinkedIn offers several Premium plans for individuals. The two most common are Career and Business. On paper they look alike. In practice they do different jobs. Here is how to decide based on what you plan to do.
The short answer
- You are looking for a job or an internship: Career is enough in most cases.
- You are growing your network, looking for clients or following companies closely: Business, for the extra InMails and unlimited profile search.
- You prospect full time: look at Sales Navigator Core instead, which is built for that work.
What both plans share
Business includes everything in Career. Both give you LinkedIn Learning, show who viewed your profile and add tools for job applications: you can flag up to three jobs a month as "Top Choice" to tell the recruiter they matter to you, and see how your profile compares with other applicants.
The differences that matter
| Career | Business | |
|---|---|---|
| InMails per month | 5 | 15 |
| Who viewed your profile | last 90 days | last 365 days |
| Profile search | monthly limit | unlimited |
| Company insights | no | yes |
| Built for | a job search | networking, prospecting, research |
InMails
An InMail is a message to someone outside your connections, sent without waiting for them to accept an invitation. Career gives you 5 a month: enough to write to a recruiter or a hiring manager about a specific job. Business gives you 15, which makes a real difference if you contact people you do not know yet every week. With both plans, an InMail that gets a reply within 90 days is credited back to you.
Profile search
When you search for a lot of people in a month, LinkedIn eventually limits the results. Business removes that limit. If you spend time exploring a company, finding decision makers or building a contact list, this is often the real reason to pick Business.
Who viewed your profile
Career shows who viewed your profile over the last 90 days, Business over a full year. For a job search, 90 days is enough: what matters is seeing that a recruiter looked last week, so you can follow up at the right time. A year of history is mostly useful to measure the effect of your posts or your sales activity.
Company insights
Business adds data on company pages: headcount trends, teams that are hiring, recent arrivals. Useful before a sales meeting, or before an interview at a company you want to understand in detail.
Three real situations
Léa is finishing a marketing master's degree and wants a first job. She applies mostly on LinkedIn and wants to write to a few hiring managers. Career is enough: 5 InMails a month, Top Choice applications and the list of people who view her profile.
Karim is an independent consultant. He is looking for new clients and contacts business owners he does not know every week. He runs a lot of profile searches. Business is the right fit.
Julie is a sales rep at a small company and prospects all day. She follows dozens of companies. Business will soon feel tight: Sales Navigator Core is the right tool.
How to decide
Ask yourself one question: how many people you do not know will you contact each month? Fewer than five, and your goal is a job: Career. More than that, or your goal is commercial: Business. If the answer is "several a day", go straight to Sales Navigator.
As for price, LinkedIn shows a rate that depends on your country, the billing period and sometimes when you subscribed: check it in your account. At Kareer, the subscription lasts 12 months, it is activated on your own account, and you only pay once Premium is live.