Comparisons
Compare your options for filling a role.
Every comparison below covers what each option actually does, a side by side table, how the pricing works, and an honest read on when the alternative is the better choice. Shortlist properly before you book any demos, including ours.
Cherrypicker vs. recruiting agencies
Contingency and retained search, paid as a percentage of first-year salary.
An agency still wins when you need one senior hire handled end to end by someone who will manage the process for you, and the placement fee is worth buying that back.
Read the comparisonCherrypicker vs. LinkedIn Recruiter
Per-seat search, InMail and AI-assisted outreach your own recruiters run.
LinkedIn Recruiter still wins when your team wants to search the market themselves and has the bandwidth to work a pipeline candidate by candidate. Nothing matches its profile data.
Read the comparisonCherrypicker vs. job boards
A posting that reaches whoever is actively looking and browsing that week.
A job board still wins when you have a strong following and an employer brand people recognize, or when the role is one plenty of qualified people are already searching for.
Read the comparisonCherrypicker vs. RPO providers
Part of your recruiting function run by a provider on a monthly retainer.
An RPO still wins when you are hiring at high volume and need a large sourcing operation stood up quickly. That is what the model is built for.
Read the comparisonHow to compare your hiring options
Most of these decisions come down to four questions. They are worth asking of every option on your list, ours included.
What triggers the cost?
Agencies charge a percentage of salary when the candidate accepts. RPO providers bill a retainer every month of the contract. Seat licenses renew annually whether or not you are hiring. Cherrypicker charges when you recruit candidates and never when you hire one.
Who actually contacts the candidate?
This is the question most comparisons skip, and it is the one that decides your reply rate. An agency recruiter carrying other clients, an offshore delivery team, your own recruiter between meetings, and a dedicated outbound campaign are four very different things arriving in the same inbox.
Who owns the relationship afterwards?
Ask what you keep when the engagement ends. With an agency you keep the hire. With an RPO the process and the market knowledge often leave with the provider. With Cherrypicker the campaigns, lists and candidate relationships stay in your account.
What happens in a quiet quarter?
Hiring plans move. Retainers and seat licenses do not. Work out what each option costs you in a month where you make no hires at all, because that is usually where the real difference in annual spend shows up.
Questions worth asking first
What is the cheapest way to hire without a recruiting agency?
Do I have to choose just one of these?
How is Cherrypicker different from all of them?
What kinds of roles does this work for?
See how Cherrypicker pricing works, read the full FAQ, or book a demo and we will scope a real role with you.
Ready to test out Cherrypicker?
Request a demo and we will scope out a campaign strategy for your open role.
