Pricing / Metix AI field notes
Recruiting agency fees versus software: compare the full cost.
An agency proposal can look large beside a subscription while including work the subscription leaves to you. Put the fee trigger, search effort and replacement terms on the same page.
The short version
Calculate the agency fee using its quoted compensation base and terms. Calculate software spend over the expected search period, then add the labor and services needed to run it. The useful result is a scoped comparison, not a salary-only crossover.
Which work is included in the fee?
Read the agency terms
Check the salary base, payment trigger and replacement conditions.
Price the software period
Include licenses, usage and retained recruiting systems.
Add the labor
Assign sourcing, qualification, coordination and closing work.
The worked arithmetic does not prove that software can replace a particular search assignment.
Start with the payment trigger and scope
A search proposal can charge on a successful placement, require a launch payment, bill for stages of work, or combine those terms. Read the actual payment trigger and compensation base before applying a percentage.
For a current example, Recruo's Standard offer, checked October 28, 2026, lists 18% of first-year salary. A $2,000 launch payment counts toward that total, with the balance due when the hire starts. Its separate Pipeline offer is $3,500 per month for two active roles. These are one provider's terms, not a market average.
Ask whether the compensation base includes bonus, signing payments or other cash compensation. Record any minimum, expenses, refund conditions, replacement period and cancellation terms. A success fee does not establish that every other cost is zero.
A software subscription charges for its paid term and plan capacity. You may owe that amount even if no hire results. Required seats, usage, additional workflows and retained systems can change the total.
Metix AI sells a subscription with usage Credits and AI Agents for sourcing through interview booking. The employer supplies the brief, reviews candidates, approves outreach and makes hiring decisions. Staff-run Delivery is separately quoted; neither a subscription nor a Credit guarantees a hire.
What a percentage of salary actually comes to
Percentages hide the size of the number, so put salaries under them. The table below uses three assumed rates to show the arithmetic; it is not a quote or a measured market range. Real fees move with market, seniority, exclusivity, and negotiation, and cash compensation runs higher than base salary once bonuses count.
| First-year salary | Fee at 20 percent | Fee at 25 percent | Fee at 30 percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| $80,000 | $16,000 | $20,000 | $24,000 |
| $120,000 | $24,000 | $30,000 | $36,000 |
| $160,000 | $32,000 | $40,000 | $48,000 |
Illustrative rates, not market benchmarks. Replace both the percentage and compensation base with your written offer.
Compare the same outcome and responsibilities. A proposal may cover market research, qualification and offer support, while a software plan may leave those tasks with your team. Confirm that scope rather than inferring it from the fee.
What actually goes into a cost-per-hire number, including SHRM's 2022 average and median and why they disagree so sharply, gets its own treatment in our cost-per-hire breakdown.
What a year of recruiting software costs at list
The subscription column needs a current offer and a billing term. We rechecked LinkedIn, SeekOut, hireEZ and Metix official pages on October 28, 2026. A public starting price does not establish the cost of the package your team needs.
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite includes 30 InMails monthly and reach up to third-degree connections. Its current public product and help pages send buyers to signup without a universal USD price. Use your actual account/location offer. Do not substitute a historic rate for an applicable offer.
Per-seat figures for Corporate circulate elsewhere, but none are published, so none appear here. The seat-by-seat arithmetic, InMail limits included, is in our LinkedIn Recruiter cost breakdown.
SeekOut Sourcing Core (Recruit Core) lists $1,788 upfront annually ($149 monthly equivalent), or $179 billed monthly. The page describes individual use but lists three included seats; confirm users and pooled allowances rather than treating this as a verified per-seat rate. Higher tiers need a quote.
hireEZ lists a solo recruiter offer at $494 monthly with a seven-day trial. Twelve unchanged monthly charges total $5,928; that is our calculation, not an annual offer. Team and enterprise pricing requires a quote.
A published entry tier may exclude the capabilities or capacity you need. Get an itemized quote for extra users, usage, connectors, implementation and renewal. The AI recruiting tools pricing guide separates billing units, and the ATS budget workbook adds retained systems and migration costs.
A self-serve license does not include a person to operate every step for you. Automation can reduce tasks, but somebody still needs to check the brief, evidence, outreach and decisions. Include that time and the systems you retain. The ATS budget workbook separates subscription cash, add-ons and implementation labor.
The break-even salary, worked out
Put the two columns together. Use an illustrative 20 percent fee. For one fee to come in under a full year of software, the salary has to sit below the software's annual price times five. Here is that crossover for each published price, with our own top plan included so the derivation runs on us too.
| Tool | A year at list price | Salary where one 20 percent fee matches it |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Recruiter Lite | Current annual offer required | Your annual offer ÷ 0.20 |
| SeekOut Recruit Core | $1,788 paid upfront, published annual amount | $8,940 |
| Metix AI Scale | $5,388 on annual billing, published annual amount | $26,940 |
| hireEZ solo seat | $5,928, derived from $494/mo | $29,640 |
Official prices checked October 28, 2026. SeekOut and Metix show annual offers; hireEZ is twelve unchanged monthly payments. Lite remains an input from your offer. The last column divides subscription cost by an illustrative 20 percent fee. It excludes operating labor and does not show which option produces a hire.
The right-hand column only compares two cash line items. It excludes recruiter time, retained systems, unsuccessful searches and the scope of agency work. It cannot establish that software is the cheaper way to make a hire. Leave the Lite amount blank until you have an applicable offer.
For a usable comparison, add the people and services each option still needs.
Assign an owner and an hour budget to sourcing, candidate review, coordination and closing. Add retained software and outside services to that labor estimate. Do the same for work left with your team under the agency proposal. Our recruiter cost guide separates salary from the wider cost of operating the role.
So a seat and a fee are not two prices for the same thing. They are prices for different fractions of the same job.
For an illustrative three hires at $120,000 first-year salary each, a 20 percent agency fee totals $72,000. Compare that with the actual software contract plus the operating hours, retained ATS and services required for those same roles. Do not assume one subscription covers unlimited concurrent work or every hiring requirement.
For one occasional role, include idle subscription months and non-cancellable commitments. A monthly trial may limit the software commitment, while an agency may be useful when nobody has time to run the search. The relevant comparison is the cost and work required for this role, not an annual license divided by an assumed number of hires.
Existing recruiter capacity matters, but payroll already committed is not unlimited free labor. For a transparent planning example, assume a $2,400 software contract, 60 operating hours at $75 an hour and $600 of additional services. That totals $7,500. It is an invented budget, not a vendor quote or proof of equivalent results. Compare it with the agency scope before treating the $16,500 gap to a $24,000 fee as potential savings.
Which pricing unit fits which team is a question we take up properly in per-seat vs usage-based pricing.
AI Agents at subscription prices
We built Metix AI for the space that table leaves empty: AI Agents that run sourcing, approved outreach, and interview booking, billed as a software subscription rather than a share of salary. Metix AI does not guarantee a hire. Plans run $99, $199, $299, and $499 a month, buying 5,000, 10,500, 16,000, and 27,000 monthly Credits plus 1, 2, 3, and 5 AI Agents a month, with annual rates of $89 / $179 / $269 / $449 per month. The meter is a credit, and Credits meter standalone platform usage outside an AI Agent workflow: 10 for an email unlock, 20 for a phone-number unlock, 100 for a Deep Search list, and 3,000 for an AI Agent above the plan allowance. Once an Agent is active, work completed inside its workflow uses 0 Credits.
The full definition lives on our FAQ, and the usage model is detailed on the usage-based pricing page. How agencies, RPO and software divide the work is laid out in recruiting agency vs RPO vs software.
Mira, our AI recruiter, does the volume work across 900M+ profiles: sourcing, outreach you approve before it sends, screening for interest and fit, and booking the first interview. Our speed figure is company-reported and not audited: 95 percent of roles get a first interview scheduled within 24 hours, meaning a confirmed calendar slot, not a same-day meeting. Five anonymized production accounts, data through 12 August 2026, show 22,062 unique people contacted at a 7.8% reply rate. Booking was live on the largest account, which logged all 28 confirmed interviews. Metix AI does not publish a hire rate; the accounts are on our customers page. Give these numbers the same scrutiny you would give any vendor's homepage.
Now run the break-even on us, derivations labeled. A full year on the top plan is $5,988 billed monthly, or $5,388 on annual billing, derived from the $499 and $449 list prices. Either figure is less than one 20 percent fee on an $80,000 hire. The plan includes 27,000 monthly Credits and 5 AI Agents a month rather than a candidate allowance. At the entry end, $99 a month makes $1,188 a year billed monthly, or $1,068 on annual billing. Outside an AI Agent workflow, Credits meter contact unlocks, Deep Search lists, and additional AI Agents; work inside an active Agent's workflow uses 0 Credits, so Credits are not a per-candidate charge.
What an agency fee pays for, and how to check it
An agency fee pays for market relationships, confidentiality and hands-on coordination. Ask the proposed search lead to explain their work on comparable roles and who will run this one.
For executive search, compare the research, assessment, reference checks, offer support and replacement terms included in each proposal. A retained fee can pay for work regardless of whether a placement occurs; its schedule belongs in the cash budget.
Outside the executive tier, the fee buys labor and judgment: niche market knowledge, and the closing craft that rarely gets priced. The work behind the fee, executive search and confidential replacements included, is set out in what the agency fee pays for.
Who runs the search decides it
Start by assigning the operating work. Record who will source, review, approve outreach, interview and close the candidate, and how much time they can commit. Then compare actual quotes covering the same role and service scope.
For executive search, confidential replacements and urgent specialist roles, ask any agency what work, replacement terms and fees are included. Then compare that quote with separately quoted Delivery, where Metix AI staff run the search.
For teams with an approved role but no spare recruiting capacity, test whether an Agent can carry the sourcing and follow-up work while your team retains review and hiring decisions. The AI recruiter vs agency comparison separates software from staff-run services.
A trial can test whether an Agent reduces the work your team must perform for a specific vacancy. Include review time and unresolved steps in the result, even when the trial has no subscription charge.
Run the arithmetic on a live role
Start with one approved vacancy, a named reviewer and a clear evidence standard. The free 14-day Metix trial includes one AI Agent and 500 Credits, with no card required. Review the matches, approve outreach and record your time, replies and bookings. Keep booked interviews separate from attended interviews and hires.
How much does a recruiting agency charge per hire?
Use the written rate, compensation base and payment trigger. At illustrative rates of 20% and 25%, a $120,000 compensation base produces fees of $24,000 and $30,000. These are calculations, not market benchmarks. Some offers also require launch payments or expenses; Recruo Standard currently lists 18% with a $2,000 launch payment included in the total.
What does recruiting software cost for a year?
Official pages checked October 28, 2026: SeekOut Core lists $1,788 upfront annually or $179 monthly; hireEZ solo lists $494 monthly, so twelve unchanged charges total $5,928. Metix annual plans cost $1,068 to $5,388. LinkedIn Lite needs your actual account/location offer. Confirm included users, capacity, services and operating labor before comparing.
How should we compare agency fees with annual software cost?
Compare the actual software contract, retained systems, additional services and operating hours with the agency scope. Three illustrative hires at $120,000 salary each generate $72,000 in fees at an assumed 20 percent rate. A hypothetical $2,400 software contract plus 60 hours at $75 and $600 of services totals $7,500. That is budget arithmetic, not a vendor quote or proof that the two options produce equivalent results.
How much do executive recruiters charge?
Executive-search pricing depends on the proposal. Ask for the fee base, staged payments, expenses, research and assessment scope, offer support and replacement terms. A retained agreement can require payment for work even without a placement. A general cost-per-hire benchmark is not a quote for an executive search.