A contingency firm invoices a share of first-year cash when the hire starts. Metix AI invoices a monthly plan and spends a credit only when a qualified, interested candidate is booked for a first interview. Those are two invoices for two different units. This page keeps them apart.
SHRM, in Mark Feffer’s 18 July 2016 guidance on working with an executive search firm, puts contingency fees “in the area of 20 percent to 25 percent” of first-year cash compensation, billed only if the firm fills the job. Retained search in the same article runs about 33 percent. Treat 30 percent as market convention, not a documented standard. On a $120,000 hire that 20-to-25 band is $24,000 to $30,000, a derivation. Metix AI prices a booked, interview-ready candidate on plans from $49 to $299 a month. A year of Scale is $3,588 billed monthly or $3,228 on annual billing, derivations from the $299 and $269 list prices; Starter is $588 or $528. The sticker contest is not the comparison. A failed contingency search costs nothing. A quiet Metix month still bills the plan, with credits unspent. The fee is the right buy for executive, confidential, or closing-heavy work. The middle meter fits when you need interviews booked and you employ the person yourself.
Disclosure: Metix AI publishes this page and sells one of the products compared. Read our column the way you would read any vendor writing about its own neighbor.
Buyers shortlist an agency and Metix AI together because both promise to produce people you can meet. The invoices do not describe the same purchase. One is a share of first-year cash, triggered by a start date. The other is a monthly plan whose meter moves when a calendar hold is booked.
The arithmetic that treats those as interchangeable prices is the subject of agency commission versus software subscription. That essay works the break-even against seats. This page stays on the pair in the title: the fee versus the booked interview, and when each one earns its invoice.
A word on method. The fee bands below come from SHRM, opened 19 August 2026, not from a sales deck. Dollar columns are our derivations. Metix AI figures are ours, and you should read them with the same care. Close to a hundred companies now hire through Metix, company-reported; that count is not a reason to prefer either column.
Percentages hide the size of the number. Put three salaries under SHRM’s contingency band, and add the 30 percent convention as a third column so you can see the range founders actually hear on the phone. None of these dollars is a quote from an agency.
| 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 |
Derivations, not quotes. The 20 and 25 percent columns follow SHRM’s published contingency band (Feffer, 18 July 2016); the 30 percent column marks the top of the market convention, which has no traceable primary source in that article. Source opened 19 August 2026.
A contingency invoice is the price of a filled role, not the price of effort. No placement, no invoice. The firm eats the cost of every search that dies. In exchange you get finished work: sourcing, outreach, screening, a shortlist of people who have already said yes to the conversation, and, on the searches that deserve it, closing craft. Reference back-channels, counteroffer handling, the read on whether someone will actually resign. That last slice is why the fee exists on roles where a calendar hold is not the hard part.
Retained search buys something else. SHRM’s same 2016 guidance puts the standard retained fee at about 33 percent of first-year cash, billed for running the search rather than only for filling it. You are paying for exclusivity, a dedicated desk, and a map of who would move. That is a different contract from contingency, and it is a different contract from a Metix AI plan.
Speed belongs in its own sentence, because it is easy to smash three clocks together. On Metix AI, 95 percent of roles have a first interview scheduled within 24 hours of defining the role: a confirmed calendar slot, vendor-reported, not a meeting that day, not a hire rate. An agency search, on the Metix FAQ, usually takes 4 to 6 weeks. SHRM’s 2025 nonexecutive median time-to-fill is 44 days, the figure already cited on interview scheduling. Those clocks measure different spans. This page will not headline that Metix is faster than an agency.
Three columns, one question per row: what is on the invoice, and what is still on your desk after it is paid?
| Contingency agency | Retained search | Metix AI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The invoice | 20 to 25 percent of first-year cash, SHRM 2016, only if they fill | About 33 percent, SHRM 2016, for running the search | Plans $49 to $299 a month; a credit per booked interview-ready candidate |
| A failed search | Costs you nothing | The retainer is owed for the work | The plan still bills; credits stay unspent if nobody clears the bar |
| Who employs the person | You do, after they place | You do, after they place | You do. Metix is not the employer |
| What lands | A candidate the firm will stand behind as a placement | A dedicated search, often exclusive | A qualified, interested candidate booked for a first interview |
| Quality gate | The recruiter’s judgment and the firm’s reputation | The partner running the search | A delivery lead reviews every shortlist; outreach sends only after you approve |
| Talent pool | The firm’s bench and network | The partner’s map of the market | 860M+ profiles in 190+ countries |
| Clock we will stand behind | Usually 4 to 6 weeks on the Metix FAQ, not a SHRM figure | A search, not a 24-hour booking claim | 95 percent first interview scheduled in 24 hours, vendor-reported, a confirmed slot |
| Getting started | A search assignment; fee on success | A retained engagement | Free 14-day trial, 3 New Roles and 12 Credits, no card |
Fee bands from SHRM, opened 19 August 2026. Metix AI plans and the 95 percent figure are ours, vendor-reported. Profile counts are company-reported. “30 percent” is convention, not SHRM’s documented contingency band.
The Metix ladder is public because an outcome meter only earns trust if you can see it. Starter is $49 a month for 3 candidates on 1 role. Growth is $89 for 12 on 3. Professional is $159 for 30 on 6. Scale is $299 for 75 on 12. Yearly billing is 10 percent off. Volume and specialized hiring are quote-only.
Metix AI price ladder: Starter at $49 a month for up to 3 interview-ready candidates on 1 role; Growth at $89 for up to 12 on 3; Professional at $159 for up to 30 on 6; Scale at $299 for up to 75 on 12. Annual billing saves 10 percent. Volume and specialized hiring are quote-only.
A credit is one qualified, interested, interview-ready candidate: matches the bar you approved, confirmed interest, booked. If nobody clears the bar, the credit is not spent. Outreach sends only after you approve. A delivery lead reviews the shortlist. That is the whole product. It is not a placement guarantee, and it is not a tenth of an agency, because the units are not the same.
Here is the part a software page is supposed to skip. There are searches where the fee is the best money a company spends that year.
Executive search. The candidates for a VP role are not answering a sequenced email. They are walked out of jobs they like by someone they already trust. SHRM’s 2016 retained band, about 33 percent, is the price of that map. Pay it when the chair is the job.
Confidential replacements. Sometimes the search cannot be public because the person being replaced does not know yet. A search firm can hold that secret through months of quiet approaches. A product that sources across a public graph and waits for you to approve outreach is the wrong instrument for that silence.
Closing craft on a make-or-break hire. Reference back-channels, counteroffers, the read on whether someone will resign. A booked interview does not include that. If the hard part starts after the first meeting, buy the fee.
One hard role, no bandwidth. A small company with a single role that has to close, and nobody free to run interviews at volume, is the classic contingency client. The fee buys a recruiter who lives in that niche. Twenty-five percent is a lot of money. A lost quarter can be more.
Contingency economics pay on speed, without exclusivity, so effort flows toward the roles most likely to close. That is the model working as priced. It also means the hardest role on your desk can be the one that sits.
Where Metix AI is wrong. We do not run executive search. We do not hold a confidential replacement in a closed book. We do not negotiate the offer or talk a candidate through a counter. We do not employ the person, and we do not guarantee a hire. If you need a partner who will sit in the close, the fee is the product. If you need an ATS, a sourcing database, or a dedicated human sourcer on a software plan, those are other pages: ATS pricing, Metix AI vs SeekOut, Metix AI vs Fetcher.
Where the agency is wrong. Steady professional hiring without a recruiter on staff, more than one role a year, no confidentiality constraint, and a hiring manager who can run the interviews. The fee prices that work as if it were a search. A failed search is free, which is honest, and it is also why the hardest req can wait. If what you actually need is a booked interview on a published meter, the fee is the wrong unit.
Pick the role you were about to send out. Write the same brief for both: must-haves, compensation, location, two people who should pass and one who should not. Then ask four questions that do not care about the monthly number.
Is the search confidential or executive? If yes, the agency has the argument. Can you run the interviews yourself if someone is booked this week? If no, you need a closer, not a calendar hold. Would a failed search that costs nothing be more useful than a plan that bills while credits sit? That is the contingency advantage, and it is real. Do you want to employ the person at the end, with no placement fee attached to the start date? That is the Metix side.
The sticker comparison will always make the plan look cheap. It is incomplete. Use the live role, not the table, to finish the sentence.
Bring the role where the fee made you wince, or the one you would not give an agency because it is not a search. The free 14-day trial includes 3 New Roles and 12 Credits, no card. A credit is spent only when an interested, interview-ready candidate is booked. Outreach sends after you approve. A delivery lead reviews the shortlist.
SHRM's 18 July 2016 guidance, by Mark Feffer, puts contingency fees "in the area of 20 percent to 25 percent" of first-year cash compensation (salary, bonus, and signing bonus), billed only if the firm fills the job. The same article puts retained executive search at about 33 percent. Treat 30 percent as market convention, not a documented standard. Dollar columns on this page are labeled derivations. Opened 19 August 2026.
No. Metix AI is a hiring platform with a delivery team behind it. You employ the person. There is no placement fee as a share of first-year cash. A credit is spent only when a qualified, interested, interview-ready candidate is booked, after outreach you approved and a delivery-lead review of the shortlist.
On sticker, yes: plans run $49 to $299 a month, and a year of Scale is $3,588 billed monthly or $3,228 on annual billing, both derivations from the $299 and $269 list prices. That is an incomplete comparison. A failed contingency search costs nothing; a quiet Metix month still bills the plan, with credits unspent. The fee includes closing craft; the credit buys a booked interview. Units differ.
No. A credit is spent when an interested, interview-ready candidate is booked, not when an offer is signed. Interviews, verification, and the hiring decision stay with the employer.