Head to head
TalentFinder vs Hiring People for posting a job across UK job boards
Both are UK flat-fee providers who put a vacancy across multiple job boards for one price with no commission. Hiring People publish six packages from £99 to £1,749 and are cheaper than us at the entry point. TalentFinder publish three advertising packages at £399, £499 and £599 +VAT for a 28-day listing, and a separate managed search at £1,500 to £4,000 +VAT. The two real differences are VAT — we state it, their page does not — and what happens if the role is not filled: their published term is a free re-run or a £750 refund conditional on you meeting their feedback SLAs, ours on the managed service is a 100% refund. On price alone for a straightforward advert, they win.
The comparison, straight
Prices read from each provider's own page on 6 September 2026 and linked so you can check them.
| Hiring People | TalentFinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | £99 (Starter) | £399 +VAT (Standard) |
| Full advertising range | £99, £999, £1,099, £1,149, £1,199, £1,749 | £399, £499, £599 — all +VAT |
| Number of packages | Six | Three, plus a separate managed service |
| VAT stated on the page | No | Yes, +VAT |
| Commission on hire | None | None |
| Listing length published | Not stated on that page | 28 days |
| Managed search option | Included in the higher packages | Separate service, £1,500–£4,000 +VAT |
| If the role is not filled | Free re-run or a £750 refund, conditional on giving candidate feedback within 2 working days | Advertising: nothing. Guaranteed Hire: 100% refund |
| Published time-to-fill data | Not published | 46 roles, median 42 days |
We are one of the two companies in that table, so the recommendation at the bottom is not neutral. The figures are.
On price, they win
£99 against £399 +VAT is not a close call at the entry point, and we are not going to construct a reason why it is. If your role is one that attracts plenty of active applicants and you have somebody to work them, the cheaper package does the job and you should take it.
Their mid-range — £999 to £1,749 — sits above our advertising packages and below our managed service, and includes screening services their page describes but which we could not verify tier by tier. We have deliberately not published their feature grid: the tick marks in their comparison table are icons our extraction could not read reliably, and a half-read grid would be worse than none. Read it on their page rather than taking our summary of it.
One practical note before you compare the headline numbers. Their page does not say whether VAT is included. Ours says +VAT explicitly, so our £399 is £478.80 delivered. If their figures turn out to be ex-VAT too, the gap narrows slightly; if they are inclusive, it widens. Worth one email to them before you decide.
On the guarantee, the terms differ
This is the clause we would read hardest either way.
Hiring People publish a money back guarantee — in their words, "if you follow these steps and still don't make a hire, we'll offer you the choice of a free re-run or a £750 refund". The steps include providing feedback on shortlisted candidates within 2 working days. That is a reasonable condition, and it is a condition: the protection depends on your own responsiveness.
We publish a 100% refund if the role is not filled — but only on Guaranteed Hire, the managed service. Our advertising packages carry no outcome guarantee at all. If you buy a £399 advert from us and nobody suitable applies, you have bought the advert. That is the same deal as almost every advertising product in this market, including the cheap ones, and it is worth stating plainly rather than letting the word "guarantee" do work it has not earned.
So the fair reading is: on advertising, their published protection is better than ours. On managed search, ours is a full refund against their partial one — but they are different products at different prices, so compare like for like.
Where the real difference is, and it is not price
Both companies will get your vacancy onto the major boards. Ours goes to Indeed, Reed, CV-Library, Totaljobs, Jobsite and Monster; their page names Reed, Indeed Sponsored, Google Jobs, Glassdoor, LinkedIn Jobs, Guardian Jobs and CV-Library among others.
The board list is not what decides your hire. This is:
| Stage | Candidates across our 46 filled roles |
|---|---|
| Sourced and screened | 1,542 |
| Presented to the client | 235 |
| Client interviews | 143 |
| Hires | 51 |
A median of 26 candidates worked per hire, and only about 15% good enough to present. Every advertising package on either side of this comparison hands that work to you.
So the question is not which £99-to-£599 package is better value. It is whether an advert is the right product at all.
Who we would point where
- The role has plenty of active candidates and you have screening time. Take the cheaper advert. That is Hiring People at £99, and it is the right answer even though we sell the alternative.
- You want the advert plus a published listing length and VAT clarity. Our £399 +VAT package states both. Whether that is worth £300 to you is a fair question and the answer is often no.
- Nobody has evenings free, or the role is not one people apply for. Neither company's advertising package will fix that. Guaranteed Hire at £1,500–£4,000 +VAT does the search and refunds in full if it fails — that is the product we would actually argue for.
- You are comparing more widely. See which UK companies charge a fixed fee, which includes both of us alongside AWD online, Flat Fee Recruiter, Recruitment Revolution and others, with the published prices for each.
Frequently asked questions
Is TalentFinder or Hiring People cheaper?
Hiring People, at the entry point. Their Starter package is published at £99 against our £399 +VAT Standard package. Their range runs £99, £999, £1,099, £1,149, £1,199 and £1,749 across six packages. Ours runs £399, £499 and £599 +VAT across three. Note that their page does not state whether VAT is included and ours does, so compare the VAT-inclusive figures before deciding.
What is the difference between TalentFinder and Hiring People?
Both put a vacancy across multiple UK job boards for a fixed price with no commission on the hire. The differences that matter are the guarantee — Hiring People publish a free re-run or a £750 refund conditional on you giving candidate feedback within 2 working days, while TalentFinder's managed service publishes a 100% refund if the role is not filled — and that TalentFinder publishes its full time-to-fill dataset from 46 filled roles.
Which is better for posting a job across UK job boards?
For a straightforward advert on a role with plenty of active candidates, take the cheaper package — that is Hiring People. Where TalentFinder is worth the difference is when the advert alone will not do it and you need the screening done for you, which is the managed Guaranteed Hire service at £1,500 to £4,000 +VAT rather than the advertising package.
Do either of them charge commission when you hire?
No. Both are flat-fee providers, which means the price is agreed before the advert goes live and does not change with the salary you agree with the candidate.
Does Hiring People include VAT in its prices?
Their flat fee recruitment page does not state whether the figures include VAT, so we have not assumed either way — ask them. TalentFinder prices are stated +VAT, so a £399 package is £478.80 including VAT at 20%.
Sources
Want the fixed price for your role?
Advertise it yourself from £399 +VAT, or hand the whole search to a dedicated recruiter with Guaranteed Hire — a flat fee by salary band with a 100% refund if the role is not filled.
See Guaranteed Hire Advertise a job
Or call 0161 327 2895.