Fixed-fee recruitment companies in the UK: who sells what

The short answer

A fixed-fee recruitment company agrees the price before the search and does not take a slice of the salary when you hire. Plenty of UK providers work this way, including us.

The thing worth knowing before you compare any of them: "fixed fee" covers different products, and the protection behind them differs even more than the price.

Almost every disappointed flat-fee customer we speak to bought the first one believing it was the second.

The UK fixed-fee providers compared

Every row below was re-read from that provider's own website on 12 October 2026 and is written the way each describes itself. "Ads" means advertising, with any screening sold as an add-on; "Fixed fee" means a managed search for one fee; "Hybrid" means both. We have left their prices off deliberately: prices change, and each provider's own page is the place to read the current one.

Two of those rows describe nothing, and that is deliberate. A site that refused our browser is not a site with no terms, so we have not filled the gap from somebody else's list.

How we checked

• Date: every provider was read on the same day, 12 October 2026, so no row is older than another.
• Source: each provider's own home page, plus its pricing, fees or FAQ page where it has one. Never a listicle, a review site, a search snippet or memory.
• Method: loaded from our own server in a headless Chrome browser and read as rendered text, including the answers hidden inside collapsed FAQ sections, because several providers only state their terms there.
• Blocked sites: listed as not readable, with the reason, and not described.
• What we left out: prices, and links. You can find any of them by name.
• Corrections: if a provider's terms have changed, email info@talentfinderuk.co.uk and we will re-read the site and change the row. The whole list is re-checked together at least every 90 days, and the date above moves when it is.

Which kind of provider fits which buyer

• You have somebody with the hours to read applications and ring people. Buy advertising. Several of the providers above sell it for less than we do, and with a careers page or applicant tracking included as standard.
• You want somebody else to do the screening, and you want to know what happens if it does not work. Look at the "if the role is not filled" column before the price. Among the sites we read, Hiring People publishes a refund less the advert cost on its managed service; we offer no refund. If a refund is what decides it for you, ours is not the right purchase.
• Your worry is a hire who leaves in the first few weeks, not a role that never fills. The sliding rebate from Fixed Fee Recruitment (fixedfeerecruitment.io) and Ari's replacement cover come with their fee. With us, cover for a hire who leaves is Replacement Cover, an optional paid add-on bought before the start date: one replacement search for the same role if the person leaves for any reason within 12 months.
• You hire all year round and have an HR team. Software such as hireful, or Workvine's Talentvine, may suit you better than paying per vacancy.

Where other providers are stronger than us

We would rather say this than have you find it out afterwards.

• Entry price. There are advertising packages in this market below our £399. If price alone decides it, we are not the cheapest.
• Extras bundled with advertising. Flat Fee Recruiter includes a careers page and applicant tracking as standard; Career Poster includes a free hiring portal and careers page; Hiring People offers DBS checks and personality profiling.
• Protection after the start date. A rebate or replacement cover for a hire who leaves early comes as standard with some providers above. With us it is an optional paid add-on.
• A refund if the role is not filled. Hiring People publishes a partial refund on its managed service. We do not offer a refund.
• More than one hire from one fee. Hiring People, Get Staffed and Ari each say a single campaign can produce more than one hire. Our managed-search fee is priced for one role.

What the screening is worth

The honest way to price the difference between an advert and a managed search is to know how much work sits behind one hire. Across the 46 roles we filled and publish in full:

That is about 26 candidates worked per hire, and roughly 15% of them good enough to put in front of an employer. If someone in your business genuinely has those hours, a cheap advert is excellent value and you should not pay more than that — we would rather say so than sell you something you do not need. If nobody does, the extra fee is buying the hours back, and the failure mode is specific and common: the applications arrive, sit unread for ten days, and the good candidates take something else.

An advert on its own does produce applications. Across 1,141 adverts in our own response benchmark, the median advert drew 31 applications in its 28 days. The question is never whether applications arrive; it is who reads them.

Against a percentage agency

The reason to look at any of this is the alternative. Contingency agencies typically charge 15–25% of first-year salary:

The percentage climbs with the salary. The work does not. That is the entire argument for a flat fee and it gets stronger the more senior the role.

What a percentage buys you, and a flat fee does not automatically, is risk transfer: contingency means you pay nothing if they never fill it. On a flat fee you pay up front, so what the fee buys if the role is not filled has to be written into the deal — which is why that column in the table above matters more than any other.

What happens if the role is not filled

This is the clause worth reading before you pay anyone up front, us included, because the same words are used for very different instruments.

Ask which of those rows you are being sold, and get the answer in writing.

The four questions that make two quotes comparable

1. Does the fee cover the search, or only the advertising? This is the whole game, and the price usually answers it before the salesperson does.
2. What exactly happens if the role is not filled? See the table above.
3. How many roles like mine have you filled, and how long did they take? Ours are published in full, with the funnel behind each one.
4. What do I have to do to keep the protection you are describing? Some terms depend on your interview turnaround or your feedback. Ours works best as teamwork: a competitive salary, openness to transferable skills, quick feedback and fair, inclusive hiring. Ours are written into the terms of business you receive with the proposal.

Where we sit

We publish our prices, because a fixed fee you have to ring up for is not really fixed.

• Advertising: £399, £499 or £599 +VAT for a 28-day multi-board listing, the advert written for you, no commission when you hire. The packages are here.
• Managed search: £1,500 to £4,000 +VAT by salary band, paid on instruction. Roles at £80,000 and above go to Executive Search at £6,000 +VAT. The fee covers a five-point review of the role, a dedicated recruiter, advertising plus headhunting and a screened shortlist. There is no refund. Cover for a hire who leaves is an optional add-on. How our Premium Hire service works.

We are not the cheapest name in this market and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we will stand behind is that every figure on this page can be checked against a page of ours today: the median role we filled took 42 days across 46 published roles, and the median advert we placed drew 31 applications across 1,141. Very few providers in this market publish either number.

Not written the advert yet? Our free job advert generator writes it from rough notes in about twenty seconds, with the live local pay band for the job title — no account, no card, and the words are yours whichever route you take.

Frequently asked questions