13 Best UK Job Boards for Finding Experts in Any Industry

As the number of vacancies in the UK keeps increasing, it’s getting harder to secure top talent. You must go the extra mile to ensure a competitor doesn’t grab a prospective employee that could make a tremendous difference to your business.

To step up your hiring efforts, you should take advantage of UK job boards and get your job ad in front of the highest possible number of quality candidates.

If you’re unsure where to start, our guide will show you the 13 best job boards in the UK. You’ll learn how they can streamline your hiring process and how much you’ll have to invest. We’ll give you all the necessary information to find the platform that matches your needs and budget.

#1 Reed

One of the UK’s longest-standing and most popular job boards, Reed is home to over 23 million monthly active jobseekers. It’s highly reputable and supports virtually all industries, so it’s no surprise that the platform is a go-to for numerous employers, from startups to conglomerates. 

Reed doesn’t offer free job posts—you can post a premium ad and select paid add-ons at the following prices:

1. Premium ad—£150 + VAT
   1. Premium+—£175 + VAT
   2. Featured—£250 + VAT

Source: Reed UK

First-time users are eligible for a discount, which gives you Premium+ for £89 + VAT. The main difference from a Premium post is that your vacancy will be emailed to up to 100 best-matching applicants. 

You’ll get up to six weeks of ad visibility alongside handy features like applicant filters and screening questions. If you go all-in and opt for the highest tier, you can:

• Brand your post
• Send up to 250 emails to candidates
• Promote your post above lower-tier posts and in search results

Reed also offers a rich resume database, so you can access up to 12 million CVs, depending on your chosen plan. Resume access is charged separately at the following rates:

1. One-day access—£175 + VAT
2. One-week access—£250 + VAT
3. One-month access—£625 + VAT

The service might not fit everyone’s budget, especially considering the already high cost of ads. Other notable downsides are the visibility period, which could be longer for the price, and a lack of candidate matching options.

#2 Job Today

Job Today is another big player in the online job board space, though its candidate base is significantly lower than Reed’s and circles around 8 million users. It features a user-friendly interface and promises quick responses—the platform claims that 70% of recruiters find the right candidate in only 24 hours. 

Posting your first vacancy is free, and so is candidate search, but you must pay to contact applicants. There are three plans depending on the number of candidates you want to reach out to:

1. Fast 50—£99.99
2. Fast 100—£149.99
3. Fast 200—£199.99

There’s also the custom Fast Pro plan you can inquire about by contacting Job Today’s team. The tiers don’t vary much beyond the number of available candidates—they all offer standard job board features:

• Sending job alerts to candidates
• Filtering and screening tools
• Candidate recommendations

The main drawback of this board is that the free features don’t matter much since you’ll have to pay to reach out to prospects. Some users also complained about refund issues alongside unhelpful customer service, though this isn’t a common occurrence.

#3 Staffbay

If you need to hire skilled professionals on a budget, Staffbay is an excellent board. Launched in 2009, the platform gained lots of traction and has around 7 million candidates.

The best part is—it’s totally free! Posting a job and browsing Staffbay’s CV database won’t cost you a dime, and the process is as straightforward as it gets. You don’t even have to create an account to access the resume pool, but you’ll need one to contact candidates or advertise your vacancy.

Staffbay’s unique selling point is email advertising. For a fee, they’ll add your post to their weekly newsletter and send it out to candidates. You can choose from three ad placement options:

1. Featured job—£99 per week
2. Featured employer—£120 per week
3. Discount listing—£249 for 4 weeks

While this option could boost your exposure, it’s pretty expensive for recruiters who’d opt for Staffbay mainly because of free job posts. A cheaper alternative is to get featured on the site’s homepage, where you have three options:

1. Featured job—£49 per week
2. Featured employer—£49 per week
3. Banner ads—£59–£120 per week (depending on the placement)

Source: Staffbay

Besides the pricey email service, Staffbay’s main disadvantage is the slightly outdated website design. Many digital job boards have a web-app-like interface that offers a more pleasant user experience. Still, Staffbay’s site does what it’s supposed to without issues, so this shouldn’t be a problem if navigation and overall experience aren’t your priorities.

#4 WhatJobs?

WhatJobs? is an international job board with a strong presence in the UK—there are over 1.1 million jobs posted by numerous companies, from startups and SMBs to large corporations.

The platform hits the sweet spot thanks to affordable plans and various handy tools. It’s a subscription-based service, which might not work for recruiters looking for one-offs. Still, you won’t have to invest heavily, even if a plan has features you don’t need. You can choose one of three tiers:

1. Standard (5 posts)—£9.95 per month
2. Professional (10 posts)—£19.95 per month
3. Premium (100 posts)—£29.95 per month

Source: WhatJobs?

There’s no difference between the plans besides the number of job posts, but there is a catch worth noting. Every job post is based on a pay-per-click model, so you’ll need to pay extra if you want your ad to outperform the competition. This isn’t ideal because you’re already paying for a subscription, but your total spend could still be lower than with many other options.

WhatJobs? has many features that could make it worth the investment. You get a comprehensive employer dashboard that lets you seamlessly track and manage your applicants. You can also use various filters to narrow your search alongside geo-location software that lets you target specific UK areas.

Where the platform falls short is resume search—the lack of a CV database might be off-putting to some recruiters.

#5 Totaljobs

Reed’s biggest competitor, Totaljobs is among the most popular UK job boards with over 21 million users. Around 300,000 candidates visit the platform daily, so your ad would get outstanding exposure.

Of course, such an opportunity comes with a higher price tag. Totaljobs has two plans based on the number of vacancies you’ll advertise:

1. 1 post—£169
2. 2 posts—from £320 (the price decreases with more ads)

Similar to Reed, the platform offers a newcomer discount, letting you post your first ad for £89. There’s also a rich resume database, which you can access for £270/month (£135 for new users). 

Totaljobs has a free ATS and lets you integrate your own. The platform offers full integration support, so you can be up and running quickly.

If you want to supercharge your hiring efforts, the board offers a rich suite of tools:

• Company branding 
• Smart candidate retargeting
• Email advertising

These add-ons are paid, so you’ll have to splurge a bit to experience Totaljobs’ full potential. Not everyone can commit to this extent, so the board is best suitable for recruiters with a larger budget and regular hiring needs.

Totaljobs reviews are overwhelmingly positive on both the jobseekers’ and recruiters’ ends. The main complaint has been an occasional delay in getting the post published.

#6 BritishJobs

BritishJobs is a simple yet effective job board without many over-the-top features. As a part of the UK’s CV-Library network, it can get your vacancy ad on over 800 partner websites in front of over 18 million jobseekers. 

The platform isn’t cheap compared to other options but offers generous discounts to new users. A job ad will cost you £149 or £75 if you’re a first-time user.

Resume search is where this board shines, not only because of its vast library. It offers Watchdogs, a unique feature that sends candidates straight to your inbox as soon as they register if they meet your criteria. 

There are two resume search tiers depending on access duration:

• Two weeks—£299 (£199 for first-time users)
• Four weeks—£499 (£379 for first-time users)

The price is pretty hefty, but the discounts might be appealing enough for you to sign up, especially since the feature offers lots of value and handy tools.

Additional 7 Popular Job Boards in the UK

To expand your reach and source more qualified candidates, we recommend the additional seven job boards in the UK:

Bolster Your Candidate Sourcing Efforts by Advertising Your Vacancy Around the World

If you’re operating remotely and recruiting internationally, you might want to cast a wider net than solely advertising in the UK. 

We’ve reviewed the best job boards in various countries across continents, breaking down language and currency barriers, so you can choose where your next employee will come from without doing any of the legwork.