If you hire occasionally, subscription pricing is the wrong shape. You want to pay when you have a role open and pay nothing for the ten months you do not. That model still exists, but it is scattered across a few different kinds of product, and the sites that use it rarely advertise themselves as "pay per post."
What follows is what is actually available, what each one costs, and the distinction that decides which you need.
First, Separate Distribution From Collection
This is the confusion behind most bad hiring purchases. Two different jobs get bundled under "post a job":
- Distribution means putting your role in front of strangers who are not already connected to you. That is what job boards sell. You are buying an audience.
- Collection means gathering applications in a structured, reviewable place once people decide to apply. That is what an ATS or application form does. You are buying organization.
Job boards do distribution well and collection badly, which is why board applicants often land as a pile of resume emails. Application tools do collection well and no distribution at all. Knowing which problem you have saves you money, because plenty of small businesses buy an expensive board package when their real problem was that applications were arriving in three different inboxes.
If your role gets plenty of interest from your own network, community posts, or foot traffic, you have a collection problem. If nobody knows the job exists, you have a distribution problem. Many businesses have both, and can solve each cheaply and separately.
Pay-Per-Post Distribution Options
Indeed: free listings plus sponsored budgets
Indeed still lets you post for free, but organic posts drop down the results quickly in competitive categories. Visibility comes from sponsoring, which runs on a budget you set rather than a flat per-post fee. Depending on your market, sponsoring is billed against clicks or against applications received.
Cost: free to post, then whatever daily or total budget you set for sponsorship. You control the ceiling, which is the useful part.
Use it when: you need volume fast in a category with a large candidate pool. Set a firm budget cap and check the applications daily, because sponsored spend can move quickly. More detail in the Indeed alternative comparison.
Craigslist: a flat per-city fee
Craigslist charges a per-post fee for job listings in most US metros, and the amount varies by city, so check the rate for yours before budgeting. It remains genuinely effective for local hourly roles: trades, warehouse, restaurant, retail, delivery.
Use it when: the role is local, hourly, and does not need a resume screen. It underperforms badly for professional or remote roles.
Niche and industry boards
Most specialist boards, whether for developers, designers, nonprofit staff, healthcare workers, or a specific trade, sell a single listing for a flat fee lasting 30 to 60 days. Prices range widely, from around $50 on small community boards to several hundred on the well-known ones.
Use it when: the role is specialized enough that a smaller, better-targeted audience beats a large general one. One good niche board frequently outperforms a general board for technical roles.
Local and community channels
Not a product, but worth listing because it is free and works: local Facebook groups, neighborhood apps, subreddits for your city or industry, and trade association boards. For hourly and local roles these often out-deliver paid boards entirely. See how to post a job on Reddit for the approach that does not get you removed by moderators.
Pay-Per-Post Collection Options
Here the field thins out considerably. Almost every applicant tracking system charges monthly: Breezy HR $157 a month after a one-role free tier, Recruitee around $199 a month, JazzHR $75 a month for up to three jobs, and Workable around $299 a month for new customers now that its cheaper Starter tier is closed to new signups. Greenhouse and Lever are annual contracts in the thousands.
Free-form tools like Google Forms or Typeform can collect applications without a per-month hiring fee, and plenty of small businesses use them. They work, with real limits: no applicant dashboard, resume files landing in a Drive folder, no status tracking, and a form that does not look like a job application. That comparison is covered in Google Forms vs job application software.
ApplyHere is built specifically as pay-per-post collection: $9 per job post, paid once, live for four weeks, unlimited applicants, custom application questions, optional resume upload, and every applicant in one dashboard. First post is free. There is no subscription and no contract, so a year with two hires costs $9 to $18 rather than $1,900.
What it does not do is distribution. It gives you a link. You share it.
The Combination That Works
The cheapest effective setup for an occasional hirer is to buy distribution and collection separately, each per use:
- Create your application form first and get the shareable link.
- Share it free everywhere you already have reach: your socials, your email list, staff referrals, relevant community groups, your website.
- Wait 48 hours. For a surprising number of roles, especially local and hourly ones, this is enough and you spend nothing on distribution.
- If applications are thin, buy distribution with a capped Indeed sponsorship or one well-chosen niche board, and point that listing at the same application link.
Every applicant lands in one dashboard regardless of where they came from, which also tells you which channel actually worked. That knowledge makes the next hire cheaper.
A Quick Cost Comparison
- Community channels and your own network: free. Best fit for local, hourly, and referral-friendly roles.
- Craigslist: a flat per-post fee that varies by city. Local hourly roles.
- Indeed sponsored: a budget you cap. High-volume general roles.
- Niche boards: roughly $50 to several hundred per listing. Specialized roles.
- ApplyHere: $9 per post, first one free. Collection, for any role.
- Subscription ATS: $75 to $199 per month. Worth it above roughly six hires a year.
Where the Line Sits
Occasional hiring pays per post. Continuous hiring pays monthly. Below about six hires a year, a subscription costs you several hundred dollars per hire for features you rarely open, which is the expensive mistake. Above that line the workflow savings take over and price should stop driving the decision.
For the full numbers across boards and software, read the job posting cost comparison. For the cheapest routes that still work, see cheap job board alternatives for small teams and free job posting options.