Compare/Head to head

HiringCafe vs Lenny’s Jobs

Same facts, side by side: starting price, free tier, MCP, API and what each one is actually built for.

Starting price

HiringCafe

Free Free tier

HiringCafe is a free job search engine that indexes 5M+ jobs straight from company career pages rather than selling sponsored placement, and filters out staffing agencies and ghost jobs. Job seekers pay nothing. For recruiters and employers it is a read on who is really hiring and a free way to get a career page indexed, not a paid posting channel.

Where HiringCafe fits

  • Employers wanting their career page jobs found for free
  • Recruiters mapping which companies are hiring now
  • Candidates you coach through a job search

Lenny’s Jobs

Free Free tier

Free job board for product, engineering, design and growth roles at tech companies, built by Lenny Rachitsky with TrueUp. For employers it is a free channel, not a paid one: roles shared in the paid subscriber Slack or under Lenny's monthly “Who's hiring?” posts on X and LinkedIn are added to the feed, and jobs at Series A and later tech companies are tracked automatically.

Where Lenny’s Jobs fits

  • Tech startups hiring product managers, engineers, designers or growth marketers
  • Founders and hiring managers already active in Lenny's community
  • Series A and later companies that want their open roles found by builder talent

At a glance

DetailHiringCafeLenny’s Jobs
Starting priceFreeFree
Free tier✓Yes✓Yes
MCP server–No–No
Public API–No–No
Listed underJob boardsJob boards

Where they pull apart

HiringCafe

Stands out: Jobs come from employers' own career pages, not paid ads, so the index is far larger than sponsored-only boards and agency reposts are removed. It grew to 2M+ monthly users through Reddit with no marketing spend, raised a $6.8M pre-seed led by Spark Capital in 2026, and launched an AI Talent Agent that matches seekers from a resume.

Watch out: It is built for job seekers first, and the vendor says so. There is no published employer product, job promotion, applicant tracking or candidate database, so you cannot buy reach or search resumes. Agency recruiters' own postings are filtered out of results by design.

Not the right fit for

  • Buying applicant volume or sponsored reach
  • Staffing agencies posting client roles
  • Searching a resume database

Lenny’s Jobs

Stands out: The audience. Lenny's Newsletter and podcast reach a large community of product managers, engineers, designers and growth people, and roles shared there carry a “Lenny's Community” tag in the feed. Every company is vetted, ghost roles and generic staffing-agency posts are filtered out, and each job sits next to TrueUp data on funding, layoffs, headcount growth and compensation.

Watch out: There is no paid job posting or employer product yet; the site says one is in the works. Getting a role in front of the community means either a paid Lenny's Newsletter subscription for the Slack, or replying to the monthly “Who's hiring?” posts. Coverage is limited to four builder roles, so it is not a channel for sales, operations or non-tech hiring, and staffing-agency posts are filtered out by design.

Not the right fit for

  • Staffing agencies posting client roles
  • Employers who want to buy sponsored reach or applicant volume today
  • Hiring outside product, engineering, design and growth

Pros and cons

HiringCafe

  • Free, with no pay-to-win job placement
  • Jobs pulled from company career pages, agencies filtered out
  • Large live index with pay and experience filters
  • No published employer or recruiter product
  • No applicant tracking or resume search
  • Agency postings excluded from results

Lenny’s Jobs

  • Free, with a large and focused product and tech audience
  • Ghost roles and staffing-agency posts filtered out
  • Each job shown with funding, layoff, headcount and pay data
  • No paid posting or employer product yet
  • Community posting runs through a paid newsletter Slack or monthly social threads
  • Only four role families covered

What each one costs

HiringCafe

Free

HiringCafe is free for job seekers, including search, saved searches, boards and the AI Talent Agent. Employers can submit a career page for indexing from the site; the vendor does not publish a paid employer product or price. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 28 Sep 2026

Lenny’s Jobs

Free

Lenny's Jobs is free for job seekers, and the vendor says it will stay free. Paid Lenny's Newsletter subscribers get higher AI limits, unlimited personalized results and an AI agent that emails matching new jobs. There is no paid job posting for employers yet; roles are added from the paid subscriber Slack, from replies to Lenny's monthly "Who's hiring?" posts, and by automatic tracking of Series A and later tech companies, and the vendor says an employer option is in the works. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 5 Oct 2026

Common questions

Can you try HiringCafe or Lenny’s Jobs for free?
HiringCafe and Lenny’s Jobs carry a free tier on our listing.

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Editorial listings, never paid rankings. Prices checked 28 Sep 2026. Confirm current terms on the vendor site. Spot an error?