Head to head

LinkedIn Recruiter vs Prog.ai

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

The default sourced candidate database, with InMail and projects. Around $140 per seat/month.

Where LinkedIn Recruiter fits

  • Almost every in-house talent team
  • Agency desks running InMail projects
  • Sourcers who work the graph daily
  • Buyers weighing Recruiter against job ads alone

Prog.ai

Sales-quoted

Prog.ai is a developer graph built from GitHub contributions, covering 60M+ engineers scored across tens of thousands of skills. Platform access is sales-quoted. The Chrome extension is free.

Where Prog.ai fits

  • Technical recruiters who hire from GitHub more than from job boards
  • Desks that want Likely-to-Move and scored skills while browsing LinkedIn
  • Teams building bulk engineer lists to export into an outreach tool
  • Companies competing with LinkedIn Recruiter on developers who barely keep a LinkedIn

At a glance

DetailLinkedIn RecruiterProg.ai
Starting price$140/moSales-quoted
Free tier–No–No
MCP server–No–No
Public API–No–No
Listed underJob boards, LinkedIn, SourcingSourcing, AI sourcing
Capterra4.5 from 150 reviewsNot enough reviews

Where they pull apart

LinkedIn Recruiter

Stands out: It is the graph every other sourcing tool enriches from.

Watch out: It is supply, not a system of record, so you still need an ATS.

Not the right fit for

  • Teams that only need to post a job
  • Buyers unwilling to pay per seat

Prog.ai

Stands out: Likely-to-Move and skill scores come from actual code, not self-reported LinkedIn bullets. The Chrome extension (updated June 2026) overlays those insights on LinkedIn, GitHub, Stack Overflow, and Kaggle.

Watch out: The vendor does not publish a self-serve plan table on getprog.ai. Contact and bulk-list access sit behind a sales conversation. This is software-engineer sourcing, not a general talent graph.

Not the right fit for

  • Non-engineering recruiting
  • Buyers who need a published monthly SKU before a demo

Pros and cons

LinkedIn Recruiter

  • The default graph for most talent teams
  • InMail and projects included
  • Connects to the major enterprise trackers
  • Per-seat cost across a team
  • Not an ATS
  • No API or MCP

Prog.ai

  • 60M+ engineers ranked from GitHub code, not resume keywords
  • Free Chrome extension on LinkedIn, GitHub, Stack Overflow, and Kaggle
  • Likely-to-Move plus skill scores from real contributions
  • Full platform is sales-quoted. No homepage plan table
  • Engineer-only graph
  • Native outreach connectors to sequencers are still rolling out

What each one costs

LinkedIn Recruiter

$140/mo

From ~$140/mo seat. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 7 Sep 2026

Prog.ai

Sales-quoted

Prog.ai does not publish a plan table on getprog.ai. The Chrome extension is free. Full database, contacts, and bulk list access are quoted. Request a conversation from the site. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 19 Sep 2026

Common questions

Can you try LinkedIn Recruiter or Prog.ai for free?
Neither carries a free tier on our listing.

Not the pair you wanted?

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Editorial listings, never paid rankings. Prices checked 7 Sep 2026. Confirm current terms on the vendor site. Spot an error?