Published rate card · Startup hiring · US market
Wellfound pricing and Wellfound cost for employers hiring a marketer
Wellfound is free to post on, and that part is true. What you pay for is reach and help. Job Ads start at $200 each, Reach sourcing seats run $135 or $199 per person per month, and Autopilot is $500 a month per open role plus 10% when you hire.
US pricing · Wellfound publishes its full rate card, including a free job post, Job Ads from $200 and a 10% placement fee on Autopilot hires
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A Starter listing here is $149 a month, published before you spend it. Every role shown is posted and paid for by the hiring company.
The short answer
Wellfound charges employers nothing to post a job: job posts are $0 with unlimited listings and a built in applicant tracker. Paid options sit on top. Job Ads start at $200 per ad for top of search placement and an email blast. Reach, the self serve sourcing tool, is free for 20 contact reveals a month, $135 per seat per month for 250, or $199 per seat for 1,000. Autopilot, a managed recruiter, is $500 a month per open role plus a 10% placement fee on a successful hire. One marketing role on a marketing only board is a published $149 a month.
Job post, published
$0, unlimited listings
Job Ad, published
From $200 per ad
Autopilot, published
$500 a month per role, plus 10%
Flat rate, published
$149 a month
The plans
How Wellfound actually charges for a job post
Wellfound sells four things to US employers, and three of them have a printed price. The free post is real. Each card says what the number buys, and where the bill grows past it.
Job Posts
$0
Free, no subscription
Unlimited job listings, a built in applicant tracker or a two way sync with Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby or Workable. Every listing goes out across Wellfound search, candidate email alerts and the weekly newsletter.
The catch: The audience is people who want to work at startups, across every function. A free post competes with every other free post, so a marketing role at a later stage company or an agency can sit unseen.
Job Ads
From $200 per ad
Per ad, add on to a free post
Top of results placement, a dedicated email blast and a slot in the newsletter for one listing. It is the only way to buy visibility for a post without also buying sourcing seats or a recruiter.
The catch: Wellfound prints a starting price but not how long an ad runs or what pushes it above $200. Ask for the run length before you compare it to a monthly listing.
Reach Explore
$0 a month
Free sourcing tier
20 contact reveals a month and 3 active AI sourcing agents that find candidates and send outreach from your own Gmail or Outlook.
The catch: Twenty reveals is a sample, not a search. For one marketing role you will usually need more conversations than that to reach a shortlist.
Reach Starter and Growth
$135 or $199 per seat a month
Monthly, per seat
Starter gives 250 contact reveals and unlimited agents. Growth gives 1,000 reveals and applicant sync with your tracker. Per reveal, Growth works out to about $0.20 against $0.54 on Starter.
The catch: The price multiplies by every person who needs a seat, and subscriptions renew monthly until an admin cancels. Two sourcers on Growth is $398 a month.
Autopilot
$500 a month per role, plus 10%
Monthly per open role, fee on hire
A dedicated recruiter, calibrated weekly, delivering 5 to 10 candidates a week. No contract, and you can pause anytime. It is a recruiter at roughly half the percentage an agency usually quotes.
The catch: You pay twice: every month the role is open, and again at the hire. Wellfound does not publish what the 10% is applied to.
Priced by situation
What Wellfound costs for a real hiring situation
The free post, the $200 Job Ad floor, the Reach seat prices and the Autopilot fee are published by Wellfound. Wellfound does not say what the 10% placement fee is calculated on, so the Autopilot rows assume first year base salary and say so. Ask before you sign.
| Your situation | Wellfound, reported | MarketerJob, published | What drives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| One startup marketing role, free post only | $0 | $149 a month | Wellfound wins this row outright. If you are a funded startup and candidates who want startups are the right pool, post there for free first. Paying for a listing is only worth it if the free post is not being seen. |
| Free post plus one Job Ad | From $200 | $149 a month | The ad buys a top slot and an email blast once. The run length is not published, so compare it against how long your roles actually stay open. |
| Founder sourcing alone, two months, Reach Starter | $270 | $298 over two months | Close to level. Reach is outbound work you do yourself, a listing is inbound. Many teams run both, and the costs then add up rather than replace each other. |
| Two people sourcing, three months, Reach Growth | $1,194 | $447 over three months | Seats bill by the person and the month. A slow search on a team plan costs more than the role takes to advertise anywhere. |
| Autopilot, $120,000 marketer hired in two months | About $13,000, estimated | $298 over two months | $1,000 in monthly fees plus $12,000 if the 10% is on base salary. Against an agency at 20 to 25% of salary, about $24,000 to $30,000, Autopilot is the cheaper recruiter. It is not the cheaper channel. |
| Autopilot, three roles open three months, no hire yet | $4,500 before any placement fee | $999 a month, unlimited | The monthly Autopilot fee runs whether or not a hire happens. Unlimited here covers every active marketing role, each one featured, for a published $999. |
Wellfound is the only platform in this family where the posting itself is free and the money is in what you add on top: promoted ads, sourcing seats priced per person, and a managed recruiter that charges by the month and again at the hire. Most comparison pages still quote the retired Recruit Pro and Recruit Essentials plans. If you are weighing it against the other startup favourite, the full side by side for a marketing role is on the LinkedIn job posting cost page. The full picture across every US platform sits on job posting cost by platform, the flat rate case against this one is on our Wellfound alternative page, and all thirteen platforms are compared side by side on where to post a marketing role.
Read the meter
Four billing details that decide your final Wellfound invoice
The plan prices are clear. These four mechanics are what turn a free job board into a four or five figure line item, and none of them is in the headline.
The 10% has no published base
Wellfound prints a 10% placement fee on a successful Autopilot hire but not whether it is 10% of base salary, first year cash or total compensation. On a $120,000 marketing manager with a $15,000 bonus the difference is $1,500. Ask for it in the order form.
Seats bill by the person
Reach Starter and Growth are priced per seat per month. Every hiring manager or founder who wants to source adds a seat, and the help center says subscriptions auto renew monthly unless an admin cancels.
Autopilot charges while the role is open
The $500 is per open role per month, so a role that takes four months to fill costs $2,000 before the placement fee. You can pause, and you should the moment the search stalls or you have a finalist.
Free posts and paid ads draw the same audience
A Job Ad lifts your listing to the top of the same startup audience. It does not reach marketers who never browse startup boards, which is the gap a marketing only board fills.
An honest read
When paying Wellfound is worth it, and when it is not
We sell job posts, so treat this section with the scepticism it deserves and check it against your own last three searches. Three of these six say do not spend the money, because on the wrong role that is the correct answer.
Worth paying for
You are a funded startup
Candidates on Wellfound came to work at startups, and the post is free. For an early marketing hire who wants equity and a small team, it is the first place to list the role.
Worth paying for
You want a recruiter without agency fees
Autopilot at $500 a month plus 10% is about half what a contingency agency quotes for a senior marketing hire, and there is no contract. If you were going to pay a recruiter anyway, it is the cheaper one.
Worth paying for
You will source the role yourself
One Reach Starter seat at $135 a month gives a founder 250 contact reveals and outreach from their own inbox. For a single hire run by one person, that is a defined, cancelable cost.
Save your money
You are not a startup
An agency, a brand team at an established company or a franchise hiring a marketer is speaking to the wrong pool on a startup network, free or not.
Save your money
Several people need seats for a long search
Per seat billing turns a slow search into a growing bill. Three people on Growth for four months is $2,388 before anyone is hired.
Save your money
You need the cost fixed before you start
Job Ad run length and the base of the Autopilot fee are not published. If finance needs one number per role per month, a flat listing price is the easier approval.
For comparison
The published alternative, one price, marketing roles only
MarketerJob lists marketing roles and nothing else, every card carries a USD salary band, and the price is on the site rather than behind a consultation. That is the whole trade against an auction: less reach, more certainty, and an audience that all does the job you are hiring for.
$149 / mo
One marketing role, live until you cancel, no auction running behind it.
$299 / mo
Featured placement, specialty spotlight and matched subscriber email, one live role a month.
$999
Unlimited active roles per month, for teams hiring continuously.
Frequently asked
Wellfound job posting cost questions employers actually search
How much does Wellfound cost?
Wellfound costs employers nothing to post jobs. Paid options are Job Ads from $200 per ad, Reach sourcing seats at $135 or $199 per seat per month with a free tier of 20 contact reveals, a custom priced Reach Scale plan, and Autopilot at $500 per month per open role plus a 10% placement fee on a hire.
Is Wellfound free for employers?
Yes, posting is free. Wellfound job posts are $0 with unlimited listings and a built in applicant tracker or a sync with Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby or Workable. You pay only if you add Job Ads for visibility, Reach seats for sourcing, or Autopilot for a managed recruiter.
How much does it cost to post a job on Wellfound?
Nothing. A standard Wellfound job post is free and goes out across Wellfound search, candidate email alerts and the weekly newsletter. A Job Ad, which adds top of results placement, an email blast and a newsletter slot, starts at $200 per ad. Wellfound does not publish the ad run length.
What is Wellfound Recruit Pro and how much is it?
Recruit Pro was the name of a Wellfound sourcing subscription that many comparison sites still list at about $499 a month. The current Wellfound pricing page does not show it. Sourcing is now sold as Reach, at $0, $135 or $199 per seat per month, or a custom Scale plan.
What does Wellfound Autopilot cost?
Autopilot costs $500 per month for each open role plus a 10% placement fee when you make a successful hire. It includes a dedicated recruiter and 5 to 10 candidates a week, with no contract and the option to pause. Wellfound does not publish what the 10% is calculated on.
Does Wellfound charge a placement fee?
Only on Autopilot. Free job posts, Job Ads and Reach seats carry no placement fee on the current pricing page. Autopilot adds a 10% fee on a successful hire on top of its $500 monthly fee per open role, so a hire through Wellfound is free unless their recruiter made it.
How much is Wellfound Reach per seat?
Reach Explore is $0 a month with 20 contact reveals and 3 agents. Reach Starter is $135 per seat per month with 250 reveals and unlimited agents. Reach Growth is $199 per seat per month with 1,000 reveals and applicant sync. Reach Scale is quoted, with unlimited reveals and SSO.
Can I cancel Wellfound anytime?
Yes. Wellfound bills its subscriptions monthly up front and they auto renew unless an admin cancels. Autopilot is listed as no contract and can be paused anytime. Free job posts have nothing to cancel. Turn seats off as soon as the role closes, because they bill per person.
Is Wellfound cheaper than LinkedIn for hiring?
For posting, yes. Wellfound posts are free and unlimited, while LinkedIn charges for promoted jobs on a daily budget. For sourcing, a Reach seat at $135 or $199 a month sits near LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, reported at about $170, and far below Recruiter Corporate. LinkedIn reaches far more marketers outside startups.
Is Wellfound worth it for hiring a marketer?
Wellfound is worth it for a startup hiring an early marketer, because the post is free and the audience wants startups. It is a weaker fit for agencies and established companies. A marketing role on a board searched only by marketers is a published $149 a month.
How to read the figures on this page: Wellfound publishes $0 job posts, Job Ads from $200 per ad, Reach Explore at $0 a month with 20 contact reveals, Reach Starter at $135 per seat per month with 250, Reach Growth at $199 per seat per month with 1,000, Reach Scale on a custom quote, and Autopilot at $500 per month per open role plus a 10% placement fee on a successful hire. Wellfound does not publish how long a Job Ad runs or what the placement fee percentage is applied to, so rows that depend on either are shown as estimates. Older Recruit Pro and Recruit Essentials prices quoted elsewhere are retired plan names. Prices are subject to change by Wellfound. Wellfound is a trademark of its owner and is referenced here only for comparison.
Know the number before you spend it.
Wellfound is free until you need someone to see the post. A marketing listing here is one published monthly price per role, seen by people who only look for marketing work. A marketing Starter listing here is $149 a month, with a salary band on every card and no invoice threshold running in the background.
Keep going
Job posting cost by platform
Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor and the rest, with every pricing model explained.
Wellfound alternative for marketing roles
The flat rate case against the auction, with an honest table of who each one suits.
Sponsored job posting explained
How auction placement works across platforms, and what a sponsored budget really buys.
How much does it cost to hire a marketer?
Salary, payroll load, benefits and the search itself, added up honestly.
Marketing recruiter fees
The other way to fill the seat: what contingency and retained search cost per role.
Pay transparency laws by state
Which states require a salary range in the posting you are about to pay to promote.