Compare · vs an in-house recruiter

A recruiter is a fixed cost. Ask how many hires actually justify it.

Above roughly a dozen hires a year, an in-house recruiter is the cheaper and better answer. Below it, you are paying a salary to run a handful of searches — and waiting three months to start.

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until you hire
€0
of first-year base
10%
full-refund window
90 days
data processing
EU

The honest version

When an in-house recruiter wins.

Choose the alternative when

  • You are hiring continuously — somewhere north of a dozen roles a year — where a salary spread across many hires beats a fee on each one.
  • You need the work around hiring, not just the hiring: employer branding, comp benchmarking, levelling, interview training, org design.
  • You want a person in the room who carries your culture into every conversation and is accountable for the candidate experience.

Choose us when

  • You are hiring two to eight people a year, where a recruiter's fully-loaded cost per hire is far worse than a fee per hire.
  • You need capacity this month, not after a two-to-three month search for a recruiter and their ramp-up.
  • Your hiring is lumpy — three roles this quarter, none next — and you do not want to carry the cost through the quiet months.

Side by side

What actually differs.

  • Cost shape

    WhyBrilliant
    Variable — a fee per hire
    In-house recruiter
    Fixed — a salary, whether you are hiring or not

  • Time to first shortlist

    WhyBrilliant
    Days
    In-house recruiter
    Months: hire the recruiter, then ramp them up

  • Capacity ceiling

    WhyBrilliant
    Every role worked at once
    In-house recruiter
    One person's week

  • If a hire leaves early

    WhyBrilliant
    Full refund inside 90 days
    In-house recruiter
    Nothing back; the search runs again

  • Quiet quarter

    WhyBrilliant
    You pay nothing
    In-house recruiter
    The salary continues

  • Employer branding, levelling, comp work

    WhyBrilliant
    Not what we do
    In-house recruiter
    Their real value

  • Commitment

    WhyBrilliant
    Cancel whenever; no notice
    In-house recruiter
    A permanent hire with a notice period

One role, both ways

Five hires a year, both ways.

Divide the fully-loaded cost of a recruiter by the number of hires they actually make. That number is the honest comparison, and it moves fast.

  • Cost across five €70k hires

    €35,000 — €7,000 each, only on hire

    A recruiter's fully-loaded annual cost, spread over five

  • Cost if only two land

    €14,000

    The same annual cost, over two

  • Cost in a quarter with no hiring

    €0

    A quarter of the annual cost

An illustration on a €70,000 base salary, not a quote. Put your own numbers in the calculator.

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Before you decide

The questions we get.

Other comparisons

When an in-house recruiter wins.

Twenty minutes, no preparation, no obligation.

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