LinkedIn Premium VS LinkedIn Sales Navigator: What's the Best for You?

On LinkedIn, you have the free plan, or you can pay to access the paid features of LinkedIn.

You have two options:

1. LinkedIn Premium 

2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

(and Recruiter, but I will not cover this plan in this article)

But which one is the BEST for you?

In this guide, you will learn:

• What is LinkedIn Premium?

• What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

• Premium vs Sales Navigator: Feature Comparison

• Which Plan Should You Pick?

What is LinkedIn Premium?

LinkedIn Premium is a paid LinkedIn subscription.

You have 2 plans in Premium:

1. Premium Career

2. Premium Business

With Premium, you can see your profile viewers, send InMails, send way more connection requests to 2nd and 3rd degree connections and have access to LinkedIn ressources like LinkedIn Training.

📺 If you want to check if LinkedIn Premium is worth it for you, or not, you can check this video:

What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a LinkedIn paid plan.

You have 3 plans:

1. Sales Navigator Core

2. Sales Navigator Advanced

3. Sales Navigator Advanced Plus

It's one of the best tool on the market to find leads, because of the search filters.

It's mostly used by CEOs, sales and marketing teams to source leads.

📺 If you want to learn how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can check this in-depth tutorial:

Now it's time to see the differences between LinkedIn Premium and LinkedIn Sales Navigator:

LinkedIn Premium VS LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Features comparaison

Let's compare the feature of these 2 plans.

LinkedIn Premium features

1. See your profile viewers

With a LinkedIn paid plan, you have access to the page "Profile viewers".

With this feature, you can see who saw your profile recently.

You can even apply some filters to better find leads that match your ideal customers. Then, you can leverage this information when you send a message to the leads.

For example:

"Hi Vincent, I noticed you saw my profile."

2. Send InMail messages

InMail credits allow you to message LinkedIn members you're not connected with. Unlike standard messages, which require a connection, InMails lets you reach out directly.

They are useful if you want to send a message to someone in your 2nd or 3rd degree connections without sending a connection request.

Here's how it looks like on LinkedIn if I send a connection request:

Sending InMail is useful when you want to reach decision-makers or potential clients who are not directly connected to you.

💡 Pro tip: you can send an InMail to people who haven't accepted your connection request yet.

Here are the number of InMail credits you get depending of your Premium plan:

📺 If you want to learn more about how InMail messages work, you can check this video:

3. Unlimited searches

With a LinkedIn Premium plan, you can do the number of LinkedIn searches you want.

You won't be capped by LinkedIn, saying "You've done too many searches".

It's useful if you want to find specific leads.

Pro tip: Check LinkedIn’s limits to see what actions are allowed based on your plan (Free, Premium, or Sales Navigator).

LinkedIn Sales Navigator features

With LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you have more features compared to a Premium plan.

1. See your profile viewers

You have access to the page "Profile viewers".

But you also have the same information on Sales Navigator. It's the best way to check your profile viewers, because you can add more filters.

For example, people who are CEO, in New Work… and who saw your profile recently.

📺 If you want to learn how to see your profile viewers, you can check this tutorial:

2. Send (more) InMail messages

With Sales Navigator, you have 50 InMail credits per month.

You can use these credits to reach out to ideal clients without sending a connection request.

3. Use Boolean Search

On Sales Navigator, you can narrow down your search by using booleans operators.

It helps you to get very specific search query to find your ideal customers.

You can use 5 boolean operators:

1. OR

2. AND

3. NOT

4. (Bracket)

5. "Quotes"

Here’s a quick breakdown:

For example, if you want to reach out to a decision maker in marketing, you can write this in the "Current Job Title" filter:

("VP" OR "Head") AND "Marketing" NOT "Assistant"

📺 If you want to check how to use the boolean operators in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can check this video:

4. Advanced search filters

This is the most useful and powerful feature of LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

It allows you to build qualified list of leads with various filters.

If you want to check the lead filters, you can go on the homepage of Sales Navigator:

Then, you will find all the filters from Sales Navigator.

For example, you can filter your leads by:

• Company size

• Current Job Title

• Years of experience

• Post on LinkedIn

• Geography

• Industry

• Keywords

• Past company

• Following your company

• Connection (useful if you want to export your connections on LinkedIn)

• Connection of (to check the leads in the network of a competitor)

• Etc

The only thing you can't do with LinkedIn Sales Navigator is to export your leads into a CSV or Excel file.

To export your leads you can use a tool like GiveMeLeads.

Here is step by step guide on how to export leads:

Create a GiveMeLeads Account

First, you need to sign up for GiveMeLeads:

1. Go to GiveMeLeads

2. Click the "Get 10 leads for free" button

   
   

   

   
   

3. Enter your email and create a password

It takes less than two minutes to create your account.

Define Your Target

Now it's time to find the right prospects:

1. Log in to LinkedIn Sales Navigator

2. Use the search filters to narrow down your target audience (industry, company size, job title, location, etc)

3. Check your results to ensure it matches your target criteria

Be specific with your targeting for better quality leads.

Choose Your Data Sources

GiveMeLeads lets you select what data sources you want to use.

You can select:

• Sales Navigator

• Your 1st degree connections

• Competitors’ network

• Company followers

• Profile viewers

Then, you can choose which sources you prioritize.

For example, you can say you want more leads from the source “1st degree connections” than “Competitors’ network”.

Finally, you click on “Save Target”

Launch the Export Leads

Time to start the export process:

1. Click "New Leads Export" in the GiveMeLeads dashboard

2. Select the number of leads you want

3. Check if you want to get the leads once or on a regular basis (you can select the day of the week you want to receive your file)

4. Confirm and start the extraction

5. Wait while Givemeleads processes your request

Most exports finish in less than 2 hours, depending on list size.

Download Your List

The final step is getting your lead file:

1. Once processing is complete, you'll get a notification

2. Go to your GiveMeLeads dashboard

3. Find your export

4. Click "Open in Sheets" to get your file

   
   

   

   
   

5. Get access to your file

With LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you have some more options like smartlinks, save your search, create an lead list, create an account list, etc.

📺 If you want to check if LinkedIn Sales Navigator is worth it for you, or not, you can check this video:

LinkedIn Premium VS LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Pricing comparaison

It's time to talk about the cost of these paid plans!

LinkedIn Premium pricing

Here are the details of the LinkedIn Premium pricing:

Monthly Pricing

• Career: $29.99/month

• Business: $59.99/month

Annual Pricing

• Career: $239/year

• Business: $575.88/year

💡 Comparison Table

LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing

Here are the details of the LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing.

You will see that the Sales Navigator plans are more expensive than the Premium plans. But if you want to build qualified lists of leads, it's a no-brainer.

Monthly Pricing

• Core: $99.99/month

• Advanced: $149.99/month

• Advanced Plus: Custom pricing

Annual Pricing

• Core: $959.88/year ($79.99/month)

• Advanced: $1,679.88/year ($139.99/month)

💡 Comparison Table

Pro tip: For 99% of people, the Sales Navigator Core is the best plan to use. You don't need more.

LinkedIn Premium VS LinkedIn Sales Navigator: What's the best for YOU

All right! It's time to breakdown what LinkedIn paid plans is the best for you:

Conclusion

It's hard to tell "this plan is better than this one" because the best plan for YOU depends of your situation, and your use cases.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is by far the best choice if you're doing sales and outreach.

If you only want to grow your network, build credibility and check who are your profile viewers, it's better to stay on a LinkedIn Premium plan.