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?

Let's dive in.

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 resources like LinkedIn Training.

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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 tools on the market to find decision makers, because of the search filters.

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

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

LinkedIn Premium VS LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Features Comparison

Let's compare the features of these 2 plans.

LinkedIn Premium features

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."

Send InMail messages

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

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

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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.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator features

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

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 York… and who saw your profile recently.

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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.

Use Boolean Search

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

It helps you to get very specific search queries 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"

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Advanced search filters

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

It allows you to build a 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

How to Export Leads from Sales Navigator

How to Export Leads from Sales Navigator

Follow the 6 steps to export your leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator with their verified emails:

1. Create a GiveMeLeads account
2. Download the Chrome Extension
3. Select your target on LinkedIn Sales Navigator
4. Launch your export
5. Schedule your export (Optional)
6. Download your leads file

Let's dive in!

Step 1: Create a GiveMeLeads account

Go on GiveMeLeads. Then click on "Get first 20 leads for free".

Then, you have to write your:

1. First Name
2. Last Name
3. Email
4. Password

And click on "Create account".

Step 2: Download the Chrome Extension

To get started, install the GiveMeLeads Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store.

Once installed, it integrates directly into LinkedIn Sales Navigator, allowing you to extract your leads instantly while browsing your search results or saved lead lists.

Step 3: Select your target on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Go to LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Use filters to find your ideal leads (like job title, company size, or location). Like decision makers for example.

Then click "Extract leads" using the GiveMeLeads extension or paste the search URL on the platform.

Step 4: Launch your export

Your target is set up. Now it's time to export your leads. For that, click on "New Export".

You will get a pop-up where you can select:

• The number of leads you want to export
• If you want to get the verified emails (of all leads or filtered leads only)
• If you want to schedule this export on a weekly basis

Then click on "Export Leads".

Step 5: Schedule your leads export (Optional)

GiveMeLeads lets you schedule lead exports. Pick the day you want, and you'll receive fresh leads weekly.

Each lead is unique, and the system ensures there are no duplicates. This saves you time and keeps your CRM clean, so you can focus on outreach, not data cleaning.

Step 6: Download your leads file

When your export is finished, you'll receive an email with a download link.

You can also download your file directly by clicking the "Download" button in your dashboard. You'll see two options.

1. "Open in Sheets"

This gives you a simple version of your lead list. You have:

• matches_filters / invalid_reason
• First Name
• Last Name
• Profile picture
• Company name
• Job title
• Headline
• LinkedIn URL
• Email

It doesn't include all the data, but it's perfect if you just want to import leads into your CRM or a B2B outreach tool like Lemlist or Expandi.

2. "Download CSV"

This gives you the full file with all available data. For each lead, you'll see extra info like whether they have LinkedIn Premium, their total years of experience, and company details like size, industry, and location.

GiveMeLeads also automatically cleans your data:

• Fixes capital letters in names and job titles
• Removes emojis from job titles
• Removes legal suffixes in company names (like LLC, GmbH, etc.)

GiveMeLeads also checks if each lead matches your LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters. Leads that don't fit are tagged in the matches_filters column with the reason they're invalid (like "Invalid job title" or "Wrong company size"). That way, you keep full control of your data.

With GiveMeLeads, you also get the verified professional email of every lead — even if they're in your 2nd or 3rd-degree connections.

LinkedIn Premium VS LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Pricing Comparison

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

LinkedIn Premium VS LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Which One to Choose?

All right! It's time to break down which LinkedIn paid plan 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 on your situation, and your use cases.

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

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