TL;DR
- For LinkedIn automation for recruiters, Curviate Automate is the pick for 1 to 5 recruiters: warm-up Motions on each recruiter's own account.
- Curviate costs $60 per LinkedIn account a month: $180 for three recruiters, $300 for five. Your Recruiter seat stays with LinkedIn, on your own licence.
- Curviate keeps in one place what the alternatives split: Recruiter shortlists by your AI agent, warm-up Motions, one inbox for every recruiter, replies into your ATS.
Three recruiters, three LinkedIn accounts, one backend role in Berlin. The best candidates are not looking, so the job is to be familiar before the invitation lands, then keep every reply in one place. Curviate Automate does that across your recruiters' own accounts for $60 each; the alternatives below are fair picks for narrower jobs. I build Curviate.
Facts checked November 4, 2026Each competitor fact comes from the vendor's own pricing or product page, listed under Sources checked at the end. I did not test the other tools hands-on.
- 1Curviate AutomateRecruiting teams with 1 to 5 recruiters' accounts
- 2Linked HelperA single recruiter who keeps one computer running
- 3LinkedIn RecruiterInMail volume and Projects inside LinkedIn
- 4GemTalent teams that want a sourcing CRM next to the ATS
- 5hireEZSourcing across the open web, not only LinkedIn
How we picked
Recruiters do not search for "automation". They search for a way to reach passive candidates without burning the account their name is on. Four questions set the order:
- Does it run on the recruiter's own account? Candidates answer a person they can look up, not a sender pool.
- Does it work with Recruiter? Projects, Recruiter search and InMail, on the seat you already pay LinkedIn for.
- Where do replies land? One inbox for the team, with each reply marked with the recruiter it came through, and a path into the ATS.
- What does a team of 1 to 5 pay a month, on monthly billing, with the inbox counted in.
Tools that only post jobs or schedule interviews are out of scope. So is any tool that rents or sells LinkedIn profiles: one person, one account.
The top four, side by side
| Feature | Curviate Automate | Linked Helper | LinkedIn Recruiter | Gem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Own cloud browser per account | Desktop app on your computer | Inside LinkedIn | Web app |
| Multi-step LinkedIn sequences | Not described on its page | Not stated on their site | ||
| Recruiter projects and search | yes, your seat (beta) | yes, Lite and Pro | Not stated on their site | |
| One inbox for every recruiter | Built-in inbox | Recruiter messaging | Not stated on their site | |
| Replies into the ATS | Webhooks and API | Native CRM and ATS list | ATS integrations | Bi-directional ATS sync |
| Public price per account | $60 | $29.90 to $59.90 | Set by LinkedIn sales | Custom |
LinkedIn's own seat leads the Recruiter row, and Curviate works with that seat instead of replacing it. Gem leads the ATS row with a two-way sync. On the rows that decide how three recruiters run outreach together, Curviate is the one that runs in the cloud on every account and puts the replies in one place.
What do three or five recruiters pay?
Your Recruiter or Recruiter Lite seat is a separate bill from LinkedIn, whichever tool you pick, and LinkedIn does not list its price. The bars below are what the outreach tool itself costs.
- Curviate Automate
- hireEZ solo
- Curviate Automate
- Curviate Automate
Linked Helper sells per licence too, but the comparison that matters is where the work runs. Linked Helper is desktop software: the app has to be open on a computer or a server you manage for anything to send. Curviate runs each recruiter's account in its own cloud browser, so outreach keeps going when the laptop is shut.
The $60 also covers what a recruiting team adds later: one inbox for every account, analytics per step and per account, contacts and lists, and the API, CLI and MCP server. Hiring managers and coordinators who never send cost nothing, because you pay per connected account, not per person.
See it with your own seat: 7 days of Automate, no card.
1. Curviate Automate: best for recruiting teams of 1 to 5
Curviate Automate
Recruiting teams running 1 to 5 recruiters' own LinkedIn accounts
$60 per LinkedIn account a month
Pros
- Warm-up Motions: visit, follow, endorse a skill, invite, message, InMail from your seat
- Your AI agent searches Recruiter and fills a project for review
- One inbox for every recruiter, events to Greenhouse or Lever
Cons
- Recruiter support is in beta
Verdict: The pick when several recruiters reach passive candidates and the replies must not get lost.
A recruiting Motion on Curviate's recruiter page starts before the first message. It visits the candidate's profile, waits a day, follows them, endorses a skill they care about, waits again and then sends the invitation. After they accept, the message picks up their first name and company, with a fallback line for when a detail is missing. The Motion stops as soon as someone replies. A Motion can also send InMail from your Recruiter seat.
Shortlists come from your AI agent. You tell it who you are looking for; it searches LinkedIn Recruiter, reads the profiles and saves the best matches to your Recruiter project. You review the list before anyone hears from you. The API has 23 Recruiter operations behind that, from projects and pipelines to job postings and applicants.
Julia Brandtvia Lena
Daniel Cruzvia Jonas
Amara Okaforvia Mia
Marcus Leevia Lena
Sofia Marinvia Ethan
via Lena WeberJulia BrandtVP Sales, NordwindReplies from all three accounts land in one inbox. A coordinator tags who is ready for an interview, answers as the recruiter the candidate spoke to and moves the rest to a later Motion. Each reply, accepted invitation and finished Motion can also fire a signed webhook that updates the candidate in Greenhouse, Lever or any ATS that accepts updates.
Each account keeps its own limits, set to its LinkedIn plan, plus working hours in its own timezone and a warm-up when it is new or has been quiet (safety). Motions stop at every limit, so a busy hiring week never pushes one recruiter's account past what its plan allows.
2. Linked Helper: best for a solo recruiter on a desktop app
Linked Helper
A single recruiter who keeps one computer running
$29.90 (Standard) or $59.90 (Pro) per licence a month
Pros
- Recruiter Lite and Pro, projects and InMail on both plans
- Native CRM and ATS list, including Zoho Recruit
Cons
- Desktop software: the app must run for anything to send
- Standard caps native CRM sends at 20 profiles a day
Verdict: Fine for one recruiter at one desk; Curviate keeps sending with the laptop closed and puts the whole team in one inbox.
Linked Helper ranks first on Google for LinkedIn recruiting automation, on a long Recruiter feature list. It supports Recruiter Lite and Recruiter Pro, stores candidates in Recruiter projects and sends InMail, all on the Standard plan. One licence covers one LinkedIn account.
It is desktop software. Its pricing page says so plainly: it "runs as desktop software, not as a browser extension". For a team, that means each recruiter's campaign depends on a machine being on. Curviate runs every account in its own cloud browser and device profile, with nothing to keep open.
3. LinkedIn Recruiter: best for InMail and projects inside LinkedIn
LinkedIn Recruiter
Teams that live in Recruiter and send mostly InMail
Not listed; set by LinkedIn sales
Pros
- Up to 150 InMails a month per seat
- Projects shared across the team
- AI-assisted messages and Hiring Assistant prescreening
Cons
- No public price
- Multi-step sequences not described on its product page
Verdict: Keep it: Curviate works with your Recruiter seat instead of replacing it.
Recruiter is not really a rival. It is the seat your team already pays for, with up to 150 InMails a month per seat, Projects to share candidates, AI-assisted messages and a Hiring Assistant that can send prescreening questions once candidates reply (LinkedIn Recruiter). Recruiter Lite gets 30 InMails a month.
Its product page does not describe multi-step outreach that warms a candidate up across a profile visit, a follow and an endorsement before the invitation. That is the layer Curviate adds. It recognises Recruiter and Recruiter Lite seats, works with your own licence, and lets your agent search Recruiter and save candidates to the same projects your team already uses.
4. Gem: best for a sourcing CRM with email sequences
Gem
Talent teams that want a sourcing CRM next to, or as, the ATS
Custom, by headcount
Pros
- Multi-channel, multi-stage sequences
- Bi-directional ATS sync, or its own ATS
- AI sourcing agents over 800M+ profiles (vendor figure)
Cons
- No public price
- LinkedIn steps not mentioned on its pricing page
Verdict: Good if email-led sourcing and ATS depth come first; Curviate is the LinkedIn layer on your recruiters' own accounts.
Gem is recruiting software built around a candidate CRM. Its pricing page lists multi-channel, multi-stage sequences, a two-way ATS sync and, on its AI seat, sourcing agents that search what it calls 800M+ profiles. Pricing is custom, set by company size.
What the page does not mention is LinkedIn sequences. If your candidates answer on LinkedIn and not by email, Curviate runs that channel from each recruiter's own account and sends the outcome to your ATS by webhook.
5. hireEZ: best for sourcing beyond LinkedIn
hireEZ
Teams sourcing across the open web, not only LinkedIn
From $494 a month for a solo recruiter
Pros
- 1B+ candidate profiles across 45+ channels (vendor figure)
- 40+ native ATS integrations
- Email, SMS and InMail engagement
Cons
- Team price set per deal
- LinkedIn outreach steps not described
Verdict: A sourcing platform first; at $494 for one recruiter, Curviate covers five recruiters' LinkedIn accounts for less.
hireEZ sells a sourcing and engagement platform that sits on top of the ATS. Solo recruiters start at $494 a month with a 7-day trial; team pricing is "configured to the stack hireEZ replaces" (hireEZ pricing). It claims 1B+ profiles across 45+ channels and engages by email, SMS and InMail.
If LinkedIn is where your candidates answer, $494 buys a lot of tool you may not use. Curviate Automate covers five recruiters' accounts for $300.
Why most teams stay on Curviate
- The candidate hears from a person. Every Motion runs on the recruiter's own account, with their name and face, warmed up before the first message.
- Nobody loses a reply. One inbox for every recruiter, each chat marked with its account, answered as the recruiter the candidate knows, and synced to the ATS by webhook.
- One price covers the team. $60 per account with the inbox, analytics and API in it, coordinators and hiring managers free, and a 7-day trial with no card.
| If this is you | Pick |
|---|---|
| Three to five recruiters, passive candidates, replies in one place | Curviate Automate |
| Your AI agent should build Recruiter shortlists for review | Curviate Automate |
| One recruiter at one desk, a computer that stays on | Linked Helper |
| Mostly InMail from the seat you already have | LinkedIn Recruiter |
| Email-led sourcing with a deep ATS sync | Gem |
| Sourcing across many sites beyond LinkedIn | hireEZ |
For how to keep a recruiter's account safe while it ramps up, see warming up a LinkedIn account before outreach and what LinkedIn documents about its limits. Sales teams weighing the same choice have their own list of Curviate alternatives.
Fill the next role from your recruiters' own accounts
Connect one recruiter's account, point it at a Recruiter project and run a warm-up Motion on it: 7 days of Automate, no card.
Sources checked
- Linked Helper pricing, read November 4, 2026
- LinkedIn Recruiter, read November 4, 2026
- Gem pricing, read November 4, 2026
- hireEZ pricing, read November 4, 2026
- Curviate for recruiters, read November 4, 2026
- Curviate pricing and safety, read November 3, 2026
Not affiliated with LinkedIn Corporation.
