Depends
Confidence: Medium
Worth a free profile only if you hire or job-hunt in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland.
Comparison
XING vs LinkedIn
XING and LinkedIn both land on Depends.
Depends
Confidence: High
Anyone job hunting or building a career should use the free tier . it's the industry default.
| Compare | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Job seekers in Germany/Austria/Switzerland | Job seekers |
| Who it's not for | Anyone hiring or job-hunting outside DACH | Budget buyers . Premium value is widely panned |
| Privacy | One small breach claim against; 91.7/100 security score; unrelated 'Xing' CVEs excluded as noise.⁷ | Mature security program (disclosure, trust center, encryption) but recurring breach and leak headlines from 2012 to 2026. |
| Support quality | Trustpilot complaints about submitted complaints | No usable support evidence in sources |
| Public sentiment | Reviews are strongly negative, with recurring complaints about Premium billing and Reddit users declaring the platform dead.² | Sentiment is love-hate: users credit LinkedIn for landing jobs but pan Premium pricing and the feed.13 |
| Biggest gotcha | Premium auto-renews; Trustpilot users report being charged after a year¹ | Premium renews around $30/month; many reviewers say the value doesn't hold up.12 |
Pick XING when
- Job seekers in Germany/Austria/Switzerland
- Recruiters hiring German-speaking talent
- B2B networking within DACH
When XING is not a fit
- Anyone hiring or job-hunting outside DACH
- Recruiters needing global talent pools
- Anyone considering paid Premium . auto-renew trap warnings are consistent
- Startups wanting an active professional network . users say it's dying
Pick LinkedIn when
- Job seekers
- Recruiters and B2B sales teams
- Personal branding and networking
- B2B marketers
When LinkedIn is not a fit
- Budget buyers . Premium value is widely panned
- Privacy-sensitive users given repeated leak headlines
- Anyone who wants networking without an engagement feed
- Teams treating it as a CRM . use a real CRM or spreadsheet
Sources
- XING Reviews | Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
- XING Reviews - Sitejabber (1.8/5, 20 reviews)sitejabber.comreview
review
- Beware of the XING premium membershipblog.assarbad.netreview
- Xing: cost for the Premium membershiptechnical-tips.comnews
security
security
- XING - official sitexing.comofficial
- Xing: number of D-A-CH users 2024 - Statistastatista.comnews
review
review
review
- LinkedIn Faces Growing Complaints From Recruiters Over Rising Prices . The Informationtheinformation.comnews
review