Flat fee recruiting
A flat fee recruiter is cheaper than contingency when the role actually matters.
SuperHired charges $9,500 for one role. Not 20 to 25% of salary. Not a fee that gets larger when compensation gets larger. You get the full hiring methodology, a 120-day guarantee, and every deliverable we create along the way.
Flat fee vs contingency
What changes when the recruiter is not paid as a percentage of salary.
SuperHired flat fee
- $9,500 for one role
- Two-week discovery before sourcing begins
- 32 Work Drivers, Job Map, salary benchmark, and candidate reasoning
- 120-day replacement guarantee
- All deliverables are yours to keep
Typical contingency recruiter
- Usually 20 to 25% of first-year salary
- Fee rises as compensation rises
- Less incentive to do deep discovery up front
- Shorter guarantee window is common
- Little reusable hiring infrastructure left behind
The math
On a $150K hire, 25% contingency is $37,500. SuperHired is $9,500.
If you are hiring for an $80K to $200K role and you care about fit, retention, and documented reasoning, the useful comparison is not “cheap recruiter vs expensive recruiter.” It is “percentage fee with shallow discovery” vs “fixed fee with a structured hiring system.”
That is why our pricing page leads with the number and why our booking flow goes straight to a Discovery Preview. If there is a fit, we scope the role clearly. If there is not, we tell you that directly.
When flat fee recruiting fits best
You need one important hire
You want a clear process, not a pile of resumes and a race to placement.
You want predictable cost
You do not want the fee to jump just because the salary is higher.
You want reusable hiring assets
You want the Job Map, role clarity, and evaluation logic to survive beyond a single search.
Next step
Start with a Discovery Preview.
Thirty minutes. No pitch. We learn what you need, you see how we think, and we can tell you whether a flat-fee search is the right fit for this role.