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Best UK job sites of 2021

Included in this guide:

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The best UK job sites make it simple and easy to find employment opportunities in any industry and in any situation – and a top-quality UK job site will be able to search locally and nationally.

If you seek out the best UK job sites, you'll be more likely to find your next big career move. Using the right sites means you'll be able to see all of the best opportunities, and employers will be able to see all of your relevant information alongside your CV.

A top-quality job site will have a massive library of listings, and the best sites cover full-time, part-time and freelance roles alongside remote and flexible positions. The best sites don't stop there, either: on some you'll find social networking features and skills quizzes, and others serve up intelligent filters and company reviews.

There's never been a better time to hit the internet to find a new job, but there's never been a busier time, either. It's understandable to be slightly daunted by the number of sites and the sheer volume of job listings.

That's where we come in. We've picked out the best UK job sites so you know where to start looking, and we've explained what makes them so good. And, if you want to look internationally, that's easy too – head here for our verdict on the best US job sites of 2021.

Also check out our roundup of the best online courses

One of the biggest and most well-respected job boards

Reasons to buy

+A huge listings database +Straightforward design +Lots of extra features

Reasons to avoid

-Not very flashy

Indeed is one of the biggest job sites on the planet. The numbers make for impressive reading: it's been around since 2004 and has more than 250 million monthly visitors, and it hosts a mighty 200 million CVs. The firm claims that ten jobs are added to the site every single second.

The huge user base and the sheer number of job listings mean that you can find work in virtually any industry on Indeed, and you'll find a broad range of full-time, part-time and remote openings alongside contract and freelance positions.

When you open Indeed you'll be greeted with a search-style interface, and it's easy to search for jobs – just put the title and location in and you'll see loads of results. You can filter your results by salary, job category, educational requirements and by loads of other details, too, so you can easily narrow down your results. In this department, Indeed is better than most other job sites.

You can set up a profile that details your work and education history, skills, certifications and more, and you can upload your CV. You can upload an existing CV, set up alerts for specific jobs and words, and employers can post jobs for free too. You can apply for many jobs directly on Indeed, and employers can customise the process to get all the information they require.

There are loads of extra features on Indeed. The site has company reviews with real input from employees, and there's a salary comparison tool to see how much you should really be earning. Indeed has its own app, which adds versatility to your job search, and it has loads of articles about job-hunting and working life that can help improve your skillset and success rate.

Indeed doesn't have a particularly modern or flash design, but it's got a huge database of job listings and an impressive array of features. It should be an essential addition to your job search.

Read the full review: Indeed

Perfect for checking out company cultures before you apply

Reasons to buy

+Free for job seekers +Huge database of employers +Loads of company reviews

Reasons to avoid

-Not the easiest to use

Glassdoor is not the only job site that carries company reviews from current and former staff members, but this site pioneered the approach and places more emphasis on company reviews than most of its rivals.

It's a smart system. You're able to get an incredible amount of insight into how good or bad a company is as an employer, and you can get a better idea if you'll fit into their corporate culture.

Glassdoor also has a huge amount of salary information, so you can see if a company offers competitive rates of pay, and you can explore detailed information about their benefits and interview procedures. Companies are scored on their overall performance and their salary, culture, opportunities, and work-life balance.

This transparent approach means you can approach job applications with more knowledge than you'll find on most other job sites, and Glassdoor's popularity means you'll find millions of job listings and reviews at any one time.

Glassdoor has a better selection of filtering options than most job sites, so it's easy to drill down into search results, and elsewhere you'll find a salary calculator and the ability to add your CV to your profile.

If you're looking for a job in the UK and want more insight than most job sites, you should use Glassdoor – it offers an unparalleled view of a company's advantages and problems. Be aware, though, that it's a complicated and tricky website to use, so it'll take a while to become familiar with the huge amount of data and opinions that are available.

Read the full review: Glassdoor

LinkedIn Jobs — (Image credit: LinkedIn)

A social network for all job-seeking and professional situations

Reasons to buy

+Free to use +Great social abilities +Loads of job listings

Reasons to avoid

-Paid tiers have better features -Outdated design

LinkedIn is the original social network for professionals, and it's no wonder that it's a key choice for any UK-based job search. It's got more than 30 million users in the UK alone, and it's packed with job listings in every industry you can imagine.

You won't just be able to find a new job here, either. This is a social network, so you can post articles, chat to colleagues, make new connections and see if you've got any connections or mutual friends at any companies where you may want to send an application.

You can narrow down job listings with an impressive array of filters, like the job type, experience needed and if remote working is possible, and you can apply to loads of them directly on the site, with your LinkedIn profile able to function as your CV. It's also possible to upload your resume if you'd prefer to send the original document.

Listings show clearly if you've already got contacts at a company, and you can see how many people have applied to each position. There are plenty of other features beyond social networking tools and job adverts, too – LinkedIn has assessment tests, resume builders, and interview preparation help. You can find articles, groups, and events too.

It's free to use and apply to jobs on LinkedIn, but it's worth upgrading to one of the site's paid options. LinkedIn Premium Career costs £24.99 per month and gives you more information on job listings, extra salary data, extensive messaging options, and more detail on who has applied to each job. You can also promote your applications.

You can also pay more for the Premium Business, Sales Navigator Pro, and Recruiter Lite tiers, which give you added business insights, better search, hiring and sales tools, and more monthly messages.

LinkedIn is a vital site for anyone who wants to find a job in the UK, and its social features mean it's brilliant for networking too. But while you can certainly find a job on LinkedIn for free, we'd recommend the paid upgrade if you want to maximise your job search.

Read the full review: LinkedIn Jobs

4. Reed

A UK-focussed site with good education options

Reasons to buy

+Decent jobs database +Great search options +Plenty of career advice

Reasons to avoid

-Not suitable for international jobseekers

Reed is one of the original UK-specific job boards, and there's plenty to like here – the site has nearly 300,000 job listings at the time of writing, and they can be found in every major employment sector.

You can browse jobs by sector, region, and by trending topics if you're not sure what search terms to use, and you can filter jobs by loads of factors – including some rare options, like whether a job is suitable for a new graduate, if it's possible to work from home or if it's been posted by an agency or the employer itself. There's more filtering options here than on virtually any other site.

You can shortlist or hide job listings, use the Easy Apply function to make applications quick and simple, and you can upload your CV, add loads of data to your profile, upload cover letters, write a personal statement and even add a section that details exactly what you're looking for. Reed also has an app so that this functionality doesn't have to stay on your desktop or laptop.

Elsewhere, Reed offers a career advice hub with CV and cover letter templates, interview technique advice and articles to read, and the site also hosts tens of thousands of educational courses in hundreds of different disciplines. Many of the courses cost money and they're all provided by third-party companies, but you can search the course database to find opportunities to get professional certification, help from tutors or courses with discounts.

Reed might not compete with some big sites in terms of sheer numbers, but it has a brilliant range of features that will help any job search. It's an essential addition to your job hunt.

5. TotalJobs

Smart filtering options make it easier to find your perfect job

Reasons to buy

+Great filtering options +Loads of articles +Has an app

Reasons to avoid

-Busy, confusing design -More jobs available elsewhere

TotalJobs usually has more than a quarter of a million UK-based jobs listed at any one time. Its home page is certainly comprehensive: as well as the conventional search box you can see recommended jobs and flick through tabs that highlight the jobs available in different regions, sectors, and companies.

You can see part-time and entry-level jobs, and when you search for a job you can see some excellent and innovative filtering options – you can choose how you want to travel to work and how long you'd like your commute to take, and filter salaries based on annual, daily and hourly rates.

The extensive search options impress, you can use a one-click application system to swiftly apply to jobs and you can take quizzes to highlight hidden skills and receive personalised salary estimates. TotalJobs has a broad slate of career advice articles alongside CV and cover letter templates and advice on workplace well-being. The site also has a selection of courses available, although you won't find as many here as you will on sites like Reed or LinkedIn. TotalJobs has an app, too.

There really isn't much missing from TotalJobs, and its filtering options are particularly impressive – but it has a busy and potentially intimidating interface, and other sites also have a larger database of job openings.

6. CV-Library

One of the UK's most popular job boards

Reasons to buy

+Impressive job alerts +Loads of online courses +Premium profile options

Reasons to avoid

-Not the biggest network

CV-Library is one of the biggest UK-specific job sites, and at any one time you'll find up to a quarter of a million jobs from more than 10,000 companies. There's plenty of choice in every key industry, with companies as diverse as Lotus, Sky, Ocado and Games Workshop all using the site to find staff.

The job search is as easy to use as anything else out there, with solid filtering options and straightforward results, and you can save job listings and set up email alerts to ensure that you'll never miss an opportunity.

Job adverts are straightforward, and CV-Library features a useful one-click application system, so it's easy to send an application to a likely position.

The profile section on CV-Library is simple – you can upload your CV, add basic details, and write a small personal statement to highlight your skills. We'd recommend paying for the Premium Profile option, which costs £9.99 for thirty days of service. This upgrade means you're listed on the site as a Top Profile, with special branding in the site's database and on your job applications, and you'll get a free CV review too.

Elsewhere, CV-Library has a salary guide so you can see the average salary for dozens of popular jobs, and there are plenty of career advice articles. CV-Library has also partnered with Be-a Education to offer hundreds of courses in all sorts of different industries, from beauty and HR to education and accounting. You'll have to pay extra for these courses aside from a handful of free options, but plenty of the courses are available at discounted prices.

CV-Library doesn't have a range of features that can stand out against the biggest job sites, but it does have plenty of job opportunities, a UK-centric focus, and a very clear and straightforward design.

7. Adzuna

A data-focussed approach to finding the right role

Reasons to buy

+Great use of data and algorithms +Informative blog posts +Free

Reasons to avoid

-Only suitable for some industries -Few extra features

Adzuna is one of the most innovative UK-based job sites around, so it's definitely worth using if you want to turbo-charge your job search and take a different approach. It's free to use, too.

The firm usually has more than one million jobs on the site, and it takes a data-driven approach to improve job searches, with bespoke algorithms used to help deliver better matches. Once you've got a list of search results, you can filter by all the usual fields, like salary, location, remote options, and the category. The advanced search option allows for the inclusion or exclusion of certain words alongside plenty of other settings.

If a job doesn't list a salary, Adzuna uses its algorithm to produce a salary estimate based on similar roles, location, and other data points. Adzuna claims that its estimates are usually accurate to within 10%, so you'll at least have an idea of what a job offers if the company hasn't specified.

You can access the site's salary database in a dedicated section of the site, too. Adzuna offers loads of salary stats relevant to different industries and areas. Adzuna can also send you email alerts and recommend job listings based on your CV, profile, and job-browsing history. Adzuna's blog is also a great resource for professional articles and advice.

There's a lot to like here, but in other areas this site is a little basic. You can upload your CV to your profile but you can't add much more information, for instance, and Adzuna is an aggregator – so you can't apply to jobs directly on the site. Adzuna doesn't have many extra features, like skills tests, and its search results are peppered with adverts.

It's a free site, though, and it's still got plenty going for it, from its algorithm-driven search results and its huge jobs database to its salary estimates and wealth of data. This site is unlikely to be your first choice for a UK-based job hunt, but it's worth considering if you want to be comprehensive.

A straightforward, search-based job board

Reasons to buy

+Easy to use +Can block resumes from certain companies +Loads of listings

Reasons to avoid

-Not much detail -Some absent features

Monster is one of the UK's biggest and best-known job sites, and it's got a vast database of job seekers, opportunities, and employers. It's also one of the easiest UK job sites to use, so it's always going to be worth your time during a job search, and it's a top choice if you're not particularly comfortable with technology.

Monster's UK site routinely has between one and two million positions available, and the site has job listings in every industry and at every level of business, from entry-level and casual jobs to executive positions. It's also got loads of articles and videos with career advice, and it has an app that allows you to keep up with your job search on the move.

This site functions like a search engine, so it's easy to start, and you can set up job alerts, upload your CV from your computer, Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, and exchange messages with potential employers. You can also hide your profile, so your current employer won't see if you're job hunting. You can also apply on the site if the employer has enabled that option – if not, you'll be taken to a third-party hiring website.

Go beyond these areas, though, and Monster is a little basic. You get minimal filtering options compared to the other big sites, so it's harder to narrow down your search results, and job listings don't have a huge amount of information compared to other sites. You can only add basic details to your profile, too.

Monster might not have the biggest range of features, but it's slick, straightforward and has a huge database of job listings, so it should still earn a place in your UK job search.

Read the full review: Monster

A final word on UK job websites

The best UK job sites provide hundreds of thousands of opportunities for any eager job seeker, and they also have great filtering and search options so you'll be able to get matched with relevant and more accurate listings.

Some of these sites let users join social networks that can be invaluable for networking and making connections at a new place of work, and that makes job hunting feel less lonely than it used to be.

Elsewhere, you'll find job sites with courses and career advice, others that have quizzes, and some that have company reviews so you can research your potential employer before submitting an application. And, with many sites free to use, it doesn't even have to cost anything.

There's a lot to like about the best UK job sites, with loads of listings alongside a broad range of features. And now you've read our roundup, it's just a matter of loading up the best sites and starting your search.

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