Why Jobinder
Honest comparison with the other options trades have today — and honest about what we're not yet.
The problem with what exists today
Designed for office work, retrofitted for everyone else. For trades, the rate of replies on cold applications is famously bad — independent surveys put ghosting at 60-70%. Salary is rarely advertised, so workers find out only after three rounds of interview. The matching algorithm is opaque; nobody outside Microsoft knows why one profile surfaces and another doesn't.
Indeed
Volume in, volume out. Workers send CVs into a void. Companies get hundreds of unfiltered applications. The signal-to-noise ratio for both sides is poor. Salary information is patchy at best, gamed at worst.
Recruitment agencies
Useful when they work, expensive when they don't. Fees of 15-25% of first-year salary mean the agency's incentive is to place anyone, not the right one. Negotiation is filtered through someone whose commission depends on closing.
Word of mouth
The best matches in trades still happen this way — someone's cousin, someone's old colleague. Doesn't scale. Limited to who you already know.
Generic dating apps (Tinder, Hinge)
Wrong context. The mechanics are right (swipe + match) but the social signal of being on a dating app while looking for work is wrong, and the cards aren't built for what either side needs to decide.
What Jobinder does differently
- Both sides quote upfront. Worker says what they want. Company says what they pay. No three-round-interview surprise. See how it works.
- No opaque algorithm.Trade and city filter the feed. That's it. No ELO score, no desirability ranking, no pay-to-be-seen.
- Free for workers, always. Search, swipe, match and chat are free for tradespeople. Forever. Companies pay for listings.
- Match-based.Mutual interest required. Workers don't get blasted with mass-DMs from recruiters; companies don't get spammed by random CVs.
- Built for trades specifically. The card surfaces what trades actually decide on: trade, years experience, salary wanted/paid, perks, work culture. Not endorsements, not job title soup.
- Your negotiation, not ours. We never sit between you and the company once you match. No percentage of your salary. No referral fee. The chat is yours.
- EU-only data. Everything in eu-west-3 (Paris). No transfers outside the EEA. Account deletion in one click.
Side by side
| Jobinder | Indeed | Agency | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free for workers | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Salary visible upfront | Both sides | Rarely | Sometimes | After interview |
| Match before contact | Always | No | No | No |
| No opaque ranking | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | n/a |
| Built for trades | Yes | No | No | Some |
| Fees on company | Subscription | Subscription + ads | Sponsored posts | 15-25% of salary |
| EU data residency | Yes | No | No | Varies |
| Account deletion | One click | Several steps | Several steps | Varies |
What we are NOT (yet)
- Not in the UK, Germany or Belgium yet. Phase 1 is the Netherlands. Other markets follow once NL is stable.
- Not for white-collar tech roles.The card mechanic was designed for trades. We won't pretend it works for senior engineering hires.
- Not staffing on-demand.We're for permanent hires, not day-rate gig work. Different product, different mechanic.
- Not the biggest pool yet.If you sign up in June 2026 you'll see fewer candidates and fewer companies than later. Honest about that.
- Not perfect. First-year products have rough edges. We ship fixes weekly and you can email privacy@jobinder.app when something breaks or feels off.
What we promise
- Job search will always be free for workers. No paywall on signup, swipe, match or chat. Ever.
- No opaque ranking algorithm. If we ever add one, we'll announce it on this page first.
- EU data residency. If that ever has to change, you get 30 days' notice and the option to delete first.
- Material changes to terms and privacy policy are emailed to active users 14 days before they take effect.
- No selling your data. No training AI on your messages. No ad targeting on your profile.
- Easy exit. One click in /me/account and you're out. We don't guilt-trip, we don't spam your inbox afterwards.
Ready?
Jobinder· honest because we'll be around longer if we are.