Are you looking to create a niche job portal for a specific industry, an internal company recruitment page, or a large-scale employment marketplace? We’ve found that the right job board plugins and themes can make the process a lot easier.
These tools not only save time but also make sure that your WordPress website looks professional and offers a great user experience for both job seekers and employers.
However, with so many options available, how do you choose the right plugins and themes and avoid those that don’t meet your needs?
To help you make an informed decision, we thoroughly tested some of the most popular WordPress job board plugins and themes. Along the way, we took a look at how easy they are to use, pricing, and features like job postings, candidate applications, and employer profiles.
In this guide, we will share our findings to help you build the perfect WordPress job board site with tools that truly work.
Overview of the Best Job Board Plugins and Themes for WordPress
Don’t have time to read? Here’s a quick overview of the best job board plugins and themes for WordPress:
# | Plugins and Themes | Best For | Pricing |
---|---|---|---|
🥇 | WP Job Manager | Building a job board | Free |
🥈 | SeedProd | Creating a custom theme for a job listing website | $39.50/yr + Free |
🥉 | WPJobBoard | Adding a powerful job search engine and portal | $97/yr |
4 | Job Board Manager | Adding schema for job listings | Free |
5 | ApplyOnline | Beginner-friendly application form builder | Free |
6 | JobRoller | A powerful job listing theme with monetization options | $69/yr |
7 | JobEngine | Advanced job board website theme | $89/yr |
Building a Job Board Website with WordPress
WordPress is currently one of the most popular website builders on the market, powering more than 43% of all websites on the internet.
It can be used to build almost any kind of website, including a job board website. Since it comes with intuitive editing tools, WordPress is super beginner-friendly.
Plus, the base software is completely free, which makes it an affordable option for small businesses and even solopreneurs.
To put it simply, we think WordPress is a fantastic choice for building a job board website. There are just a few things you’ll need to know first.
There are two types of WordPress websites that often confuse new users.
First, there is WordPress.com, a hosted solution. Second, you have WordPress.org, also called self-hosted WordPress. See our article on WordPress.com vs WordPress.org for a side-by-side comparison.
We recommend using self-hosted WordPress.org. It gives you instant access to all WordPress features and functionality without restrictions.
To get started, you will need a domain name and website hosting.
A domain name is your site’s address on the web, like wpbeginner.com or google.com. Web hosting is the storage for all your website files.
We recommend using Bluehost. They are an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider and one of the largest web hosting companies in the world.
Bluehost is offering our readers a huge discount on their web hosting package. You also get a free domain and a free SSL certificate.
After you have purchased hosting, follow our step-by-step guide on how to make a website.
Once you have created your WordPress site, you can install a job board plugin or theme.
How We Test And Review WordPress Job Board Plugins And Themes
Before writing this article, we took the time to download, test, and assess some of the most popular job board plugins. We also installed and researched some of the most popular job board themes. When doing that, we focused on the following criteria:
- Ease of Use: We evaluated how beginner-friendly each plugin and theme is by testing the installation, setup, and overall usability.
- Features: We analyzed each plugin’s core features, such as job posting, application management, employer profiles, and candidate dashboards. For themes, we focused on layout flexibility, pre-designed templates, and customization options.
- Design and Customization: When testing themes, we also reviewed the design quality, responsiveness on different devices, and customization options using WordPress block editors or page builders.
- Performance and Speed: We measured each plugin and theme’s impact on website performance, ensuring they don’t slow down page load times or compromise the user experience.
- Real-World Testing: We have only recommended the tools we have tested ourselves on real websites.
- Pricing: We compared the cost of plugins and themes to their features, ensuring they provide good value for both beginners and advanced users.
- Support and Documentation: We assessed the availability and quality of customer support, as well as the usefulness of online documentation, FAQs, and tutorials for troubleshooting or setup assistance.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
At WPBeginner, we’re a team of experts with over 16+ years of experience in WordPress, eCommerce, SEO, online marketing, and more.
As our company grows, we regularly hire new employees. For years, we have advertised job openings alongside our partner brands on a simple WordPress site. This hands-on experience has given us a better understanding of the features you might need in a job board plugin or theme.
We have also thoroughly tested all the tools on this list. To learn more, see our editorial process.
Having said that, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress job board plugins and themes that you can use to build a job board website.
1. WP Job Manager
WP Job Manager is an extremely easy-to-use WordPress job board plugin from Automattic. During testing, we discovered that it lets you create new pages and add shortcodes to build a live job portal in minutes.
It allows recruiters to register on your website and post their job listings. Once they do that, you can easily view these listings right from your dashboard.
You can also edit, renew, or delete these postings according to your liking.
With WP Job Manager, you can also make money online with paid job postings through premium add-ons. It also has add-ons to send email alerts, monetize your job board using WooCommerce, add a resume manager, and more.
We also like that it allows you to create a custom form for job listings by adding fields like location, job type, category, and application instructions.
For detailed instructions, see our article on how to create a job board in WordPress.
Pros of WP Job Manager:
- We found that the plugin is fully responsive, so job listings look great on all devices.
- It works with most WordPress themes. This helps your job board blend seamlessly with your site’s design.
- We like that WP Job Manager allows you to add shortcodes to display job listings, submission forms, or dashboards anywhere on your website.
- It integrates with WPForms for custom application forms.
- If you plan to create a job listing website, then the plugin lets you add advanced search and filtering options. This helps users find relevant listings quickly.
Cons of WP Job Manager
- Some of the features can only be unlocked with premium addons.
Why we recommend WP Job Manager: If you are looking for a beginner-friendly job board plugin that allows you to add listings with a shortcode, then WP Job Manager is your ideal choice. Plus, it’s free, making it a budget-friendly option.
2. SeedProd
SeedProd is the best WordPress theme builder on the market. It allows you to create a custom theme or landing page for your job postings without writing any code.
Over the years, many of our partner companies have used SeedProd to build their landing pages and have reported running highly successful campaigns with impressive conversion rates. For more information, see our SeedProd review.
We appreciate that SeedProd comes with dozens of built-in website templates with different designs. All of them are completely customizable with a drag-and-drop builder.
You can import a template in a single click and make changes to set up your job board site fast.
With the drag-and-drop builder, you can easily create custom login pages, registration pages, and more. You can customize your website’s layout, background, images, fonts, and colors.
It also has an AI Builder that instantly generates content like images, headlines, descriptions, and text for your website.
For details, see our tutorial on how to create a custom theme in WordPress.
Pros of SeedProd:
- The plugin has over 20 color schemes, font combinations, shape dividers, smart sections, and bloat-free code to decrease your website load time.
- It also has built-in WooCommerce blocks. This can help you create an online store with SeedProd alongside your dedicated job listings page.
- We were impressed that it lets you add dynamic content to your landing pages.
- It can integrate with email marketing services like Constant Contact or Brevo to help you build an email list. You can then send custom emails to users who apply for a job.
Cons of SeedProd:
- SeedProd has a free plan, but most of the premade templates can only be unlocked in the pro version.
Why we recommend SeedProd: If you want to create a custom theme or landing page for your job listings, then SeedProd is the best option.
3. WPJobBoard
WPJobBoard allows you to add a powerful job search engine to your website. It includes a front-end admin panel for employers and recruitment agencies to submit jobs and resumes.
Plus, we love how it manages job applications efficiently with a built-in applicant tracking system (ATS). This allows you to track candidates throughout the hiring process.
It also includes a resume database and employer portal, which helps users search for the right candidate.
The plugin integrates with all WordPress themes and comes with its own free theme. It also allows you to accept payments and offer coupons, discounts, and even membership packages to employers.
Pros of WPJobBoard:
- The job portal lets you post and manage job listings, review applications, and communicate with candidates.
- It makes it super easy to add a fully functional job board to your website where users can submit their applications.
- We were impressed that the plugin lets you improve your job board’s visibility with SEO-friendly URLs and meta tags. You can also promote job listings through social media integration and RSS feeds.
- WPJobBoard has a responsive design.
Cons of WPJobBoard:
- It does not have a free version.
- Its free theme doesn’t offer a high level of design flexibility. Some users may need more.
Why we recommend WPJobBoard: If you want to add a powerful job search engine to your website along with a comprehensive job portal, then we recommend WPJobBoard.
4. Job Board Manager
Job Board Manager is another great plugin for adding a job board to your WordPress website. What makes it stand out is its ability to add schema markup for your job listings. This makes it easier for your job boards to rank higher in the search results.
During testing, we found the tool to be very user-friendly. It comes with a shortcode that you can add to different pages to display job listings, add a new job listing, show the user dashboard, and more.
Job Board Manager also has free add-ons to add company profiles, locations, widgets, and breadcrumbs. You can also use paid add-ons for WooCommerce paid listings, job alerts, applications manager, and more.
We particularly like that the plugin protects your job submission forms from spam with reCAPTCHA, making it a secure option.
Prod of Job Board Manager:
- Our testing revealed that the plugin lets you organize job listings with categories and tags for better navigation. You can also set expiration dates for job listings.
- We like that Job Board Manager lets you specify if the candidates can apply for the job via email, website, or custom URL.
- It has a central dashboard to manage job listings and applications.
- The plugin notifies users about new job listings that match their preferences.
Cons of Job Board Manager:
- We didn’t like that the plugin doesn’t send notifications to users when their job listings are about to expire.
- For larger job boards with numerous listings, some users report that Job Board Manager may slow down the site’s performance, especially when lots of add-ons are used.
Why we recommend Job Board Manager: If you plan to add schema markup for your job listings, Job Board Manager is your go-to solution.
5. ApplyOnline
With ApplyOnline, you can quickly add a job board to your website and start accepting applications. During testing, we discovered that it comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop form builder, which makes it ideal for beginners.
That said, it’s still powerful enough to give you all the important features you’ll need to build your job board. You can create ad categories, add filters, customize application form fields, set up email notifications, and more.
You can even create dedicated job pages with comprehensive information about each ad, including descriptions, features, and more.
However, one disadvantage is that you can’t use it to create a paid job listing website, and you will need to add a membership plugin to create subscription plans or use a contact form plugin to accept orders.
Pros of ApplyOnline:
- The plugin lets applicants attach multiple files with their applications.
- It allows managers to add comments to submitted job forms.
- During our research, we discovered that you can set up email alerts to notify relevant parties when a new application is received.
- You can use add-ons like Application Tracker and Application Rating to improve the job application process.
Cons of ApplyOnline:
- The user interface is a bit basic.
- It does not offer multilingual support.
Why we recommend ApplyOnline: This plugin is a great choice if you’re a WordPress beginner and want to create a simple job board with application forms.
6. JobRoller
JobRoller is a powerful WordPress job board theme. Our research revealed that it comes with excellent monetization options, allowing you to get paid for job listings.
Plus, It allows separate sections to create a blog page or add landing pages to your job board website.
It supports employers and job seeker accounts, has a resume or CV bank, and comes with a job submission form. Plus, it even has Ajax-powered search/filter features.
JobRoller also has multiple display options and a powerful theme options panel, which helps you quickly set up everything.
Pros of JobRoller:
- The theme is fully mobile-responsive.
- You can easily create child themes.
- We like that it was built with SEO best practices in mind to improve your site visibility.
- JobRoller supports importing job listings from platforms like Indeed, Simply Hired, and Careerjet.
Cons of JobRoller:
- It’s a premium theme without any free plan.
- It offers limited customization without coding.
Why we recommend JobRoller: If you are looking for a theme that lets you create an attractive job listing website, then JobRoller is a great solution.
7. JobEngine
JobEngine is a WordPress app theme designed to create a powerful job board website. It has a special front page template to welcome your website visitors. Generally, it’s best if you need more advanced job board styling and features.
We like that Job Engine allows users to create an account and list jobs easily. You can charge for the job openings on a per-job basis or create premium plans. You can also sell featured listings separately. It supports PayPal, Stripe, 2Checkout, and Authorize.net payment gateways.
As a theme, it has lots of color customization choices and design options to control the appearance of your job board. You can customize it on the front end using the built-in page builder. It has multiple sidebars and landing page options and is translation-ready to support multilingual websites.
Pro of Job Engine:
- The theme highlights featured jobs at the top of listings to increase visibility and attract more applicants.
- It integrates with the JE JobAlert extension to provide email notifications for new job postings, keeping users informed.
- During testing, we found that JobEngine lets you add a full-screen background image on the homepage.
- You can customize sidebars to display relevant information and advertisements.
Cons of JobEngine:
- Some users report that the mobile experience can feel a bit clunky, especially with customizations or large job listings.
- It doesn’t have any SEO-friendly features.
Why we recommend JobEngine: If you want an advanced theme for your job listing website, we recommend JobEngine.
What Is the Best WordPress Job Board Plugin and Theme?
In our opinion, WP Job Manager is the best plugin for creating a job board. It’s free and scalable and makes it super easy to add a job portal to your website.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a theme to make your job boards attractive, then we recommend SeedProd. It is the best WordPress theme builder with premade templates, an intuitive interface, and integration with powerful tools.
With just a few clicks, you can create a custom theme for your job listing website without any coding.
Similarly, Job Board Manager is also a good choice if you plan to add schema markup for your job listings to help them rank higher in search results.
However, if you just want a simple theme that supports job listings and management, then JobRoller is a great choice.
Best WordPress Guides for Job Board Websites
We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress job board plugins and themes for your website. You may also want to see our other guides that can help build your job board website.
- Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners (Step by Step)
- The Ultimate Guide to Boost WordPress Speed & Performance
- How to Make a Classified Ads Website with WordPress
- The Ultimate WordPress Security Guide – Step by Step
- Best WordPress Resume Themes for Your Online CV
- Best WordPress Developer Jobs Sites (+ Example Job Template)
- How to Create a Job Application Form in WordPress (Easily)
- How to Create a Micro-Job Website Like Fiverr with WordPress
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Moinuddin Waheed
Nice list of all the job board manager plugins.
The best thing in the list is seedprod.
if it can be utilised to make a comprehensive job board it will be the best option.
I am not sure if it will be capable to make a full fledged job board like the dedicated plugins specially made for this purpose?
WPBeginner Support
It heavily depends on how you want to run your job board for if it would be able to handle what you are wanting. If you reach out to SeedProd’s support they can help let you know if they can suit your needs
Admin
Moinuddin Waheed
I would want to make one as the normal job boards are where one can post job updates for oneself and can allow for others to give their job listings.
Thanks for the response.
I would give it a try with seedprod and will contact with seedprod team for any help regarding that.
Jill
Thank you for this informative list of options. Do any of the aforementioned have global capabilities? If not, could you please provide some options?
Thanks!
WPBeginner Support
Unless we hear otherwise, these plugins should be available globally
Admin
Umair hayyat
Sir ! can you guide me which plugin is best for creating job board. Thank You very much .
WPBeginner Support
You would want to take a look at our recommendations in this article
Admin