Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
XING is a professional network for the German-speaking market. The operator is named in the terms of use of its programming interface: New Work SE, Hamburg, Germany. In the same document the platform describes itself as a business social network where users make contacts and communicate.
XING is arranged not as a single platform but as four entrances with different rules: profiles on www.xing.com, employer products on recruiting.xing.com, advertising on werben.xing.com ("werben auf XING" — "advertise on XING"), and integrations on dev.xing.com. Each entrance has its own prices, limits and rules, and there is no shared back office.
The advertising section calls XING the leading professional job network in the German-speaking world (führendes professionelles Jobs-Netzwerk im deutschsprachigen Raum). That is a self-description, not an independent measurement.
Who's here
The platform reports 21 million members, 100,000 new users and 1 million profile updates a month, and 40% "decision makers". The date these figures were calculated on is not stated. From the same source come the media metrics: 80 million page views a month, an average visit duration of 3 minutes, and 73% using the platform from mobile.
The recruiting section gives a different cut: more than 6 million "particularly well filled in" profiles, about 20 million visitors to the jobs section, and more than 14 million followers of company pages. Here the footnote is more honest: the figures are marked as XING internal research from 2024.
The geography is narrow: the targeting region list contains only Germany (broken down into 16 federal states), Austria and Switzerland.
Getting started
Registering as a member is free, but we were unable to check the terms of paid membership: the page xing.com/premium redirected to a sign-in form when we requested it. The Premium and ProJobs prices are not published outside the personal account area.
A company page exists in free and paid versions. The paid XING Company Profile Pro gives a profile without anyone else's advertising (logo, background, description, video), scheduled news, priority display for job listings, a list of visitors, and promotion "on selected free company profiles of competitors" — and it is from that wording that the existence of free profiles follows.
An employer does not need a sales manager: some products are bought online. After a job listing is paid for, access to the Job Ad Manager arrives by email "within a few business days" — you will not manage to publish a vacancy the same day.
What you can publish
A job listing is the main paid format: €899 per listing excluding VAT, with a 60-day posting period; the same page notes that the price is rounded and that the reduced rate applies when buying up to ten listings.
The advertising requirements are published openly. XING Ads: a 60-character headline, a 140-character description, an image from 1200 × 675 or 1080 × 1080 pixels, JPG or PNG, up to 10 MB. Lead Ads: a 60-character headline, a 120-character description, and for the form a 60-character headline and a 250-character description. Video: AVI, MOV, MP4 up to 5 GB, WebVTT or SRT subtitles up to 10 MB, autoplay without sound. The native Content Ads format carries a substantive prohibition: the headline and the teaser must not contain direct advertising messages.
How to grow
The platform does not describe how the feed is ranked on any page we checked. Growth here is mostly bought.
Reach for a job listing: display on XING and "more than 200 partner sites", a repeated visibility boost and the option to update the listing within its posting period. The same page states that XING was a launch partner for Google for Jobs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Advertising is bought self-service through the XING AdManager, where the sender of an ad can be the brand's business account or your own personal profile. Targeting is built on 23 professional fields and the regions of three countries. There is a managed format too — XING Mailings: the platform itself sends an email to a chosen segment under co-branding. That is a service provided by the platform, not a tool for sending your own mailings.
Path to monetization
XING does not pay authors. On not one of the pages we checked is there an advertising revenue share, a creator fund or a paid subscription to an author. The money flows the other way: the employer and the advertiser pay.
Indirect earnings are possible if you are looking for work or clients yourself, or if you operate as a staffing agency. For the second case the platform has set separate terms: agencies appear as a separate line in the pricing with reduced outreach limits.
Tools and automation
There is no public API "for everyone". The developer portal offers a "Share" button and sign-in with XING plus two partner interfaces: importing job listings via an XML feed that is collected daily, or through the XING E-Recruiting API (REST) and the Apply With XING API — access to part of a profile after the user's explicit consent.
The documentation is closed: dev.xing.com/docs redirects to a sign-in form, and no specific call limits can be seen from outside. The API terms confirm that limits exist but name no figures: "certain traffic limits apply to each application (for example, the number of calls per day)", and the operator is entitled to change them at its own discretion.
The platform's own tool for handling applications is the onlyfy Application Manager: it promises publishing vacancies to "up to 900 channels" and an integrations marketplace, among which MS Teams and Zoom are named.
Limits and rules
- Cold outreach. The Core plan — up to 200 messages a month to people outside your contacts (300 for staffing agencies); the Pro plan — unlimited, but with a ceiling of 1000 messages a month for agencies.
- Checks on bulk sending. The platform reserves a contractual right to investigate in the event of a "noticeably large number of messages sent (more than 1000 a month)" or a suspicion of abuse — spam, or several people using a single recruiter seat.
- The contract. A minimum term of 12 months, payment a year in advance, prices excluding VAT, 3 months' notice of termination, otherwise renewal for another 12 months.
- Rules for applications. The API terms prohibit using XING's messaging system for direct communication between applications and users, collecting names and passwords, circumventing platform restrictions, and pre-filling fields with content the user did not create.
- The right to refuse. An applicant has no right to registration: the operator decides at its own discretion and may terminate an integration at any time.
Who it's for
It suits employers and staffing agencies hiring in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: a fixed price per vacancy, purchase without negotiation, and a German-speaking audience that is hard to gather anywhere else. It suits B2B advertisers — targeting by profession and region with self-service purchasing.
It does not suit authors counting on income from the platform: XING does not pay for content. It does not suit projects outside the German-speaking market. And it does not suit anyone planning bulk cold outreach: the limits are strict, and exceeding them is explicitly named as grounds for a check.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as follows: «Über 1 Mio. Jobs ✓ 20.000 Recruiter·innen ✓ Gehaltsangaben ✓ Arbeitgeber-Bewertungen. Definiere Deine Job-Wünsche und mach Dein XING!»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
the operator is New Work SE, Hamburg, Germany; it is named as the contracting party in the XING API terms of use
The address and the legal form are given in the preamble to the terms
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform describes itself as the «führendes professionelles Jobs-Netzwerk im deutschsprachigen Raum» (the leading professional job network in the German-speaking world)
The platform's claim about itself, not an independent measurement
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform has four separate entrances with different rules: www.xing.com (profiles), recruiting.xing.com (employer products), werben.xing.com (advertising), dev.xing.com (integrations)
Different domains, different rate cards; there is no shared back office
source, checked 2026-07-28
the operator has a newsroom with dated announcements (the latest on the verification date being 24.06.2026)
A source of dated official statements, unlike the marketing pages
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
Registered members. the platform reports 21 million members; the date the figure was calculated on is not stated
A claim by the platform in its advertising section
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform reports 100,000 new users a month; no date is stated
A claim by the platform in its advertising section
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform reports 1 million profile updates a month; no date is stated
A claim by the platform in its advertising section
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform reports that 40% of its audience are «decision makers»; no date and no method of counting are stated
A claim by the platform in its advertising section
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform reports 80 million page views a month and an average visit duration of 3 minutes; no date is stated
Media data from the advertising section
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform reports that 73% of members use it from mobile; no date is stated
Media data from the advertising section
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform reports more than 6 million «particularly well filled in» profiles, about 20 million visitors to the jobs section and more than 14 million followers of company pages
A claim by the platform; a footnote on the neighbouring page dates the figures to internal research from 2024
source, checked 2026-07-28
the figures on 21 million members and 6 million filled-in profiles carry the footnote «XING, internal survey, 2024»
The owner of the figure is named outright: the platform's own internal research for 2024
source, checked 2026-07-28
Where it is available. targeting and recruiting products cover Germany (16 federal states), Austria and Switzerland; no other countries appear in the region list
The list of targeting regions is fully open
source, checked 2026-07-28
Getting started
after a job listing is paid for online, access to the Job Ad Manager arrives by email «within a few business days»
Same-day publication is not possible
source, checked 2026-07-28
Business terms
the paid XING Company Profile Pro gives a profile without anyone else's advertising (logo, background, description, video), scheduled news, priority display for job listings, a list of visitors and promotion on competitors' free company profiles
It follows from the wording that free company profiles exist
source, checked 2026-07-28
onlyfy Application Manager is the platform's own tool for handling applications; it promises publishing vacancies to «up to 900 channels» and an integrations marketplace, among which MS Teams and Zoom are named
The platform's claim about its own product
source, checked 2026-07-28
What you can publish
Images. The requirements are given separately by advertising format (our translation, the original is in German). XING Ads: "Empfohlenes Bildformat: 16:9 oder 1:1", "Mindestgröße: 1200 x 675 px oder 1080 x 1080 px", "Formate: JPG, PNG", "Maximale Dateigröße: 10 MB"; cropping to the required ratio can be done directly in their tool. XING Lead Ads: "Min. Bildgröße 1.200 x 612 px", "Seitenverhältnis 1,96:1", "Max 10 MB; JPG, PNG". XING Content Ads: two sizes in the 16:9 ratio — "Desktop 500 x 288 Pixel" and "Mobile 1160 x 652 Pixel". XING Mailings: "Keyvisual/Headerbild, min. 1280 x 800 Pixel, optimal 1800 x 1200 Pixel", "Modulbilder, min. 600 x 400 Pixel", the customer's logo — without a background
our translation, the original is in German; the dimensions are given as minimum, and not as exact; the platform does not publish requirements for an image in an ordinary post — the help centre is closed by a Cloudflare check
source, checked 2026-08-04
Text length. Numbers are announced only for advertising formats (our translation, the original is in German). XING Ads: "Titel: 60 Zeichen", "Beschreibung: 140 Zeichen". XING Lead Ads: "Überschriften: 60 Zeichen", "Beschreibung: 120 Zeichen"; in the form itself "Titel: 60 Zeichen", "Beschreibung: 250 Zeichen", "Einstieg des Fragebogens: 90 Zeichen", "Individuelle Fragen: 90 Zeichen", the link to the data processing policy — "200 Zeichen", one's own rules — "280 Zeichen"; the confirmation page — the title 60 characters, the description 170 characters. XING Video Ads: "Text: 80 Zeichen", "Titel: 60 Zeichen". XING Content Ads: "Headline-Länge: Max. 140 Zeichen und 2 Zeilen", the recommended length of the headline "50 - 60 Zeichen", "Teaser-Länge: Max. 159 Zeichen". The platform does not publish a limit on the length of an ordinary post in the feed on the accessible pages
our translation, the original is in German; all the numbers relate to advertising, and not to ordinary publication; the help centre help.xing.com (and its former address faq.xing.com), where the limits for an ordinary post might have been, returns 403 through a Cloudflare check ("Just a moment... Enable JavaScript and cookies to continue"), it must not be circumvented
source, checked 2026-08-04
Video. The requirements for advertising video (our translation, the original is in German): "Videoformate: AVI, MOV, MP4", "Dateigröße: Max. 5GB Video", captions — "Max. 10 MB Untertitel" in the formats "WebVTT, SRT". The aspect ratio: "optimal 16:9, andere Formate werden auf 16:9 skaliert und in einem schwarzen Videoframe eingebettet" — a different ratio the platform itself fits into a black frame. The manner of playback is set rigidly: "Standard Abspielweise: Video startet automatisch, ohne Ton" — the video starts by itself and without sound. The page names neither a codec, nor a resolution, nor a bit rate, nor a frame rate
our translation, the original is in German; these are the requirements for advertising video; the platform does not write about video in an ordinary post on the accessible pages
source, checked 2026-08-04
The size limits are announced by kind of advertising material (our translation, the original is in German): an image — "Maximale Dateigröße: 10 MB" (for Lead Ads the same "Max 10 MB"), video — "Max. 5GB Video", the file of captions — "Max. 10 MB Untertitel". The platform does not name a number of files at a time or a number of publications per day
our translation, the original is in German; the limits for ordinary publications are not published; the developer portal dev.xing.com describes only embeddable buttons, and its /docs section requires signing in to an account
source, checked 2026-08-04
Promotion
a job listing is shown on XING and «more than 200 partner sites», with a repeated visibility boost and the option to update the listing within its posting period
The platform's claim about its own product
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform states that it was a launch partner for Google for Jobs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, so its listings are optimised for job search in Google
A claim by the platform; the launch date is not stated
source, checked 2026-07-28
Advertising
the advertising formats: XING Ads, XING Video Ads, XING Lead Ads, XING Content Ads, XING Mailings, XING Audience Network
The product list of the advertising section
source, checked 2026-07-28
XING Ads: a 60-character headline, a 140-character description, an image from 1200×675 or 1080×1080 pixels, JPG or PNG, no more than 10 MB
The official creative requirements
source, checked 2026-07-28
XING Lead Ads: a 60-character headline, a 120-character description; for the form — a 60-character headline, a 250-character description and questions of 90 characters each
The official creative requirements
source, checked 2026-07-28
Video. XING Video Ads: AVI, MOV, MP4 up to 5 GB; WebVTT or SRT subtitles up to 10 MB; autoplay without sound by default; 80 characters of text, a 60-character headline
The official creative requirements
source, checked 2026-07-28
XING Content Ads: the headline and the teaser must not contain direct advertising messages; the headline up to 140 characters and two lines, the teaser up to 159 characters
A substantive restriction on the native format
source, checked 2026-07-28
self-service ad buying goes through the XING AdManager; the sender of an ad can be the brand's business account or the user's personal profile
A description of the self-booking tool
source, checked 2026-07-28
XING Mailings — a mailing to a chosen segment managed by the platform and sent from XING under co-branding; it is a service provided by the platform, not a tool for sending your own mailings
The segment is selected by the platform, including by SQL queries over profile data
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the platform does not pay authors: there is no advertising revenue share, no creator fund and no paid subscription to an author on the pages checked; the employer and the advertiser pay
No payout mechanism on any of the sections checked, rather than a claim by the platform
source, checked 2026-07-28
Paid subscriptions
the Premium and ProJobs plans for private users are not published outside the personal account area: the page xing.com/premium redirects to the sign-in form login.xing.com when requested
OUR check of the redirect on the verification date; we did not sign in
source, checked 2026-07-28
Pricing
one job listing — €899 excluding VAT, with a 60-day posting period; the price is rounded and the reduced rate applies when buying up to ten listings
The VAT and rounding caveats are given in a footnote on the same page
source, checked 2026-07-28
the minimum TalentManager contract term is 12 months, paid a year in advance at the start of the term, prices excluding VAT, with 3 months' notice of termination, otherwise renewal for another 12 months; payment by invoice
Footnote 1 on the pricing page
source, checked 2026-07-28
the specific TalentManager price in euros is not published on the open page: the amount is worked out by a calculator and depends on company size and the number of licences
OUR observation on the verification date: there are no numeric values in the open on the page
source, checked 2026-07-28
Limits and restrictions
the TalentManager Core plan — up to 200 messages a month to people outside your contacts; 300 for staffing agencies
The plan comparison table
source, checked 2026-07-28
the TalentManager Pro plan — unlimited messages to non-contacts; for staffing agencies a ceiling of 1000 messages a month
Footnote «****» on the pricing page
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
the platform reserves a contractual right to investigate in the event of a «noticeably large number of messages sent (more than 1000 a month)» or a suspicion of abuse — spam, or several people using a single recruiter seat
Footnote «*» on the pricing page; the platform's own wording
source, checked 2026-07-28
the help centre help.xing.com returned a 403 when we requested it — protection against automated requests; we did not circumvent it
OUR check; the practical instructions went unverified
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
the text of the terms of service at xing.com/terms was not served when we requested it: the page returned only navigation, with the content loaded by a script
OUR observation on the verification date; the conduct rules and the age threshold have not been checked
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
there is no public API «for everyone»: the developer portal offers two plugins (a «Share» button, sign-in with XING) and partner interfaces
The portal's contents on the verification date
source, checked 2026-07-28
job listings can be imported via an XML feed collected daily, or through the XING E-Recruiting API (REST) for integration with an applicant tracking system
A partner integration, not a generally available API
source, checked 2026-07-28
the Apply With XING API — a REST interface giving access to part of a user's profile after their explicit consent, for applying to a job
A partner integration
source, checked 2026-07-28
the API documentation is closed: dev.xing.com/docs redirects to a sign-in form when requested, so the specific call limits and the list of methods are unavailable
OUR check of the redirect on the verification date; we did not sign in
source, checked 2026-07-28
the API terms confirm that limits exist but name no figures: «certain traffic limits apply to each application (for example, the number of calls per day)», and the operator is entitled to change them at its own discretion
§ 6 (4) of the API terms of use
source, checked 2026-07-28
the API terms prohibit using XING's messaging system for direct communication between applications and users, collecting users' names and passwords, circumventing platform restrictions, and pre-filling fields with content the user did not create
§ 4 (7)–(10) of the API terms of use
source, checked 2026-07-28
an applicant has no right to registration: the operator decides at its own discretion who is allowed access to the API and may terminate an integration at any time
§ 3 and § 6 (1), § 7 (5) of the API terms of use
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: de
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
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