CrewPost vs Traditional Agencies: A Cost Comparison

If you've ever hired crew through a traditional agency, you know the drill. You send a brief, wait for CVs, interview a few candidates, and then — when you finally find the right person — you get an invoice for one to two months' salary. For a deckhand earning €3,000/month, that's €3,000 to €6,000 gone, just for the introduction.

CrewPost was built to challenge that model. But how do the costs actually compare? Let's break it down.

The Traditional Agency Model

Most yacht crew agencies charge a placement fee equal to one to two months of the placed crew member's salary. Some charge a percentage — typically 15–20% of annual salary. For senior roles like Chief Officer or Chief Engineer on a 60m+ yacht, that fee can easily exceed €10,000.

You're also paying for the agency's overhead: their office, their recruiters' salaries, their marketing. And while good agencies provide value through vetting and curation, many captains we've spoken to feel they end up doing most of the vetting themselves anyway.

The CrewPost Model

CrewPost lets you post a job, share it to 16+ social media groups in one click, and manage all applications in a single dashboard. You talk to candidates directly. No middleman, no commission.

During our launch period, posting is completely free. Once the free period ends, pricing starts at €25 per post — a flat fee, regardless of the salary of the role you're filling.

A Real-World Example

Let's say you're hiring a deckhand at €3,000/month:

| Method | Cost | Time to Hire | |---|---|---| | Agency (1 month salary) | €3,000 | 1–3 weeks | | Agency (2 months salary) | €6,000 | 1–3 weeks | | CrewPost (free period) | €0 | 2–7 days | | CrewPost (post-launch) | €25 | 2–7 days |

Even after the free period ends, the savings are dramatic. For the cost of a single agency placement, you could post 120+ jobs on CrewPost.

But What About Quality?

This is the most common pushback we hear. The assumption is that agencies provide better candidates. In our experience, the best candidates are already in the Facebook groups, Telegram channels, and WhatsApp communities where captains post directly. Agencies pull from the same pool — they just add a markup.

CrewPost gives you access to that same pool, plus tools to manage the influx: candidate filtering, CV review, status tracking, and automated reference checks via CrewRef. You get the organization of an agency without the fee.

When an Agency Still Makes Sense

We're not anti-agency. For specialist roles, confidential searches, or when you genuinely don't have time to manage hiring yourself, a good agency is worth every euro. But for the majority of day-to-day positions — deckhands, stewardesses, second engineers, bosuns — direct hiring through CrewPost is faster, cheaper, and gives you more control.

The Bottom Line

The yacht industry has relied on agencies for decades because there was no good alternative. Social media groups are chaotic, and building your own applicant tracking system isn't realistic. CrewPost bridges that gap: the reach of social media, the organization of an agency, and the cost of neither.

Try it free at crewpost.io and see for yourself.