Edges vs Netrows
The LinkedIn API you can still recommend in 2 years.
Who this comparison is for
You're picking a LinkedIn API partner your engineering team will live with for years. You care as much about docs, changelogs, and incident comms as you do about the endpoint list on day one.
At a glance
The axes that matter when you’re picking between us.
| Topic | Edges | Netrows |
|---|---|---|
| Action catalog | 70+ curated LinkedIn actions with consistent request/response shapes. | Broad catalog — confirm current endpoint map and deprecation history in their docs. |
| Developer experience | OpenAPI 3.1, TypeScript/Python/Go samples, consistent errors, dedicated docs domain. | Compare SDK maturity, error semantics, and code samples against your language stack. |
| Reliability signals | Public status page, incident postmortems, changelog, and SLA on enterprise tier. | Review their status history, changelog cadence, and published SLA commitments. |
| Cost predictability | One credit balance across all actions; predictable as call mix shifts. | Check per-endpoint pricing and how cost scales with your specific action mix. |
| Roadmap transparency | Public changelog, quarterly roadmap notes, customer advisory on enterprise tier. | Ask about their roadmap process and how customers influence priorities. |
Pick the right one
Choose Edges when
You value developer experience as a first-class product: OpenAPI, typed SDKs, clear error semantics, a public status page, and a team that responds when LinkedIn's surface shifts.
Consider Netrows when
Their current endpoint list exactly matches your backlog, pricing fits, and you've validated reliability against your production traffic in a staged trial.
Migration
Map your current Netrows calls or automations to Edges actions using the Library and the documentation. Ask support for the OpenAPI spec and it drops straight into Postman, Hoppscotch, or any code generator. Share your integration outline and we can suggest parity endpoints and credit estimates.
FAQ
What should I actually test in a head-to-head POC?
Three things: (1) fill rate and accuracy on your priority fields across 500+ sample profiles; (2) p95 latency under your concurrency; (3) error and retry semantics when LinkedIn rate-limits upstream. The winner rarely has the longest endpoint list — it's the one that degrades gracefully.
Should we run both in parallel during evaluation?
Yes — it's the only way to know for sure. Dual-run for 2–4 weeks on production-like traffic, then cut over once parity is proven on the actions you care about.
Does Edges cover more than the standard Netrows endpoints?
Edges goes beyond data retrieval into Sales Navigator workflows, scheduled timing with Actions, and LinkedIn engagement. If your 12-month roadmap mentions any of those, factor it into the decision.
How does enterprise support compare?
Edges offers an enterprise tier with SLA, shared Slack channel, dedicated CSM, and incident-comms commitments. Ask Netrows for their equivalent package and compare response-time guarantees.
What's the cost of switching later?
Because both vendors expose LinkedIn actions via REST, the switching cost is dominated by endpoint mapping and test rewrites — typically 1–2 engineering sprints for a focused feature area.
Build on Edges
Credits-based pricing, SOC 2 Type II, and a growing catalog of LinkedIn actions — see Pricing and Enterprise for scale.
// go deeper
// other comparisons
Edges is not related to LinkedIn and is not an official LinkedIn product.