10+ Best Applicant Tracking Systems for Small Business (2025)
The best ATS for small businesses, updated by our in-house HR tech experts and researchers for 2025.
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An applicant tracking system (ATS) is essential to attract top candidates and track their progress throughout the pipeline. If you manage recruitment at a small business and are struggling with hiring, it’s probably time for an ATS.
For small businesses, there’s a fine line between bootstrapping your budget and shooting yourself in the foot, and our experience tells us that the ROI on the right ATS software will make you wonder why you spent so long making do with Excel.
Your need for automation and efficiency probably led you to this guide, so let’s take it a step further by finding the right product to meet your needs.
We have assessed over 50 products to date, and our research and experience in talent acquisition show that the best applicant tracking systems for small businesses tend to excel in resume parsing, job posting, pipeline management/user experience, and integration capacity.
- Resume Parsing: The ability to reliably parse resumes and provide meaningful analytics are core features of any ATS, but for a small business, it’s especially critical. To gauge this, we ran simulations where we sent sample resumes through each software’s application pipeline.
- Job Posting: We looked at the number and quality of job boards and assessed each tool’s attentiveness to factors like inclusive language. We also examined their ability to create and maintain a comprehensive audit trail.
- Pipeline Management and User Experience: Pipeline management supports automation and efficiency, the foundation of candidate experience. Good ATS software design is crucial because it reflects your company's image. We ran candidate simulations through each pipeline to test for intuitiveness, accessibility, and cohesive visual design. We assessed the performance from both the candidate's and recruiter's perspectives.
- ATS Integration: Compatibility with other software is essential because the candidate pipeline at small businesses weaves through multiple internal data points and systems, such as calendars for scheduling, onboarding, and background checks. To ensure each ATS would work with most HR ecosystems, our researchers checked for compatibility with dozens of the top HR tools used by small businesses.
Workable
Greenhouse
AvaHR
Zoho Recruit
Recruit CRM
Recooty
Pinpoint
JazzHR
Teamtailor
Recruitee
Trakstar Hire
BambooHR
Workable
Workable really works for small orgs. This platform is best known for its ability to support large teams, but it can also meet the needs of small and growing companies.
PROS
- Workable’s pricing plans are quite straightforward.
- It offers 15-day free trials with no card info required.
- It supports one-click job posting to over 200 sites and lets you access its talent pool with over 400 million profiles.
- You can conduct cognitive and personality assessments within Wordable, without needing third-party tools.
- The anonymized screening feature can help reduce unconscious hiring bias.
- You can post jobs with one click to over 200 sites. You also get access to access to Workable’s talent pool with over 400 million profiles.
- Workable has built-in cognitive and personality candidate assessment. The platform also has features for offer management, which means you can create offer letters and collect e-signatures without needing to use third-party tools
- You can reduce unconscious hiring bias with Workable’s anonymized screening feature. It helps you hide identifying candidate information from the sourced and applied stages of the hiring process.
CONS
- No automated reference checking and onboarding features.
- Features like candidate texting, video interviews, and assessments are not included in plans but must be bought separately.
- Workable could do better with duplicate candidate merging since one person will have numerous candidate records on the ATS if they apply for multiple positions.
- The reporting feature needs to be more detailed and customizable.
- The candidate search function could have more filters.
- Workable doesn’t provide automated reference checking and onboarding features.
- Useful features such as candidate texting, video interviews, and assessments are not offered in any of Workable’’s plans and instead, sold separately.
- Several users complained about the reporting feature not being detailed or customizable enough, and that the candidate search function could use more filters.
Workable is a powerful applicant tracking system suitable for businesses of all sizes. This adaptability is a stand-out feature: most ATSs perform best in a particular size environment, but Workable is highly flexible and scales easily.
Users can expect standard ATS features like job posting and scheduling, as well as AI-driven parsing and candidate suggestions. Some sought-after features, like video interviews, are not included. However, its integration abilities are top-notch, allowing users to easily introduce 3rd party vendors to their ATS environment.
Workable enables a structured and unbiased hiring process by providing anonymized screening, interview kits, and scorecards in all their plans.
Workable has been used by over 20,000 organizations, including Sephora, Forbes, Bevi, Moodle, and Navarro.
Workable has three plans:
- Starter costs $169per month.
- Standard costs $299 per month.
- Premier costs $599 per month.
- Bundles like HR + Recruiting start at $249 per month.
Best For
Workable is a good choice for companies of all sizes. It's great for SMBs because it scales well, meaning that users can count on it to handle everything from humble beginnings to rapid growth.
I used Workable daily. We used the Job Postings, Candidate Sourcing Suite, and Recruitment Marketing features. We also used the ATS components, including the CRM database, interview tools, one-way video interviews, interview scheduling, assessments, and candidate screening tools.
We benefited from automation throughout our pipeline and workflow. I used the basic reporting functions daily, weekly, monthly, and annually.
- Workable’s UX/UI is excellent.
- The Candidate Sourcing Suite includes AI, LinkedIn, Boolean search, and the existing database.
- The CRM database is well-organized and functional.
- The ATS workflows are customizable.
We did not have an ATS and were using Google Sheets to track our recruitment efforts. I built the recruitment team from scratch (0 to 28 recruiters).
Workable was perfect for our needs at the time we built the recruitment program. It provided a unified solution with an intuitive interface and customizable workflows that streamlined our hiring process.
The UX/UI is top-notch. Features like automated interview scheduling and real-time feedback collection enhanced team coordination, allowing us to move candidates through the pipeline more efficiently.
I implemented Workable and used the platform for almost two years.
- Workable’s reporting functionality is poor.
- I had to create my own reports in Google Sheets using the basic data exported from Workable.
- If you have a small team (fewer than 20 people) and a limited number of roles to fill, this platform works well.
- Workable now offers plans for more than 20 users and unlimited job posts, which was not the case from 2019 to 2022.
- I enjoyed using Workable because it is a highly intuitive platform where workflows can be customized, automations can be set, and the built-in candidate sourcing tools are exceptional.
- Previously, I would have recommended Workable for smaller recruitment teams with fewer than 10 job openings.
- Today, Workable offers personalized plans to support companies of any size and with unlimited job posts.
- It’s a great option across a range of team sizes.
- Warning: the reporting functionality remains very basic. If your organization relies heavily on advanced reporting, you may need to generate your own or consider another ATS focused on data analytics.
- Workable has made significant improvements to its platform.
- In the past, it was limited to smaller teams with fewer job openings.
- Now, it offers personalized plans to support companies of any size and unlimited job postings.
- Their pricing is customized based on organizational needs.
- If these options had been available between 2020 and 2022, I might not have switched to iCIMS, as we needed more job openings, more users, and more robust reporting.
Any organization of any size with any level of growth plans. Just be aware that the reporting functionality is very basic.
Organizations that require robust, customizable reporting functions may find Workable lacking. If you're comfortable exporting basic data and have the Excel or Sheets skills to analyze and build reports, Workable can still meet your needs.
Greenhouse
We've long found Greenhouse to be a formidable player in the ATS market, particularly for companies with global operations and/or value-structured, unbiased hiring. Its job boards support 19 languages, while its resume anonymization auto-masks candidates' personal details. Remarkably, it's the only platform we've encountered that can parse resumes in 26 languages.
PROS
- Offers access to more than 1,000 job boards.
- Built-in internal mobility, referral programs, and onboarding capabilities.
- Interview kits for structured assessment of candidate skills, traits, and qualifications.
- Resume parsing in 26 languages, job boards in 19 languages, and interviews in 6 languages.
- Resume anonymization removes personal details like photos, names, and gender from resumes.
- Send branded, automated email and text notifications from your company’s domain.
- Over 500 pre-built integrations and an open API for seamless connectivity.
- Greenhouse's onboarding feature is built and executed well. New hires transition smoothly from candidate to employee.
- iOS and Android apps work well for recruiters on the go. Users can review applications, schedule interviews, view candidates' profiles, and more.
- 450+ third-party integrations.
CONS
- While they are suitable for the SMB market, they tend to do better with headcounts of 75+.
- Undisclosed pricing. No free trial is available.
- No monthly subscription option. Higher priced than some competitors.
- Bulk reject and email features are available in the Candidates tab, but not during the application review stage.
- The new UI, released in 2024, has garnered negative feedback from some users, who have found it more challenging to navigate than the previous version.
- Greenhouse’s pricing is undisclosed, and they do not offer a trial version.
- Some users note that reporting customization is quite limited and difficult to navigate.
- In-person/live support could be improved.
When we think about Greenhouse, it's clear why it's one of the top names in the ATS space. Right off the bat, the platform charmed us with its access to over 1,000 job boards— seriously, who wouldn’t be impressed by such a vast talent reach?
Another thing we love about this ATS is that in addition to its strong job board integration, it is also equipped with built-in internal mobility and referral programs. This means that, as an employer, we can leverage the platform’s integrations for external candidate sourcing while making the most of our talent database.
The level of thoroughness and consistency of interview kits we saw in Greenhouse was better than most we’ve tested. They’re structured in a way that helps hiring teams assess not just skills, but candidate traits and qualifications.
Plus, if you’re hiring people across the globe like us, you’ll appreciate this vendor's language inclusion—it handles resume parsing in 26 languages and job postings in 19 languages, with the ability to conduct interviews in 6. That’s far beyond what we’ve seen from most other ATS platforms.
We also thought the resume anonymization feature was very useful. It removed applicants' personal details such as photos, names, and gender so we could focus on the qualifications that matter most.
Integration-wise, Greenhouse offers over 500 pre-built options, plus an open API, so it’s quite reassuring that the ATS can fit smoothly into almost any existing HR tool.
However, Greenhouse's pricing is a bit of a mystery and, from what we've seen, not as budget-friendly as other options like Loxo or Manatal. There's no free trial and no monthly billing option, and for a small team of 10, it could cost upwards of 6K+.
The platform has also recently updated its user interface. Sadly, it didn’t get very positive feedback from users, and we can see why. Compared to the previous design, this version somehow requires more clicks to perform certain actions, such as sending an interview self-schedule. Thankfully, Greenhouse does offer the option for users to go back to the old UI under their account settings (which was just what we did).
Another inconvenience we’ve noticed is the absence of bulk rejection and email features during the application review stage. While these features are available in the Candidates tab, we trust having them in the initial review process would streamline things a bit more.
6,500+ companies, including Evernote, Nerdwallet, and Coursera.
Undisclosed.
Best For
Multinational organizations with over 75 employees that give high priority to user experience and data compliance in countries where they recruit.
I use Greenhouse daily for recruiting tasks. It helps streamline the hiring process by integrating with LinkedIn and centralizing key workflows such as job postings, applicant reviews, and interview scheduling.
If a candidate is not the right fit for a particular role, the Referral feature allows them to be considered for other suitable positions. The Rating feature enables interviewers to score candidates, making it easier to compare and evaluate applicants. Overall, Greenhouse keeps the entire recruiting process organized and efficient.
- Greenhouse consolidates multiple recruiting functions, such as job postings and resume reviews, into a single platform.
- The user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate and train new recruiters or hiring managers.
- The platform provides how-to videos and tutorials that assist with training and onboarding.
My company needed a centralized system to manage all recruiting-related tasks efficiently. Greenhouse provides a streamlined platform that simplifies the hiring process by allowing recruiters to post jobs, review resumes, and manage candidate interactions in one place.
One of its key benefits is its integration with LinkedIn, which expands the candidate pool and enhances outreach efforts. Additionally, the platform offers a mobile app, making it easier for applicants to apply from anywhere. I have personally used Greenhouse for [X amount of time], and it has significantly improved our ability to track and manage candidates throughout the hiring process.
- Once a rating (scorecard) is created, it is difficult to modify, which can be an issue if interview questions change.
- The initial setup of the system was challenging, making it harder to establish streamlined processes at the beginning.
- A more straightforward implementation process would improve the user experience.
Greenhouse stands out because it integrates multiple recruiting functions into a single platform, eliminating the need for multiple tools. This all-in-one approach makes it more efficient compared to other systems that may require additional integrations to achieve the same functionality.
The cost of the system is a key factor, as pricing varies depending on the number of employees. It is important to assess whether the tool will address workflow challenges and improve efficiency. Greenhouse offers a variety of recruiting features in one system, making it a strong option for organizations looking to streamline their hiring processes.
Greenhouse has introduced new features, such as the Event Calendar, which enhances scheduling and recruitment event management. This demonstrates the platform's commitment to continuous improvement and adapting to user needs.
Greenhouse is ideal for companies with frequent hiring needs, especially those that manage a high volume of applicants and require a structured recruiting process.
Smaller companies that hire infrequently may not find Greenhouse cost-effective or necessary for their recruiting needs.
AvaHR
AvaHR has done a nice job with its customized hiring automation frameworks. We enjoyed the ability to post to 50+ job boards for free while showcasing our company culture with videos, photos, and text. Additionally, the Pipeline Triggers, which automate routine tasks based on the candidate's progress, are a standout feature that we've found to be quite rare among SMB-focused ATS solutions.
PROS
- Culture Profiles let you add videos, photos, and text to showcase your company's work environment.
- Pipeline Triggers automate repetitive actions based on a candidate's stage, such as sending thank-you emails or requesting hiring team feedback.
- Custom questionnaire builder for candidate pre-assessments.
- Data migration service is available at no additional cost.
- Transparent pricing, free trial available.
- Culture Profiles let you add videos, photos, and text to showcase your company's work environment.
- Pipeline Triggers automate repetitive actions based on a candidate's stage, such as sending thank-you emails or requesting hiring team feedback.
- Custom questionnaire builder for candidate pre-assessments.
- Data migration service is available at no additional cost.
- Transparent pricing, free trial available.
CONS
- No free plan, a free trial requires a credit card.
- Pricier than competitors like Loxo and Zoho Recruit.
- Additional charges for features like eSignatures and employee referrals.
- Interview scheduling feature is unavailable (still in development).
- No free plan, a free trial requires a credit card.
- Pricier than competitors like Loxo and Zoho Recruit.
- Additional charges for features like eSignatures and employee referrals.
- Interview scheduling feature is unavailable (still in development).
AvaHR stood out in our tests as a well-designed and functional ATS with solid automation and reporting features.
One apparent plus of this vendor is its transparent pricing and free trial offerings across its subscription plans. We signed up for the free trial of the Standard plan using a Gmail account. The only downside was having to provide credit card information to activate the trial, but other than that, the process was a breeze. Within minutes, we were all set to explore the tool.
Our first impression of AvaHR’s UI was that it was so well thought out. There was nearly nothing to be confused about. And it’s easy on the eye, too. Take the example of their AI job description creator. During our testing, it impressed us with the solid draft it produced with just a few sentences of role requirements provided. We also found it easy to get our application form ready. All we needed to do was define which fields were required and which were optional in the form settings.
The Candidates section gave us a bird’s-eye view of all applicants, including their application dates, stages in the hiring process, and contact details. There was also a convenient Filters button in the top right corner that let us filter candidates based on their tag, stage, job title, department, and a few others. The system didn’t take more than a few seconds to provide results in our tests, but we couldn’t help but be disappointed to discover there was no Boolean or custom filter to be found.
AvaHR’s reporting met our expectations for an SMB-focused ATS. The tool has done a great job of providing key data, from total impressions to page views, clicks, and applications for each job posting. We particularly appreciated the clear visualizations offered by the overview bar and line chart. It made it easier to watch how our jobs were performing.
For businesses migrating from another ATS, you’re in luck! AvaHR’s team offers to handle data import at no extra fee.
However, we did notice that this ATS is slightly pricier than some competitors like Zoho Recruit. Additionally, features like eSignatures and employee referrals are not included in the lowest subscription plans and must be purchased separately if you want to use them.
1,000+ companies, including BuzzRX, Redirect Health, State Farm, and Margaritaville.
AvaHR offers three plans: Starter ($89/month), Grow ($179/month), and Pro ($279/month).
Best For
U.S.-based companies, having 100+ employees is ideal.
Zoho Recruit
As with most Zoho products, Zoho Recruit is quite robust and feature-rich. The ATS also has a free plan and supports 26 different languages, allowing recruiters to cast a wide net.
PROS
- Combines ATS and candidate CRM in one platform.
- Scalable plans with free trials and a free version.
- 24/5 support.
- 45-day money-back guarantee.
- ATS + CRM in one platform
- Backed by a company like Zoho, notable for reliability and good customer service.
- 24/5 support
- Priced quite modestly after the free version
- Certain features like video interviews are available as optional add-ons.
CONS
- The free plan has limited storage — 256MB.
- Features like the client portal, mass email, workflow alerts, and API are paid features.
- Integrations at times don’t work properly, requiring disconnecting and reconnecting.
- The career site is not fully customizable until past a certain paid plan.
- The free plan only allows 256MB of storage.
- Additional features, such as the client portal, mass email, workflow alerts, and API calls cost extra.
- Some users have complained about the quality of some of the integrations.
- The career site is not fully customizable until past a certain paid plan.
We couldn’t miss this opportunity to try Zoho’s free plan. It covers the essentials for managing candidates, emails, and interview scheduling. While the customization options are somewhat limited, we were glad to see the ability to post jobs on both free and paid job boards, including the niche ones. The integration with Google applications and support for 26 languages are definite pluses, making connecting with applicants from different backgrounds easier. Another time-saving feature is the availability of five customizable email templates, which can be a real help. However, the biggest con of the free plan is you only get one active job at a time. The storage limit is also on the smaller side, set at 256MB.
On the bright side, creating a career page with customizable templates is straightforward, though it might not be the most visually stunning option out there. Another cool feature we came across is Zia, the AI-based chatbot. It automatically responds to applicants’ FAQs and keeps them updated on job availability and application statuses. Plus, there's a handy automated candidate matching feature: you create a new job and specify the desired skills, and Zoho Recruit will rank the candidates based on how well their resumes meet set requirements.
However, besides a limited free version, the solution lacks features for skill assessments and anti-cheating. We also heard some users mention occasional connectivity issues with connected HR tools. Lastly, additional features like the client portal, mass email, and workflow alerts come with extra costs.
Bosch, Deloitte, Saint-Gobain, PWC, Allianz.
Zoho Recruit provides a range of paid plans alongside the free version:
- Standard plan is priced at $30/user/month, offering features such as a document library, analytics, and customizations.
- Professional plan priced at $60/user/month, which includes assessments and social recruiting capabilities.
- Enterprise plan priced at $90/user/month, providing a comprehensive set of features (doesn’t include add-ons).
- Add-ons available include the client portal and video interview modules. Zoho Recruit also offers a 15-day free trial for users to explore the platform's capabilities.
Best For
Recruiting and staffing agencies already using other Zoho products will appreciate Zoho Recruit as a valuable addition to their hiring toolkit. Additionally, large firms seeking an all-in-one solution for niche job recruitment will find Zoho Recruit a suitable choice.
We use Zoho Recruit for our internal recruitment efforts. Tech support has been lackluster. There are A LOT of add-ons and additional costs. Limited customization and UX could definitely be improved. This is truly a recruiting-only platform.
- It is simple and easy to use.
- Pushes job postings to multiple sites.
- Great for managing communications with candidates.
- Reminds us to communicate with candidates.
We've been using Zoho recruit for 5 months. Thus far, we have found it to be an extremely simple platform to use. There are not a lot of options for customization. Integrations often disconnect and the mobile app is often non-functional.
The free version offers very little storage. Some resumes do not download correctly if formatting due to formatting. Having to pay extra for specific add-ons even with some of their paid tier's such as mass emails, API calls, or a designated client portal is disappointing. It's not mobile-friendly. Tech support is not good.
Zoho Recruit is the very best tool for small businesses, who can often get lost or struggle to find ROI with competitors.
Zoho Recruit is truly a tool best used in smaller businesses with minimal recruitment activity. Also, this is truly a recruiting tool--it does not feed into onboarding tasks in other systems. The cost of add-ons can be a bit much, and some of these features might be included in a lower-cost solution. Language needs should also be a consideration.
I have not seen Zoho evolve since we have implemented it.
Small organizations with minimal recruitment needs.
Large organizations.
Recruit CRM
Recruit CRM is popular among employment agencies and SMBs because it combines ATS and CRM features in one platform, offers a generous free trial, and has transparent pricing.
PROS
- Combines ATS and recruiting CRM in one platform.
- Affordable and transparent pricing. Free trial available.
- Resume parser provides unlimited resume parsing and supports 28 languages.
- Support available for all users includes live chat, training sessions, and dedicated CMS.
- Regular product feature updates.
- No extra fees required for basic data migration that includes importing Excel/CSV files with candidates & clients. During the implementation process of this software, the customer service personnel will help transfer your data for free.
- Great customer service. Their average response time is under two minutes.
- Powerful Linkedin Integration & Executive/Recruitment Report PDF Generator to save time
- Tons of resources made available to users including blogs and articles that give you all the information you need to know about how the software works, job description templates to help you get acquainted with all the possible job openings you will be looking to close, and a glossary that gives you the A-Z of recruitment practices.
CONS
- Limited to two candidate matches and 1 email sequence in the Pro plan.
- Can’t search logged text under Call Notes.
- Not the best fit for corporate recruitment.
- Lacks employee referral and onboarding features.
- Limited native integrations. Recruit CRM only integrates natively with LinkedIn, Zapier, Logic Melon, some email apps, and Google and Outlook calendars. If you want to run background checks, for example, using Checkr or other background verification platforms, you won’t be able to do that unless you use Zapier’s API extension.
Recruit CRM has evolved significantly since its inception eight years ago. Initially designed as a basic ATS, the platform has grown into a powerful tool that integrates CRM functionalities.
Those who spend hours daily on data entry will appreciate the AI resume parser Recruit CRM offers. It can parse up to 100 files at a time and works with resumes from multiple sources in 28 different languages.
Recruit CRM is easier to use than many other ATSs we’ve tried. In addition to the mobile apps (which we tested and loved), the Kanban view offers a visual way to manage candidate pipelines. Automation enthusiasts will love the drag-and-drop functionality and automated email triggers at various stages. As a bonus, the in-app instructions are clear-cut and make navigation easier.
Small or medium-sized agencies could hardly go wrong with this vendor’s CRM tools. You can manage client relationships, schedule meetings and emails, and track interactions, all from within the platform. Plus, you get unlimited access to training materials, the live chat takes two minutes on average to reply, and there’s a roadmap page where you can request new features.
Unfortunately, Recruit CRM’s Pro plan limits candidate matches to two and email sequences to one—a letdown particularly for those with multiple placements to fill at a time. Also, bear in mind that its search function can only search for keywords in candidate resumes and profile data fields but not in the user’s logged call notes.
Lastly, Recruit CRM is not intended to serve corporate users so it lacks certain features in-house TA teams usually prioritize in their ATS, such as referral and onboarding.
1,200+ companies, including Randstad, Michael Page, ManpowerGroup, Kelly Services, and PageGroup.
Recruit CRM offers three pricing tiers:
- Pro Plan: $85 per user/month when billed annually, $100 per user/month when billed monthly.
- Business Plan: $125 per user/month when billed annually, $150 per user/month when billed monthly.
- Enterprise Plan: $165 per user/month, billed annually only.
Best For
Recruit CRM is best suited for small to midsize recruiting, staffing, executive search, and headhunting agencies that prioritize automation and ease of use.
Recooty
Recooty offers a free-forever plan that allows users to post jobs on multiple platforms. The platform’s paid plans pack a handful of recruitment essentials at conservative prices, making it a great ATS option for SMBs.
PROS
- Recooty is easy to use. The software is designed to be user-friendly, with a simple interface that makes it easy to find and use the features you need.
- Recooty is priced competitively, making it accessible for small businesses.
- You can opt for a free trial to try Recooty before you commit to a subscription.
- In addition to job posting and candidate tracking, Recooty also offers features for interview scheduling, candidate assessment, offer management, and onboarding.
- The ability to post a job on multiple platforms makes it efficient – a “one-click job posting solution”, according to one user.
- Supports 8 languages: German, English, French, Hindi, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Vietnamese.
- One user liked the usability of the software, stating that it is 'easy and self-explanatory.'
- The ability to post a job on multiple platforms makes it efficient, as per one user who labels Recooty a 'one-click job posting solution.'
- The company offers a cheap subscription, making it affordable for small businesses.
CONS
- No mobile apps.
- Doesn’t have a Chrome Extension to import candidates from websites like LinkedIn.
- Can only integrate with Slack and LinkedIn.
- Recooty is more suitable for small and medium businesses and may not be ideal for large enterprises with more job postings and locations.
- The company does not have a mobile application.
- Recruitment features can be quite basic compared to some competitors.
- Integrations are somewhat limited.
- Not suitable for large enterprises with more job postings and locations.
Recooty is great for SMBs looking for an easy-to-use, affordable, and efficient applicant tracking system. However, if you're looking for a more robust solution with more features, you may want to consider a different ATS.
Our in-house assessment showed that Recooty is a plug-and-play tool. It is easy to set up and easy to navigate. Users can post jobs to multiple boards, track applicants, and set up automated email notifications with just a few clicks. It’s not an exaggeration to say Recooty is a self-explanatory ATS.
Another thing we like about Recooty is its affordability. The software is priced competitively, and you can even start with the free plan. Though it’s limited to one active job at a time, it offers some good features like branded career pages, multiple job boards, and unlimited applications.
Recooty supports not only English but seven additional languages. However, Recooty lacks a mobile app, despite pressure from users over the years. Recooty isn’t a good call for recruitment teams that need a Chrome extension to support their candidate search on websites like LinkedIn.
The level of customization is lacking compared to higher-priced ATSs in the space, and resume parsing is accessible for only the two highest-priced plans. Integration options also leave something to be desired, as you can only connect the ATS with your LinkedIn and Slack.
Sendlane, Airtable, Uber, Rack Bank, American Hospital, Trello.
The company offers four pricing plans:
- Free plan - Limited to one active job slot, one user, and one location.
- Pro Plan - the plan goes for $49/month with 10 Active job slots, 10 slots, and 3 locations.
- Ultra Plan - goes for $ 99/month with 25 active job slots, 50 users, 10 locations, and all features under the Pro plan.
- Max Plan- goes for $ 199/month while offering 75 active job slots, 100 users, and 20 locations and all features under the Ultra plan.
- All the plans come with a 14-day trial period in which you can test the service without providing your credit card details. After the trial period ends, you will need to update your card to continue using the services.
Best For
Recooty is an excellent tool for small businesses that want to post jobs on multiple platforms without spending money.
Pinpoint
Pinpoint is growing teams’ favorite ATS that shines with talent CRM, integrations, and automation workflows built-in. The platform also enables users to create content-rich career sites with neat designs without needing help from IT.
PROS
- Pinpoint’s ATS is highly customizable and values collaborative hiring.
- Pinpoint offers unlimited active jobs, team members, external recruiters, training, and support for all users regardless of their plans.
- The customer support team is helpful and responsive to customers’ requests.
- The pricing is transparent. Startups with under 50 people can benefit from its discounted pricing.
- It’s got a robust career site builder you can easily customize without the help of IT.
- It provides over 100 third-party integrations. Also offers custom integrations (but only for Enterprise plan).
- Pinpoint is an agile ATS that is highly customizable and values collaborative hiring.
- It’s got a simple and transparent pricing structure.
- Pinpoint offers unlimited jobs and team members in all of its plans.
- Their customer service team is highly praised by users.
- The career site builder is very robust, allowing teams to attract and convert the right talent.
- There are over 100 HR software integrations to choose from, and Pinpoint’s team is adding 3-5 every month.
CONS
- Pinpoint offers its employee onboarding module with additional fees.
- It can be expensive for budget-minded teams.
- Doesn’t offer a free trial or free version.
- Multilingual support is only available for the Enterprise plan.
- The employee onboarding module does cost extra.
- It isn’t the best fit if you’re looking for the cheapest ATS.
- There isn’t a free trial or free version at this time.
Pinpoint's applicant tracking system is highly regarded by users for its intuitive interface, neat automation workflows, and robust career site builder.
We love how easy it is for candidates to apply through the career site. Here’s an example of what going the extra mile looks like: if your candidates are not ready to apply, they can opt into a talent community to stay in touch with your company. After testing a few dozen vendors, we can confirm this is something you can’t find in most other ATSs.
We were also impressed by Pinpoint’s customer service. Regardless of the plan you opt for, you will get a dedicated success manager, concierge onboarding, and unlimited support via phone, email, and live chat. There really isn’t anything we dislike about it.
Just a few things to keep in mind. There’s no free trial or free plan to try before buying. And when compared with other solutions, Pinpoint tends to be on the pricier side — the cheapest plan costs $345 per month. If you’d like to use its onboarding module, you need to purchase it separately.
We should also warn you that although Pinpoint has a considerably good number of native integration options, its bespoke integrations are only available to Enterprise plan subscribers with a minimum of 150 employees.
300+ companies, including CoinShares, Pathways Global, Grant Thornton, Icario, and Pivot Energy.
Pinpoint offers a Growth plan starting at $345 per month and an Enterprise plan starting at $1,200 per month, both with annual billing. Startups with under 50 employees may be eligible for Pinpoint's startup program.
Best For
Pinpoint is a wonderful ATS for in-house recruitment at companies that are growing fast.
We use Pinpoint daily, it's an ATS, so it does the typical things an ATS does. This includes, creating career pages on our corporate website that explains some basics about Article, and allows a candidate to decide if they’d they feel they’d be aligned to working with us.
On the career site, all the open jobs are visible for potential candidates to see. They can then decide to apply, upload a resume and fill in some basic info. On our side of the ATS, we create the jobs that are posted - designing the interview flows, application questions, and scorecards, then advertising them to the selected job boards.
We use Pinpoint to evaluate the viability of applicants, referrals, and candidates we source, being a single point of truth. Once candidates are selected to proceed, we use Pinpoint to move through the interview process, giving the hiring manager visibility into the hiring process.
For candidates, we use Pinpoint to schedule and communicate with candidates, who are selected for this process, but also to reject those candidates who are not. There is a lot more of course but this is a basic walk-through, and I’d assume if you’re reading this, you have a good idea of what an ATS does.
They're an ATS that is ascending, and not coasting on reputation; they've continuing to evolve, with new useful features, and integrations quickly rolling out.
Overall, I’d argue that Pinpoint puts candidates first, with easy applications and great branded communication. Adding to this, candidate-centric design is the built-in self-scheduling for interviews, and including a candidate NPS score - this is key to letting my team and I understand the candidate experience.
The new automation feature they launched where you can create rejection emails based on application questions has saved my team a lot of time by not having to screen candidates who do not meet minimal requirements, currently, this is about 29% of applications. We have been creating custom rejection emails for each automation, this allows the candidate to know specifically why they were rejected, and if they answered the application incorrectly by mistake, allow them to reapply.
I’m also a fan of their pronoun feature, which allows candidates to share their preferred pronouns. Little touches can make a huge difference when building inclusive hiring practices.
They continue to have fantastic support and as a partner, they really care about my team and our success. Adding to this are the people they hire, who are really great and it makes interacting with them so much easier.
With less talk/hype and more substance, you can tell they focus on the product and customers, not on the hype marketing machine jumping on whatever the trendy topic is.
We have used Pinpoint for 2+ years now, with a TA team that was quickly growing (we’d have over 20 users at peak). As an organization, we had just started hyperscaling, and we end up growing over 3x in under 18 months.
As we started on this journey, I quickly found that the ATS we were using, couldn’t keep it up. It was, designed for SMBs and smaller recruitment teams. One of the biggest pain points was it lacked the ability to reject candidates through an anonymous email, instead, when candidates were rejected it came from each recruiter's email - given the volume of applicants, this solution was not feasible and would lead to a poor candidate experience.
Additionally, the previous ATS ecosystem was small and wasn’t growing quickly, and it lacked the ability to build a career site out of the box.
We also needed the ATS to be easy to use, not just for the recruiters, but also, for the number of new hiring managers who would quickly need to understand how to use the ATS. This made the case to look replace the old ATS clear, we made a scorecard and started to evaluate our ATS options, ultimately landing on Pinpoint.
- Some of the UI/UX could be improved, particularly when you're screening large volumes of candidates, minor but it would be helpful.
- Because it lacks a deep integration into LinkedIn, we need to use LinkedIn’s “job wrapping” feature.
- The newer automation feature is really powerful, however, setting them up requires too many clicks, it’s not a huge deal, but it could be made smoother.
Much easier application process than most ATSs, making it very candidate friendly. Overall, they nail the mid-market really well, with enough features, integrations, and reporting, but they’re not hard to use and overly cumbersome compared to big ‘enterprisey’ ATSs.
When selecting an ATS I’m a proponent of using the following ranking:
- Candidate experience, regardless of the market, the best talent will always have options, if the application experience and communication experience is poor, they’ll choose to work elsewhere
- Recruiter experience since they use the tool the most. If they don’t like it, or it’s overly complex they’re going to work around it, rather than through it
- Hiring manager experience, will they log in, and actually use it
- Support, if I have an issue will it get resolved?
- Ecosystem/ integrations, an ATS should not do everything, rather it’s the hub to connect point solutions with
- I'm a huge fan of how they rolled out candidate pronouns, allowing candidates to share their preferred pronouns when applying.
- Multiple new integrations have been launched.
- Much faster page loading response times from when we first rolled it out.
Mid-sized to enterprise organizations.
I'm not sure. Maybe small companies that don't have a dedicated HR team.
JazzHR
Purposely built for teams with less than 500 employees, JazzHR provides almost every key feature of an ATS, like career pages, employer branding, candidate sourcing, and talent CRM, at a transparent and affordable price. Free trials are also available.
PROS
- JazzHR is quite affordable and doesn’t place any limits on the number of users added. It also offers a free, 21-day trial that anyone can sign up for.
- It’s got built-in features for offer management. You can choose from existing offer letter templates or create your own and share them with successful candidates.
- You can automate triggers for candidates to be automatically notified via email when their application has moved a stage further in the hiring process. Several other email responses can be automated.
- JazzHR is quite affordable and doesn’t place any limits on the number of users added. It also offers free, 21-day trials that anyone can sign up for.
- JazzHR has built-in features for offer management. You can choose from existing offer letter templates or create your own and share them with successful candidates
- You can automate triggers for candidates to be automatically notified via email when their application has moved a stage further in the hiring process. Several other email responses can be automated.
CONS
- Some users reported a learning curve with JazzHR's UI and that it took them some time to get used to it.
- Although a product geared towards SMBs, it lacks a free plan. We mention this as a con since other SMB-geared recruiting products often do offer free-forever versions, which puts JazzHR slightly behind the competition.
- Several users have mentioned that the reporting feature is difficult to use, with very little room for report customizations.
- JazzHR currently lacks a mobile app, and the browser version isn’t well-optimized for mobile use.
- Some users reported a learning curve with JazzHR's UI and that it took them some time to get used to it
- For a product geared towards SMBs, it lacks a free plan. We mention this as a con since other SMB-geared recruiting products do offer free-forever versions, which puts JazzHR slightly behind the competition.
- Several users have mentioned that the reporting feature is difficult to use with very little room for report customizations.
- JazzHR currently lacks a mobile app, and the browser version isn’t well-optimized for mobile use.
JazzHR’s ATS was designed with SMBs in mind. The platform allows for unlimited users across all plans, making it easier for businesses to communicate and collaborate during the hiring process. In addition to its collaboration and affordability features, we also like how JazzHR makes it easy and quick to share your job openings across multiple job boards.
You can start with their lowest-priced plan (Hero) that includes essential features like posting up to three job openings and then upgrade to higher plans as your company grows, ensuring you don’t pay for features you don't need. The other two plans (Plus and Pro) have more advanced features for automating, customizing, and analyzing the hiring process.
JazzHR has been used by over 10,000 businesses to date, including TED, Fox Dealer, Clearly, Massaro, and Heath Ceramics.
JazzHR has three plans. When billed annually, these plans cost as follows:
- Hero: $75 per month for unlimited users and 3 open jobs.
- Plus: $269 per month for unlimited users, unlimited open jobs, ATS, interviews, and assessments.
- Pro: $420 per month for everything from Plus, along with offers and e-signatures, reporting, and all-access support.
Best For
JazzHR is specifically built for teams at organizations with 5 to 500 employees, regardless of industry or recruiting maturity.
We use JazzHR daily for posting job openings, managing candidate applications, and tracking the hiring process. Job listings are created frequently and automatically distributed to multiple job boards, saving significant time. The applicant tracking system (ATS) feature helps us screen and hire candidates efficiently. JazzHR plays a crucial role in our recruitment process.
- JazzHR is intuitive compared to other tools we have used.
- The job board integrations are helpful and time-saving.
- The pricing of JazzHR provides great value for its features.
The main reason we chose JazzHR was that we needed an affordable and user-friendly recruitment platform to streamline our hiring process. Like many other companies, we were relying on manual hiring processes, which were time-consuming, especially as our company grew.
JazzHR provided a more efficient solution, reducing the time spent on recruitment tasks. The platform also offers enhanced collaboration, allowing our teams to work together effectively.
- JazzHR lacks some advanced features, such as AI-powered candidate assessments.
- While the platform is user-friendly, it offers fewer customization options for branding and job listing design compared to some competitors.
- JazzHR does not have a mobile app.
JazzHR is simple and affordable. It is straightforward and provides essential recruitment features, including an ATS, job board integrations, and other useful tools. The pricing is lower than that of competitors because it has fewer advanced capabilities.
Consider ease of use, feature requirements, pricing, and scalability. Pricing is a key factor for many organizations, and JazzHR’s competitive cost makes it an attractive option. Additionally, depending on your company size, you should determine whether the tool meets your long-term needs.
JazzHR has continuously improved by adding more integrations and enhancing its job posting capabilities. The user interface has also been updated to make it more accessible for new users. Additionally, its reporting tools have expanded to provide deeper insights into the recruitment process.
JazzHR is ideal for small businesses and startups that need a simple and affordable recruitment tool. It is easy to use, offers essential functionalities, and gets the job done without unnecessary complexity.
JazzHR may not be ideal for larger companies with complex hiring processes. If your organization requires AI-driven results, advanced workflows, or highly customizable features, a different HR software solution may be a better fit.
Teamtailor
Teamtailor’s biggest selling feature is their career pag — well built out yet easy to navigate. The platform also has features that ingrain diversity, equality, and inclusion in the hiring process. Trials are available and they don’t require your credit card details.
PROS
- Teamtailor is a straightforward ATS that is mobile-friendly.
- Drag-and-drop career site builders.
- Built-in tools to support diversity, equality, and inclusion DEI initiatives.
- Customer support and the help center are notably good.
- Offers one simple plan with unlimited job postings, candidates, and users.
- Free trials are available; no credit card is required.
- Teamtailor’s ATS comes with a robust career site builder that’s also easy to use. It works with drag and drop - no coding knowledge necessary.
- Teamtailor backs several features that support diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI), including anonymous hiring, equal employment opportunity (EEO) surveys, etc..
- Teamtailor is highly rated for their ease-of-use. It’s quite simple to post and promote jobs through their platform.
- There is really in-depth and intuitive help documentation for this solution
CONS
- Their analytics module isn’t very easy to adjust.
- No offerings for other core HR tools
- Features for customization and video interview could be improved.
- Lacks pricing transparency.
- Teamtailor’s analytics are good, but enterprise clients need to use BI Connectors to build the reporting they need. Right now, you can’t sport data from the system. This is particularly important for companies with 500+ employees, or those who have many different locations or franchises.
- Analytics doesn’t allow recruiters to see their cost per hire, which is a really impactful metric
- While they offer integrations with HRIS, onboarding, etc - they have focused on just being a really good ATS now.
- There are predefined user access levels, but you cannot define your own user access levels which is important, especially for the largest companies.
Teamtailor’s ATS has a unique approach to talent acquisition, paying a lot of attention to how your company presents itself to candidates. This ATS helps SMBs build attractive career sites, market to specific talent demographics through landing pages and talent pools, run referrals, and nurture campaigns for current and future recruitment needs.
Another way TeamTailor differentiates itself from the pack is how the platform structures its pricing. There actually isn’t any structure to it. It’s a single plan with all features included. Thus, the pricing of this plan adapts to the size of your company.
Kry, Goodbye Kansas, Vitamin Well, Ponsse, Daniel Wellington.
Teamtailor’s pricing will vary depending on your company size. To give you an idea, $3,300 is a usual starting price for organizations with fewer than 25 employees.
Best For
Teamtailor is an excellent choice for startups and small and medium-sized businesses looking for a straightforward ATS with outstanding features for employer branding.
TeamTailor is our applicant tracking system (ATS) or recruiting system. It hosts all our current job openings and feeds them to public job boards like Indeed. We use TeamTailor to screen candidate resumes and communicate with candidates when scheduling phone, video, and in-person interviews. All communication is kept in the candidate's profile, making it easily accessible at all times. Offers and salary negotiations are also completed within the system, including offer letter signatures and the distribution of any benefit-related offer information.
The automatic integration and feed into public job boards of our choosing, like Indeed or ZipRecruiter. We can manage all aspects of the job posting and candidate flow within TeamTailor, eliminating the need to manage each job board site individually. TeamTailor offers a wide range of one-click analytics, including time to fill, candidate flow time, and DEI measurements. The system keeps all applicants organized within buckets for each job, making it easy for hiring managers to know exactly who they are talking to and what stage of the interview process the candidate is in.
Before TeamTailor, my organization handled all recruitment functions through our internal CRM system, Dayforce. However, that solution did not offer a seamless candidate application experience, lacked text/SMS functionality, and did not have the robust analytics that our leadership team sought. TeamTailor easily integrates with our current systems, such as Microsoft Outlook and Teams. It also offers analytic dashboards that review applicant traffic, time to fill, and the amount of time spent in each stage of the hiring process. We have been using TeamTailor since March 2024.
There have been instances where attached or uploaded files are not sent to candidates and need to be resent separately outside of the system. We currently do not have access to interview templates, which would be helpful for hiring managers who may not be actively interviewing. A minor dislike is that we cannot change the color of their logo. Our organization relies heavily on uniform branding, so including their logo on presentations and communications is visually unappealing.
TeamTailor has built-in text/SMS capabilities that other ATSs only offer as upgraded features. This makes it easy to communicate with candidates quickly. The messages are received within the TeamTailor platform, so the hiring manager or recruiter does not have to provide their personal phone numbers. TeamTailor also integrates seamlessly with our organization's current tech stack of Microsoft products, making interview coordination with calendars easy.
If organizations want a system that acts as a one-stop shop for all things recruiting, this is it. Applicant screening, centralized job posting management, interviews, offers, and reporting are all in one place.
TeamTailor regularly releases software updates that include bug fixes or enhanced capabilities for their current features. A recent example is the ability to further customize analytic dashboard views.
We are a medium-sized luxury retail organization that prioritizes candidate experience from application to offer. Organizations like ours would benefit and see an ROI with TeamTailor.
TeamTailor is not good for rganizations that are not tech-savvy.
Recruitee
Recruitee is highly recommended for SMBs due to its user-friendliness and robust collaboration features. Companies also find the ATS’ permission adjustment functionality helpful in reducing biased hiring. What’s more? There’s a free trial that won’t require your payment info.
PROS
- Recruitee now offers users an AI-powered tool working as a job description builder.
- Recruitee’s permission adjustment features enable businesses to reduce hiring bias.
- Recruitee pricing is transparent. You can also opt for Recruitee’s free trial to explore the tool.
- Recruitee puts no limits on the number of users for all of its plans.
- Recruitee has a mobile app where users can receive notifications of candidate interactions and perform several tasks on their Android/iOS devices.
- Pro: Recruitee is highly rated by customers for its ease of use. The majority of them are able to implement and get on with the software without much hassle.
- Pro: Recruitee features a customizable, kanban-like recruiting pipeline. Companies can add as many stages as needed to the pipeline and move candidates easily as they progress through the stages.
- Pro: Recruitee incorporates some measures to reduce hiring bias. For example, you can adjust the permission level for your interviewers and prevent them from seeing the scores each of them are assigning to the same candidate. This way, they won’t be influenced by each other's evaluations.
CONS
- The platform lacks built-in functions for skill assessments, onboarding, video interviewing, and e-signatures, requiring users to use third-party integrations to be able to use such features.
- The reporting feature, at times, doesn't retrieve data accurately.
- Recruitee has increased its pricing (although it corresponds to an addition of features in each plan).
- Con: Several functions that are advertised on Recruitee’s feature list, including skill assessments, onboarding, video interviewing, and e-signatures are not actually built into Recruitee and are only possible through integration with third-party tools, which can be misleading to potential users, especially if it’s their first ATS.
- Con: Several users noted that the Recruitee’s reporting function is limited and at times, doesn’t retrieve data accurately.
- Con: Several users have complained about Recruitee’s support team being slow in responding, and at times, not able to solve issues.
- Con: For a product that’s geared towards SMBs, it lacks a free plan that businesses who are just getting started with ATSs can use for as long as they need, without any time constraints. We list this as a con as several solutions in this space do offer free-forever plans and similar feature sets as Recruitee, which puts it slightly behind the competition to users.
Recruitee is a great pick for SMBs looking for a collaborative and user-friendly ATS. We had a great experience navigating the platform. It has a nice UI and a Kanban-like recruiting pipeline where we can customize every stage of the process and move candidates by dragging and dropping the cards. The people behind Recruitee also did a great job in developing the overdue candidate reminder tool: when a candidate sits for too long in your pipeline without getting any updates, it will send a friendly reminder to you.
Another thing we like about Recruitee is its collaboration capability. The platform says: you can have as many users as you need in Recruitee, no matter which plans you have opted for, and it doesn’t cost you an extra penny — and it means it. This, combined with the permission adjustment feature, makes it easier to deliver collaborative and unbiased hiring.
Semrush, Mark and Spencer, Transcom, Taco Bell, Toyota, Asus, Livestorm, Rakuten.
Recruitee offers custom plans based on the number of active jobs and other particular needs. The ATS has three pricing plans:
- Launch starts at $269 per month
- Scale starts at $479 per month
- Lead has custom pricing.
Best For
Recruitee is a good bet for small and medium-sized businesses looking for an easy-to-use ATS with robust features for collaborative hiring.
I use Recruitee every day. I know how to use most of its features, such as creating job postings, scheduling interviews, moving candidates through the hiring process, having technical and hiring meetings, rejecting or advancing candidates, making offer letters, and communicating with my team. I also use it to evaluate candidates after a phone screening and add resumes. I also connect Recruitee to other job websites.
I like Recruitee because it is very easy to use. It has a user-friendly interface that allows me to perform all workflows efficiently. I can quickly post jobs and move candidates to different stages, saving me much time. The platform is designed to make it simple and quick to use, which is a big plus. I also appreciate that it's very straightforward to use all the workflows, so I can spend little time figuring out how to do something. Overall, Recruitee has made my recruitment process much more efficient and streamlined, which is why I continue to use it.
My organization was searching for an applicant tracking system (ATS) that could connect to multiple job portals, especially in Europe. In addition, the ATS they wanted should have a user-friendly interface so that both hiring managers and other team members can easily use it and be easy to set up.
The organization needed help with its previous ATS system. Connecting to job portals, especially those targeting European markets, was a significant pain point. Hiring managers and other team members needed help connecting to their google calendar, adding to the frustrations. The user interface of the previous ATS could have been better, making the overall experience negative.
To overcome these issues, the organization decided to switch to Recruitee in August 2022. Recruitee has provided numerous benefits to the organization and effectively solved the pain points they faced with their previous ATS system. With the ability to connect to over 20+ job portals, including regional portals for specific countries, the organization can now reach a broader range of job seekers. The user-friendly interface of Recruitee has made it easier for hiring managers and team members to navigate and use the system, improving their overall experience. Additionally, connecting the google calendar to Recruitee was a breeze, making scheduling and organizing interviews much simpler.
Since August 2022, the organization has been using Recruitee and has found it to be a reliable and efficient solution to their recruitment needs. The ability to create a complete job workflow within the system has made the recruitment process smoother and more organized. The support team of Recruitee is also a plus, providing quick and helpful assistance when needed.
One thing I dislike about Recruitee is the lack of an option for directly promoting jobs on LinkedIn. Currently, Recruitee doesn't have this feature, which can be a drawback for those who rely on LinkedIn for their recruitment process. Not being able to promote jobs directly on LinkedIn adds an extra step to the process and can be time-consuming. I hope that Recruitee will add this feature to enhance the user experience and make the recruitment process more efficient.
Recruitee is different from other applicant tracking systems (ATS) because they have good after-sales service. They listen to customer feedback and make changes based on it. They also have a close relationship with their customers and understand their problems. Other ATS that I have used do not have these features.
When buying an applicant tracking system (ATS), people should consider the following criteria:
- Ability to connect to local job portals
- User-friendly interface
- Ease of creating workflows
- Capability to process offer letters
- Integration with calendars to schedule meetings.
As I have yet to study Recruitee's history in depth, I can only speak about my experience with the company over the past six months. In that time, I have found Recruitee to be highly responsive to their customers' needs. They have been able to integrate the solutions we requested and are in the process of adding new features, such as background check capabilities. They have also recently added more portals to better match the needs of their users. Overall, it is clear that Recruitee is dedicated to making their customers happy and understanding their real-time problems. They go above and beyond to ensure that their users are satisfied with their products and services.
Recruitee is a user-friendly tool suitable for organizations in various industries, including IT, healthcare, e-commerce, and startups. Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible to anyone with basic computer knowledge, while advanced features are ideal for HR professionals. This versatility makes Recruitee a good option for organizations of all sizes and types.
Recruitee is a user-friendly tool suitable for organizations in various industries, including IT, healthcare, e-commerce, and startups. Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible to anyone with basic computer knowledge, while advanced features are ideal for HR professionals. This versatility makes Recruitee a good option for organizations of all sizes and types.
Trakstar Hire
Trakstar Hire outperforms the typical ATS with features like unlimited job posting, resume duplication detection, and advanced customization capabilities. Trakstar Hire is a favorite pick for SMBs as its undisclosed pricing is negotiable based on customers’ annual number of job openings.
PROS
- Recruitment workflow is highly customizable.
- Native, in-platform collaboration hiring features allow users to delegate tasks, collect evaluations, and schedule interviews without third-party tool integrations.
- Users can create unlimited job posts and add as many hiring managers as they need without added cost.
- Offer management is built into the product, so users can create, send, and store offer letters directly through the platform. They even do e-signatures!
- Trakstar Hire’s recruitment workflows are highly customizable. You can edit them as needed to reflect your company’s hiring process.
- You can post as many jobs as needed with Trakstar Hire without any limitation.
- Trakstar Hire has offer management tools built-in. Users can create offer letters and collect e-signatures within Trakstar Hire without needing to integrate it with third-party tools.
CONS
- Limited integration options with third-party HRIS and payroll solutions.
- No mobile apps.
- As Trakstar Hire offers only one plan with all features included, some businesses looking for a basic ATS may need more time to find it.
- No free trial or free plans. Trakstar’s pricing is all-or-one and undisclosed.
- Trakstar Hire has limited integration options with third-party HRIS and payroll solutions.
- Several users have complained about being unable to sort candidates and search results in an order other than displayed.
- Trakstar Hire isn’t a scalable platform; they have a single plan, all features included, which means customers may end up paying for features that they don’t need.
- Trakstar doesn’t publically list their pricing nor allows visitors to create trial accounts directly from the website, which is unusual for a software solution aimed at mid-market companies.
Trakstar Hire ATS (formerly Recruiterbox) is ideal for midsize companies. Still, the platform does work out deals for small businesses as they have room for negotiation based on how many job openings they have annually.
Rather than offering a feature-light product, Trakstar Hire ATS carries nearly everything you can ask for in a modern application tracking system: resume management, candidate sourcing, interview scheduling, offer management, collaborative hiring, reports, and careers site management.
Does the company overdo it? Based on our experience with Trakstar, the answer is yes and no.
It’s challenging to master many things simultaneously, but Trakstar Hire makes learning their tool manageable by presenting users with a well-made set of core products. We’ll start with job posting.
When a job is added to the platform, it is automatically distributed to LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, careers pages, job boards, and search engines. There is no limit to the number of jobs you can post, which is helpful for teams who hire frequently.
We love a smooth, customized workflow, and Trakstar Hire delivers in the “tailored experience” department. Users can customize literally every step of the way, making their hiring experience stand out against the rest but also fold into the best operational flow for the business.
We are also big fans of products with built-in features like offer management. No plug-in is necessary! Creating, sending, and storing offer letters all in one place makes sense.
There’s no such thing as a perfect tool, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out some aspects of the platform that cause us concern.
A free trial was available when they were still Recruiterbox in 2021. In 2023, there’s no more free trial, and the pricing is now undisclosed.
We’ve already touched on the lack of integrations, but it’s worth restating. Though it’s a very capable ATS, being unable to integrate with standard HR tools is a significant drawback.
Makita, Couchsurfing, Lonely Planet, Untappd, Quality Ironworks.
Trakstar Hire has one plan that includes all of its features without any limits. The pricing is custom depending on headcount.
Best For
Trakstar Hire is a powerful ATS for SMBs assessing one hundred or more candidates annually.
BambooHR
BambooHR is among the top ATS options for SMBs, thanks to its ease of use and full-stack features built-in. The platform also offers flexible plans, which means businesses can benefit from having custom offerings based on their needs.
PROS
- Flexible and tailored pricing, allowing you to choose and scale up features based on your specific needs.
- Free 7-day trials are offered, providing an opportunity to explore and evaluate the ATS functionalities before making a financial commitment.
- Well-performing mobile app, which facilitates application review, communication, and collaboration features on the go.
- User-friendly interface and intuitive design.
- Flexible packaging and custom pricing is the way they roll. You can pick out one or two packages and pick other modules as add-ons based on your needs.
- Very simple and straightforward tool, easy to use.
CONS
- Payroll capabilities are limited to U.S.-based employees, which may be a drawback for companies with an international workforce.
- Customer support is available only during U.S. business hours, potentially causing delays in resolving urgent inquiries for users in different time zones.
- Modules like time tracking, performance management, and surveys are offered as add-ons, requiring additional investment to access these functionalities.
- Payroll is only available for US-based employees
- Customer support is only offered during US business hours.
- Some modules like time tracking, performance management, and surveys are only available as add-ons.
BambooHR's ATS is a good fit for small businesses. Having looked at many such tools, we find it impressive that it packs most of the essential recruiting features into a modestly-priced package.
First, let’s discuss the ATS’ customization capability. During our testing, we appreciated how BambooHR made these features accessible without overwhelming the user—everything felt simple, which is a great strength for small businesses with limited recruiting experience.
We also found the candidate application organization process intuitive. It was fast and easy to track candidates through every stage of hiring, from application to final e-signature. Plus, BambooHR allowed us to create new hire packets, which provide essential details on what new hires can expect during their first days—a helpful tool that makes onboarding smoother.
BambooHR’s mobile app for hiring is equally loveable. Users we spoke to enjoyed the flexibility it provided. Through the app, hiring managers could post jobs, review resumes, communicate with candidates, and coordinate with other team members while on the move. Just to be sure, we also tested these mobile capabilities ourselves, and phew! The experience was positive. This ability to carry out hiring activities from a smartphone is a real differentiator—especially when compared to tools like JazzHR, which, although feature-rich, lacks the same level of mobile optimization.
BambooHR also scores points with its flexible pricing options. The ATS, though custom, is modestly priced and allows you to choose and scale up features based on your specific needs. A free 7-day trial is also available upon request so anyone interested can explore and evaluate the platform before committing financially.
When we compared BambooHR to other applicant tracking systems catering to SMBs, such as Trackstar Hire and Zoho Recruit, we found BambooHR’s user interface to be particularly well-designed and easy to use. Additionally, the collaboration features within BambooHR, like the ability to comment on candidate profiles and track team progress, were well-executed and on par with the best that tools like Recruitee offer.
However, it’s worth mentioning that BambooHR doesn’t offer its ATS as a standalone tool. Instead, it’s mixed with time off, benefits, and employee experience, which can be an overkill for those looking for just applicant tracking software.
It’s also quite a letdown to find out that though BambooHR’s customer support is helpful, it’s only available during U.S. business hours, which could lead to delays if you’re in other time zones.
33,000+ companies, including Quora, Universal Group, Reddit, and Asana.
BambooHR pricing is custom. For companies with more than 25 employees, pricing is based on a per-employee, per-month model, while those with 25 or fewer pay a flat monthly rate. There are no annual contracts, and volume discounts are automatically applied as employee counts increase.
Best For
Small businesses, ideally U.S.-based and growing fast, looking for a feature-rich recruiting tool without a hefty price tag.
We mainly used it for time tracking, sourcing, shortlisting, hiring, onboarding, and performance management. Besides, it has very good functionality for Compensation&Benefit and internal communication. There is no need to fill in the new hires' details manually, it is fully integrated with its ATS, and when we send out a job offer through the system the details of the new hire are automatically added. Moreover, we used it for birthday and tenure celebrations. We used Bamboohr for Engagement surveys as well. Last but not least, we customized and get periodical reports for various data that make sense for decision-making.
Firstly, I like BambooHR for its simple and user-friendly Recruitment function. Secondly, it is a great system where you can keep all of the records, even it is possible to keep the terminated employees' details as well. Thirdly, I like it for its customizable reports. I think that there is still room for further improvement in supporting clients in the Learning&Development process.
We have been using BambooHR since 2020. The previous HRIS that we used had lots of issues that we were not able to solve as it was not possible to get an answer from the support team to our inquiries. Before choosing BambooHR we defined key criteria that would support the business and analyzed other available HRISs as well. Key benefits of BambooHR for our company are lots of functionalities that support the employee life cycle in the company; a user-friendly interface; friendly and prompt support team. It has very good functionality for welcoming new hires and sending a new hire welcome package to all personnel/users.
I think there is room for further development in the Training function. It would be great to integrate the system with one of the LMS platforms or develop its own. Moreover, I think that it would be great to receive some comments or follow-up messages from each user under each announcement sent through the platform. Besides, there is not any chat room for users. That is why the companies that use BambooHR use other tools for internal communication.
Simplicity, user-friendliness, and having more functions than others.
Clients that prefer user-friendly programs should choose BambooHR. It has a very good customer support team. They are always prompt and friendly. But they should keep in their mind that this tool doesn't provide in-house payroll management.
BambooHR has some great integrations (Slack, for instance) that allow me to see when my co-workers are out of the office or even celebrating an anniversary or birthday.
It is good for startups and small-size companies that use other tools for payroll, but need a user-friendly tool that is great for time tracking, recruitment, and performance management.
Big enterprises and global big companies that have many processes in HR
Manatal
Manatal is an affordable ATS with a 14-day free trial. Its AI features are handy and drag-and-drop functionality also makes organizing candidate pipelines easy.
PROS
- Affordable ATS with a 14-day free trial.
- User-friendly interface with drag-and-drop pipelines.
- Good AI features for job description generation and profile recommendations.
- Free data migration from existing hiring software with automatic duplicate detection.
- Suitable for both in-house TAs and recruiting agencies.
- Supports multiple languages.
- Manatal is quite affordable and offers a 15-day free trial for users to test it out before making commitments.
- Manatal is fairly easy to use. It features drag-and-drop enabled pipelines for candidate organization.
- Manatal’s AI-based recommendations feature can save hiring managers quite a bit of time. It’s able to scan job descriptions then search a users talent pool and bring up candidates most suited for the job.
CONS
- AI can only generate English job descriptions, limited to 200 per month.
- Core product available only in English and Spanish.
- No free plans available.
- Limited native integrations. API and Zapier integrations for top-tier plans only.
- Boolean Search and Advanced Search cannot be used simultaneously.
- The AI recommendations feature works best with resumes that are in English, and doesn’t work as accurately with other languages according to several users’ feedback. Several users have also complained about Manatal’s interface only being available in English and that career pages cannot be published in languages other than English and Spanish.
- Manatal doesn’t offer a free plan. We mention this as a con as several SMB-geared ATSs do offer a free-forever verison, and that puts Manatal slightly behind competition.
- Manatal doesn’t offer prebuilt integration modules. They do have an open API that allows users to plug in third-party products and custom tools, but that required a bit more time and technical knowledge to accomplish. It’s also worth mentioning that only Custom plan customers can access Manatal’s API and Zapier integration. Customers on the Professional and Enterprise plan cannot.
- Users can search for candidates via Boolean Search or Advanced Search, but cannot combine the two search methods together. E.g users cannot use the Boolean search operators (AND, OR and NOT) within Manatal’s Advanced Search tab.
Manatal is a budget-friendly ATS solution that caters specifically to SMBs without compromising essential features. It even has a free trial without requiring credit card info.
Manatal’s AI tool is a real asset. It can generate English job descriptions and sift through your existing candidate database to surface individuals it finds most suitable for the role. The results are pretty awesome and available almost instantly. Its usefulness was reduced when we asked the AI to suggest non-English-speaking candidates, though.
Manatal has a user-friendly interface and native drag-and-drop-enabled pipelines, which are very easy to use. Plus, being mobile-optimized means there’s no need to download any apps from users who need to access Manatal on the go.
We also appreciate how transparent Manatal's pricing is. The platform has a scalable “custom” plan in addition to three lower-tier plans. On its website, it breaks down what’s included in each plan and how much it costs. With prices starting at $15 per user per month, it’s safe to say this ATS is affordable for most SMBs. For those having a hard time with their existing ATS and looking for a switch, Manatal’s offer of free data migration is quite compelling.
However, as mentioned earlier, Manatal’s AI tool works best in English only and only allows for 200 generations per month. Despite having a fairly good pricing structure, Manatal doesn’t offer a free plan like several others in this space. We should also note that its API and Zapier integrations are limited to top-tier plans, while the pre-built integration list is limited.
10,000+ companies, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, Panasonic, Ogilvy, and Toyota.
Manatal has four plans:
- Professional ($15 per user per month)
- Enterprise ($35 per user per month)
- Enterprise Plus ($55 per user per month)
- Custom plans (available on demand)
A 14-day free trial is available, no credit card info required.
Best For
For English-language organizations with limited budgets who are seeking an easy-to-use ATS with AI features, Manatal is a top choice.
Why You Should Trust Us
The contributors to this buyer guide represent decades of experience and perspective. We called on Stefanie Sher (Director of Talent Acquisition, Replicated), Tracie Marie (Founder, Hire Incentive), Zachary Larson (People Operations leader with 10+ years experience), Phil Strazzulla (SSR Founder), Huda Idris (SSR Software Advisor), and SSR HR Tech Researcher and Editor Anh Nguyen to help you find the right tool for your team.
Benefits of ATS for Small Businesses
According to recent applicant tracking system statistics, 94% of recruiters find that their ATS has had a positive impact on their organization’s recruitment process. Below are a few key benefits this software brings about, backed by data.
- Save time: Research shows that recruiters can reduce time-to-hire by up to 20% when using an ATS solution. Also, 86% of recruiters say that ATS solutions helped them shorten their time-to-hire, at least in some percentage.
- Increase the quality of hire: 78% of recruiters confirm an ATS has improved the quality of hire.
- Save money: Small businesses can enjoy $10,000 annual savings using an ATS. Output from our ATS calculator has shown that a 500-person company can save up to $468,000 from a new ATS.
- Become more data-driven with recruitment: Though the small teams are held to the same legal standard as larger ones, they generally don’t have the same access to legal counsel. A quality ATS will help cross the Ts and dot the Is, allowing your business to focus and grow.
- Forster collaborative hiring: An ATS encourages collaboration across departments. It creates structure and manages tasks around a common goal, ensuring a transparent delegation of responsibility. This support is critical because though “wearing many hats” is synonymous with small teams, comradery and sleeve-rolling can only carry a team so far.
- Build a talent pool: A high-quality talent pool doesn’t create itself. Modern ATS typically also can function as a recruiting CRM, helping small teams establish and nurture a repository of skilled workers. By creating and managing ongoing relationships with passive and active job seekers, a small business can reduce the effort and expense of filling a new rec: they can simply ping the pool rather than starting the search from scratch. Some tools even help with considering internal candidates.
How to Choose the Best ATS for Small Businesses
You can go about this a few ways, but we think the following are the essentials that can save you a considerable amount of time in researching and picking the right recruiting software for your business:
- Talk to 3-5 most potential vendors: If your business is too small to justify sending out requests for proposals, you'll need to vet companies yourself. Come to demos armed with a list of applicant tracking system questions.
- Get information from unbiased sources: Most ATS vendors have websites with plenty of information on how good their product(s) are, but it’s rare to see a vendor ever share the cons or where their product falls short (in comparison to other products) on their website. A good source lets you see the whole picture: the strengths and weaknesses of a product. From there, you’ll develop a more sophisticated view of an ATS’ capabilities, which is what you need to make the right buying decisions.
- Real user experience is powerful: There’s a tremendous amount of value in the feedback of real product users, particularly hiring managers and HR leaders. What are their ATS decision criteria? What are their expectations about hiring software vs. reality? How satisfied are they with the purchased ATS?
Pro Tip: Shopping for a new ATS can be challenging. Contact our HR software advisor for free, personalized assistance in shortlisting ATS vendors that fit your needs and budget.
An In-Depth Look at Buying a New ATS
Explore insights and perspectives on making informed decisions through a discussion with Phil Strazzulla, founder of SelectSoftware Reviews, and Rahul Bansal, CEO of TribalVision, as they delve into the process of acquiring an applicant tracking system.
FAQs
What is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?
An applicant tracking system is an HR tool designed to make life easier for both employers and candidates by aiding with tasks like posting jobs, sourcing candidates, organizing the hiring process, and storing data for record-keeping purposes.
What are the features of an Applicant Tracking System?
Key ATS features include resume parsing to extract candidate information, job posting, candidate pipeline management, candidate searching and filtering, reporting and analytics on the hiring process, and integrations with other HR software.
When should a company start using an ATS?
A good rule of thumb is that you have at least 20 positions to fill per year, as at this level, you will most likely see the significant ROI the ATS brings to your recruitment process.
How much does an ATS cost an SMB?
Specifics on ATS pricing vary based on factors such as business size, job vacancies, integrations, and team location. Based on our research, small businesses typically pay between $15 and a few thousand dollars per month for an ATS, with some free editions available.
Is there any free ATS?
Yes, there is! Manatal, Teamtailor, and Zoho Recruit are our favorites. You can find more options on our best free ATS buyer guide.
How many ATS options should you look at when you start doing demos?
"Demoing software can be painful, but it pays to go into the weeds for every single module," says Tracie Marie, one of the experts we talked about for this piece. Her recommendation is that three can be a good starting number for vendor demos. She also suggested, “Include one that is slightly less than your budget and one slightly more.” This way, you can see the differences in features among those vendors.
Conclusion
Applicant tracking software benefits small businesses by automating and streamlining their hiring process via AI ATS features, candidate workflow management, and integration, among other capabilities. Bear in mind that it won't solve underlying issues like a toxic workplace culture. For a supercharged modern ATS to make a difference, readiness and willingness to embrace it are key.
About Us
- Our goal at SSR is to help HR and recruiting teams to find and buy the right software for their needs.
- Our site is free to use as some vendors will pay us for web traffic.
- SSR lists all companies we feel are top vendors - not just those who pay us - in our comprehensive directories full of the advice needed to make the right purchase decision for your HR team.
