10+ Best Applicant Tracking Systems for Small Business (2024)
The best ATS for small business, as per our expert HR tech researchers. Get key features, pros & cons, pricing, and ROI tips below.
Best Applicant Tracking Systems for Small Businesses
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.
The contributors to this 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), SSR writer and editor Huda Idris (B2B Software Advisor, HR tech expert), and SSR HR tech researcher Anh Nguyen to help you find the right tool for your team.
To find the best applicant tracking systems for small businesses, we evaluated the performance of more than 30 products in the following critical functions: resume parsing and analytics, job posting, pipeline management/user experience, and integration capacity.
- Resume Parsing and Analytics: The ability to reliably parse resumes and provide meaningful analytics are core functions for 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.
- 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
Zoho Recruit
Recruit CRM
Recooty
Pinpoint
JazzHR
Recruitee
Trakstar Hire
BambooHR
Teamtailor
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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:
- Paygo costs $129 per job per month.
- Standard costs $299 per month.
- Premier costs $599 per month.
- Add-on pricing starts at $59 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.
We leverage Workable's platform to broadcast job opportunities across a wide range of prominent channels, such as Indeed, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, and Glassdoor, ensuring maximum visibility for our job postings.
Upon receiving applications, Workable enables me to assign specific roles to the relevant hiring manager within our organization, streamlining the recruitment process.
Each hiring manager uses Workable's intuitive interface to assess candidate profiles, review CVs, and track application progress from a centralized dashboard.
This collaborative approach fosters transparency and accountability, engaging all stakeholders in the hiring process.
Workable acts as a comprehensive solution, providing a centralized hub for optimizing recruitment and onboarding processes. It consolidates various functionalities necessary for efficient talent acquisition and the seamless integration of new hires.
From posting job openings to managing applications and scheduling interviews, Workable streamlines every step of the recruitment lifecycle. A standout feature is its ability to foster collaboration between HR teams and hiring managers, ensuring strategic and cohesive hiring decisions.
We were in search of a comprehensive solution to enhance our recruitment and streamline our onboarding processes. Workable emerged as the ideal platform to effectively meet these needs. It offers a suite of powerful recruitment tools, including job posting management, candidate sourcing, and applicant tracking. These features enable us to attract top talent, manage applications efficiently, and streamline the entire hiring process.
Workable allows us to tailor our recruitment workflows to our specific needs and organizational structure, enhancing efficiency and consistency across all hiring activities. It also facilitates collaboration among hiring teams with features like candidate feedback, interview scheduling, and communication tools, ensuring informed hiring decisions.
While Workable's interface is user-friendly, it can become overly complex or cluttered, particularly when navigating through multiple features or conducting advanced searches. A more streamlined and intuitive interface would improve usability.
Workable excels in providing an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it accessible to users of all technical proficiencies. Its well-designed layout and straightforward navigation enhance usability, enabling users to efficiently perform recruitment tasks without the complications of complex interfaces.
When considering an ATS tool, evaluate its features and functionality. Ensure it includes essential capabilities such as job posting management, applicant tracking, CV review, candidate communication, interview scheduling, and reporting/analytics. Also, consider whether it offers advanced features like AI-driven candidate matching, automated workflows, and customizable dashboards to streamline the recruitment process.
Workable continually enhances its feature set, providing users with more robust tools for recruitment and hiring. Improvements to applicant tracking, job posting management, candidate communication, interview scheduling, and reporting/analytics have been made. New features such as AI-driven candidate matching, automated workflows, and customizable dashboards have been introduced to further streamline the recruitment process.
Workable is an excellent solution for businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises. Its versatility and scalability make it suitable for organizations at different stages of growth.
Workable may not be the best fit for very large enterprises with complex organizational structures and extensive hiring requirements, which may need more advanced features and customization options. Additionally, highly regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, or government may require specialized ATS solutions tailored to their specific regulations and security standards.
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.
At my organization, we use Zoho Recruit as our primary applicant tracking system (ATS) to manage our recruitment process. We use it on a daily basis to streamline our workflows and improve our recruitment efficiency.
One of the key workflows we use Zoho Recruit for is managing job postings. Zoho Recruit allows us to create job postings and post them on various job boards and social media platforms, all from within the tool. This saves us time and effort and helps us to reach a wider pool of candidates.
- Customizable workflows: Zoho Recruit provides customizable workflows that allow organizations to create tailored recruitment processes that match their specific needs.
- Integrations with other Zoho applications: Zoho Recruit is part of the larger Zoho suite of business applications, and it can integrate with other Zoho applications such as Zoho CRM and Zoho People, which can help streamline overall business processes.
- Collaborative recruiting: Zoho Recruit allows for collaboration between team members, making it easier to work together during the recruitment process.
- Candidate tracking: Zoho Recruit provides tools for tracking candidate progress throughout the hiring process, including interview scheduling and email communication.
Zoho Recruit helps my organization manage job postings, applications, and candidate information in a single platform. This streamlines the recruitment process and helps my HR team save time and effort. Zoho Recruit allows my organization to centralize all candidate data in one location, which can make it easier to manage and track candidate progress throughout the hiring process. It also provides features for collaboration between team members, which can help improve communication and coordination during the recruitment process. I've been using Zoho Recruit for the last 2 years.
- While Zoho Recruit offers integrations with other Zoho applications, it has limited integrations with other third-party applications, which may limit its functionality and usability for some organizations.
- While Zoho Recruit offers customizable workflows, some users have expressed that there are limitations to the customization options available, which may not fully meet their organization's needs.
- Some users have found that Zoho Recruit has a steep learning curve, which may require additional training for some users to fully utilize the platform's features and functionality.
Zoho's tiers are very rigid, and I would hope they would make their product more modular and allow customers to buy modules separately. For a small startup, the professional and enterprise-grade turn out to be very expensive, and we could easily trade some features we don't use for features we would like to use.
- Consider the specific needs of your organization and the recruitment processes that you need to support. Evaluate the features and functionality of Zoho Recruit to ensure that it meets your organization's specific requirements.
- Evaluate the user interface of Zoho Recruit to ensure that it is easy to use and navigate and that it does not require extensive training for users to get up to speed.
- Evaluate the customization options available in Zoho Recruit to ensure that you can tailor the recruitment process to match your organization's specific requirements.
Zoho Recruit has expanded its customization options, enabling users to create workflows tailored to their specific needs. The customizable workflows allow users to create automated processes and custom stages for candidates.
Zoho Recruit has introduced artificial intelligence (AI)-powered automation features that help automate tasks, such as candidate matching, resume parsing, and lead prioritization.
Zoho Recruit offers a cost-effective solution for small and medium-sized businesses that need to manage their recruitment processes without investing in expensive HR software. Zoho Recruit has features specifically designed for staffing agencies and recruiters, such as candidate submittal tracking, resume parsing, and sourcing tools, making it an excellent choice for these types of users.
While Zoho Recruit can handle recruitment processes for small to medium-sized businesses, it may not be as well-suited for large enterprises with complex recruitment processes and a large number of open positions.
Zoho Recruit is a general-purpose recruitment software and may not be the best fit for industries with specialized recruitment needs, such as healthcare, finance, or technology. These industries often require specialized recruitment software in addition to an ATS that can handle their unique requirements.
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, as stated by many software users.
- Recooty has limited features i.e., unlike its competitors, it doesn’t support employee referrals and one-on-one interviews.
- Recooty offers only two integrations from their dashboard; for 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.
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 ATS 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 might be on the pricier side — the cheapest plan cost $600 per month. If you’d like to use its onboarding module, you need to purchase it separately. While having a considerable number of standard integration options, requesting bespoke integrations is only for Pinpoint’s Enterprise plan users (having 150 headcounts or more).
CoinShares, Pathways Global, Grant Thornton, Icario, Pivot Energy.
Pinpoint has two plans:
- Growth: starts at $600 monthly when billed annually.
- Enterprise: From $1,200/month when billed annually.
- Available startup program for startups with fewer than 50 headcounts.
Best For
Pinpoint is a wonderful ATS for in-house recruitment at companies that are growing fast.
We have configured a recruitment process and attached email templates to every stage of it, allowing us to rapidly communicate with candidates in a standard way, at all stages. We share CVs with management within the tool and capture feedback. We use the tool to invite candidates for assessments, and for booking the assessments in [usually via MS Teams which PinPoint integrates nicely with]. We upload interview notes to the candidate area in PinPoint, and sometimes make a phone interview guide within the tool, to enable us to use a more robust scoring mechanism if anticipating higher volumes of direct applications.
Pinpoint is also used to store/bank candidates for future roles. We have created and implemented a bespoke tagging approach to find people quickly. We have also tagged candidates for reasons not to progress, and can report on that. This gives an opportunity to fine-tune adverts for future positions if we uncover particular rejection themes. It is also used for reporting on things like the diversity of applicants and candidate volume.
It is very easy to use from a product owner and user perspective. Both management AND suppliers have happily adopted PinPoint and only have positive feedback about it. The PinPoint support staff/messaging tool is also fantastic, with immediate responses provided to any tickets raised.
I love the ability to make bespoke application form questions. Knowing clearly candidate availability, salary expectations, and right-to-work status from such questions saves the recruitment team countless hours.
With the right process and email template set, it gives a better candidate experience. Candidates receive rejection emails and will know clearly what to expect at the interview/assessment stages.
The reporting is wonderful. You simply cannot report on diversity matters without a system like PinPoint, which removes the candidate’s personal info from their actual job application.
Our global recruitment function was hiring around 60+ people a year, across multiple global locations. We used various channels and suppliers to generate candidates but had to manage everything via email and Excel trackers. We wanted a solution that was easy to use, configurable, and enabled HR and management to collaborate, in line with our values. We also wanted a solution that enabled blind CV applications to mitigate unconscious bias, plus diversity reporting. We have used it since April 2022.
You can't effectively share comms with recruitment suppliers about new openings or changes to vacancy briefs, so I am still relying on emails. There should be a ‘vacancy supplier’ area on each vacancy where we can communicate with agencies and also document any feedback from them from the market. Then we could have an option to share info with leaders.
- The way it can be configured to your needs is refreshing.
- The general speed of moving candidates around within a process or into a new process is also different from other systems.
- In a recruitment team, everyone can see what is going on with candidates and roles, so you remove bottlenecks and enhance efficiency when it comes to things like recruitment team absence.
- First, make sure you have an agreed recruitment process established in the business, then create a ‘shopping list’ of problems to solve or features you would like. Then review solutions.
- Ensure you liaise closely with IT and/or infosec/GDPR managers around the idea and implementation.
- Finally, these systems are priced based on an organization’s headcount, so that may come under consideration from a budget perspective.
A few enhancements here and there, mostly around the reporting suite.
Firms recruiting high volume roles and varied roles, with many different managers/suppliers involved.
Pinpoint would be helpful for any business, regardless of size of industry.
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: $49 per month for unlimited users and 3 open jobs.
- Plus: $239 per month for unlimited users, unlimited open jobs, ATS, interviews, and assessments.
- Pro: $359 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 in Job postings to create and publish job postings on multiple job boards and our own careers pages where necessary and consequently source for candidates
- Resume screening: JazzHR provides tools like customizable screening questionnaires, keyword searches, and evaluation forms to help you screen resumes and identify qualified candidates based on your job requirements.
- Interview scheduling: JazzHR allows you to schedule interviews with candidates and send automated reminders to keep everyone on track.
- These tools have helped us streamline our overseas resume screening process and identify qualified candidates more efficiently.
- JazzHR has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, making it simple for our team to manage the hiring process from start to finish.
- It also allows users to customize job postings, screening questionnaires, and evaluation forms, which allows us to get more suitable candidates.
- JazzHR also automates many tasks such as resume screening, interview scheduling, and candidate communication. This is an important time saver which helps us move faster.
JazzHR is a cloud-based applicant tracking system that streamlines and automates the hiring process.
Our organization was looking to engage highly specialized consultants from the US as well as Europe in IT Security, Cloud Computing, and Enterprise Solutions.
We found that JazzHR provided centralized hiring where the team could manage the entire hiring process, from job postings to candidate screening and interview scheduling which saved us a lot of time. It also provided impressive data-driven insights and analytics on hiring metrics which enabled us to identify our areas of improvement.
- There are limitations on candidate search, especially for local searches in Africa. The candidate search functionality could also be more robust, allowing for more targeted and advanced searches.
- Customer support response time can be slower at times which can be frustrating when trying to resolve issues quickly.
- The reporting features could also be improved on to provide more insight and more informative data analytics.
- Affordability: JazzHR is priced competitively, making it more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses that may not have the budget for enterprise-level solutions.
- It also allows reliable customization, from job postings and screening questionnaires to evaluation forms and workflows. It also integrates with a wide range of other HR tools, including HRIS and payroll systems like BambooHR, providing us with greater flexibility and automation.
- Indeed and LinkedIn have significantly larger candidate pools than JazzHR, making them a better option for organizations looking to cast a wider net in their candidate search. However, JazzHR integrates with a range of other HR tools, including payroll and HRIS systems, while Indeed and LinkedIn do not offer the same level of integration.
- This makes JazzHR more all-rounded than Indeed & LinkedIn which fills a niche and builds on the value it offers making it slightly preferable for overseas hires.
- Consider the HR tools that you currently use or plan to use and evaluate whether JazzHR can integrate them. JazzHR integrates with a variety of HR software for different purposes such as assessments, background checks, payroll, and onboarding. Some examples of HRIS systems that JazzHR can integrate with are BambooHR, Namely, TribeHR, and Workday. Do your research before engaging JazzHR.
- Pricing: Evaluate the pricing structure to ensure that it is affordable and that it aligns with your organization's budget. JazzHR has different payment plans like Hero, Plus, and Pro.
- You can evaluate the level of customer support that is available and ensure that it aligns with your organization's needs, particularly if you are a smaller organization without a dedicated HR team.
Over time it has Increased customization by introducing more customization features over time, including the ability to create custom screening questionnaires and evaluation forms.
It has also improved integrations by expanding its integration capabilities, allowing users to connect with a wide range of HR tools, including HRIS and payroll systems.
In my opinion, JazzHR would work best for teams looking for a recruitment and applicant tracking system that can be integrated with an existing HRIS system to streamline their recruitment, onboarding, and payroll operations among other HR functions.
JazzHR may not be the best fit for large organizations with complex hiring processes that require highly specialized workflows.
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, the whole day! It's such a great system to track candidates and it's all in one place. I can contact candidates and it's all recorded. Each candidate has a profile, I can upload documents (offer letters, employment applications, etc.) I can text candidates using another system called JustCall, everything in one place! I can create a website through Recruitee! I can directly share open jobs via Rectuitee on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
I like how easy it is to understand and use the system. I love the live support they use, they are fast to get back to you. I like how modern the UI is and how updated it is in terms of the latest features and functionalities.
Great question, we have been using Recruitee for almost a year now, and it has been the best decision ever. We get to track candidates and offer a smooth hiring process. Before having Recruitee in the house, we were using spreadsheets, which was painful and extremely time-consuming, we couldn't track well without many integrations and automation, and the manual efforts were not productive. This ATS is the best!
Something I hope they can work out better is to get the text messages incorporated faster. They claim to have been working on it for a while, but we don’t really know until it is rolled out. I wish they had more integrations as Paylocity, I believe they are expanding their list. The last thing, I wish they give you more options to change the theme color of the screen and other customization options.
Yes, pricing-wise. Modern and easy to use. I have used other ATSs that are not that easy to use. The integrations at Recruitee are great!
They should think about how this ATS offers everything! They are very open to feedback and willing to work on the ideas you might have. This ATS is complete.
Recruitee has helped the company tremendously, it has helped me as a Recruiter and also the Managers. Everyone I know who has used this ATS loves it!
Recruiting, onboarding, background check. Medium to large-sized organizations can maximize their use cases.
It wouldn't work for a small company that is not hiring much. This system is only good for a company that is looking to hire constantly, with respect to the costs and advanced functionalities it has.
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. For example, you can customize application forms and share job postings across several job boards and social media platforms. The system organizes candidate applications for easy reference throughout every stage of the hiring process, from initial application to final e-signature. Users can also create new hire packets that provide information on what to expect, who to meet, and which tasks to tackle on their first day.
Users we've talked to quite like BambooHR’s mobile app for hiring. Through it, they’re able to post jobs, review resumes, communicate with candidates, coordinate with other hiring team members, and perform several related functions on the go.
Among the 20,000+ companies who use BambooHR are names like Quora, Universal Group, Reddit, Asana, Change.org, University of Maryland, Grammarly, Stance, Postmates, Wistia, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and ZipRecruiter.
BambooHR pricing is custom, but they offer a free trial. Before coming up with a quote, they are also likely to extend your free trial upon request or give you a free demo of the advanced features.
Best For
BambooHR is a good choice for organizations seeking a cost-friendly ATS tool that can help them get started with recruiting.
We typically use BambooHR to pull reports and analyze data. We also use it as a platform for employees to submit time off requests. Apart from that, we use the documents section to create fillable documents which are later on stored in employees' profiles. Additionally, BambooHR gives us an opportunity to have easy access to other employees' information, such as who someone's supervisor is, so anyone in the company can search for those details. Sending communication out has been a new feature for us and we use it by creating a banner on the main page which helps us send easy and quick reminders to employees. We also use it for easy access to other platforms as we store all the links for our training, benefits, etc. platforms so employees can have the information in one place.
It's user-friendly. It's capabilities to manage different HR processes. The fillable documents tool.
BambooHR was bought in order to store employees' information in one place. The objective was to better organize information and create automated workflows. I started at the company about 14 months ago and it was already in use but I estimate that it has been used for the past 5 years or more. One of the main benefits it provides is that job information as well documents and time off can be in one place. This allows the HR team to easily pull reports and access the data. Another benefit is that it is very user friendly, for employers and employees.
It takes a long time to add additional features (sometimes suggested by customers). It has different restrictions when it comes to reporting, in terms of editing some reports to add/delete fields. The performance management tab is very basic and it doesn't allow customers to tailor it to our needs.
I guess the main difference is the simplicity when it comes to managing different processes. Other systems are more complex and have too many additional steps or fields which make it harder to navigate the platforms. I really prefer it because it does not require a lot of training for anyone to learn how to use it and it has a lower price compared to other systems.
The first one would be the number of employees. If you are a large company, BambooHR may not fit your needs as it has some limitations. Secondly, what they are really trying to get out of the system. If it's only being used for what we use it (storing information, submitting time off requests, pulling basic reports) then it would work great. If they are trying to have all the information in one place, such as benefits and performance management, the fact that it has limitations, mostly related to updates and customized fields, then it would probably not be the best option.
They have evolved quite a bit. Their customer service has improved. Some fields have become customizable over time or they have been added by the BambooHR team. Reporting has also improved with the addition of a few different reports which provide further information and can be combined with others, such as turnover rate with reason for termination, etc.
Mid size companies that have payroll and performance management already in use. It is also good for organizations that do not want to spend a lot of money on an HRIS or that have a limited budget.
Companies with over 500 employees or big size ones. Users who would like to have all processes and information in one place.
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.
We used teamtailor to publish jobs to job boards and social media and update or deactivate postings. We also were able to set up recruiting teams and set up the questions we needed for candidates. Also, it was very useful in keeping track of the many candidates, where they were in the process and, if they were not selected, the reasons why. We also used the triggers to communicate with candidates throughout the process, get needed information, and track communications. We also created career pages to better attract candidates and give a better sense of our company to potential applicants and increase the number of applicants.
I really liked the templates to create career pages, and felt it gave users a sense of the company and really made us look polished. The ability to track candidates was a huge advantage, eliminating the need to remember or to scroll through notes or emails to recall where someone was in the hiring process. I felt it was really easy for the entire team to use, especially hiring managers who are not in the HR department and needed an intuitive, simple way to participate.
I used teamtailor for a little over a year, and it was incredibly helpful in attracting and recruiting hard-to-get top talent. We needed our company to stand out, and to create an experience for applicants that would give a sense of our culture and why we are special and unique to work for. The ease with which we could create ads, the great templates provided, and the overall immersive experience for applicants improved not just the quality and number of applicants we received, but the conversion to hires. We also felt that throughout the process, our candidates had a better sense of who we are and seemed more engaged in the interviewing process as a result. Also, it integrated well with the various job boards and social media we needed to use, making it more efficient in getting the word out regarding openings.
I was not impressed with the analytics. Also, though it makes communicating and tracking candidates easy, being able to opt out of automatic emails would have been good on occasions, and it didn't have flexibility that way. Sometimes there were issues with scheduling too, and it didn't seem to always coordinate people's calendars completely.
This is a very comprehensive and complete ATS, and very easy to use. I have only used one other, and would say that teamtailor had better features and was easier to use.
I think it is important to consider the needs of the business. If you don't do extensive recruiting, this product may be more than you need. Is simply posting ads and getting responses enough, or are you finding a lack of quality candidates? If so, this may solve that. Are you hiring candidates who are in very high demand? If so, you should consider how you are presenting your company and if the process and features this tool provides may be able to make it more attractive to such candidates and is often what they expect.
It appears the company has increased the amount of knowledge, advice and resources regarding the recruiting process to users over time.
This is ideal for an organization that does a great deal of hiring, and has a lot of people involved in the hiring process. It is also great for companies that need to hire candidates that are in very high demand.
I think a small company that doesn't have a lot of hiring, or that maybe has mostly part time or more entry level jobs may not need something like this.
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.
Applicant Tracking System FAQs
What is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) - of course, we don’t talk about Automatic Transfer Switches on our site - is an HR tool designed to make things easier for employers and candidates. Typically, an ATS will aid with tasks like posting jobs, sourcing candidates, organizing the hiring process, and storing data for record-keeping purposes. If you want to learn more, we have a guide that breaks down what an applicant tracking system (ATS) is.
What are the features of an Applicant Tracking System?
The features commonly found in applicant tracking systems are resume parsing to extract candidate information, job posting, candidate pipeline management, candidate searching, and filtering, reporting and analytics on the hiring process, and integration with other HR software.
What are the benefits of the best Applicant Tracking Systems specific to small businesses?
Applicant tracking system statistics show that this software has a positive impact on business hiring practices: for example, over 98% of Fortune 500 companies use some form of ATS. Below are key benefits ATSs bring about, and as always, we have the stats to back them up.
- Save time: Research shows that recruiters can save up to 20% time on hiring when using an ATS solution. 86% of recruiters say that ATS solutions helped them shorten their time-to-hire.
- 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 from a new ATS, a 500-person company can save up to $468,000.
Naturally, some of the same factors that benefit an enterprise-size business also apply to small teams. No matter the headcount, every company wants to spend less money, save more time, and make better hires.
Any modern ATS can do all that, but small businesses need more:
Compliance and reporting: 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.
Supported collaboration: 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.
Building a talent pool: A high-quality talent pool doesn’t create itself. The right ATS can help 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.
How much does an ATS cost?
Specifics on ATS pricing are often hard to find. Most ATS systems base their pricing on varying factors such as business size, number of job vacancies, integrations, and whether the team is local or international.
- Small businesses (under 100 employees): As these companies tend to have a conservative number of job openings and small budgets for ATS buying, paying per user or job per month makes the most sense, and paid ATS plans with that pricing model range between $15 to a couple of thousands, depending on team size. But as we’ve previously laid out, several ATSs with a per-user-per-month pricing model offer free-forever plans, so if you’re a very small business with basic and infrequent hiring needs, you may not have to pay anything at all.
- Medium-sized business (100-500 employees): Paying on a per-user-per-month basis can still work for growing companies as long as they don’t require many people to be involved in the hiring process. But a flat rate is worth considering as you’ll be less worried about exceeding the user or job limit. The price for such a model ranges between $10,000 to $15,000 per year.
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 multiple vendors: If your business is too small to justify sending out requests for proposals, you'll need to grill vendors 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? Their expectations about the hiring software vs. reality? How satisfied are they with the purchased ATS?
Protip: Shopping for a new ATS can be challenging. We have a video that breaks down what you should consider in your applicant tracking system buying journey.
[Embedded]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhrBUy-dbds
Which ATS is considered to be the most popular?
- Freshteam: Most cost-effective ATS
- JazzHR: Go-to ATS for startups
- Greenhouse: Best for teams that hire often
- BambooHR: Most used by medium to large companies
- Recruitee: Best for being affordable and scalable
Is there any free ATS?
Yes, there is! Manatal, Teamtailor, and Zoho Recruit are our favorites. You can find more options for the best free applicant tracking systems here.
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.
Best ATS for SMBs: Final Advice
Instead of a wordy conclusion, we thought we’d wrap this piece with some more industry facts and our HR Tech expert advice.
- Do you really need an ATS?: 98.8% of Fortune 500 companies utilize ATS. Additionally, 67% of large companies and 35% of small organizations depend on ATS or recruitment software. Bear in mind, though, that onboarding an ATS will neither fix your employer brand nor your candidate experience. We, again, have a dedicated guide explaining why that is in detail.
- At what point in headcount growth do you need to buy your first ATS?: From her experience buying the first ATS for her business, Stefanie Sher suggested between 20 to 40 employees would be a good starting point: “If you're only going to hire 5-10 candidates in a calendar year, not as big a deal, but once you start thinking 10+ hires, you want to have a consistent, scalable process that can grow with your team.”
- Which ATS is right for you?: Though we’ve tried our best to simplify your hiring software selection process with the above list of the best ATS for small businesses for 2023, the best solution for you will depend on your organization’s unique needs and growth plans. We recommend listing down your ATS must-have features and capabilities in an easily accessible document (or you can take advantage of our free ATS Buyer Organizer) to stay on track with what is important and what isn’t, do demos with the top vendors on your list and sign up for a couple of trial accounts if you’ve got the time. Ultimately, a supercharged modern ATS can transform your HR efforts if you’re ready for it.
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.
