10+ Best Applicant Tracking Systems for Small Businesses (2025)

Through our testing, demos, and user feedback, we found that Workable ATS provides small businesses with an ideal blend of ease, flexibility, and a future-ready design. While many ATS platforms either oversimplify for small teams or overwhelm them with enterprise-level complexity, Workable strikes a rare balance: it’s intuitive enough for small hiring teams to adopt quickly, yet robust enough to scale as the business grows.

First, let’s mention this ATS’s plug-and-play setup: small businesses often don’t have the IT resources to configure complex systems, and Workable’s straightforward onboarding, 15-day free trial, and clean interface make it easy to get started. The platform also provides broad job posting reach, giving lean teams access to over 200 job boards and 400 million candidate profiles, which helps maximize recruiting impact without adding extra headcount or budget.

Importantly, Workable includes built-in tools that small businesses often lack, such as anonymized screening, cognitive and personality assessments, and structured interview kits. These are the features that can help your small business run a fair, efficient, and consistent hiring process without relying on additional tools or external vendors.

We also appreciate that Workable’s pricing is transparent and its platform is scalable, meaning small teams can adopt the system with confidence that it won’t become obsolete as they expand. However, be mindful that some features, like video interviewing and texting, actually cost extra as they are paid add-ons. Additionally, while the platform offers reporting tools, as highlighted in the user review from Angela Lowry right below, these are quite basic and often require teams to export data into spreadsheets for meaningful analysis.

Workable has been used by over 20,000 organizations, including Sephora, Forbes, Bevi, Moodle, and Navarro.

Workable provides different pricing options to accommodate various business needs. However, their Starter plan was removed in mid 2025. That leaves only the Standard and Premier plans, which cost $299 and $599 per month respectively. For organizations looking for integrated solutions, bundled options that include HR and recruiting functionalities start at $349 per month.

Greenhouse is often seen as an enterprise-grade ATS, but based on our testing and experience, it offers several standout advantages that can also benefit small businesses ready to invest in a structured, high-performing hiring system.

For small teams, Greenhouse’s exceptional sourcing reach, with access to over 1,000 job boards, strong internal mobility features, and built-in referral programs. This means that, as an employer, you can utilize the platform’s integrations for external candidate sourcing while making the most of your 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.

Additionally, 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 languages. 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 is no free trial, and no monthly billing option. For a small team of 10, it could cost over $6,000.

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.

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).

In our testing, Zoho Recruit proved to be a strong ATS option for small businesses that want more than just the basics. While its free plan gives small teams a taste of core functionalities, the paid plans and add-ons ensure the platform scales alongside them as they grow.

Let’s first dive into 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. Integrating 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 that you only get one active job at a time. The storage limit is also on the smaller side, set at 256 MB.

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, teams need to plan carefully: while the base plans are affordable, important tools like the client portal, workflow alerts, video interviewing, and some integrations come as paid add-ons. We also encountered some occasional integration issues, where we needed to manually reconnect third-party tools to keep workflows running smoothly. Additionally, the career site customization options feel somewhat limited on lower-tier plans, which may frustrate small businesses trying to present a polished employer brand.

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.

In our testing, Recruit CRM impressed us with its ability to meet the needs of small businesses, particularly recruiting agencies that require handling both client and candidate pipelines.

Small teams who spend hours daily on data entry will appreciate the AI resume parser that 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 but can’t afford higher-tier plans. Also, remember that the 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 that 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.

Pinpoint's applicant tracking system is highly regarded by users for its intuitive interface, neat automation workflows, and robust career site builder, which we found perfect for small businesses to create a polished, professional hiring process.

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, though. There’s no free trial or free plan to try before buying. And when compared with other solutions, Pinpoint tends to be more expensive than some small-business-focused competitors, with the cheapest plan costing $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 considerable 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.

JazzHR delivers a solid mix of affordability, core ATS functionality, and scalable features that we believe are perfect for meeting the evolving needs of growing SMBs.

One of its biggest advantages is that it places no limits on the number of users, a huge plus for small businesses that want to loop in hiring managers, interviewers, or stakeholders without worrying about stacking up per-user fees. We also liked how job postings across multiple boards are simple and efficient, helping small teams maximize reach without extra software.

You can start with the 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.

Unlike some competing SMB-focused ATS platforms, however, JazzHR doesn’t offer a free-forever plan, which we see as a significant downside, particularly for very small teams looking to start lean. Several users we spoke with also noted the UI can feel clunky at first, with a steeper learning curve than some more modern, plug-and-play systems.

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: Custom pricing for everything from Plus, along with offers and e-signatures, reporting, and all-access support.

Teamtailor’s ATS has a unique approach to talent acquisition, which pays a lot of attention to how your company presents itself to candidates.

In our assessments, we found that the platform’s drag-and-drop career site builder is one of the best in class for SMBs: it allows small teams to create sleek, attractive, and mobile-friendly career pages without needing design or coding skills. This kind of polished first impression is a huge advantage for small businesses trying to stand out in a competitive talent market.

Another way TeamTailor differentiates itself from the pack is how the platform structures its pricing. It’s a single plan with all features included, and thus, this plan's pricing adapts to your company's size. We are also huge fans of the vendor’s all-inclusive plan, which offers unlimited jobs, candidates, and users, making it easier for small companies to scale without worrying about per-seat costs or feature upgrades.

Unfortunately, the analytics feature is where Teamtailor falls short. Our test results show that it’s not particularly flexible or customizable. We noticed the onboarding tool was recently added, but other HR modules, such as performance management, are still missing. And while we appreciate that Teamtailor offers free trials with no credit card required, the absence of upfront pricing transparency can make it more challenging for small businesses to compare costs during the vendor selection process.

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.

Tellent 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 Tellent 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 Tellent Recruitee is its collaboration capability. The platform says: you can have as many users as you need in Tellent 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.

That said, some trade-offs were also spotted. First was the absence of built-in tools for skill assessments, onboarding, video interviewing, and e-signatures. While small teams can rely on integrations to fill these gaps, this approach may increase operational complexity. We also noticed that the reporting feature sometimes fails to retrieve data accurately, which can be frustrating for SMBs that rely on clear, real-time hiring metrics to make decisions. Additionally, Tellent Recruitee has increased its pricing recently, though to be fair, those increases have come alongside meaningful feature updates.

Semrush, Mark and Spencer, Transcom, Taco Bell, Toyota, Asus, Livestorm, Rakuten.

Tellent Recruitee offers three annual plans with an 18-day free trial.

• Start costs €270/month for 5 job slots and basic recruitment tools.
• Advance at €343/month, provides unlimited job slots, workflow automation, and permission settings.
• Optimize priced at €1,374/month, includes API access, dedicated customer success, and guided onboarding.

Tellent Recruitee’s latest updates bring in smarter automation with Automated Actions, pre-onboarding through Journeys, and even AgencyHub to simplify working with external recruiters. We also found the new WhatsApp Hiring integration to be a nice way of cutting down on no-shows while keeping candidates engaged. On the HR side, updates like DATEV payroll integration, flexible time tracking, and customizable employee data views help extend Tellent Recruitee’s value past recruiting into everyday workforce management. All of this shows that while Tellent Recruitee remains simple enough for SMBs, it’s also evolving into a platform that can grow with them.

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 also 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.

Recooty offers a 15-day free trial. Their three paid subscription options start at $79 monthly (billed annually).

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.

Having looked at dozens of SMB-oriented ATS platforms, we find it impressive that BambooHR packs most of the essential recruiting features into a modestly priced HRIS package.

First, let’s discuss the ATS’s 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 the hiring process, 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.

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.

Keka ATS (named HIRO) gives SMB recruiters a full set of tools to manage hiring from requisition to offer, with the flexibility to adapt workflows to different roles and departments. In our demo, the left-hand navigation made it easy to access job postings, candidate lists, and reports without losing track of where we were in the process.

We started with job and requisition management, where hiring managers can create openings, define custom pipeline stages, and tailor them per department or role. Internal and social referral channels are built in, and an AI assistant can generate job descriptions from scratch. The system also supports internal job boards for promoting roles to current employees.

Candidate management is one of Keka ATS’s stronger areas. Recruiters can parse resumes, tag candidates, and assign them to talent pools for future openings. The demo showed three types of interview scheduling: online, face-to-face, and self-scheduling, the last of which lets candidates pick from pre-set time slots—something that reduces back-and-forth considerably. Each interview can be linked to scorecards, which help interviewers rate candidates against consistent criteria, minimizing bias.

Interestingly, there’s a duplicate detection feature that flags candidates who reapply too soon. Recruiters can set the “cool-down” period and choose whether to merge or overwrite old application data. In the Advanced plan, we also saw integrations with major job boards (LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster), assessment platforms, and video interview tools, plus CV-JD match scoring to quickly identify the best fits.

Offer management and preboarding are built in: recruiters can send offer letters, run them through an approval workflow, and collect candidate data through a dedicated portal. That data can then flow into Keka’s HR module if purchased, but the ATS itself is fully functional as a stand-alone tool.

However, from our experience, the buying and onboarding process felt more rigid than with many other ATS platforms we’ve tested. In fact, we aren’t happy that the “Free Trial” option stated on Keka’s site is just a tease, as once you sign up, you’re booked in for a sales demo before you can actually touch the product.

We’d recommend you factor in the implementation fee for setup and any HR/payroll integration, given that it could bump up the total cost more than you might expect at first glance. And the slow page load times we saw during our demo, although they could be just a one-off event due to a bad internet connection, may be something you’d want to keep in mind when exploring the platform yourself, especially if you’re a busy recruiting team handling dozens of candidates a day.

10,000+ companies, including eBay, Randstad, and ONEPLUS.

Keka offers two plans, Pro ($50/month/recruiter) and Advanced ($75/month/recruiter), both with free trials after sales demos.