10+ Best Applicant Tracking Systems for Small Businesses (2025)
The best ATS for small businesses, updated by our in-house HR tech experts and researchers for 2025.
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A small business ATS is software designed for teams with limited HR resources to digitize and enhance their applicant tracking process. For such companies, 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 proper ATS software catering to SMB growth will make you wonder why you spent so long making do with Excel.
In this guide, our HR tech experts will introduce you to a few relatively affordable applicant tracking systems for small businesses that will pay off dividends if you’re looking to streamline your hiring process with automation, improve your recruitment efficiency, or better your employer brand and candidate experience.
We have assessed over 50 applicant tracking systems specifically through the lens of small business needs, combining hands-on product testing, live vendor demos, and expert and user feedback. Based on our research and experience, the best ATS platforms for small businesses tend to excel in resume parsing, job posting, pipeline management/user experience, and integration capacity.
- Resume Parsing: The ability to reliably parse resumes and provide meaningful analytics is a core feature of any ATS, but for small businesses, it’s especially critical due to their often modest human resources. A small business can’t afford a bad hire, but you also don’t want to spend countless precious hours going through hundreds of resumes. Hence, resume parsing should filter the best candidates, saving you time. To gauge each ATS’s resume parsing capability, we ran simulations where we sent sample resumes through the system’s application pipeline and assessed how well it extracted and organized key data.
- Job Posting: Whether a small business is expanding across borders or focusing on niche roles, tight budgets are a universal challenge. That’s why we prioritized ATS tools that maximize job posting efficiency by offering access to a good mix of job boards (both general and niche) and provide tools like job description crafting, salary estimators, and language support to help teams tailor postings effectively. To ensure job ads meet relevant legal requirements, we also verified that each platform complies with GDPR and EEOC standards and maintains a clear audit trail of job posting activity.
- Pipeline Management and User Experience: Pipeline management supports automation and efficiency, the foundation of candidate experience. A well-designed small business ATS 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. Then, we assessed the performance from both the candidate's and recruiter's perspectives.
- ATS Integration: Compatibility with other software is essential because even at small businesses, the candidate pipeline tends to and should weave through multiple internal data points and systems, such as calendars for scheduling, candidate sourcing tools, and background check services. 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.
You can read our HR tech assessment process for more details.
Greenhouse
We've long found Greenhouse to be a formidable player in the ATS market, particularly in supporting the growth of SMBs with global operations and/or value-driven, unbiased hiring. Its job boards support 19 languages, while its resume anonymization auto-masks candidates' personal details. Remarkably, it's one of the rare few platforms we've encountered that can parse resumes in 26 languages.
PROS
- Offers access to more than 1,000 job boards.
- Built-in internal mobility, referral programs, and onboarding capabilities.
- Interview kits for structured assessment of candidate skills, traits, and qualifications.
- Resume parsing in 26 languages, job boards in 19 languages, and interviews in 6 languages.
- Resume anonymization removes personal details like photos, names, and gender from resumes.
- Send branded, automated email and text notifications from your company’s domain.
- Over 500 pre-built integrations and an open API for seamless connectivity.
- Greenhouse's onboarding feature is built and executed well. New hires transition smoothly from candidate to employee.
- iOS and Android apps work well for recruiters on the go. Users can review applications, schedule interviews, view candidates' profiles, and more.
- 450+ third-party integrations.
CONS
- While they are suitable for the SMB market, they tend to do better with headcounts of 75+.
- Undisclosed pricing. No free trial is available.
- No monthly subscription option. Higher priced than some competitors.
- Bulk reject and email features are available in the Candidates tab, but not during the application review stage.
- The new UI, released in 2024, has garnered negative feedback from some users, who have found it more challenging to navigate than the previous version.
- Greenhouse’s pricing is undisclosed, and they do not offer a trial version.
- Some users note that reporting customization is quite limited and difficult to navigate.
- In-person/live support could be improved.
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.
Best For
Regarding their SMB offering, Greenhouse is best paired with growth-focused organizations. Those burgeoning companies hiring at volume and operating internationally, while small, stand to make the most out of this ATS.
Greenhouse is used daily by Talent Acquisition team members and regularly by hiring managers and HR Business Partners for managing job requisitions.
The two workflows with the most impact for us are candidate management and interview management.
The candidate management workflow gives us access to applicants for specific roles and helps identify qualified candidates from our broader talent pool—functioning like a second set of eyes during sourcing.
We especially value the interview management workflow. It allows us to create interview rubrics to evaluate all aspects of a role and candidate pool, coordinate interviews efficiently, and uphold fairness and objectivity in our hiring practices.
- Interview management—including questions, candidate scoring rubrics, and scheduling—takes place in a centralized system.
- Candidate management, including profiles, resumes, communications, and sourcing, is a fully integrated process.
- Implementation was simple and aligned well with our needs.
When I was at a tech firm, we struggled with every aspect of talent acquisition being fragmented and manual. Once we decided to invest in our talent acquisition ecosystem, Greenhouse was an obvious choice to consider.
We needed a central location to manage core activities such as talent pipeline candidate scoring, internal team coordination, and a method for tracking key performance indicators (KPIs).
Greenhouse evolved and continued to offer new solutions as our needs changed. These included tools to improve the candidate experience, maintain alignment with stakeholders throughout the hiring process, and manage onboarding efficiently.
- Dashboard features are limited unless you opt for a higher-priced plan.
- Product and pricing information could be more accessible; having a full team reach out during initial research can be off-putting.
- Language translation is functional, but the selection of languages is limited and results can be inconsistent.
Greenhouse stands out for its interview management workflow, which surpasses other tools we have used. Dashboards and onboarding, however, are less advanced compared to competitors.
We recommend understanding your top priorities or pain points when selecting an ATS. Whether you need talent pipeline visibility, requisition volume management, or critical data/KPIs, these factors should guide your choice.
Every ATS has strengths and areas for improvement. Make sure the solution you choose addresses your most urgent needs from the outset.
Greenhouse has added onboarding capabilities, which has been a helpful addition.
Greenhouse is well-suited for organizations that recruit directly and coordinate among multiple stakeholders such as candidates, HR teams, and hiring managers. It provides a centralized space for all hiring-related collaboration.
I can't think of an organization that couldn’t use Greenhouse, but implementing a new system takes effort. If only one workflow is relevant or impactful, it may not justify the investment.
Workable
We found Workable an excellent ATS for small businesses because it combines ease of use, broad job posting reach, and scalable features that help lean teams run structured, professional hiring processes without needing extra tools or technical support.
PROS
- Allows SMBs to explore the platform’s offerings via a 15-day free trial.
- 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.
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.
Best For
Workable’s ATS is a good bet for small businesses aiming to scale, as you can start small and know the platform has the capacity to handle more complex needs as you grow.
When Synergized was still using Workable, it was part of our daily workflow. My area of the company is Recruiting, so I appreciated the easy access and having all the tools readily available to find prospective candidates.
The key workflow involved job posting and sourcing. Being able to post across multiple platforms during high-volume periods helped significantly reduce time spent searching for applicants.
As mentioned, collaboration and feedback are important for all agencies but especially effective for small teams. This also helped reduce time spent on lengthy processes by allowing us to quickly see where candidates stood and how they were rated moving forward.
- Workable provides powerful analytics and reporting tools that supported hiring decisions.
- It facilitates team collaboration and communication with real-time feedback.
- It streamlines job postings across multiple boards, simplifying the process.
Synergized implemented Workable for candidate sourcing across multiple job boards such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor. After a year of use, it proved beneficial for building a customized hiring pipeline and facilitating team collaboration.
Synergized is a small team, so Workable was useful for tracking candidates through different stages while allowing team members to share feedback or leave comments on prospective hires.
Workable was also efficient in helping us review recruiting analytics and reports, so we could evaluate the effectiveness of our hiring process. This included reviewing sources of hire, time to hire, and other key metrics.
- Workable is expensive for smaller teams, which is ultimately why we switched platforms.
- The user interface could be simplified, as the large number of features can be overwhelming for smaller agencies.
- Although Workable posts across several platforms, its reach is still somewhat limited considering the cost.
Workable has strong sourcing features, but it’s harder to justify the price when other platforms offer more advanced features and integrations. Its effectiveness depends on your company’s size and specific needs. If you are primarily using the platform for job posting, it could be a good fit.
Choosing a user-friendly interface is important. If platforms are overloaded with features, they can become overwhelming. Finding an ATS that integrates with multiple boards and platforms will help streamline the hiring process efficiently.
While some companies may not need in-platform collaboration, having the ability to take notes and track applicant status is key for maintaining efficiency and consistent communication.
Workable has implemented automated resume screening and interview scheduling, which helps reduce the time it takes to hire a candidate. The platform is also expanding the number of interfaces it integrates with, which allows for more diverse candidate sourcing.
Workable is better suited for larger companies due to its price and extensive features. Larger organizations may benefit more from its communication tools and automated scheduling. It can significantly reduce the time required to complete recruitment tasks.
Smaller agencies may find it cost-ineffective and may not need all the features. These organizations often have more time to engage personally with applicants, so the platform's interface may not offer enough value for their hiring needs.
AvaHR
AvaHR has done a nice job with its customized hiring automation frameworks. We enjoyed the ability to post to 50+ job boards for free while showcasing our company culture with videos, photos, and text. Additionally, the Pipeline Triggers, which automate routine tasks based on the candidate's progress, are a standout feature that we've found to be quite rare among SMB-focused ATS solutions.
PROS
- Culture Profiles let you add videos, photos, and text to showcase your company's work environment.
- Pipeline Triggers automate repetitive actions based on a candidate's stage, such as sending thank-you emails or requesting hiring team feedback.
- Custom questionnaire builder for candidate pre-assessments.
- Data migration service is available at no additional cost.
- Transparent pricing, free trial available.
- Culture Profiles let you add videos, photos, and text to showcase your company's work environment.
- Pipeline Triggers automate repetitive actions based on a candidate's stage, such as sending thank-you emails or requesting hiring team feedback.
- Custom questionnaire builder for candidate pre-assessments.
- Data migration service is available at no additional cost.
- Transparent pricing, free trial available.
CONS
- No free plan, a free trial requires a credit card.
- Pricier than competitors like Loxo and Zoho Recruit.
- Additional charges for features like eSignatures and employee referrals.
- Interview scheduling feature is unavailable (still in development).
- No free plan, a free trial requires a credit card.
- Pricier than competitors like Loxo and Zoho Recruit.
- Additional charges for features like eSignatures and employee referrals.
- Interview scheduling feature is unavailable (still in development).
AvaHR stood out in our tests as a well-designed and functional ATS with solid automation and reporting features.
One apparent plus of this vendor is its transparent pricing and free trial offerings across its subscription plans. We signed up for the free trial of the Standard plan using a Gmail account. The only downside was having to provide credit card information to activate the trial, but other than that, the process was a breeze. Within minutes, we were all set to explore the tool.
Our first impression of AvaHR’s UI was that it was so well thought out. There was nearly nothing to be confused about. And it’s easy on the eye, too. Take the example of their AI job description creator. During our testing, it impressed us with the solid draft it produced with just a few sentences of role requirements provided. We also found it easy to get our application form ready. All we needed to do was define which fields were required and which were optional in the form settings.
The Candidates section gave us a bird’s-eye view of all applicants, including their application dates, stages in the hiring process, and contact details. There was also a convenient Filters button in the top right corner that let us filter candidates based on their tag, stage, job title, department, and a few others. The system didn’t take more than a few seconds to provide results in our tests, but we couldn’t help but be disappointed to discover there was no Boolean or custom filter to be found.
AvaHR’s reporting met our expectations for an SMB-focused ATS. The tool has done a great job of providing key data, from total impressions to page views, clicks, and applications for each job posting. We particularly appreciated the clear visualizations offered by the overview bar and line chart. It made it easier to watch how our jobs were performing.
For businesses migrating from another ATS, you’re in luck! AvaHR’s team offers to handle data import at no extra fee.
However, we did notice that this ATS is slightly pricier than some competitors like Zoho Recruit. Additionally, features like eSignatures and employee referrals are not included in the lowest subscription plans and must be purchased separately if you want to use them.
1,000+ companies, including BuzzRX, Redirect Health, State Farm, and Margaritaville.
AvaHR offers three plans: Starter ($89/month), Grow ($179/month), and Pro ($279/month).
Best For
AvaHR is best suited for U.S.-based small to medium-sized businesses with 100 or more employees.
I use AvaHR daily to manage job postings, screen candidates, and coordinate hiring efforts across multiple dental offices. One of our most important workflows involves customizing hiring pipelines for each client, tailoring the process to meet their specific needs while keeping everything organized.
I rely heavily on AvaHR’s automated email tools to keep candidates engaged and informed, eliminating the need for manual follow-ups at every stage. The ability to easily share candidate profiles and notes with hiring managers has made collaboration much smoother.
AvaHR helps us stay efficient, professional, and responsive—qualities that are critical when supporting busy dental practices that can't afford hiring delays.
- AvaHR makes it incredibly easy to customize hiring pipelines for each dental office we support, offering flexibility without added complexity.
- The automated communication tools save us considerable time and ensure every candidate receives timely, professional responses.
- The interface is clean and intuitive, enabling both our team and clients to start using it with minimal training.
- Customer support is responsive and genuinely helpful whenever we have questions or need assistance.
At Desert Dental Staffing, we were looking for a solution that could streamline our internal hiring and support the many dental practices we partner with. Before using AvaHR, we managed too many manual processes and spent hours following up with candidates and clients.
We needed a tool that was user-friendly, scalable across multiple locations, and professional enough to reflect the high standards of the dental offices we serve. AvaHR met all those requirements. It allows us to centralize hiring, automate candidate communication, and deliver a seamless, branded experience for each client.
I’ve personally used AvaHR for over three years, and it has become a key part of how we help dental businesses fill roles more quickly, efficiently, and with less hassle.
- The mobile experience could be more streamlined to make managing tasks on the go quicker and more efficient.
- The platform does not currently include features for verifying dental-specific certifications or licenses, which would be a valuable addition during candidate screening.
- Some of our dental clients would prefer built-in scheduling tools that better align with typical dental office hours and appointment flows to simplify interview coordination.
Compared to JazzHR, which I’ve used before, AvaHR feels more modern and user-friendly, with a cleaner interface that simplifies the hiring process. While JazzHR has solid features, AvaHR’s automation tools—particularly those for candidate communication and pipeline customization—are more intuitive and flexible.
We also appreciate AvaHR’s ability to scale across multiple locations without becoming overly complex. Overall, we prefer AvaHR because it strikes a better balance between functionality and ease of use, enabling us to hire efficiently without requiring extensive training.
When selecting a hiring tool like AvaHR, prioritize ease of use so your team can adapt quickly. Look for automation features that reduce repetitive tasks, especially those involving candidate communication.
Ensure the platform allows for process customization to fit your organization’s specific needs. Integration with your current software and the quality of customer support are also critical factors. Testing the platform with your team before committing can help confirm whether it's a good fit.
AvaHR has evolved significantly to meet the changing needs of its users, especially small to mid-sized businesses seeking efficient hiring solutions. Notable enhancements include:
- Enhanced Automation with Pipeline Triggers: Customizable triggers automate tasks based on a candidate's stage in the pipeline.
- Advanced Candidate Engagement Tools: Culture Profiles allow businesses to showcase their work environments through videos, photos, and text, attracting culturally aligned candidates.
- Seamless Integrations: AvaHR has integrated with tools like Gmail and Google Sheets via Zapier, improving communication and data workflows.
- User-Friendly Interface and Onboarding: The platform delivers an intuitive interface and quick onboarding experience, allowing teams to start hiring efficiently with minimal setup.
AvaHR is ideal for small to mid-sized businesses looking to streamline their hiring process. It is particularly well-suited for medical and dental practices. Any business facing organizational challenges in recruiting or looking to save time and money will benefit from using this tool.
AvaHR may not be the best fit for large enterprises that require a comprehensive, full-scale HR management system.
Zoho Recruit
Like most Zoho products, Zoho Recruit is affordable and feature-rich. The ATS is a strong choice for small businesses, offering a free plan that provides small teams with access to core tools, including job posting, candidate management, and interview scheduling, without upfront costs.
PROS
- Combines ATS + candidate CRM in one system, giving small teams an all-in-one tool to track applicants and manage relationships.
- Free plan and scalable paid tiers with a 15-day free trial and a 45-day money-back guarantee.
- 24/5 support available.
- 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 is limited to just one active job and 256MB of storage.
- 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.
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.
Best For
Zoho Recruit is best for small businesses and small agencies that want a cost-effective ATS and candidate CRM solution with the flexibility to scale.
I use Zoho Recruit primarily in my role as a recruiter for my client. It serves as their main ATS, where candidate applications are collected, and job posts are distributed across the company website and other platforms. I manage requisitions from applicant screening through to endorsement and onboarding.
I also source candidates from their ATS, treating it as a warm lead source to re-engage past applicants. For screening, I use Zoho to contact candidates, schedule interviews, and leave notes for hiring managers, making it a central database for applicant and candidate history.
I use the resume parser feature to upload candidate data by simply sending an email with a resume attachment to a designated parser address. This automatically creates a profile, which I can then link to the appropriate requisition.
- It is very user-friendly and allows nearly all recruitment tasks to be done within the system.
- Communication with candidates, status updates, document uploads, and resume parsing can all be managed from within the ATS.
- The system is easy to navigate and most fields and workflows are editable.
- The steps within the ATS are fully customizable, offering great flexibility.
- It integrates well with Outlook and provides seamless communication updates to hiring managers within the system.
My client wanted a more functional central CRM and ATS system. They have been using Zoho since 2024, so it is relatively new to their team. I am not familiar with their previous ATS system or the other Zoho functionalities in use, but I have primarily worked within Zoho Recruit.
So far, I have been using it for three months. It has helped create a centralized process for recruitment and talent tracking.
- The sourcing interface could be more seamless without needing to switch back and forth between the main dashboard and landing pages.
- Boolean search functionality could be improved, as results are inconsistent—too broad yields mixed results, and too narrow yields none.
- Location-based filters significantly reduce search results, and only one location can be input at a time, which is inefficient.
It is surprisingly easy to use and one of the quickest ATS platforms to learn. It offers strong email functionality and excellent accessibility for stakeholders outside the Talent Acquisition team. It also integrates well with various sourcing platforms for job postings and vacancy marketing.
Pricing will depend on how well Zoho Recruit fits within your existing tech stack. If you need a highly customizable, easy-to-learn solution, it can be very efficient. It is especially suitable for teams that are new or still developing their hiring processes. Zoho Recruit also has AI capabilities that are worth exploring.
I have not used it long enough to comment on how it has evolved.
Zoho Recruit is well-suited for mid-sized to large companies. My client, with approximately 1,100 employees, has found it very effective.
Zoho Recruit may not be ideal for smaller organizations with limited budgets or without a strong HR or IT team to support integrations.
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.
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.
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.
As a Manager of Talent Acquisition, I use Recruit CRM in various ways. It helps me track the number of employees in our pipeline accurately. I also create Candidate Lifecycle Reports for senior team review and decision-making. The tool assists in creating job listing pages, posting jobs, and managing online application procedures. This comprehensive functionality supports my workflow and enhances our recruitment process.
The professional user interface and advanced search features allow candidates to filter jobs by location, date, and interest. The pricing is favorable, making it accessible for smaller businesses. Integration with Google Meet and Microsoft Teams is straightforward, and the customizable email templates save time.
It has been three years since we started using Recruit CRM. Our company needed a solution to communicate with employees without relying on separate emails and to enhance our HR management capabilities. Recruit CRM has streamlined remote interviews, eliminating the need for physical offices. The integration with Google Meet and Microsoft Teams has made it easy to conduct 1:1 online meetings with candidates, interns, and employees. This tool has significantly improved my efficiency as a Human Resource professional.
Integrating with a custom email for sending emails from our job email requires knowledge of SMTP integration. The tool lacks Zoom and Webex integrations, which we often use, forcing us to switch to supported tools. Creating employee reports requires skill, as there are no templates available for this module.
Recruit CRM offers job listing, deal-making, online meeting integration, and document management at the same price, while competitors charge extra for these add-ons.
Consider the size of your HR needs and the team you will manage with this tool to ensure it remains cost-effective in the long run. Assess the tool’s features against your organization's requirements to determine its suitability.
While there haven't been many changes, new features like job listing and online interview modules have been added.
Recruit CRM is ideal for recruiting companies and Human Resource departments.
It may not be suitable for smaller businesses with few team members.
Pinpoint
While often seen as a tool for mid-sized and growing companies, we found Pinpoint to be a strong fit for small businesses with ambitious growth plans. It combines an intuitive ATS with a built-in talent CRM, robust automation workflows, and customizable career sites.
PROS
- Pinpoint’s ATS is highly customizable and values collaborative hiring.
- Pinpoint offers unlimited active jobs, team members, external recruiters, training, and support for all users regardless of their plans.
- The customer support team is helpful and responsive to customers’ requests.
- The pricing is transparent. Startups with under 50 people can benefit from its discounted pricing.
- It’s got a robust career site builder you can easily customize without the help of IT.
- It provides over 100 third-party integrations. Also offers custom integrations (but only for Enterprise plan).
- Pinpoint is an agile ATS that is highly customizable and values collaborative hiring.
- It’s got a simple and transparent pricing structure.
- Pinpoint offers unlimited jobs and team members in all of its plans.
- Their customer service team is highly praised by users.
- The career site builder is very robust, allowing teams to attract and convert the right talent.
- There are over 100 HR software integrations to choose from, and Pinpoint’s team is adding 3-5 every month.
CONS
- Pinpoint offers its employee onboarding module with additional fees.
- It can be expensive for budget-minded teams.
- Doesn’t offer a free trial or free version.
- Multilingual support is only available for the Enterprise plan.
- The employee onboarding module does cost extra.
- It isn’t the best fit if you’re looking for the cheapest ATS.
- There isn’t a free trial or free version at this time.
Pinpoint's applicant tracking system is highly regarded by users for its intuitive interface, neat automation workflows, and robust career site builder, 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.
Best For
Pinpoint is a good choice for small in-house recruiting teams that value a polished, candidate-friendly ATS with exceptional customer support.
We use Pinpoint daily, it's an ATS, so it does the typical things an ATS does. This includes, creating career pages on our corporate website that explains some basics about Article, and allows a candidate to decide if they’d they feel they’d be aligned to working with us.
On the career site, all the open jobs are visible for potential candidates to see. They can then decide to apply, upload a resume and fill in some basic info. On our side of the ATS, we create the jobs that are posted - designing the interview flows, application questions, and scorecards, then advertising them to the selected job boards.
We use Pinpoint to evaluate the viability of applicants, referrals, and candidates we source, being a single point of truth. Once candidates are selected to proceed, we use Pinpoint to move through the interview process, giving the hiring manager visibility into the hiring process.
For candidates, we use Pinpoint to schedule and communicate with candidates, who are selected for this process, but also to reject those candidates who are not. There is a lot more of course but this is a basic walk-through, and I’d assume if you’re reading this, you have a good idea of what an ATS does.
They're an ATS that is ascending, and not coasting on reputation; they've continuing to evolve, with new useful features, and integrations quickly rolling out.
Overall, I’d argue that Pinpoint puts candidates first, with easy applications and great branded communication. Adding to this, candidate-centric design is the built-in self-scheduling for interviews, and including a candidate NPS score - this is key to letting my team and I understand the candidate experience.
The new automation feature they launched where you can create rejection emails based on application questions has saved my team a lot of time by not having to screen candidates who do not meet minimal requirements, currently, this is about 29% of applications. We have been creating custom rejection emails for each automation, this allows the candidate to know specifically why they were rejected, and if they answered the application incorrectly by mistake, allow them to reapply.
I’m also a fan of their pronoun feature, which allows candidates to share their preferred pronouns. Little touches can make a huge difference when building inclusive hiring practices.
They continue to have fantastic support and as a partner, they really care about my team and our success. Adding to this are the people they hire, who are really great and it makes interacting with them so much easier.
With less talk/hype and more substance, you can tell they focus on the product and customers, not on the hype marketing machine jumping on whatever the trendy topic is.
We have used Pinpoint for 2+ years now, with a TA team that was quickly growing (we’d have over 20 users at peak). As an organization, we had just started hyperscaling, and we end up growing over 3x in under 18 months.
As we started on this journey, I quickly found that the ATS we were using, couldn’t keep it up. It was, designed for SMBs and smaller recruitment teams. One of the biggest pain points was it lacked the ability to reject candidates through an anonymous email, instead, when candidates were rejected it came from each recruiter's email - given the volume of applicants, this solution was not feasible and would lead to a poor candidate experience.
Additionally, the previous ATS ecosystem was small and wasn’t growing quickly, and it lacked the ability to build a career site out of the box.
We also needed the ATS to be easy to use, not just for the recruiters, but also, for the number of new hiring managers who would quickly need to understand how to use the ATS. This made the case to look replace the old ATS clear, we made a scorecard and started to evaluate our ATS options, ultimately landing on Pinpoint.
- Some of the UI/UX could be improved, particularly when you're screening large volumes of candidates, minor but it would be helpful.
- Because it lacks a deep integration into LinkedIn, we need to use LinkedIn’s “job wrapping” feature.
- The newer automation feature is really powerful, however, setting them up requires too many clicks, it’s not a huge deal, but it could be made smoother.
Much easier application process than most ATSs, making it very candidate friendly. Overall, they nail the mid-market really well, with enough features, integrations, and reporting, but they’re not hard to use and overly cumbersome compared to big ‘enterprisey’ ATSs.
When selecting an ATS I’m a proponent of using the following ranking:
- Candidate experience, regardless of the market, the best talent will always have options, if the application experience and communication experience is poor, they’ll choose to work elsewhere
- Recruiter experience since they use the tool the most. If they don’t like it, or it’s overly complex they’re going to work around it, rather than through it
- Hiring manager experience, will they log in, and actually use it
- Support, if I have an issue will it get resolved?
- Ecosystem/ integrations, an ATS should not do everything, rather it’s the hub to connect point solutions with
- I'm a huge fan of how they rolled out candidate pronouns, allowing candidates to share their preferred pronouns when applying.
- Multiple new integrations have been launched.
- Much faster page loading response times from when we first rolled it out.
Mid-sized to enterprise organizations.
I'm not sure. Maybe small companies that don't have a dedicated HR team.
JazzHR
Purposely built for teams with less than 500 employees, JazzHR provides almost every key feature of an ATS, like career pages, employer branding, candidate sourcing, and talent CRM, at a transparent and affordable price. Free trials are also available.
PROS
- JazzHR is quite affordable and doesn’t place any limits on the number of users added. It also offers a free, 21-day trial that anyone can sign up for.
- It’s got built-in features for offer management. You can choose from existing offer letter templates or create your own and share them with successful candidates.
- You can automate triggers for candidates to be automatically notified via email when their application has moved a stage further in the hiring process. Several other email responses can be automated.
- JazzHR is quite affordable and doesn’t place any limits on the number of users added. It also offers free, 21-day trials that anyone can sign up for.
- JazzHR has built-in features for offer management. You can choose from existing offer letter templates or create your own and share them with successful candidates
- You can automate triggers for candidates to be automatically notified via email when their application has moved a stage further in the hiring process. Several other email responses can be automated.
CONS
- Some users reported a learning curve with JazzHR's UI and that it took them some time to get used to it.
- Although a product geared towards SMBs, it lacks a free plan. We mention this as a con since other SMB-geared recruiting products often do offer free-forever versions, which puts JazzHR slightly behind the competition.
- Several users have mentioned that the reporting feature is difficult to use, with very little room for report customizations.
- JazzHR currently lacks a mobile app, and the browser version isn’t well-optimized for mobile use.
- Some users reported a learning curve with JazzHR's UI and that it took them some time to get used to it
- For a product geared towards SMBs, it lacks a free plan. We mention this as a con since other SMB-geared recruiting products do offer free-forever versions, which puts JazzHR slightly behind the competition.
- Several users have mentioned that the reporting feature is difficult to use with very little room for report customizations.
- JazzHR currently lacks a mobile app, and the browser version isn’t well-optimized for mobile use.
JazzHR 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.
Best For
JazzHR is specifically built for teams at organizations with 5 to 500 employees, regardless of industry or recruiting maturity.
I used JazzHR daily as the primary platform in my role as a recruiter. I primarily used it to receive candidate applications from the career site and job boards. We also used the platform to share resumes and applications with hiring managers and to schedule interviews.
Candidates were moved through the hiring process accordingly, and all hiring managers had visibility into the positions and applicants. The career page was also used to receive applicants directly from the company website.
- JazzHR is a simple hiring platform that is easy to understand.
- The user interface is clean and easy to navigate.
- It supports the basic functions of hiring for teams without much experience in recruiting or using ATS software.
I was consulting for a company in HVAC and transportation that needed to increase its headcount substantially for a project. We needed software that was simple for hiring managers to use. Since the hiring managers had limited experience with recruitment, more complex ATS programs were not a good choice.
JazzHR had a decent number of job board integrations and was easy to understand. Building workflows in the system was reasonably straightforward. I used this platform for about two years during this project.
- It’s difficult to manage multiple hiring managers who lack recruitment experience.
- When hiring for multiple locations, job postings can become confusing, especially if the titles are too long.
- There are not enough filters to sort through previous applicants effectively.
JazzHR is suitable for basic hiring projects. It’s very easy to get started and is simple to understand, especially for users without much experience in recruitment or talent acquisition.
Consider your level of experience with applicant tracking systems. If you have limited experience with recruiting and using an ATS, this software will likely suit your needs. If your hiring process is complex, a more advanced system may be a better fit.
JazzHR now offers several add-on features such as texting and digital signatures. It also has a wide range of integrations with other HR programs, which are helpful for hiring and onboarding.
JazzHR is ideal for small-to-medium-sized businesses hiring for basic roles. It works well for organizations without a dedicated hiring expert.
JazzHR is not suitable for organizations focused solely on recruitment, such as recruitment consultancies or agencies.
Teamtailor
Teamtailor’s biggest selling feature is its career page, which is well-built and so easy to navigate. The SMB-focused ATS platform also features elements that promote diversity, equality, and inclusion throughout the hiring process. Plus, free 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, 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.
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.
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.
- Recruitee is highly rated for ease of use and quick implementation.
- It offers a customizable, kanban-style recruiting pipeline with adjustable stages.
- The software also helps reduce hiring bias by allowing permission level adjustments for interviewers, preventing them from seeing each other's candidate scores.
- Quarterly product updates based on users’ feedback.
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).
- Some features (skill assessments, onboarding, video interviewing, e-signatures) are only available via third-party integrations.
- Anonymous candidates’ resume screening still in development.
- No monthly contract option.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
- We use Recruitee as an Application Tracking System on a daily basis.
- We have five job openings right now, and each one of them has distinct pipelines, responsibilities, and workflows.
- Email tracking. All emails are tracked within the tool, making it easy to manage and understand all communications made by our employees and applicants.
- Questionnaires. We can create custom questionnaires and send them to applicants. Their answers are collected and kept automatically on their profiles.
- Interview scheduling. It's easy to send a link to users so they can schedule their interview directly within the app.
We've been looking for an ATS (Application Tracking System) for a long time, and we've been using Recruitee for about 3 years. As a small game development studio, handling the dozens of applications we receive daily takes time. By using Recruitee, we're able to properly categorize, evaluate and keep records for every applicant.
- Pricing. It's one of the most expensive ATS in its category.
- It's not trivial to change the pipeline steps. If we could change the pipeline steps directly on the pipeline screen, it would be awesome.
- Mobile application is still far from ideal, and has some bugs.
- We've tried many other ATS systems, but Recruitee was the best I could find in this price range.
- The best parts of it are the application workflow and how easy is to keep all information we have on an applicant on his profile.
I recommend keeping an eye on how the communication between the applicants is handled within the app. When trying ATS tools, make sure to apply with another email so you can evaluate the whole pipeline.
The tool hasn't changed significantly over the last 3 years, so I can't speak a lot about this.
It fits companies that need to be more efficient in it's hiring processes, normally larger than 20 people.
Budget is an issue, so if you have a really small company with a tight budget, you might need another solution.
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
- Features a user-friendly and simple interface for easy navigation.
- Offers competitive pricing, ensuring accessibility for small businesses.
- Users can test the software before subscribing through a free trial.
- Provides full set of ATS basics, including job posting, candidate tracking, interview scheduling, candidate assessment, offer management, and onboarding.
- Enables efficient job posting to multiple platforms with a "one-click" solution.
- Supports eight 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
- Lacks mobile applications.
- No Chrome extension for importing candidates (e.g., from LinkedIn).
- Limited integrations (Slack and LinkedIn only).
- Suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
- Not ideal for large enterprises with extensive hiring needs across multiple locations.
- The company does not have a mobile application.
- Recruitment features can be quite basic compared to some competitors.
- Integrations are somewhat limited.
- Not suitable for large enterprises with more job postings and locations.
Recooty is great for SMBs looking for an easy-to-use, affordable, and efficient applicant tracking system. However, if you're looking for a more robust solution with more features, you may want to consider a different ATS.
Our in-house assessment showed that Recooty is a plug-and-play tool. It is easy to set up and easy to navigate. Users can post jobs to multiple boards, track applicants, and set up automated email notifications with just a few clicks. It’s not an exaggeration to say Recooty is a self-explanatory ATS.
Another thing we like about Recooty is its affordability. The software is priced competitively, and you can even start with the free plan. Though it’s limited to one active job at a time, it offers some good features like branded career pages, multiple job boards, and unlimited applications.
Recooty supports not only English but 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).
Best For
Recooty is an affordable ATS option ideal for small to mid-sized businesses needing minimal setup and multilingual hiring capabilities.
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.
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.
Best For
BambooHR is an excellent choice for small businesses, ideally U.S.-based and rapidly growing, that are looking for a feature-rich HRIS with ATS tools built in, all at a reasonable price.
I frequently used the hiring and onboarding workflows. I used the system to post jobs, track candidates, and coordinate with hiring managers. It was helpful that hiring managers could leave feedback on candidates directly in the platform.
Tracking candidate progress through hiring stages was simple and transparent. Interview scheduling was streamlined with calendar sync capabilities. Email templates also supported quick follow-ups and added efficiency to the recruitment process.
- BambooHR automates many tedious HR tasks, saving time for higher-value work.
- The system supports seamless collaboration across departments, keeping everyone aligned.
- The onboarding experience for new hires is smooth and creates a welcoming impression.
At the time, the organization was experiencing challenges with recruitment and was using an outdated HRIS. They adopted BambooHR, which was extremely helpful due to its built-in ATS. This enabled faster and more streamlined recruitment processes.
Over time, the organization transitioned away from the previous HRIS entirely, as BambooHR proved to be an effective all-in-one solution. It handled several key HR functions efficiently, which added value across the organization.
- More customization options would be beneficial, as there are limitations on the number of workflows that can be created.
- The ATS is fairly basic and lacks features like resume screening, which is a drawback.
- Pricing became a concern as the organization grew—while manageable at first, costs increased significantly with scale.
BambooHR is a strong option for small to mid-sized businesses that don't require complex systems. The simplicity and ease of use make it accessible and easy to adopt.
Scalability and customization are two important factors to consider. For small businesses needing a basic, user-friendly system, BambooHR is a great option that’s cost-effective and easy to learn.
I am unsure, as I have not used BambooHR recently.
BambooHR is well suited for small organizations and users with limited HRIS experience.
BambooHR may not be suitable for large organizations with complex HR processes or those requiring advanced functionality for experienced HR professionals.
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 startups and SMBs with limited budgets who are seeking an easy-to-use ATS with AI features, Manatal is a top choice.
Keka
Keka’s ATS offers a well-rounded mix of recruiting tools, automation options, and integration potential. We were drawn to its flexibility, as SMBs can use it as a stand-alone system or connect it with Keka’s HR, payroll, and performance modules for a single-platform experience. Its tiered pricing makes it accessible for smaller teams while offering advanced automation, integrations, and customization for more complex hiring needs.
PROS
- Customizable hiring stages and requisition workflows for each department.
- AI-assisted job description creation and built-in resume parsing.
- Candidate self-scheduling and structured interview scorecards.
- Duplicate application detection with configurable reapplication rules.
- Advanced tier adds workflow automation, CV-JD match scoring, and integrations with job boards, assessments, and video interviews.
- Federal and state tax filing is included at all tiers.
- Flexible pay schedules with direct deposit support.
- Overtime and leave policy automation to match local labor laws.
- Benefits, loans, and expense tracking in one place.
- Built-in dashboards and reports to monitor payroll trends.
- Accounting integrations for streamlined finance workflows.
CONS
- No self-service free trial; demo with sales is required first.
- Implementation fee applies for setup and (if needed) HR/payroll integration.
- Platform was slow to load during our demo.
- “Free Trial” access is gated behind a sales demo and disclosed only after signup.
- Implementation fees for setup, tax configuration, and data migration.
- Advanced tools (custom reports, asset tracking, engagement surveys) only available in higher tiers.
- Multi-entity payroll and API access require add-on fees.
- Slow load times in the demo raise usability concerns about payroll deadlines.
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.
Best For
Small to mid-sized businesses seeking a flexible ATS that can operate independently or integrate with Keka’s HR/payroll products as they grow.
Why You Should Trust Us
The contributors to this buyer guide represent decades of experience and perspective. We called on Stefanie Sher (Director of Talent Acquisition, Replicated), Tracie Marie (Founder, Hire Incentive), Zachary Larson (People Operations leader with 10+ years experience), Phil Strazzulla (SSR Founder), Huda Idris (SSR Software Advisor), and SSR HR Tech Researcher and Editor Anh Nguyen to help you find the right tool for your team.
Benefits of ATS for Small Businesses
Benefits of using an ATS for small businesses include saving time, improving the quality of hires, reducing costs, becoming more data-driven in recruitment, facilitating collaborative hiring, and building a talent pool.
- Save time: Recent applicant tracking system statistics show that recruiters can reduce time-to-hire by up to 20% when using an ATS solution. Additionally, 86% of recruiters report that ATS solutions have helped them shorten their time-to-hire, at least to some extent. For SMBs, these numbers mean fewer manual tasks and faster candidate movement through the pipeline, freeing up time for team members who often have to wear multiple hats beyond recruiting.
- Increase the quality of hire: Compared to manual applicant tracking, an ATS tailored to the needs of small businesses can aid tremendously in structured evaluations, reduce bias, and ensure that the most qualified candidates rise to the top. Statistically, 78% of recruiters confirm that an ATS has improved the quality of hire.
- Save money: Small businesses can enjoy $10,000 annual savings using an applicant tracking system. Output from our ATS calculator has shown that a 500-person company can save up to $468,000 from a new ATS.
- Become more data-driven with recruitment: Though the small teams are held to the same legal standard as larger ones, they generally don’t have the same access to legal counsel. A quality ATS will help cross the Ts and dot the Is, allowing your business to focus and grow.
- Forster collaborative hiring: In small businesses, where “wearing many hats” is the norm, an ATS brings structure and transparency to collaborative hiring. It organizes tasks, centralizes candidate information, and clarifies who’s responsible for what, helping teams work together efficiently without letting anything slip through the cracks.
- Build a talent pool: A high-quality talent pool doesn’t create itself. Small business ATSs typically can also function as a recruiting CRM, helping small businesses establish and nurture a repository of skilled workers. By creating and managing ongoing relationships with both passive and active job seekers, a lean team can reduce the effort and expense of filling a new role; they can simply tap into the existing pool rather than starting the search from scratch. Some tools even help with considering internal candidates.
How to Choose the Best ATS for Small Businesses
Small businesses seeking an applicant tracking system might find it helpful and time-saving to start by considering just 3 to 5 vendors recommended by industry experts. Additionally, reviewing user feedback, attending product demos, and trialing the ATS firsthand can provide valuable insights to help narrow down the choices further.
- Look for unbiased insights: Most ATS vendors have websites with plenty of information on how good their product(s) are, but rarely do they highlight gaps, trade-offs, or shortcomings. For this reason, we suggest you make the most of third-party reviews, buyer guides, and independent product breakdowns to gain a balanced view of each ATS’s pros and cons. This broader perspective helps you understand where each tool performs well (and where it may fall short) so you can make the right decision for your team’s realities.
- Learn from other small business ATS users: There’s a tremendous amount of value in the feedback of real product users, particularly those working at startups and small businesses. What are their ATS decision criteria? What are their expectations about hiring software vs. reality? How satisfied are they with the purchased ATS? In each of our small business ATS’s detailed reviews, we include insights directly from HR and recruiting professionals using the tools so that you can learn from their firsthand experiences.
- Talk to 3-5 most potential vendors: If your business is too small to justify sending out a formal ATS request for proposal (RFP), you'll need to vet companies yourself. Take advantage of our recommended tools to shortlist the top 3-5 relevant vendors. Then, schedule and come to their product demos prepared. We’d suggest having a list of applicant tracking system questions specific to your small business needs (whether they offer unlimited users, what automation features are included at entry-level plans, how well they support scaling as your hiring needs grow, etc.), as it can significantly help to identify which options match your priorities more efficiently.
Pro Tip: Shopping for a new ATS can be challenging. Contact our HR software advisor for free, personalized assistance in shortlisting vendors that fit your needs and budget.
Bonus Tips for First-Time Small Business ATS Buyers
If you’re a small business weighing whether to invest in an ATS and how to make the right choice, we recommend watching this insightful discussion with Phil Strazzulla, founder of SelectSoftware Reviews, and Rahul Bansal, CEO of TribalVision, as they delve into the whole process of choosing a system that fits your team’s size, budget, and long-term goals.
FAQs
What is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?
An applicant tracking system for small businesses is a hiring tool designed to help lean teams streamline and organize the recruitment process, from posting jobs and sourcing candidates to managing interview pipelines and maintaining records. For organizations with limited time and resources, a small business ATS removes manual tasks, keeps everything in one place, and ensures the hiring process stays efficient, even as the team grows.
What features are essential for a small business ATS?
Key ATS features for small businesses include resume parsing to extract candidate information automatically, job posting to distribute listings across multiple job boards quickly, candidate pipeline management to track where each candidate stands in the process, candidate searching and filtering to surface the best fits fast, reporting and analytics to monitor hiring progress and identify bottlenecks, and integrations with video interview tools, HRIS, and communication apps to keep workflows smooth without needing a large tech stack.
When should a small business start using an ATS?
A good rule of thumb is that your small business has at least 20 positions to fill per year, as at this level, you will most likely see the significant ROI the ATS brings to your recruitment process.
How much does an ATS cost an SMB?
Specifics on ATS pricing vary based on factors such as business size, job vacancies, integrations, and team location. Based on our research, small businesses typically pay between $15 and a few thousand dollars per month for an ATS, with some free editions available.
Is there any free ATS?
Yes, there is! Manatal (free trial available), Recooty (free trial available), and Wellfound (free plan available) are our favorites. You can find more options in our best free ATS buyer guide.
How many ATS options should an SMB consider when doing demos?
According to Tracie Marie, one of the experts we talked about for this piece, three can be a good starting number for vendor demos, and you should aim to include slightly less than your budget and one slightly more, as “you can see the differences in features among those vendors this way.”
Conclusion
An SMB-focused applicant tracking system can bring real, measurable benefits to small businesses by automating manual tasks, streamlining candidate workflows, improving collaboration, and integrating with essential tools, all of which help lean teams hire faster and more effectively.
Having said that, it’s important to remember that even the best ATS can’t solve underlying issues like a toxic workplace culture or unclear hiring goals. For a supercharged modern ATS to make a difference, the right mindset—ready and willing to adopt the technology, commit to structured processes, and align the tool with broader business and people goals—is critical.
About the Author
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.
