10+ Best Free Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) in 2025
Out of the dozens of free ATSs we’ve tested, these are the best ones.
Best Free Applicant Tracking Systems
A robust applicant tracking system can make hiring simpler and more efficient by posting jobs, filtering resumes, organizing applications, contacting candidates, and scheduling interviews. Yet many can be very expensive. Fortunately, some we found offer just what you need for free, and most are easy to upgrade, so they grow along with you!
Don’t have the time and resources to do all the evaluations yourself? Schedule a free consultation with one of our HR Tech experts, and they’ll get back to you with a list of the best ATS for your needs—free of charge.
In our most recent round of testing (October 2024), we went over 40 applicant tracking systems in-house, met with each of them for live software demos, asked industry experts to weigh in, and gathered real user feedback on each tool. You can read our assessment process for details.
Here’s a summary of what we looked for when choosing the best free applicant tracking software:
- Employer and candidate experience: We’ve found that most TAs and candidates prefer straightforward user experience and easy navigation with minimal training, so vendors with these features were favored in our tests.
- ATS integration: A good free ATS should enable seamless data exchange with major tools in HR ecosystems, including HRIS, CRM, calendar and email, and onboarding. We noted the variety of options available as well as how easy the integrations were. We also paid close attention to whether these integrations cost extra.
- Job posting: A standard applicant tracking system is expected to include automated posting to top job boards, but free versions sometimes limit this feature in their “freemium” models. We read the fine print to ensure vendors didn’t hide this critical aspect of efficiency behind a paywall.
- Custom job site: Job seekers are increasingly picky and expect a lot from would-be employers, so we visited dozens of custom career sites to familiarize ourselves with the standards. We chose only ones that hit the mark for clean, logical navigation that held our interest while providing everything we needed to know.
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Manatal
It's hard to come by a low-cost option that can do as much as Manatal does. For as little as $15, you'll get a user-friendly solution with robust AI ATS features for profile enrichment, candidate recommendations, and email engagement. Plus, the price transparency and no-credit-card-required free trial mean you don't need to call a sales rep just to get a ballpark figure.
PROS
- The ATS offers four cost-effective plans that can adapt to your evolving needs and budget.
- Free 14-day trial with full feature access, no credit card required.
- Straightforward UI that is easy to use.
- 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
- During the trial, job board posting, Manatal inbox, email automation, and the GDPR consent request tool are not available to use.
- No indefinitely free plan.
- 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.
Though Manatal doesn’t offer a free plan, we feel that its 14-day free trial is more than enough for businesses to get to know the platform and see if it fits them. It gives users access to most of its functionality and doesn't ask for that sensitive credit card info. Its pricing is so clear— you know exactly how much you would pay for this tool, no unannounced charges, no hidden fees.
What we love most about this ATS, though, is its flexibility. Whether for someone like us, a remote startup with a small in-house hiring team, or a 100-employee recruitment agency, it seems to have everything we need.
From candidate sourcing, recruitment CRM software, profile enrichment, and AI-powered recommendations, to branded career pages, Manatal offers all these features at a starting price of just $15 per month. Moreover, the choice of four plans means it can grow with businesses, from those with just a couple of employees to global enterprises.
We have no gripes about Manatal’s user interface. Navigating the platform was straightforward, and the Help Center was impressively well-organized with detailed, digestible text and video tutorials.
However, we should warn you that during the trial, some features like job board posting and email automation are not available. As this tool leans more towards small and midsized businesses, you’d want to consider other options if you’re an enterprise seeking a vendor that offers tailored support rather than standard live chat and email.
10,000+ organizations, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, Panasonic, Ogilvy, and Toyota.
Here are four Manatal pricing plans when billed annually:
- Professional: $15/user/month, 15 jobs per account, 10,000 candidates, unlimited guests.
- Enterprise: $35/user/month for unlimited jobs, candidates, and guests.
- Enterprise Plus: $55/user/month and includes all Enterprise features, user groups, open API access, SSO log-in, priority support, and access to Beta features.
- Custom: Tailored for larger businesses requiring advanced functionalities and support. Pricing upon request.
Best For
Manatal free trial is a good starting point for SMBs to see further how the ATS works before making any commitment.
Teamtailor
Teamtailor's focus is on the candidate's first impression, and the platform has been doing a great job in helping SMBs attract talent by offering an ATS with excellent employer branding features built-in.
PROS
- A user-friendly ATS that is accessible via both browsers and mobile devices.
- Career site builders can work with a drag and drop editor; no coding knowledge is needed.
- Well-built features to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including anonymous hiring and equal employment opportunity (EEO) surveys.
- Unlimited number of users.
- A free trial is available without having to provide payment details.
- 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
- As several users noted, the analytics function is somewhat hard to fully tackle.
- Hyper-focused on ATS and offers no other HR solutions.
- The customization and video interview features could be improved.
- 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 is a cloud-based applicant tracking system with features that help organizations hire and nurture talent. What caught our eye is its unique approach to talent acquisition, which emphasizes how your team markets itself to candidates.
Teamtailor’s user experience is on par, if not better, than other peers, with a platform design that is not only accessible via both browsers and mobile devices but also easy on the eye. We highly recommend you check out its career site builders when you’re on its free trial—it was a delight during our testing. Within a few drags and drops, and a sleek landing page was done—no coding knowledge was required in the making.
Moreover, this vendor’s DEI features really stood out in our tests, with a handful of well-built features such as anonymous hiring and equal employment opportunity (EEO) surveys.
But we can’t say the same for its analytics tool. It’s not as straightforward as we hoped. And since this vendor is hyper-focused on the applicant tracking aspect, it doesn’t cover other HR functionalities. To be fair though, Teamtailor’s 350+ third-party integration options can be just a perfect alternative to sync data across your HR tech stacks.
Kry, Goodbye Kansas, Vitamin Well, Ponsse, Daniel Wellington.
Teamtailor’s pricing is custom-based on customer business size and requirements. For teams under 25 employees, the price for unlimited job postings, candidates, and users in the system typically starts at $3,300.
Best For
Teamtailor used to be a tool for smaller companies, but now their solution caters mainly to 50-400 employee companies that need a powerful but straightforward ATS.
TeamTailor is our applicant tracking system (ATS) or recruiting system. It hosts all our current job openings and feeds them to public job boards like Indeed. We use TeamTailor to screen candidate resumes and communicate with candidates when scheduling phone, video, and in-person interviews. All communication is kept in the candidate's profile, making it easily accessible at all times. Offers and salary negotiations are also completed within the system, including offer letter signatures and the distribution of any benefit-related offer information.
The automatic integration and feed into public job boards of our choosing, like Indeed or ZipRecruiter. We can manage all aspects of the job posting and candidate flow within TeamTailor, eliminating the need to manage each job board site individually. TeamTailor offers a wide range of one-click analytics, including time to fill, candidate flow time, and DEI measurements. The system keeps all applicants organized within buckets for each job, making it easy for hiring managers to know exactly who they are talking to and what stage of the interview process the candidate is in.
Before TeamTailor, my organization handled all recruitment functions through our internal CRM system, Dayforce. However, that solution did not offer a seamless candidate application experience, lacked text/SMS functionality, and did not have the robust analytics that our leadership team sought. TeamTailor easily integrates with our current systems, such as Microsoft Outlook and Teams. It also offers analytic dashboards that review applicant traffic, time to fill, and the amount of time spent in each stage of the hiring process. We have been using TeamTailor since March 2024.
There have been instances where attached or uploaded files are not sent to candidates and need to be resent separately outside of the system. We currently do not have access to interview templates, which would be helpful for hiring managers who may not be actively interviewing. A minor dislike is that we cannot change the color of their logo. Our organization relies heavily on uniform branding, so including their logo on presentations and communications is visually unappealing.
TeamTailor has built-in text/SMS capabilities that other ATSs only offer as upgraded features. This makes it easy to communicate with candidates quickly. The messages are received within the TeamTailor platform, so the hiring manager or recruiter does not have to provide their personal phone numbers. TeamTailor also integrates seamlessly with our organization's current tech stack of Microsoft products, making interview coordination with calendars easy.
If organizations want a system that acts as a one-stop shop for all things recruiting, this is it. Applicant screening, centralized job posting management, interviews, offers, and reporting are all in one place.
TeamTailor regularly releases software updates that include bug fixes or enhanced capabilities for their current features. A recent example is the ability to further customize analytic dashboard views.
We are a medium-sized luxury retail organization that prioritizes candidate experience from application to offer. Organizations like ours would benefit and see an ROI with TeamTailor.
TeamTailor is not good for rganizations that are not tech-savvy.
Recruitee
We’re so in love with the flexibility Recruitee offers SMB users in terms of team collaboration. We can invite an unlimited number of colleagues to join the platform, assign them specific roles, and collectively evaluate candidates in a more objective manner—all without any additional cost.
PROS
- Recruitee is priced transparently and competitively, making it a good option for small and medium-sized businesses. It also has an 18-day free trial you can opt for without having to add your card info.
- There are no limits on the number of users applied to all plans.
- Recruitee has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to find and use the features you need.
- Recruitee’s features include job posting, candidate tracking, interview scheduling, and tools to promote referrals and combat hiring bias.
- Pro: Recruitee is highly rated by customers for its ease of use. The majority of them are able to implement and get on with the software without much hassle.
- Pro: Recruitee features a customizable, kanban-like recruiting pipeline. Companies can add as many stages as needed to the pipeline and move candidates easily as they progress through the stages.
- Pro: Recruitee incorporates some measures to reduce hiring bias. For example, you can adjust the permission level for your interviewers and prevent them from seeing the scores each of them are assigning to the same candidate. This way, they won’t be influenced by each other's evaluations.
CONS
- Its pricing went up from our last review of the software, although that’s because of several newly-added features.
- Recruitee's reporting tools can be difficult to use, and they do not offer as much detail as some other ATSs.
- Requires integration of third-party tools for essential functions like candidate skill assessments, onboarding, video interviewing, and e-signatures.
- Con: Several functions that are advertised on Recruitee’s feature list, including skill assessments, onboarding, video interviewing, and e-signatures are not actually built into Recruitee and are only possible through integration with third-party tools, which can be misleading to potential users, especially if it’s their first ATS.
- Con: Several users noted that the Recruitee’s reporting function is limited and at times, doesn’t retrieve data accurately.
- Con: Several users have complained about Recruitee’s support team being slow in responding, and at times, not able to solve issues.
- Con: For a product that’s geared towards SMBs, it lacks a free plan that businesses who are just getting started with ATSs can use for as long as they need, without any time constraints. We list this as a con as several solutions in this space do offer free-forever plans and similar feature sets as Recruitee, which puts it slightly behind the competition to users.
Recruitee is on our recommended free ATS list for some concrete reasons. The first one is that it’s very intuitive and boasts features to make hiring more efficient. It’s easy to track candidates through different stages of the hiring process, and we can collaborate with other hiring team members on assessments and interviews.
Another reason is the team collaboration feature. We especially like the way that Recruitee makes it easy to collaborate with other team members on making fair hiring decisions. You get to add as many team members to the platform as you wish, assign them appropriate roles, and have them assess the candidates more objectively— without adding extra numbers to your bill.
One of the few downsides to Recruitee is its dependence on third-party integrations for essential functions, which could be found as built-in ones in competing vendors, such as skill assessments, onboarding, video interviewing, or e-signatures. This can be a bit of a hassle and can add to the cost of opting for Recruitee; unless, of course, you don't really need any of these features.
5,000+ companies, including Semrush, Mark and Spencer, and Transcom.
Recruitee offers custom plans based on the number of employees. For teams with fewer than 20 employees, the price starts at $199 per month, annual contracts.
Best For
Though companies of different sizes can find Recruitee useful, we feel that the ATS is best suited for mid-sized businesses.
I use Recruitee daily, as our primary recruitment lead my role involves creating our recruitment strategy and being involved in the end-end process/recruitment cycle.
Having a system that I can trust, that allows candidates to quickly and easily upload their resumes and apply with us has been integral in our ability to continue to scale the company and grow our teams.
We use Recruitee not only to house candidates for current/open positions, but to categorize, sort, and save profiles of those who we believe may be a good fit for roles later down the line. Being able to use Recruitee to build and foster long-standing relationships allows us to continue to grow our organization and visibility in the tech talent market.
1. Ease of use - UI/UX: everything is extremely intuitive, as a recruiter things are where they should be and I don't have to spend a lot of time searching for settings or information
2. Customer service/transparency: the team at Recruitee has always provided us with top-notch customer service, and has always been great about answering any questions or concerns we have. The ability to vote on and suggest product improvements makes you feel that they care - and the number of improvements/suggestions they implement is fantastic. Being able to know what's upcoming on the roadmap is also really useful for us.
3. Integrations: being able to integrate with our other systems and tools is extremely important to us so that all of our candidate data can be housed in one place.
4. Analytics: being able to actually track your time to hire, number of applicants/role, and many, many more are critical for understanding your recruitment process and cycle, as well as being able to implement improvements.
5. KANBAN visibility: once you recruit in KANBAN you'll never go back to having a list view of your candidate pipeline. Being able to quickly view a role and visually see the health/number of applicants in each stage is probably my favorite feature.
We bought Recruitee because our previous ATS was hindering our recruitment process. It was time-consuming for us as the employer and for the candidates applying and interviewing with us. I strongly believe our previous ATS was causing us to lose potential candidates.
As a company, we've been using Recruitee since November 2022. However, I was a customer at my previous organization so I began using their system back in 2020.
I was determined to bring in a new ATS within my first week of joining RBR and received positive support from the entire company. I vetted out and demoed several other options as I wanted to ensure I wasn't being biased in my selection of an ATS, however, Recruitee was the clear winner for us due to its ease of use, time-saving capabilities, and overall customer support/service from their teams.
Setting up Recruitee was a breeze, we had a team assist us with implementation and training our managers, and because of their ability to create such an intuitive system, it's taken little to no time for our managers to understand how the system works.
1. Better integration with LinkedIn (I've chatted with the team and know this is in the works)
2. Continue to build out the scheduling feature (again, chatted with the team about this)
3. More automation for sorting candidates - for example, if a candidate applies and selects certain answers to screening questions being able to tag/filter candidates based on those answers
Recruitee is far superior to many of its competitors. Coming from using a LARGE system that was primarily for payroll, having a system that is focused on recruitment is extremely important if you really want to have a strong recruitment process.
Again, their customer service and support is something that just can't be beaten. And the speed at which they review customer feedback and integrate new solutions is incredible.
Our must-haves when looking at an ATS were:
1. Ease of use (both internally and externally): simple to use, training for managers, and candidates having the ability to easily and quickly apply
2. Search ability: need to be able to search in our own ATS for candidates, easily and using Boolean search
3. Kanban board style of view/dashboard - click and drag option
4. Easy Implementation- Integration Specialist or team to assist
5. Enhance/Encourage Collaboration: the ability to tag team members in candidates' profiles and collaborate within the ATS
What I would recommend to those looking for a new ATS is to start with your current pain points (if applicable) then build out your must-haves and nice-to-haves. Do some demos of different ATSs and make sure to actually test them for yourself. We found a lot of demos seemed interesting but once we were in the system it was clunky and difficult to use. Recruitee was by far the most intuitive.
Since I initially started using Recruitee there have been countless new features, integrations, and options made available to their customers. It is clear that they listen to the feedback they receive as they understand those using the product on a day-to-day basis will likely share the best ideas/feature requests that will actually be used/appreciated by their customers.
When I think back to when I first started using Recruitee to now, it's incredible to see all of the new features such as the referral portal, scheduling features, req approvals, and more that have been added to their features list!
I think Recruitee is great for organizations that are agile and need to operate very quickly. Those who are looking to hire and scale their organizations and who are looking for an ATS that can scale with them are the ideal customer for Recruitee.
I think slow-paced organizations, those that thrive on outdated systems/tools, or those that don't necessarily have the desire to update their recruitment processes would not be a good fit.
Monday.com
If you’d prefer a versatile platform that you can use for not just recruitment but several other business processes, we recommend Monday.com. It’s an agile project management tool with many customizable templates and integrations—just what you need to creatively manage your hiring workflow, from applicant tracking to onboarding.
PROS
- The platform is quite versatile which means you can use it for many processes outside of recruitment.
- Offers over 200 pre-built templates you can use straight away or simply customize your own.
- There’s a free plan with lots of useful features, including access to the aforementioned prebuilt templates, unlimited documents, and up to 3 boards.
- Free plan available, and affordable, scalable plans for small to midsize businesses
- Easy to learn and use
- Customizable dashboard
- Collaborative document creation with the ability to turn content in docs into tasks in projects with a few clicks
- Gamified progress tracking with visual celebrations for users
- Workflow automation for repetitive tasks
- Built-in communication tools reduce reliance on email
- Customized forms for in-house or client use that can be easily turned into projects
CONS
- There is a slight learning curve because Monday.com isn’t your typical ATS or recruiting solution, but rather a versatile platform that you can mold and shape to manage different processes.
- To make use of all of the integrations and automation it's known for, you must upgrade to the Standard plan.
- 3+ users are required to get on any of the paid plans
- Limited storage on the Basic plan
- Could be too complex for simple project management needs
- No phone customer support
- Tracking different conversations can be difficult because of all the clutter
While Monday.com isn't a dedicated applicant tracking software system, during our testing, we discovered that its pre-built templates provide a solid foundation for managing the entire hiring pipeline within a single platform.
One of the standout features is the highly customizable columns in the ATS template. We found it easy to add columns for specific information, such as an applicant's source and input category choices. The drag-and-drop functionality is a delight, allowing you to effortlessly move candidate cards between different stages of the recruitment process, like from “Screening” to "Qualified", and so on.
Monday.com strikes a balance between manual and automated processing. While moving cards is a manual task, you can set rules to automate repetitive actions, saving valuable time. The platform also offers a range of views, including Gantt charts, timelines, and calendars, enabling you to visualize your recruitment processes in a way that suits your preferences.
Integrations with recruitment platforms, Google tools, and other productivity software enhance Monday.com's ATS capabilities. You can perform tasks like resume parsing and access shared files and conversations for each candidate card. The ability to send emails, collaborate, and communicate with other HR staff directly within the platform is a notable convenience.
Its compliance tracking is well-liked. You can assign tasks related to privacy and security measures, from providing non-disclosure agreements to ensuring candidates undergo necessary training, right on this platform.
That said, you can’t find features like resume parsing, career pages, and job posting here as you’d find easily in most dedicated ATS platforms, so bear this matter in mind. And the integrations don’t belong to the free plan, you’ll get to upgrade to Standard to be able to use them.
Over 200,000+ businesses use Monday.com including Lionsgate, Glossier, and Oxy.
Monday.com’s pricing ranges from $9 to $19, depending on the plan you choose. There’s also an Enterprise plan for large teams and a free forever plan for up to 2 user seats and 3 boards.
If you’re considering annual billing, an 18% discount is available, and nonprofits can request additional discounts as well.
Best For
Monday.com can be used by businesses of all sizes due to its versatility and scalability.
I use Monday.com as a central hub for all my projects and tasks. I start by creating a board for each project, where I outline the key milestones and tasks that need to be completed. I then assign deadlines, add relevant team members, and provide clear instructions to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Within each task, I utilize Monday.com's customizable columns to track progress, add subtasks, and attach important files or documents. I also take advantage of the platform's automation features to set up reminders and notifications, keeping me and my team informed about upcoming deadlines or changes to the project.
One of the features I find particularly helpful is the timeline view, which allows me to visualize the project's timeline and identify any potential bottlenecks or dependencies. It helps me prioritize tasks and allocate resources effectively.
Additionally, I make use of the communication features within Monday.com to provide updates, ask questions, and receive feedback from my team members. The threaded discussions and comment section ensure that important conversations are documented and easily accessible.
Overall, Monday.com has become an indispensable tool in my daily workflow. It keeps me organized, enables effective collaboration, and ensures that projects progress smoothly from start to finish.
- Monday.com offers a visually appealing and intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate and use.
- The platform provides a high level of customization, allowing users to adapt it to their specific project management needs.
- Monday.com offers extensive integrations with other tools and platforms, enabling seamless workflow integration and data synchronization.
Our organization chose Monday.com as our preferred tool for project management and team collaboration due to several pain points we wanted to address. We struggled with scattered communication and a lack of transparency across different projects and teams. Monday.com provided a centralized platform that streamlined our communication, allowing us to collaborate efficiently and keep everyone on the same page.
Personally, I have been using Monday.com for over two years, and it has been a game-changer for both my individual workflow and team collaboration. It has eliminated the frustration of lost information and miscommunication, enabling me to stay organized and focused on my tasks.
The ability to track progress, assign responsibilities, and receive notifications has greatly improved my efficiency and accountability. The platform's intuitive interface and user-friendly design have made it easy for our team members to adopt and utilize effectively.
The pricing of Monday.com can be relatively high compared to some other project management tools, especially for larger teams or organizations.
While highly customizable, the abundance of options and features on Monday.com may require some time and effort to fully explore and configure according to specific requirements.
The learning curve for new users can be steep, especially for individuals who are not accustomed to working with project management software, requiring some training and onboarding support.
Monday.com stands out from its competitors in a few ways. First, it has an attractive interface that is relatively easy to use, even if you're not tech-savvy. You can drag and drop items and customize boards to fit your specific needs.
Compared to other similar tools, Monday.com offers more flexibility and customization. You can create and personalize boards and columns to match your workflow and preferences. This makes it suitable for various industries and situations.
I have used similar tools (Trello, Asana, MS Project, and I find that Monday.com compares well in terms of user experience and functionality. It has improved my team's productivity and communication with its intuitive design and collaboration features. It also integrates smoothly with other tools we use, which saves us time and effort.
- Ease of Use: can you afford the time it will take to train your teams to use it.
- Cost: it can get very expensive, especially for larger corporations.
- Integration capabilities: check if it is integrated with the tools you currently use.
Adding new integrations continuously, creating new partnerships, creating new tools to cater to EVERYONE out there. If you have a work process chances are that you need this tool
- Small to Medium-Sized Businesses.
- Creative and Marketing Teams
- Remote and Distributed Teams: With its cloud-based platform and real-time collaboration features, Monday.com is highly suitable for remote and distributed teams. It enables seamless communication, task allocation, and progress tracking, fostering collaboration even across different time zones.
Highly Regulated Industries and large corporations with intricate workflows
Wellfound
Owing to its popularity among job seekers with a startup mindset, Wellfound (formerly Angellist Talent) free ATS is a must-check-out for any startup searching for talent worldwide, especially in the tech space.
PROS
- Popular job board for 10+ million global startup-minded job seekers.
- No restrictions on the number of job postings allowed.
- Native messaging for direct communications with applicants.
- Integrates with Slack for real-time updates.
- Syncs with major applicant tracking systems.
- RecruiterCloud offers AI-powered candidate sourcing from an internal pool of 10M+ startup-minded candidates and an external network of 500M+.
- Users can delegate their sourcing tasks to Wellfound (Autopilot) or handle them independently (Self-Serve).
- AI tags streamline review by highlighting key strengths in a candidate's profile.
- Free ATS included unlimited job postings, native candidate communications, team scorecards, and interview scheduling.
CONS
- Not suitable for non-tech roles at large enterprises.
- No third-party job board integrations; limited to Wellfound job board.
- Sourcing tools are not available in the free plan.
- Does not offer a mobile app.
- Doesn’t have a mobile app.
- Not suitable for non-tech roles at large enterprises.
- Built-in reporting and analytics are somewhat basic compared to some competitors.
If you’re a startup looking for global tech talent, we highly recommend Wellfound’s free ATS. One huge advantage of this platform is that it’s long been a go-to place for tech enthusiasts and startup-minded talent who are on the job hunt—just the talent pool you’re searching for.
We enjoyed our experience testing this free ATS, both from the hiring side and as an applicant. The UI is clear and easy on the eyes, plus having in-app messaging and the option to tweak the hiring workflow makes everything more streamlined and straightforward.
Given that most vendors in this space often limit their freebies to one active job at a time, it’s nice to see Wellfound take another approach—it does not cap the number of jobs you can post. In other words, you can have as many as you need.
Unfortunately, this free plan does not have Boolean search or advanced sourcing capabilities. But if your team is using Greenhouse, Lever, Workable, or Ashby alongside Wellfound, there's a workaround. Since this free tool can connect with these ATS platforms, you can transfer applicant information and use their search features instead.
Regarding job distribution, while platforms Dover or Recooty can auto-spread your job posts across multiple boards, Wellfound sticks to its niche community for job postings. As a result, the reach may not be the same.
25,000+ companies, including Trace, Xander, and Dosu.
Wellfound offers a free ATS for tracking and managing candidates and integrates with major ATS providers such as Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, and Workable which anyone can sign up for online. Paid plans start at $149/month, with job promotion add-on and custom packages available upon request.
Best For
Wellfound is among the best ATS for startups with a small number of tech roles to fill per year.
Dover
We love Dover for its unique approach to assisting startups: a free-forever ATS with an intuitive UI and well-developed inbound automation, plus an option to tap into its TA experts without having to hire extra staff.
PROS
- Stunning platform design, very easy to work with.
- Knowledgeable on-demand recruiting partners.
- Free ATS includes unlimited jobs, 75+ job board integrations, and great inbound automation.
- Stunning platform design, very easy to work with.
- Knowledgeable on-demand recruiting partners.
- Free ATS includes unlimited jobs, 75+ job board integrations, and great inbound automation.
CONS
- No native feature for an employee referral program.
- Only supports parsing of English resumes.
- Not ideal for those wanting everything in-house or not using Google Workspace for calendars and emails.
- No native feature for an employee referral program.
- Only supports parsing of English resumes.
- Not ideal for those wanting everything in-house or not using Google Workspace for calendars and emails.
Despite being a free solution, Dover brought a delightful look and feel to nearly every encounter we had with the platform. The dashboard is clear and well-organized, but if you need a bit of instruction, the help center can offer good help with well-explained articles and videos. For startups new to the software, Dover may even provide a personalized onboarding call.
We also found some really good AI features within this free ATS: an AI for job description generation, an auto-confirmation email for those who just applied, and a chatbot that can filter the best candidates who meet your criteria. We gave the chatbot a go and asked it, “Show me people with at least 1 year of experience,” and it took less than a second to show only the matches.
We didn’t expect a free solution to be this good at sequencing. We entered only our company name and domain before heading to this feature. To our surprise, it accurately described what we do in the email outreach (check out the above screenshot).
However, to streamline job distribution, we would have liked an option to filter job boards by free and paid. With 76 options available, choosing each one by one is definitely not the best use of time.
You should also keep in mind that Dover doesn't provide multiple software plans like most ATS platforms. Instead, it offers a free ATS and the option to outsource your sourcing to its recruiting partners. Hence, if you have a large team and want to manage everything internally, Dover might not meet your needs.
500+ companies, including OpenSea, WorkOS, and Scale.
Dover has three offerings:
- ATS is free and includes unlimited jobs, candidate tracking, AI applicant sorting, job board integrations, and an onboarding call for eligible startups.
- ATS + Premium Support costs $99 per month plus $1,000 for optional ATS migration. This plan includes all free features, plus data migration from the current ATS, guided ATS setup and config, team training, video calls with support, faster support response times, and prioritized feature requests.
- Recruiting Partner starts at $45 per hour per month to help with sourcing, phone screening, interview scheduling, hiring strategy, and on-demand support.
Best For
Dover ATS is best for startups seeking a simple yet effective way to track applications and outsource initial screenings.
Loxo
Over 13,000 recruitment firms use Loxo as of this writing, and we can see why. With this single solution, you can access not just ATS but also CRM tools like a project master Kanban, tasks, client portal, and invoices. Plus, most of these are available in the free plan.
PROS
- The free plan includes unlimited jobs, a drag-and-drop candidate pipeline, resume parsing, and a mobile app, which is more than most free-forever ATS products offer.
- You can view all candidates for each job and at every hiring stage on one single page.
- Dashboard interface offers users the flexibility to select from two dashboard styles.
- Excellent customer service with a strong record of fast response times.
- User-friendly resume parsing.
- Friendly and visually appealing user interface.
- Offers a convenient Chrome extension.
- Allows client involvement in projects with direct interaction.
- Regularly releases new product updates.
- Includes a free plan.
CONS
- Adding our logo to a career page wasn’t working during our test. We found no option to adjust the system’s hiring workflow.
- The free plan lacks contact info, outreach and communications, a free job board, and HRIS integrations.
- The platform doesn't have an Android app, and the iOS app does not provide the ability to view job orders or recruiter notes.
- Slightly higher pricing compared to similar tools.
- Lack of an option to auto-anonymize resumes for blind screening.
- Reporting is not particularly useful with certain useful metrics not tracked.
- No Android app. Limited features and occasional performance issues on the iOS app.
Loxo is noteworthy in the ATS space because they insist that recruiting teams should move beyond this software category and opt for fuller recruitment suites that combine CRM features to improve the candidate experience and their effectiveness. It’s partly for that reason that they do offer a basic ATS, completely free and to use for as long as you like; because it’s the perfect gateway for teams to try their tool and, perhaps eventually, embrace their philosophy.
Checking out Loxo’s free ATS, we were immediately impressed by its simple and recruiter-centric UI. We think recruiters will love to discover that Loxo's dashboard prioritizes the people database by default, as, in our experience, it made it easy to get an overview of the total processed candidates and where they are in the workflow. The system offered us two visual styles: a quick candidate list or an expanded view. We went with the latter, which you can see in the screenshot below, and dug deeper into the tool’s talent pipeline.
Although it appeared we couldn’t customize the dashboard with our own hiring workflow, the platform did allow for the creation of new candidate lists. The entire process was straightforward: we named the list, chose whether we wanted it to be private, and populated it with candidate profiles either individually or in bulk. We can imagine this would save recruiters from manually looking up candidates from time to time, as they now just have to head to their created lists to find the right group whenever needed.
For the search and filtering workflows, the page loading speed had been impressive. The results appeared almost instantly during our tests, both when we used one filter and when we used five.
We also liked that, in addition to typical filters like name and location, there were some interesting ones, such as salary, last contacted, bonus, and equity. All of them functioned well in our tests. However, this wasn't the case with the Diversity filter. Oddly, when we selected "Female" under this filter, the results excluded all of our female candidates!
Those working in agency environments will find Loxo’s free plan particularly helpful, as besides ATS features like resume parsing and candidate pipeline, it covers project master Kanban, tasks, client portal, and even invoices. Just to be clear, though, certain features, such as outreach and communication, reports, and, unexpectedly, free job board integrations, are not offered in this plan.
We also hope to see some improvements in this vendor’s mobile app. On our last look at the product, Loxo still doesn’t offer an Android app, and its iOS app’s functionality is quite basic compared to the web-based version.
13,000+ companies, including Stryker, MRI, and Gecko.
Loxo offers a free plan alongside three paid subscriptions: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. If you go with the annual billing, the prices kick off at $119 per seat each month. Plus, there’s a 7-day free trial that lets you try out all the Professional features.
Best For
Staffing agencies with medium-to-high-volume hiring needs.
Recooty
In our experience, Recooty is easily one of the most intuitive applicant tracking software available—you can dive in immediately after completing a simple signup form, with little to no instructions required. While the free version doesn't allow for custom domain setup, you can nevertheless design a career page that reflects your brand and share job postings on popular sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor.
PROS
- With a price tag of $99 per month for 10 active jobs, 10 users, and 3 locations, Recooty is one of the most reasonably-priced ATS options for small businesses. A free trial is also available.
- Requires little to no software training to navigate and operate the platform.
- Available in eight languages: Spanish, German, English, Vietnamese, French, Hindi, Italian, and Dutch.
- 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
- Recooty lacks a mobile app and Chrome extension for adding candidates to ATS.
- Can only integrate with Slack and LinkedIn.
- Teams with more than 75 active jobs per month or those needing to hire in more than 20 locations will likely be underserved by this tool.
- The company does not have a mobile application, as stated by many software users.
- Recooty has limited features i.e., unlike its competitors, it doesn’t support employee referrals and one-on-one interviews.
- Recooty offers only two integrations from their dashboard; for Slack and LinkedIn.
- Recooty is more suitable for small and medium businesses and may not be ideal for large enterprises with more job postings and locations.
It features job widget integration, a tool to create a branded careers page, and social network sharing. From our experience, the free plan has enough functionality for small businesses that are just starting out and only need a basic ATS.
Recruitee is among the most straightforward tools we’ve ever tested. We found the ATS was ready to use as soon as we completed the signup form. Though the free version does not allow users to create a custom domain, they can build a branded career page and create and post jobs on job boards like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor. Recooty also makes it easy to post jobs via social media.
There has been a huge (sad) product change since our last review, however: Recooty’s free plan, which allows for one active job post at a time, no longer exists. We also don’t see significant progress in its integration capability—the ATS only connects with Slack and LinkedIn, and only the two highest-priced plans are equipped with API. And there is still no sign that the platform will build a mobile app anytime soon.
5,000+ companies, including Sendlane, Airtable, Uber, Rack Bank, and Trello.
Compared to our last review update, Recooty has made some changes to their pricing plans and have phased out the Enterprise option.
- Starter goes for $99 per month with 10 active job posts, 10 company users, 3 company locations, job board distribution (250+), AI recruiting tools, branded careers page, applicant tracking, talent pool, interview scheduling, and bulk imports.
- Growth costs $149 per month with 20 active job posts, 50 company users, 10 company locations, all Starter features plus data exports and resume parsing.
- Business is $199 per month and offers 50 active job posts, 100 company users, 20 company locations, all Growth features plus API support, custom domain, priority support, and assisted account onboarding.
All plans come with no setup fees, and if you go for the annual subscription, you can get a 28% discount. Plus, there's a 15-day trial where you can give it a spin without needing to enter your credit card info. Just a heads up, though—once the trial wraps up, you will need to update your card to keep using the services.
Best For
Recooty is a good option for small businesses prioritizing affordability, ease of use, and efficiency in its applicant tracking system.
VanHack
Apart from their basic job posting services, VanHack offers a free, full-scale applicant tracking system that supports unlimited jobs and users. Their platform lets you schedule interviews in as little as three clicks, post jobs, and track candidate progress.
PROS
- VanHack provides a free ATS that allows unlimited jobs and users.
- Easily filter potential candidates based on skills, experience, or customized keywords.
- A significant number of VanHack's job seekers are open to relocation
- Employers have access to a dedicated team of talent acquisition experts to identify potential candidates.
- The platform's salary guide assists job seekers and employers in understanding average compensation for each role.
- VanHack offers a free ATS that supports unlimited jobs and users.
- You can filter your list of potential candidates according to skills, years of experience, or custom keywords fairly easily.
- Many of VanHack’s job seekers are willing to relocate to pursue the right opportunity.
- Employers can work with a dedicated team of talent acquisition experts to find potential candidates.
- The platform’s salary guide helps job seekers and employers get a better idea of average salaries for roles.
CONS
- The platform focuses on tech-related jobs, so finding positions in other industries can be challenging.
- Although VanHack makes every effort, users report some spam messages and emails occasionally bypass their filters.
- Virtual hiring events often lack sufficient time to connect with numerous potential candidates.
- No mobile apps for hiring managers or recruiters to use while on the move.
- Because of the general focus on tech-related jobs, it’s difficult to find jobs in other industries.
- Despite their best efforts, some spam messages and emails do slip through the cracks.
- Virtual hiring events don’t provide enough time to meet many potential candidates.
- VanHack doesn’t currently offer a mobile app for hiring managers and recruiters to use on the go.
VanHack’s free ATS software is one of the most generous offerings we’ve seen in the space. This freebie supports unlimited users and jobs, and it doesn’t even require a credit card to get started. As a startup, this seems like a great deal. And after rigorously testing the free applicant tracking tool, we can confirm it truly is.
VanHack’s job pipeline has made good use of the Kanban view—it made it clear and efficient to organize and keep track of applicants' progress.
We also loved how easy it was to schedule an interview; we could do it in as little as three clicks. Additionally, the ability to post jobs directly from the ATS platform to multiple job boards at no cost was a real time-saver for budget-conscious companies, we can imagine.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that VanHack focuses primarily on tech-related positions, so searching for roles outside of this field won’t be as effective.
While we appreciate that VanHack puts effort into filtering out spam, we did notice that some messages and emails still managed to slip through the cracks.
We also couldn’t help but feel disappointed to discover that there are no mobile apps available for hiring managers or recruiters. We would have loved to have the flexibility to manage our recruitment on the go, as this would greatly enhance our efficiency when moving between meetings or events.
600+ companies, including Deloitte, Brex, Booking.com, and Zalando.
VanHack is completely free for job seekers. For employers, VanHack charges a fee per hire that amounts to 20% of the candidate’s annual salary. Job posts, interviews, and candidate searching are all free.
Best For
VanHack is best for organizations that are looking for potential candidates within the IT industry, especially in on-demand roles. It’s also useful when trying to hire one-off tech roles for your company – regardless of your industry.
GoHire
GoHire is an affordable applicant tracking system solution that's also easy to use and has lots of pre-built templates and AI tools for assistance. It’s also known for its scalability. Startups and SMBs can derive value from the ATS introductory plans and incorporate more features as they grow.
PROS
- Simple applicant tracking software option for job postings, candidate screening, interview scheduling, and offer management.
- Freshly added AI content generator tools for job descriptions, career pages, outreach messages, interview questions, and onboarding checklists.
- Unlimited hiring pipelines and team members for all plans.
- Discounts for early-stage startups and charities.
There are both pros and cons to using GoHire.io. Let's take a look at some of the most important ones:
- One user appreciated the in-app messaging and email saying “Great templating for messages and emails.” They further liked the fact that they were able to control the on-boarding process as well as display jobs on the website.
- The platform is easy to use and helps businesses keep track of their hiring process by providing them with tools to manage job postings, candidate screening, interview scheduling, and offer management.
- GoHire.io makes it possible to post jobs on multiple job boards giving the user a wide variety of applicants. Therefore, hiring managers and founders can manage the applicants from numerous job boards on one platform. One user stated that they used to receive three job applications for €12.8 when using LinkedIn Jobs paid advertisements, but are now receiving 50+ applicants every month for free while using GoHire.
- The HR team appreciates that GoHire.io has a responsive customer support team. One user even appreciated that they were happy that their feedback was taken seriously and implemented on the ATS.
CONS
- No SMS messaging. Email templates have limited customization.
- Doesn’t support any candidate file formats other than PDF files.
- The career page links to one domain only (which may be a disadvantage for companies with multiple job sites).
- Can only integrate with a few third-party tools.
- GoHire.io does not support sending SMS to the applicants.
- While GoHire.io has received a lot of positive feedback about its platform, a significant number of users who had bought lifetime deals via AppSummo felt let down when the company discontinued the plan despite stating that it was a lifetime deal.
- One user complained that they were not able to upload multiple file formats for candidates. They were only able to upload PDF files.
GoHire is a simple applicant tracking system that is perfect for smaller companies focused on growing their teams.
We got ourselves a free trial. Although we had previously used it without any issues, this time, we kept seeing this message “Please use your work email to get started.” even though we did use our company email. However, the support team did help us resolve the issue shortly.
Navigating the platform is incredibly straightforward. We particularly appreciate the ease with which we can customize a career page. The dashboard features a dedicated career page editor section where we can effortlessly add and edit information using text, images, and videos, effectively representing our company's brand. The editor's interface resembles that of WordPress, making it user-friendly even for non-technical users.
However, it's worth noting that the career page editor only allows us to direct it to a single domain. This restriction may pose challenges for users who need to point job seekers to multiple domains, potentially causing some inconvenience.
Going further, GoHire simplifies job posting by integrating with multiple job boards and social media sites. With over 700 job description templates, you can quickly prepare postings. The platform even goes beyond basic job posting by providing additional features like candidate screening, ranking, and messaging.
Snagajob, Promoter, Sweetberry, Swapcard, Voucher Cart.
GoHire offers three plans with a slight price increase since our last review. The vendor also offers free 14-day trial and doesn’t limit the number of team members for any of the plans. Here’s a breakdown of what you get with each plan (prices are based on an annual subscription):
- Starter costs $83 per month and includes baseline features, with 3 active job posts, a custom career page, interview scheduling, and unlimited team members.
- Growth costs $166 per month and provides everything from Starter plus customizable pipelines, bulk actions, screening questions, and mention team members.
- Pro costs $249 per month and provides all Growth features plus unlimited job posts, automated stage actions, advanced reporting, video questionnaires, and private notes.
A few extra things to keep in mind:
- Startups that qualify can buy Pro at a discounted rate for up to a year.
- If you're part of a registered charity, you can enjoy a 30% discount on any plan.
Best For
GoHire.io targets startups and small businesses looking for an affordable, efficient, and effective way to manage their hiring process.
To track applicants so that we can develop a catalog for the company, research candidates’ diverse educational backgrounds, make offers and see what we have offered in the past, and monitor the trends in what applicants are seeking!
It’s user friendly. I like that most answers to questions can be found in the software. The ATS helps you find the ideal candidate who has the greatest potential for longevity for the position.
We like GoHire for its accuracy in staying in touch with candidates and keeping everything in one place. I’ve used it for 5 years. Everyone has access to files along with the hiring manager.
The database could provide more space without you asking for more space. I would like to custom add sections that are more helpful to my business specifically. I wish more of my peers used it because it would make it easier for us to share data.
You don’t have to have a ton of training to use the software; it’s user friendly and makes suggestions on how to best accomplish things.
That you don’t need a lot of time to learn how to use the software. The software converts into an excel format allowing you to easily transform data.
HR and hiring managers who are trying to build a portfolio of the company’s talent!
All individuals who are establishing a large talent pool to get candidates from.
Zoho Recruit
For a free ATS, Zoho Recruit is a decent offer for most SMBs because it combines basic ATS & CRM in one place, free job boards, email management, and interview scheduling, all within its unlimited free plan.
PROS
- Free version available for anyone to opt for.
- Paid plans offer well-developed resume parsing and extraction, an AI chatbot, and candidate-matching automation.
- Supports several languages.
- Transparent pricing structure with the free version and trial option.
- 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
- Customer support hours were reduced from 24/5 to 8/5 since our last review update.
- The free plan only allows 256MB of storage.
- The free plan only allows 256MB of storage.
- Additional features, such as the client portal, mass email, workflow alerts, and API calls cost extra.
- Some users have complained about the quality of some of the integrations.
- The career site is not fully customizable until past a certain paid plan.
We filled in Zoho’s form and got ourselves a Zoho Recruit's free plan. Overall, Zoho Recruit's free version offers valuable features for candidate and email management, but it does come with limitations in terms of active job openings and storage.
It’s good to see the free plan incorporates some essential services for candidate management, like email and interview scheduling. The career site is customizable (on a basic level, though). We can also post jobs on both free and paid job boards.
Another aspect we appreciated is the seamless integration with Google applications and the support for 26 languages, allowing for a diverse pool of applicants to be reached. Platforms that provide pre-designed templates are always a time-saver, and Zoho Recruit delivers five customizable email templates. Additionally, the user-friendly resume search feature makes finding relevant candidate information easier.
However, the free plan has some limitations. The most notable drawback is that you can only access one active job opening at a time. For hiring teams dealing with multiple positions simultaneously, this limitation can be pretty restrictive and could hinder efficient recruitment efforts.
Another thing to keep in mind is the storage limit, which is set at 256MB. This might not be ideal for businesses with larger databases and extensive recruitment needs. We also noticed that instead of 24/5 support, free users can only get 8/5 support from the Zoho team. On a brighter note, Zoho Recruit provides a 45-day money-back guarantee.
8,000+ organizations, including Bosch, Deloitte, Saint-Gobain, PWC, and Allianz.
Zoho Recruit provides two paid plans for Corporate HRs and three for staffing agencies in addition to its free plan. All plans share the same starting price of $25 per user per month when billed annually. This vendor also offers a 15-day free trial and a 45-day money-back guarantee.
Best For
Zoho Recruit's free version is a good basic recruitment software for small staffing agencies.
I use Zoho Recruit bi-weekly. The platform has some great features to differentiate between job openings and candidate pipelines. Zoho Recruit contains modules that make applicant tracking an effective process. Its modules are fairly customizable for regular usage. Zoho Recruit ties into my other Zoho products (Desk & Projects).
The platform allows me to update my clients on their candidate pipeline progress easily. Zoho Recruits is user-friendly. The system is pretty intuitive and email support is helpful.
I purchased Zoho Recruit as an add on to Zoho Desk & Zoho Project, a platform I use to manage my remote team. I use the service as a backup when recruiting. It was designed to streamline the recruitment process and cross manage my recruitment goals with my team. I have used Zoho Recruit for 8 months. I occasionally use the Zoho Recruit Marketplace to find specific tools to help my clients.
While email support is helpful, it can take a long time to get a response. Zoho Recruit is an expensive add-on in comparison with other Zoho products. The product takes effort to integrate it with outside tools.
Zoho Recruit is less effective than some of its competitors. Also, the company often tries to upsell you rather than offer a one-stop-shop alternative. I use it less than services like Greenhouse or Workday.
How many recruiters do you have on staff that need Zoho Recruit access? Do you want to continuously get calls for more Zoho products instead of an all-encompassing service? Is Zoho Recruit financially feasible for your budget if you use other Zoho services?
I have used Zoho Recruit for 8 months and have not observed major changes to the service.
Zoho Recruit is good for small-medium sized organizations. It is a great option for those who only have one recruiter as cost is more than $30 per user.
I would not recommend Zoho Recruits to large companies. The cost per recruiter is high when there are more affordable products that offer more features.
MightyRecruiter
MightyRecruiter is one of the few free ATS we’ve known that allows for unlimited job postings across various job boards. It also comes with a comprehensive resume database, employee referral features, a reporting dashboard and a branded career website at no additional cost.
PROS
- MightyRecruiter allows you to post unlimited jobs to 29+ job boards for free and access a resume database of over 22 million candidates.
- Clean and intuitive interface that allows you to create job postings, filter, screen, and rate candidates easily.
- Built-in reporting dashboard provides a comprehensive view of how your job postings are performing on various job boards and channels.
- MightyRecruiter allows you to post unlimited jobs to 29+ job boards for free and access a resume database of over 21 million candidates.
- The platform has a clean and intuitive interface that allows you to create job postings, filter, screen, and rate candidates easily.
- The built-in reporting dashboard provides a comprehensive view of how your job postings are performing on various job boards and channels through metrics like number of views, applications, and conversions.
CONS
- Limited integration options to job boards and social media.
- Does not offer advanced ATS features like integrated assessments, interview scheduling, workflow management, and collaborative hiring for end-to-end recruitment.
- Viewing the full resumes of candidates on their resume database costs extra.
- Once created, job postings can take anywhere between 24-48 hours to be approved by MightyRecruiter's team and made live.
- MightyRecruiter does not offer advanced ATS features like integrated assessments, interview scheduling, workflow management, and collaborative hiring for end-to-end recruitment
- While MightyRecruiter is primarily free to use, viewing the full resumes of candidates on their resume database costs extra.
MightyRecruiter truly impressed us with the efficiency of its free ATS system.
Without spending any dime, you can access this tool’s custom-branded career page, post unlimited job openings across 29 job boards, tap into a resume database of over 22 million candidates, as well as rank and filter candidates by the candidate’s commute distance, years of experience, ex-employers, education, and a handful others.
To speed up your talent sourcing efforts further, the platform packs over 200 ready-to-use job description templates and suggests suitable candidates for your job posts based on defined criteria.
In terms of reporting capabilities, the built-in dashboard gave us a nice view of our job postings' performances across job boards and channels. During our tests, we didn’t find any delays in the presented stats; all were updated in real-time.
Unfortunately, MightyRecruiter’s current integration capabilities leave something to be desired. The free ATS software can only connect with job boards and social media. There seems to be no way to connect, for example, a candidate assessment or video interview app with the platform.
ThinkGlink Media, DocuSign, OpExpert, GTM Pros, Small World Recruiting
MightyRecruiter offers free applicant tracking software at no cost for several features, including unlimited open jobs, unlimited resume searching, unlimited user accounts, one-click posting to a network of free job boards, mobile-friendly candidate management, social network, and auto-publishing.
While you can preview resumes as much as you want, keep in mind, though, that you'll need to buy Full Resume Views to access all the details.
Best For
Though enterprises can absolutely opt for MightyRecruiter, we recommend this ATS for smaller teams that hire under 50 candidates a year.
We used Mightyrecruiter to post jobs for subjects that we are in need of tutors for. We made regular job posts and specified some by city and some general to see the types of candidates that it would attract. We would then pull the candidates received from Mightyrecruiter to onboard them to the company. It managed the first step of our recruitment process for new tutors.
- It allows us to post jobs for online tutors
- The website is simple to use
- The pricing options are reasonable
We tried MightyRecruiter to recruit tutors that could join the platform. We had difficulties with finding large volumes of candidates and thought that MightyRecruiter could be an effective tool for this. We needed the ability to post multiple jobs in order to attract a large volume of candidates. We tried to use MightyRecruiter for about 2 months in 2023 and had mixed results.
- You aren't allowed to post unlimited jobs
- The jobs didn't attract a large volume of candidates
- To get started you need to post a job immediately
Mightyrecruiter has a pretty responsive support team so if you face issues they can be there to address it quickly.
You should consider what are your recruiting goals and what type of talent you are trying to attract. Also consider how often you will be hiring to see if it would be worth the investment.
There weren't any product changes when we used it
Mighty recruiter would be good for companies trying to recruit a single candidate for a generalized role
Mightyrecruiter is not good for a company trying to recruit at high volumes and wants to post many jobs
How to Choose a Free ATS
Before making a choice, it's crucial to understand the key features to look for in an ATS. We also highly recommend going for a demo with 3-5 vendors and preparing a comprehensive demo question list to ensure you make the most of the opportunity. Additionally, conducting a thorough ROI analysis and carefully considering the risk-reward factors will lead to a well-informed decision.
For those unfamiliar with buying HR tech or short on time, seeking guidance from individuals well-versed in the software you’re targetting can be invaluable. If you need help selecting the right ATS for your business, we warmly invite you to schedule a call with our experts to receive a tailored list of options at no cost.
Free ATS Benefits
Key benefits of ATSs, including free ones include improved compliance, enhanced candidate/recruiter experience, and efficiency through automation. 94% of recruiters find their ATS has had a positive impact on their organization’s hiring processes. Overall, this recruiting software is great for teams that want to grow their organization's headcount while staying organized.
- Recruitment process automation: Expanding headcount is a massive endeavor comprised of tiny, interdependent tasks that take up considerable time. A good ATS can automate interview scheduling, resume parsing, and generate interview feedback, resulting in greater efficiency and fewer errors.
- Compliance: EEOC audits and other forms of equitable recruiting compliance are essential for applicant tracking software. Your ATS should have features that help keep you compliant with your local rules and regulations.
- Candidate experience: A well-made ATS ensures a positive applicant experience. Employers can make branded design choices on custom career sites, including personal touches like employee testimonials.
- Recruiter experience: A good ATS is a tremendous benefit for a TA team. Trust us: your team is ready to say goodbye to the patchwork of clunky spreadsheets, dropbox mysteries, and scattered Google Docs.
- Staying organized: An ATS keeps all your candidate information, contact history, and workflows in one place. This means your team can focus on the tasks that really matter and grow your company.
The Pitfalls of Using a Free ATS
The main pitfall to avoid is using the free plan of an ATS vendor whose paid plans are not suitable for you. Don’t think of this as a short-term solution. Instead, be highly selective and treat your choice as a potential long-term partnership.
In the world of business, nothing is ever truly free. Although “try it before you buy it” is one of the key benefits of signing up for a free ATS, and some vendors offer forever-free plans that you can theoretically, uh, use forever, most teams will eventually need to upsize their plans to meet their growing needs.
We recommend that shoppers do loads of research (including on ATS pricing) and come prepared with questions when prepping for a product demo. Don't let a paid tier sneak up on you unprepared!
Key Features of Free Applicant Tracking Software
Even for free (and cheap) versions of ATS software, you can expect to get many of the basics that you'd find in any all-in-one system:
- Automated job posting: Your free ATS should automatically distribute your job openings to various free job boards and an option to integrate with paid ones. This means you no longer need to manually post job descriptions on each individual job board as the free ATS efficiently handles these tasks for you.
- Custom landing pages for recruiting: Most platforms offer a plug-and-play career site template you can embed in your company website. This can cover your “careers” page or individual pages created for specific recs.
- Organizational framework: ATSs keep all the pieces of the hiring process in order: applications, resumes, cover letters, interviews, dates, and emails.
- Mobile-first design: You shouldn’t be paying extra to get access to this feature as it's now standard practice for an applicant tracking tool to be either mobile-optimized or accompanied by a free mobile app that TAs can easily download and use.
- Interview scheduling: In our experience, it's crucial to choose an ATS that allows you to share your availability directly with candidates without leaving the platform. While it sounds simple, this can actually save you a lot of time and headaches.
- Analytics dashboards: While you can’t expect highly advanced analytics from a no-cost ATS, we've found that even free versions offer some level of reporting functionality that can be quite useful. For instance, you can still track your progress in filling positions and access some essential recruitment stats such as conversion rates and time-to-hire.
Free Applicant Tracking System FAQs
What is an applicant tracking system?
An applicant tracking system is a software application designed to help hiring teams organize each feature of the hiring process.
Why do you need an applicant tracking system?
An ATS can easily manage large volumes of applicants. Automating and streamlining the recruitment process saves your team’s time, improves candidate experience, and reduces costly (and sometimes legally overwhelming!) errors.
What kind of free ATS options are available?
When looking into a free applicant tracking system, you are likely to find two options:
- Free trials of fully functional paid software allow you to try out a system for a limited time.
- Subscriptions that offer limited functionality but are entirely free to use forever.
Who actually uses free ATS?
The surprising answer is that it’s companies of all sizes.
Slow-growing SMBs and startups are great clients for free ATS platforms. Rather than attempting to scale up from a patchwork of disorganized spreadsheets and documents, free and SMB-centric ATS can help growing teams lay down an organizational framework that they’ll thank themselves for in the future. They also benefit from not buying oversized enterprise software they may or may not grow into.
Large companies with big allocated budgets also use free ATS to test-drive options before they buy.
Why ATS is used in recruiting?
The core function of the ATS is to make the end-to-end hiring process better for the candidate and easier for the employer. The first platforms were created for large corporations processing thousands of job applications weekly. Quickly, it became clear that businesses of any size could benefit from this software. This is now ubiquitous in the recruitment process.
How do applicant tracking systems work?
Applicant tracking systems act as a liaison between an employer and an applicant. When a candidate submits an application, the ATS reads their profile and resume, while sorting and storing the candidate’s work experience, education, contact information, and other details.
On the employer’s side, hiring teams interact with the neatly filed candidate information tucked into a database. Via a user interface, permissions are granted for everyone involved in the recruitment process to access information on individual candidates or company-wide hiring trends.
Scheduling features are a bread-and-butter standard, and skills assessments are becoming increasingly popular.
What are the standard features that free ATSs offer?
There is likely to be a great deal of variation between each vendor, yet the following offers a list of features you should expect from a free applicant tracking system.
- Automated job posting
- Custom career pages
- Organizational framework
- Mobile-friendliness
- Interview scheduling
- Analytics dashboards
What Has Been Changed Since Our Last Update?
To ensure you have the most accurate and up-to-date information, we regularly update our reviews. Here are the major content changes in the latest update:
- Pricing Accuracy: We have fact-checked the pricing for all listed vendors to ensure it is accurate and current. Additionally, we have detailed any discounts and potential fees you should be aware of.
- New Vendors Introduced: We are excited to introduce Dover and Wellfound, two free, startup-focused applicant tracking system vendors. Our HR tech editors have been monitoring these platforms for some time, and they have passed our tests with flying colors.
- Removal of OpenCATS: We have decided to remove OpenCATS, a free, open-source applicant tracking system, from our listings. While it was a good alternative to Excel sheets and Google Drive, we felt it was necessary to step back due to potential security concerns associated with its self-hosted setup and its complicated user interface.
- Fresh Product Reviews: We have added more product reviews from real-life recruiters and leaders at startups and small businesses. Notable contributors include Lisa Pope, Head of People and Culture at Jones Jones LLC, Drew M., Talent Program Manager at Upwork, and Matthew Barnes, Instructor at Army National Guard.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for staying with us! We hope the guide has been useful to you in narrowing down the best free ATS for your startup/small business. If you have any additions, please send us a note, and we’ll be happy to update the list!
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.