Best Recruiting Software (Reviewed by Experts for 2024)
This list of the top recruiting software is backed by our HR expertise and original research. Find detailed reviews, key features, pros & cons, comparisons, screenshots, pricing, and best-use scenarios for each tool below.
Best Recruiting Software
Recruiting software is designed to streamline and enhance hiring processes within organizations. Whether you're an HR manager or a recruiter, it's a tool that can save you valuable time and resources.
However, given the multitude of options and often confusing online reviews, even seasoned HR professionals can find themselves vulnerable to decision paralysis.
That's where this guide steps in. Created in 2020 and regularly updated since, our goal is clear: to empower talent acquisition and HR experts with well-informed purchases.
Our expert recommendations stem from thorough research, including vendor demos, in-house product testing, and interviews with individuals who use the tools on a regular basis. We'll also share our software evaluation process, so you know exactly how we arrived at these choices.
Our team of experts evaluated multiple metrics and features when selecting the best recruiting software, with these three factors considered most important: diversity hiring, customization, and unique capability. Here’s how we made the cut.
- Diversity Hiring: You can’t go far wrong with a recruitment tool that offers robust diversity hiring capabilities. Thus, we made sure selected solutions provide multilingual career sites, blind hiring (anonymized candidate information), structured interviews, and AI-powered features for unbiased candidate shortlisting.
- Customization: This factor holds a key role in improving your chances of securing the best talent. Features we vetted for this element include the option to make the look and feel of your career page match your company's branding, easy-to-adjust workflows, and custom fields to collect candidates’ additional information. This way, you can create a personalized experience for both candidates and your team.
- Unique Strength: We selected software that had something special, such as Turing, which specializes in tech talent recruitment, or VidCruiter, with its advanced video interviewing solution as part of the full recruitment suite. These types of software have a knack for enhancing the recruitment process and giving you a competitive edge.
Each software listed here has undergone our strict HR tech evaluation process, including full product demos, user research, feedback from experts in this space, and our first-hand experience with the software to determine which products truly stand out as the best.
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VidCruiter
VidCruiter has a full recruitment suite that is fully customizable and friendly to both US-based and worldwide teams. While most of its customers are medium to large-sized companies, fast-growing teams that hire globally can also use VidCruiter and derive value.
PROS
- VidCruiter can be fully customized to match businesses' hiring journeys.
- Advanced automation features.
- Interview guide and templates developed by industrial and organizational (IO) psychologists.
- End-to-end solution consolidates all hiring tools into a single product.
- Supports numerous languages.
- Excellent customer support.
- Scalable and customizable — users pay for what they need and can purchase more features as they grow.
- Robust pre-recorded and live video interviewing with advanced automation.
- Browser-based, so it works across devices without installing apps.
- Available for recruiters in eight languages and supports job seekers in dozens more.
- 24/7 live agent support, assigned account manager, and on-demand training.
CONS
- Some complex, highly customized, and feature-rich implementations will be time-consuming.
- The skills assessment module is great as an add-on but doesn’t stand out among other solutions in that space.
- Undisclosed pricing.
- No free trial or free plan.
- Because the product is feature-rich and highly customizable, the implementation phase can be time-consuming.
- Advanced search and technical skills testing features within the assessment module leave room for improvement.
- No free or trial version.
- Undisclosed pricing.
What makes VidCruiter unique is its exceptional level of customization and sophistication. In addition to the standard ATS, custom career sites, interview scheduling, and onboarding—features we have seen in other robust recruiting solutions like Pinpoint and Trakstar Hire—VidCruiter just knocks our socks off with its powerful extras: Quick Apply (a lighter version of an ATS), native live interviewing, pre-recorded interviewing, automated reference checking, and virtual hiring events. The beauty is, you don't have to buy everything at once. You have the freedom to choose modules one by one and add more as your needs evolve.
Launched in 2012, VidCruiter has amassed a whopping 100,000 users to date. This could be considered a success for any budget-friendly tool already, yet VidCruiter achieved this milestone despite its enterprise-centric pricing, with no easy-to-get free trial or free plan on offer. It’s also telling that a bunch of brands that were using VidCruiter when we first reviewed it back in 2018 are using it.
We asked some of these brands about the reason for their loyalty, and two reasons stuck out: “VidCruiter provides everything we need for our recruitment”, and “The customer support has never failed to amaze us.” Whether you're using their entire recruitment suite or just the ATS, you'll receive the same level of support. VidCruiter offers a dedicated account manager to assist users with their software installation, workflow customization, and technical queries. They even provide training to help users get familiar with the recruiting software’s latest feature updates.
Fair warning, though, VidCruiter’s excellent level of customization comes with a significant time investment for implementation. Another caution for teams that have only a handful of hires or seek a plug-and-play solution: Investing in VidCruiter could mean biting off more than you can chew. VidCruiter’s customization, support, and feature sets are most beneficial for organizations hiring at least a hundred employees annually. In the hands of much simpler and smaller recruitment teams, the full suite of features will likely go underused.
Over 100,000 users, including Lionsgate, Samsung, and US Foods.
The pricing of VidCruiter’s solutions is not disclosed on their website. Contact VidCruiter’s sales team for a custom price quote.
Best For
VidCruiter is a great option for medium to large organizations that hire at least 100 people annually. It is especially beneficial for organizations with a strong company culture that can be highlighted through videos.
Our organization has been using Vidcruiter continuously as part of our international recruitment program for customer service/call center staff. We use the tool for its recorded interviewing functionality. This makes the whole shortlisting and first-round interviewing process convenient and more efficient. We also use automated interview scheduling, which saves a lot of time. During second-round interviews, we use the live interviews functionality as we need to make a closer examination of candidates.
I like how easy it is to use. I have found the customer support team to be responsive and helpful, which should not be taken for granted. The tool can be customized to suit your requirements and company processes, which makes it more usable.
We were going to engage in a big international, high-volume, virtual recruitment campaign. We had been using another well-known but more generalized video conferencing tool, but it lacked recruitment-specific functionality and was proving inefficient when hiring en masse. We needed recorded interviewing functionality because we were hiring in volume across multiple time zones, and manually arranging so many interviews was laborious and time-consuming.
Vidcruiter offered recorded interviews and automated interview scheduling, which helped us efficiently reduce our candidate longlists to several interview shortlists for each position we recruited for. This was then a manageable volume of candidates, after which we could manually arrange interviews. I have used Vidcruiter for about 12 months for high-volume, international recruitment.
Vidcruiter was quite hard to learn at first and requires help from support to make full use of the tool. I also experienced some video loading lag time, which meant that reviewing videos took a little longer. We also had a few problems integrating calendars for our automated interview scheduling workflow.
Customer support is very good compared to the competition. Although I found it harder to learn than some others, I found that it was very customizable compared to the competition, which was important as we are quite a quirky organization with unusual requirements.
If you are doing high-volume recruitment with staff in different time zones, you should focus on two specific features. The first is recorded interviewing, as this is the most efficient way to reduce longlists to shortlists and conduct first-round interviews. Automated interview scheduling is a must for high-volume recruitment, but check that it integrates well with your existing calendar systems.
I think that live video calls and video replays have become less glitchy and stream more seamlessly.
Vidcruiter is good for international organizations recruiting staff in high volume across different time zones.
Vidcruiter is not good for smaller organizations where face-to-face interviewing is crucial for accurate assessment.
Workable
Workable proved especially effective in our testing with a thoroughly developed AI-driven job description tool, a multilingual candidate interface, and highly flexible candidate communication workflow templates that can automate everything from pre-assessment emails to disqualification and interview self-scheduling messages.
PROS
- Candidate profile anonymization option for automated personal detail removal.
- Language Kit fully translates the candidate-facing experience into multiple languages.
- Fully customizable pre-built workflow templates for candidate communication.
- Extensive native integration options, along with API support.
- Pricing transparency with a 15-day free trial available. Discount available bundling Recruiting and HR.
- 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
- Lacks recruiting chatbot feature.
- Employer interface is only available in English.
- Higher priced than some competitors like Manatal, Wellfound, and Zoho Recruit.
- Additional fees are required for tools like texting, video interviews, transcription, and assessments.
- 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.
After experiencing Workable from both employer and applicant perspectives, it’s easy to see why this platform is a favorite among SMBs, especially those focused on enhancing diversity hiring and recruitment efficiency.
One feature that really caught our attention was the candidate profile anonymization tool. In our test, it casually cleared all candidates' personal details from their names to photos and social profiles, which literally left no room for unconscious bias to creep in.
The Language Kit was another gem. This tool fully translates the candidate-facing experience into multiple languages. As confirmed by one of our HR Tech editors who speaks Spanish, the translation was great. It’s unfortunate, though, that the employer interface in the backend currently supports only English. Still, having the candidate side fully localized is a huge benefit for global hiring efforts, we’d imagine.
Compared to other tools we’ve tested, like Manatal and Recruit CRM, Workable’s customization options feel more intuitive and comprehensive. The platform offers a vast library of pre-built templates for candidate communications, from thank-you emails to interview scheduling links, which we can fully customize. Then, we can set up the condition(s) and when they should go out.
When it comes to AI job posting assistance, Workable has really gone the extra mile. It offers flexibility in crafting job postings, letting users adjust tone, revert to previous versions, and even regenerate specific sentences—a level of control we haven’t seen in many other platforms.
Workable is not the most budget-friendly option, however. It starts at $149 per month for two active jobs, considerably higher than some other SMB-centered ATS such as Manatal, Wellfound, and Zoho Recruit.
Additionally, the platform falls short compared to others like Greenhouse in terms of candidate profile merging, as there’s no auto-merge option we could find—it still requires some manual work from the user end to avoid losing key communication history.
All that said, if you can overlook that and some of the pricing and backend language limitations, we think Workable is a solid choice to assist your in-house recruiters with applicant management, screening, and some core HR workflows. In fact, more HR features are coming in 2025.
30,000+ companies, including Salad and Go, Karo Healthcare, and Moodle.
Workable's pricing begins at $149 per month, with additional premium features like Texting, Video Interviews, and Assessments available starting at $29 per month. A 15-day free trial is offered, and discounts are available for bundling Recruiting and HR products.
Best For
SMBs seeking a feature-rich recruiting solution that consolidates applicant tracking, sourcing, video interviewing, and HR functions in one place.
Humanly
After watching Humanly for a while and fully exploring what the tool offers, it became clear to us that its strength lies in its abundant AI recruiting features, which can automate a range of time-consuming tasks for recruiters, from sourcing to pre-screening, engagement, and interview scheduling.
PROS
- Multi-lingual AI chatbot for candidate pre-screening, job interview scheduling, note-taking, and job application assistance.
- Customizable automation tools for candidate recommendations, outreach, engagement campaigns, and employee referrals.
- AI sourcing from over 600 million candidates online and within the user’s integrated ATS.
- 2-way native integration with over 40 applicant tracking systems.
- Humanly leverages a huge database of candidates to present you with talent from all corners of the globe. You can also source new ones through their Chrome extension while browsing sites like LinkedIn and GitHub.
- The Humanly tool integrates with hundreds of ATSs, providing an upgrade to your sourcing that won’t require you to switch tools.
- Generative AI is cleverly implemented for messaging candidates, automating campaigns, and ranking candidates at various stages of the hiring funnel, yet a human can step in and take over at any time.
- Their reporting module is among the cleanest and most in-depth we’ve seen for this kind of tool.
CONS
- No free trial or free plan.
- Does not have ATS functionalities such as job posting and resume parsing.
- The price is undisclosed and can be relatively high for budget-conscious teams.
- Since it’s a tool that was relaunched after a company acquisition, there might be some changes in the near future that could impact your workflows.
- The price point might be a bit steep for smaller teams, but they do offer custom prices based on the functionality you need and the number of users.
Humanly stood out throughout our tech tests as a powerful, AI-driven recruitment tool that excels in automating outreach and candidate engagement.
The ATS integrations are two-way, as it promises. When we plugged it into Greenhouse and created a new job posting from the ATS, the software automatically created a matching job profile on its platform, so we didn’t have to set it up twice.
From there, Humanly’s chatbot could manage everything from the initial candidate engagement and screening to the interview booking. In our testing, the chatbot handled real-time Q&A, including letting candidates learn more about our company culture, role expectations, and even salary requirements—all while collecting candidate information, such as availability and job interest. As a result, we received pre-vetted candidates appearing on our calendars with minimal manual effort.
Regarding sourcing capabilities, through calibration candidates, we could guide the AI’s sourcing accuracy by pinning top matches or removing those that weren’t suitable, providing feedback on preferred or disliked candidate attributes, and even adding a LinkedIn URL of an ideal candidate. This blend of AI with hands-on guidance gave us a balance of automation and control comparable to other top sourcing tools like Fetcher and Rolebot.
Another feature that stood out was the level of customization in Humanly’s campaign automation. It generated outreach messages tailored to the job and candidate profiles in less than a minute. Each campaign had one initial message and three follow-ups by default, but the content and schedule were fully adjustable.
In our testing, the reporting feature also checked the box, letting us track where candidates were in the hiring process, review chat transcripts, and monitor key campaign metrics like candidate engagement rates, conversion points, and time to hire.
However, if you need an all-in-one ATS, you may need to supplement Humanly with other tools, as this option lacks core ATS functions like job posting and resume parsing.
Similar to Paradox, Humanly’s pricing remains undisclosed. Though the recruiting software does offer a monthly billing option, according to our research, it’s not the most budget-friendly option for small businesses.
1,000+ companies, including TheKey, Upwork, and Udemy.
Humanly has undisclosed pricing.
Best For
Global teams with an existing ATS in place and looking to expand its automation and sourcing capabilities.
Fetcher
Fetcher has remarkable AI-powered automated outreach and sourcing capabilities, all wrapped up in a user-friendly interface. This makes the tool a go-to option for talent sourcing, engaging, and tracking purposes.
PROS
- Quality sourcing results through a combination of AI and human insights.
- Maintains an up-to-date candidate database through partnerships.
- User-friendly platform with great automation capabilities.
- Dedicated customer success manager for all plan users.
- Automated outreach for cold emails and personalized messages.
- Advanced search and filtering.
- Chrome extension available.
- Vast integration options, API integrations available at no extra cost.
- Now offers a free plan, a free trial, and option for monthly payments.
- Fetcher is highly rated by customers for its clean interface, ease of use, and customer support.
- According to most users, Fetcher's sourcing tool is one of the best in the business, providing them access to the best candidates with specialized skills and backgrounds.
- Customers find Fetcher's automated outreach feature extremely useful for sending cold emails and personalized messages to potential candidates.
CONS
- Reports of occasional bugs and technical issues.
- Limited feedback impairs Fetcher's capacity to enhance candidate sourcing and result quality, as they depend on user input for refining their candidate searches.
- Primarily focused on sourcing and outreach, lacking features for other recruiting aspects.
- Some users report experiencing bugs and glitches while using the software.
- In rare cases, Fetcher may source either over-qualified or under-qualified candidates for a particular role. However, according to users, their team is quick to correct and refine the search criteria in such scenarios.
Out of the 50+ different options we have tested in this domain, Fetcher is among the best recruiting software for finding passive candidates and kicking off conversations.
Fetcher offers exactly the kind of personal touch you'd want as a TA/sourcer: It doesn't just throw algorithms at you but gets real people behind the scenes finessing their AI to ensure every candidate they send your way is tailor-made to fit your job specs.
Our dive into Fetcher’s candidate sourcing started with filling in our criteria. (Alternatively, if you've got a job description handy, simply adding your job description would work too). Two days later, the first batch of candidates landed. Though the first round didn’t hit the bullseye, with some overqualified profiles in the mix, we couldn't help but notice the improvement in the subsequent round, and the fact that it happened over two nights.
Fetcher has made that happen by using our given feedback on candidates to train their AI and validate the AI’s search results before presenting them to us. Compared to traditional corporate interactions with staffing agencies that typically charge 15-30% per placement with a 1-2 week turnaround, Fetcher’s approach feels fresh and is an equally good, if not better, alternative.
We liked the generous feature suite that this recruiting software offers to all users. Regardless of the plan you choose, you get access to their dedicated support, Chrome extension (with the capability to discover up to 10,000 additional emails), personalized email templates, unlimited outbound emails, unlimited re-engagement campaigns, and both native and API integrations. Additionally, startups and SMBs will love Fetcher’s new pricing. The vendor now offers a free plan, a free trial, and options for monthly payments. Pretty cool, isn’t it?
However, Fetcher disappointed us when it comes to approaching active job seekers: no built-in job board postings, no career websites, no onboarding. And, truth be told, when stacked against hireEZ—a solid rival in talent sourcing software space—Fetch falls behind by lacking the capability to rediscover candidates within the user’s connected ATS.
Fetcher is used by over 500 companies, including CarGurus, Andela, and Magnite.
Fetcher provides four plans: Starter (free), Growth ($149/user/mo), Amplify ($549/user/mo), and a custom plan for large companies and staffing agencies.
Best For
Solo recruiters, in-house recruitment teams, and staffing firms seeking a recruiting tool with strong sourcing and outreach capabilities will find Fetcher highly beneficial.
Manatal
Manatal offers a range of features that benefit not only in-house recruiters but also headhunters and staffing companies. It’s also one of the best-priced solutions we’ve seen in the recruitment tech space.
PROS
- Strong applicant tracking and profile enrichment features.
- Tailored to both corporate and agency users.
- Pricing starts at $15, with free trial and monthly payment option available.
- User-friendly, bilingual, and mobile-optimized interface.
- 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
- Integrations mainly depend on Zapier and API (accessible only to top-tier plan subscribers).
- Sourcing extension solely sources profiles from LinkedIn.
- AI job description (JD) generator only works for English JDs.
- Phone support only available on custom 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.
Manatal’s recruitment software is quite a bargain for most startups and SMBs. Its base plan ($15 per user per month) includes many cool features: candidate enrichment, AI recommendations, applicant tracking, LinkedIn sourcing extension, and text recruiting. The availability of three other plans with more advanced functionalities and support provides comfort for fast-growing businesses.
Feature-wise, Manatal’s applicant tracking is top-notch. This tool comes with a customizable, multilingual dashboard, drag-and-drop pipelines, Kanban and list view options, and a responsive design that functions well across devices. Plus, it features auto enrichment and duplicate detection.
Manatal allows users to have different pipeline stage automation for each job or a unified one across all, while its AI can be a great ally for increasing productivity. It can help you build JDs, enrich candidate profiles, and suggest and score profiles based on your JDs.
Agencies' needs are catered for, too. In one platform, you can oversee all client-related activities, from lead management and client portals to in-app communication, placement monitoring, and revenue tracking.
One area for improvement, though, is native integrations. Manatal has direct connections with many job boards but with very few HRMS, while its custom integrations and API are available only for the highest-priced plan.
We also wouldn’t suggest this solution if native talent sourcing and video interviewing are must-haves for you. Manatal’s extension doesn’t work on any other platforms than LinkedIn and, unlike VidCruiter, in-house interviewing features are lacking.
10,000+ companies, including Adecco, Decathlon, Tesco, and Fujitsu.
Manatal pricing is between $15 and $55 per user per month when billed annually. Custom plans are available and there is a free trial with no credit card info required.
Best For
Manatal is a good addition to both in-house and agency TAs’ tech stack, as long as ease of use and affordability are priorities.
Recruit CRM
Recruit CRM has improved over time by adding new features based on what users want. A clear and scalable pricing structure and a timeless free trial (with no credit card info required) is a big bonus to small and midsized agencies.
PROS
- Extensive CRM capabilities.
- AI-powered resume parsing and precise candidate matching.
- Transparent pricing model with a free trial with no time limits.
- Customizable drag-and-drop candidate pipeline.
- Dedicated account manager, unlimited training, and access to GPT-4 features in every plan.
- 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
- Occasional lag during peak usage times.
- Lacks native tools for video interviewing, employee referrals, and onboarding processes.
- 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.
There’s a lot to love about Recruit CRM, but we are particularly impressed by how it seamlessly enables agency recruiters to organize client interactions and track sales opportunities. The platform features in-app resume formatting, client feedback, emailing, appointment scheduling and invoicing tools.
The native GPT-4 tool does a pretty decent job at generating emails, candidate summaries, and notes. It can also transcribe phone calls, so you won't have to worry about missing important details.
Juggling between candidates and clients can be a real pain in the neck for agencies, so the presence of Recruit CRM’s configurable workflow can offer these users some real comfort. This feature lets you set up automatic reminders to leave notes when a candidate moves to a different stage.
Compared to Manatal, Recruit CRM lacks a native referral management feature but does have an integrated phone call tool. Manatal is cheaper ($15 per user per month), yet priority support is only for higher-tier subscriptions. Recruit CRM starts at $85 per user per month and comes with a dedicated account manager and unlimited training, regardless of your plan.
While we appreciate the recent addition of Recruit CRM’s Kanban board, which had indeed improved user experience, there's still room for improvement, especially during peak times. Some recruiters we interviewed have reported lags that slow down their workflow.
1,200+ recruitment firms, including Zeren, Avizio, and Cooper Coleman.
Recruit CRM pricing is between $85 and $165 per user per month when billed annually. There is also a free trial with no credit card info required.
Best For
Recruit CRM is ideal for staffing firms to manage both client relations and candidate pipelines.
Zoho Recruit
Zoho Recruit’s pricing flexibility is among the best. In addition to a free-forever plan, the platform provides a money-back guarantee policy that lets you use one of its paid editions for 45 days without risk.
PROS
- Extensive customization options.
- Multilingual support for recruiters and candidates.
- Works for both corporate HR and staffing agencies.
- Transparent pricing with money-back guarantee policy. Free-forever plan and free trial 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
- Steep learning curve.
- Limited mobile functionality.
- Client portal, data migration, and designated support cost extra.
- 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.
Zoho Recruit is one of the few vendors that offers a dual interface for corporate recruitment and staffing agencies. The corporate interface gives you a comprehensive view of candidate information with features like resume parsing, interviews, and referrals. Meanwhile, the agency interface includes a client portal, in-app communications, and contact management for streamlined operations and customer relationship monitoring.
Multilingual teams with unique recruitment processes will be equally impressed with Zoho Recruit’s customization capability. It’s straightforward to tailor workflows, create job postings, and customize career pages in multiple languages. Plus, the recently added Smart Assist for job description and offer letter generation, as well as the platform’s workflow rules, reduce a good amount of work for recruiters.
What makes this platform so hard to beat, though, is its pricing. Zoho Recruit offers a free-forever plan, a free trial, and a refund policy that lets you get your money back if you find your paid option is not a good fit after using it for 45 days.
Unfortunately, even with Zoho Recruiter’s paid tiers, you may still have to pay extra for features like mass emails, client portal, and premium support.
Another drawback is Zoho Recruit’s mobile app. Though more features have been added, crashes and glitches still occurred during our testing.
Also, some may initially find it overwhelming to get the hang of this recruiting platform. But once you do, the experience will likely be positive, as reported by several recruiters, both in-house and agency whom we interviewed.
8,000+ companies, including CareerUp, ActualizeConsulting, and Full Stack Talent.
Zoho Recruit follows a tiered pricing structure. When billed annually:
- For corporate HRs: Free plan, Standard costs $25/recruiter/month, and Enterprise costs $50/recruiter/month.
- For staffing agencies: Free plan, Standard costs $25/user/month, Professional costs $50/user/month, and Enterprise costs $75/user/month.
- Available add-ons: The Client Portal costs $6 per license/month, and the Video Interviews cost $12 per license/month.
Best For
Zoho Recruit is ideal for SMBs and staffing agencies, particularly those already using Zoho's suite of products.
Greenhouse
Greenhouse is a top pick for midsize and large companies thanks to its advanced customization and ease of use. The recruiting solution even offers a seamless connection with over 450 HR software partners you could leverage.
PROS
- Smooth transition from candidate to employee with well-executed onboarding.
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android provide flexibility for recruiters on the go.
- Sourcing automation retrieves contact information, personalized email campaigns, engagement tracking, and reporting.
- Onboarding module provides 3 access roles for process management.
- Native features for internal job boards and employee referrals.
- Multilingual support in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
- Extensive integration options with 450+ third-party applications.
- Frequent feature updates.
- 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
- No trial version available, and pricing is not the most budget-friendly.
- Limited customization and navigation challenges for reporting.
- Lacks features for nurturing and re-engaging with past candidates.
- Sourcing automation is available as an add-on.
- 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.
It’s nearly impossible when searching for the best recruiting software and not coming across Greenhouse because the platform is among the most complete recruitment tools in the space. Greenhouse primarily debuted as an ATS in 2012 but now also offers more solutions for structured hiring and candidate experience. Many teams find it a versatile tool that effectively serves as both a robust ATS and a basic recruiting CRM.
We've seen why thousands of companies of all stripes have stayed put with the platform for years. Once you create your first job post with Greenhouse, you won’t want to go back to the old days of either settling for a dull job look or trading your entire afternoon (and that of your front-end developer) for a better career page UI. Greenhouse has dozens of pre-built templates that can make the whole process easy while creating everything from scratch is also comfortable enough without needing any coding knowledge, design skills, or support from Greenhouse’s team. With the native drag-and-drop workflow, users can tailor the number of stages, their names, purposes, evaluation criteria, PIC, and define roles and access levels. We think this high degree of customization truly sets Greenhouse apart from often-compared brands like Lever and Taleo.
However, it’s fair to say a platform is user-friendly only if it's loved by both employers and candidates. We’ve tested applying through literally every ATS we have featured: iCIMS, Recruitee, Lever, and Workday—they all must have at least one of our resume copies. But none have impressed us as much as Greenhouse. A gorgeous landing page, a process that is so easy to apply, and an application form that says no to asking candidates to fill in the same information twice.
Moreover, Greenhouse boasts extensive integration capabilities. With over 450 native integrations, it packs just about everything we could possibly think of to plug into a recruitment system. Candidate sourcing tools? Check. Video interviewing software? Check. Background check platforms? Check. We've tried some common integrations like Slack, Gmail, and Calendly, and they all worked seamlessly.
However, it's not all sunshine. Greenhouse’s pricing is not very friendly towards companies where budget is a strong concern. But what disappoints us most is that despite regularly rolling out new features, there seems to be no progress with the reporting. Hiccups happen here and there and customization options remain limited for certain reports—the pass-through report still allows only filtering by department, just like the last time we looked at it. Also bear in mind that Greenhouse doesn’t possess any sourcing capabilities, so to use such features you need to purchase third-party tools like Gem and SeekOut and plug them into the platform.
Nearly 4,000 companies, including Casana, Momentive, and Anaplan.
Greenhouse offers three pricing plans based on team size. A one-year prepaid subscription is the standard contract, but discounts are available for longer terms.
Best For
Greenhouse is best for internal recruiting departments at mid-sized organizations, large enterprises, and fast-growing teams.
- I use greenhouse daily and multiple times a year.
- I used it for interviews which included setting up interviews, building interview kits and scorecards. When setting up interviews, I don't need to send them a resume and details, it's all there available to them in Greenhouse.
- Candidate communication with Greenhouse was quick and easy. I used it to acknowledge their applications, to reach out to coordinate interviews and also send out rejections as needed.
- Job posting management with Greenhouse is easy. I post jobs directly to our career page with Greenhouse and update the same as needed too.
- Developing hiring plans for each role and collaboration with interviewers is also done on Greenhouse.
- Managing our Vendors, and easily managing their candidates in the pipeline is easy with Greenhouse. Our external recruitment partners directly submit their candidates with details on our greenhouse platform.
- I like the notifications and alerts it provides to make sure you are able to keep things moving in timely manner.
- The ability to search resumes is great, which helps build our own resume database. With Greenhouse , the ability to customize workflows based on the needs of each team and or role is very helpful.
- You can integrate LinkedIn with Greenhouse.
As an organization we were growing and we needed a new online collaborative system which would assist us with our recruitment. As a global team, it was essential for us to use a single system. We also needed support with our interview process, being able to schedule interviews with ease. In addition, we wanted a system in place which would be used by our internal recruiters and our external vendors all in one single space. As the team grew it was not possible to effectively track our candidates, hiring process and create the necessary reports. Lastly we were looking for a tool which would be scalable as we grew and increased our hiring.
Personally, I have used Greenhouse for over 4 years and over the years have learnt more and more what can be done with it. I have used it as a part of an in-house recruitment team and as an external vendor.
Over time it helped us with onboarding too which was a plus as we needed support in that area as well.
- It does take some time to learn the platform and how to get its best use, training is important to use Greenhouse to the fullest.
- The UI is good, but may not be the latest compared to other products out there.
- More integrations with job boards and softwares would be great.
I have used Greenhouse and similar tools, Greenhouse is a robust and constantly evolving platform geared more to larger companies and or companies ready to invest more on their recruitment tool. Even though smaller growing teams can use it , I would say it is more geared to medium if not large enterprises from a price point and the initial set up time too. As mentioned quite a bit of training is needed to use Greenhouse which is not always the case for other recruitment tools. This can be a barrier to getting hiring managers to use the platform.
- A few of the key buying criteria includes assessing the tool to make sure it solves your company's problems. All company's recruitment needs are not the same.
- It is important to see if there is an option for a trial or atleast a demo to get an understanding of how it works, and its usability.
- Integrations are important to consider. Teams have multiple tools for productivity, project management, performance management, compensation, and onboarding. It is important to take a look at which integrations are available when choosing a tool.
They have a mobile app which is constantly improving but helps meet the needs of users, especially when many are working remotely. They have improved security and compliance over time too. Lastly, diversity, equity and inclusion features have been added to the tool as well which are constantly updated to the needs of the user.
Recruiters, HRBPs, Hiring Managers. Medium-large sized organizations.
Very small teams.
ClearCompany
ClearCompany offers a host of HR solutions that complement each other well. You can choose the solution you need or combine them all to have a comprehensive talent management platform in your stack.
PROS
- ATS, text recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and performance in one place.
- Intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface.
- Customizable candidate communications through texts and emails.
- Responsive and efficient support team.
- Smooth implementation experience.
- Supports multiple languages.
- ClearCompany offers a host of HR solutions that work well with another. You can choose the solution you need or combine them all to have a comprehensive talent management platform in your stack.
- The majority of users find ClearCompany’s interface to be quite intuitive and easy to navigate.
- Many users have highly rated ClearCompany’s support team for speed and quality of response. Several users have also reported a smooth implementation experience.
CONS
- Lacks pricing information online.
- Limited reporting features.
- The platform can be slow at times.
- Cannot search for candidates by phone number or email.
- ClearCompany’s pricing is not readily available on their website. You also can’t create a trial account on your own from the website and have to go through the sales team for more info.
- Some users felt that the reporting feature is limited in customizations.
- According to a few users, the candidate search function doesn’t always bring up the correct candidate(s) and could use some improvement.
- ClearCompany doesn’t currently have a mobile app, but the platform is well optimized for mobile use both for hiring managers and candidates.
ClearCompany is a seasoned player in the recruiting and talent management tech space, having been in the business since 2004 and stands. Given its wealth of experience, we had some pretty high expectations when testing out its recruitment software.
Those demanding a one-stop-shop for managing the entire employee lifecycle should definitely give ClearCompany a try. The recruitment suite covers everything from applicant tracking and text recruiting to onboarding, employee engagement, and performance management. Not only can it serve you in your recruitment needs but managing and retaining your hires—you’re killing three, not two birds, with one stone here.
Another aspect we had to test out was ClearCompany’s customer support—low scores here are a potential deal-breaker for enterprises when considering recruitment software. The good news: the support knew what they were doing. They had been very responsive to our questions. When we asked: “Could we purchase just your ATS and text recruiting first?”, the vendor was happy to accommodate. No doubt this flexibility has helped them maintain a solid group of loyal customers.
Regarding ClearCompany’s user interface, although we don’t think it is terrible, when seeing it side by side with competing options like Greenhouse and Pinpoint, it is indeed less stylish, and slow at times.
The most disappointing part about ClearCompany was its searching and reporting capabilities. As the vendor has presented itself as an end-to-end recruiting software, we had high hopes for how it handles these aspects. However, we couldn’t use phone or email to search for candidates, and ClearCompany’s reporting really only covers the basics. It hardly meets the level of customization and detail enterprises would expect from their recruiting software, unfortunately.
2,000+ organizations, including Fujifilm, the Salvation Army, and the Supreme Court for the State of Arizona.
ClearCompany does not disclose pricing details. Contact their sales team for more information.
Best For
ClearCompany works best for large companies looking to house their recruiting software and the rest of their HR tools under one roof.
As someone committed to my organization's success, I rely on ClearCompany to streamline our recruitment, offer letter, and onboarding workflows. ClearCompany's customizable workflows allow me to tailor our HR processes to meet our organization's specific needs and goals. By utilizing ClearCompany daily, I am able to confidently manage and optimize our recruitment processes, ensuring that we are attracting, hiring, and onboarding the best talent in the most efficient manner possible. Ultimately, ClearCompany allows me to focus on what I do best: leading my organization to success.
ClearCompany is my preferred HR software because of its user-friendly interface. The system's functionality is not only impressive but also has practical applications. Unlike other HR software, ClearCompany focuses on providing useful tools and features rather than unnecessary bells and whistles. Additionally, ClearCompany makes it easy to post job vacancies on multiple job boards, including unemployment job boards, ensuring compliance.
Our decision to buy ClearCompany was informed by the platform's impressive array of integrations. As a company, we recognize the importance of streamlining our onboarding processes, and we found that ClearCompany offered a centralized system that helped reduce the manual aspects of candidate onboarding.
We have been able to rely on ClearCompany's reporting metrics to track our progress in meeting our onboarding goals, and we've found the self-service portal to be an excellent tool for candidates to review their onboarding checklist. Additionally, the platform's seamless offer letter approval process has made it easy for us to process and approve offer letters in a timely manner.
Overall, our experience with ClearCompany has been extremely positive. We have been using the platform for two years, and it has become an essential tool in our HR toolkit. We are confident that ClearCompany will continue to support our onboarding efforts and help us achieve our HR goals.
I am dissatisfied with ClearCompany for the following reasons: the response time has exceeded 48 business hours, the offer letter approval workflow lacks an automated function for candidate receipt, and there have been issues with candidate duplication. Keep in mind these issues fail to compare to the benefits we have received in using this system.
ClearCompany stands out because of its comprehensiveness. Customizing workflow, reporting, and tracking processes lets you know they get "it."
When looking to purchase ClearCompany, it is essential to evaluate several key factors to ensure the tool meets your organization's needs. These factors include the size of your company, the frequency of job postings, the number of employees that require access, and current workflows. By carefully considering these aspects, you can confidently determine if ClearCompany will be the right fit for your organization.
I have used ClearCompany for two years and cannot think of any significant evolutions/changes during that period. It has been pretty steady for use.
ClearCompany is suitable for medium to large organizations with a Recruiting/HR department to support its use.
Based on my analysis, I would recommend organizations with high-volume recruiting needs to consider other options instead of ClearCompany.
Pinpoint
Pinpoint has everything in-house recruitment teams need, from applicant tracking and blind screening to interview scheduling, video interviewing, and even onboarding tools.
PROS
- Easily accessible and intuitive UI for both recruiters and candidates.
- Highly adaptable recruitment workflows.
- All plans offer unlimited jobs and team members.
- Phone, chat, and email support with a sub-2-minute response time, and unlimited training.
- Automation capabilities include job board posting, candidate communications, auto job suggestions, scorecards, reminders, and recruitment analytics.
- 100+ native integration options, open API available.
- Multilingual careers website, application forms, and candidate emails.
- Sourcing extension available on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Gmail.
- 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
- Additional cost for the employee onboarding module.
- Sourcing capability limited to the sourcing extension.
- Not the most budget-friendly ATS option.
- No free trial or version currently available.
- 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.
With Pinpoint, on any plan you choose, you receive unlimited job postings and team member capabilities. In other words, you get to post as many jobs as you want and have as many members access Pinpoint as you wish, but your bill won’t go up, not even one penny. However, this alone isn’t what makes this recruiting automation software so unique. In addition to that generous offering of user seats and active job postings, the platform wowed us with its ability to connect with over 100 HR tools.
Who doesn’t love flexibility when it comes to designing their hiring process? From custom workflows and email templates to fields and reports, Pinpoint gave us no reasons to criticize it on this point but appreciating how simple it was to make the system work in our way.
If top-notch customer support is a must-have when selecting recruitment software, you’ll be delighted to add Pinpoint to your list of potential purchases. When we dropped the support team a morning email, expecting a reply in the afternoon at the earliest, Pinpoint took us by surprise by replying in under two minutes. It’s even serious when saying it offers customers unlimited training.
In terms of design, we asked a friend who 1) has never used Pinpoint and 2) has no IT background to navigate the platform to estimate the user-friendliness of the platform. Their eyebrows didn’t wrinkle once, and a stunning career website was born in under ten minutes. Testing how job applicants would feel navigating this website, we opened it on both our Chrome browser and phone. Not only did it look great, but it also functioned smoothly. It even supported several languages!
Moreover, it’s just nice to see the platform roll out regular new product updates. Candidate surveys for feedback collection and notifications for employee users about new job openings for referrals signal how serious Pinpoint is when it comes to constantly improving its products.
However, it’s a real shame to realize the tool, which doesn’t charge a single penny for adding more users and job posts, does charge for its employee onboarding module. Considering Pinpoint’s pricing, which typically starts around $7,200, we would find it difficult to recommend it to a budget-minded team. Lastly, if you require a recruiting solution with exhaustive sourcing capabilities or something built specifically for staffing agencies, there are better options than this software.
Jersey Electricity, JT Group, Coinshare, BDO Greenlight.
Pinpoint has two pricing plans:
- Growth is the starting plan, with up to 20 active jobs at one time.
- Enterprise adds more features along with unlimited active jobs.
- While Pinpoint pricing is only given via demos, our research indicates that it can cost around $7,200 annually.
Best For
Pinpoint is best for in-house recruiting teams that prioritize flexibility and user experience in their hiring process.
We use Pinpoint to advertise all of our roles across the globe. We use to create all adverts, interviews and communications with candidates. We also use this to run reports on statistics from this on our sources of applications and diversity and inclusion data
- Easy for both HR and Hiring Managers to use.
- Ability to quickly build and download reports.
- Ease of booking interviews.
We have been using Pinpoint for just over 2 years now.
We bought it because of the great customer service we had been provided in the demo, the capability of the system and the cost.
I really don't have anything I dislike.
In previous ATS systems, I have never been able to quickly run reports and data which is a huge benefit. The customer service is also heads and tails above any other ATS I have worked with
I think this is really hard to answer because every business will have a different requirement of what they are looking for. For us, it was the ability to run reports, easy booking of interviews, ROI, candidate experience and hiring manager experience
I think the regular updates from Pinpoint are super useful. Continually partnering with other businesses for ease of linking other platforms into the recruitment process
I would say any organization.
Again I think it would depend on what you were looking for in a system to say this.
Trakstar Hire
Trakstar Hire bundles everything you’d want from a mid-market recruiting tool: ATS, referrals, automation, interview scheduling, and onboarding. You won’t get confused with their offering: one package for all features, unlimited users and job openings, with no setup fees or hidden costs.
PROS
- Comprehensive plan covering applicant tracking, candidate sourcing, interview scheduling, recruitment automation, and offer management.
- Highly customizable recruitment workflows.
- Unlimited job openings and users.
- Transparent pricing with no installation fees.
- Built-in offer management tools, no need for third-party solutions.
- 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.
- Limited flexibility in sorting candidates and search results.
- No phone or dedicated support.
- No option to purchase individual products separately: one bundled plan.
- 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.
One thing we love about Trakstar Hire is that this recruiting software doesn’t neglect the classic employee referral. In fact, it has done a great job of designing this simple referral tool. Toggling it on or off turns employee referrals live or inactive for specific openings. And, when it’s turned on, the system keeps track and informs users which sources bring in the best candidates—something one should never overlook when fine-tuning talent acquisition strategy.
Try not to yawn when you read this: You open each applicant’s email, download attached resumes and cover letters, copy their email text for context, and then upload them on your recruitment tech. Don't worry if you yawned, because we did too. This is what’s happening to many recruiters around us, even when they are armed with one of the best recruitment software vendors in the space. Thankfully, that’s not the case with Trakstar Hire.
Trakstar Hire has a killer feature for this particular job, and it’s called Email Forwarding. Each opening created on the platform is assigned a unique email address. So, as long as users forward an applicant’s email to this address, the feature automatically creates a profile in the system with the applicant’s resume, email content, and any remaining attachments included.
Unlike Greenhouse, Trackstar Hire provides an offer letter tool that covers pretty much every aspect of onboarding, from offer letter templates to approval workflows and e-signatures, at no extra cost.
However, it’s too bad we can’t buy Trakstar Hire’s offerings separately the way we can with VidCruiter and ClearCompany. Trakstar Hire is marketed as an all-inclusive package, so some may find themselves ending up paying for features they don’t use.
Undisclosed pricing, annual subscription policy, and the absence of a free trial and free plan are not unusual for products targeting mid-market and enterprise-level customers. However, the relative lack of support options is definitely not a good sign. Trakstar Hire’s customers can only receive assistance via email, live chat, and self-help. There isn’t even phone support, let alone a dedicated account manager. It is truly disappointing when comparing this to what other solutions listed on this page are offering.
Trakstar Hire has worked with 2,000+ companies, including Makita, Couchsurfing, Lonely Planet, and Untappd.
Trakstar Hire is priced on a per-employee-per-month basis, starting at an annual minimum of $3499.
Best For
Organizations that are either medium to large in size or growing steadily will likely make the most of the all-in-one package Trakstar Hire offers.
Eightfold
If you need a robust talent sourcing tool but also love having all things recruitment in one place, Eightfold is the way to go. Alongside its smart career site, AI sourcing, and anonymous screening, the platform offers a handy set of tools for interview scheduling, recruiting events, and candidate relationship management.
PROS
- Supports hiring for permanent roles, contingent workers, and project-based human resources.
- AI-driven analysis for job postings and candidate matching based on skills and potential.
- Candidate search filters for experience level and salary range.
- Encourages diversity hiring with anonymous screening.
- Tailored training and development opportunities for employees.
- Built-in CRM for talent engagement via targeted email and SMS campaigns.
- Talent Flex module offers solutions for contingent worker recruitment.
- Chrome extension available.
- Available in 15+ languages.
- Eightfold uses AI technology to analyze your job postings and find the best fitting candidates. It can also rank those candidates based on their skills, experience and potential.
- You can filter candidate searches by experience level or salary range so that you only see candidates that fit your hiring criteria.
- The platform encourages diversity hiring and enables you to eliminate hiring bias through anonymous screening, aka profile masking
- It improves overall employee experience by providing tailored training and development opportunities based on their skill sets and interests.
- It has a built-in CRM to store and manage HR data about potential candidates, current employees, and previous employees.
CONS
- The system can be slow at times.
- No pre-built talent pool; candidate database is sourced from your ATS, career sites, and event applications.
- Lack of pricing transparency and no free trial available.
- There isn’t a way for hiring managers and recruiters to leave notes on candidates profiles within the system which is rather inconvenient.
- Eightfold has a mobile app that employees can access for skills development but doesn’t currently have one for hiring managers and recruiters to manage their pipeline and perform other actions relating to the hiring process.
- Several users reported that the tool does not search for candidates outside its database.
- The platform’s pricing isn’t transparent and there is no free trial at this time.
Eightfold captivated us with its seamless integration of talent acquisition, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), and onboarding processes, all within a consolidated platform.
The power of Eightfold becomes apparent when candidates land on its AI-driven career sites. Here, they can quickly upload their resume, and the AI responds with instant job recommendations tailored to their unique experience and potential. What struck us even more was the platform's next step—it doesn't just provide recommendations but also relevant content and introductions to current employees. For those who aren't quite ready to apply, there's an option to join a company's talent network to stay in the loop about future job opportunities.
Another thing about Eightfold that really excited us was how seamlessly one can source candidates directly from an ATS using the recruiting software’s artificial intelligence. The AI compiles candidate profile data from career sites, Eightfold's extension, and previous candidates’ information to recommend excellent fits for new roles. Anonymous screening and equal opportunity algorithms are also there to ensure recommendations are made based on candidate qualifications.
The native recruiting CRM is another valuable component of Eightfold. This tool lets you utilize Eightfold's AI to select the right audience for targeted campaigns and communicate with them via email and SMS. As expected from an enterprise-oriented HR tech, Eightfold’s reporting didn’t disappoint us. Head to the Insights tab and you’ll gain access to diversity analytics for detailed insights into your hiring processes. Plus, this data is updated daily so you can quickly spot any potential unequal outcomes.
However, we were left frustrated by loading times between different dashboards and reports. Unlike some other tools, such as SeekOut, there's no pre-built talent pool—the candidate database is drawn from your ATS, career sites, and applications from recruiting events and current employees.
While we can’t escape the fact that Eightfold is quite pricey, we’re really impressed with the overall quality of the platform. Trained on an extensive database—1.5 million skill sets and 1.5 billion worker profiles in 20 languages, Eightfold's AI surpasses mere keyword matching. It identifies the precise skills needed for a job in a specific industry and level—something you cannot find in cheaper yet less experienced AI recruiting software like HizeEZ and Manatal.
Eightfold serves notable enterprises such as Vodafone, TATA Bayer, and Morgan Stanley.
Reach out to Eightfold's Sales team for a personalized quote.
Best For
Eightfold is best for companies looking to attract employees, contingent workers, project-based human resources and find existing talent ready for a new opportunity with Al.
SeekOut
SeekOut is a long-standing recruiting tool with AI sourcing and candidate engagement features oriented toward the U.S. and Canada. The software has a robust candidate search engine that can source from over 800M profiles, enabling recruiters to reach a wide pool of talent.
PROS
- SeekOut’s AI lets users tap into hundreds of millions of candidates from external sources.
- Specialized pools with 127M+ profiles of developers, technical experts, cleared candidates, licensed nurses, and healthcare workers.
- Supports internal talent searches
- 300 custom filters to adjust the searches as broad or as narrow as you would like.
- AI Matching finds candidates who meet your uploaded job description and will learn from your decision (accept or reject the candidates) to return better results the next time you search.
- Sources from tons of external databases; over 780M candidate profiles and growing
- Can find talent also among your existing team.
- Truly tech-powered and search engine-like platform.
- Presents very complete candidate profiles, sometimes going through their code contributions, participation in conferences, academic papers, and more, in order to present top experts for certain skills or topics.
CONS
- Limited search results outside the U.S. and Canada.
- Limited candidates in Caribbean and Latin America markets.
- No option to view the candidates' resumes (the tool generates candidates’ profiles based on gathered data across various sources).
- While they're always expanding their candidate list, they have been mainly oriented towards the US and Canada for years. Hence, companies outside those geographies might find that their searches are still somewhat limited when it comes to local talent. Such is the case of some users writing from Europe, for instance.
- Several users have complained about lags or glitches between the candidate’s info from the source and how/when it appears within the platform.
SeekOut earns our trust for being particularly helpful when it comes to multi-channel sourcing, and for constantly getting better each time we revisit it. The recruiting software’s talent pool now provides users with access to a vast database of over 800 million candidate profiles (and counting!). The search capabilities have also become more powerful, with filter options including work history, keywords, education, skills, and locations—not only by country but specific states in the U.S.
Companies seeking talent in niche sectors like tech and healthcare will find SeekOut super handy. Besides the advanced filtering, they're equipped with a robust AI trained to source talent directly from sites like GitHub. However, speaking as someone who's worked to hunt talent worldwide, it's quite a letdown to see that the talent pool is limited to within the United States.
Not every recruiting software pays as much attention to internal talent as SeekOut does. SeekOut Grow provides insights into existing employee profiles and identifies internal candidates suitable for open roles or new projects. If I was still working in recruitment, I wouldn’t miss the chance to onboard this product and pair it with an ATS. It’d be a powerhouse for talent mobilization for sure!
SeekOut’s custom support didn’t let us down either. There’s live chat support during the week (we tested it, they were fast!), plus email and a dedicated customer success manager for certain plans, so it’s rare to be left frustrated with their support team.
However, despite the undeniable time-saving benefits its newly introduced ChatGPT-powered SeekOut Assist offers to recruiters—the AI can generate targeted searches, suggest matches, and craft personalized messages based on job descriptions and candidate profiles—we expected a more sophisticated built-in AI, like what we’ve seen on PhenomPeople and EightFold.
SeekOut’s integrations also left something to be desired. While SeekOut worked well when we connected it with Greenhouse, it wasn’t as smooth with Phenom and Gem. And heads up, there's a cap of 500 candidate contacts per month, but you can bump it up for a fee.
1000+ organizations, including VMware, Salesforce, and Merck have used SeekOut for managing and recruiting talent.
SeekOut has three different plans with pricing undisclosed:
- Premium: Access 441M+ candidates, diversity sourcing, people insights, contact info for 500 candidates/month, export 5,000 profiles/month.
- Premium Tech: All Premium features + specialized tools for sourcing tech talent.
- SeekOut Expert: For engineering and life sciences hiring.
Best For
SeekOut is best for recruiting teams that are usually on the lookout for tech, engineering, and healthcare talent based in the U.S.
SeekOut was a great candidate pool "storage space" for warm candidates. All recruiters had access, so candidates could be evaluated by various recruiters for different job openings. This also reduced the effort of candidates having to apply for different positions individually. SeekOut also provided data insights based on the current market and could break it down by experience level, licenses/certifications, location, and DEI factors. This is the ideal platform to build a candidate pipeline.
The talent dashboard is very easy to navigate and helps drill down the talent you may be seeking for a particular role. This allows you to build a pipeline of qualified candidates. This CRM is easily integrated into your company's ATS at no extra cost. With so many companies striving for diversity initiatives, this tool can really help based on the criteria you are seeking for a particular role. Customer service is top-notch and available during normal US business hours.
When it was a candidate's market but with limited openings, we needed a sourcing tool to revisit viable candidates. SeekOut was a great CRM that easily integrated into Taleo, which was our ATS. It was an excellent database to use when more job openings became available, saving recruiters from sourcing from scratch. I have used it for less than a year. In that timeframe, recruiters would go into the system and reach out to candidates who were once interested in a similar position to see if they were still available and interested in a new opportunity.
The price has increased significantly based on the package you select that best suits your company. Depending on your subscription plan, you can run out of credits for high-volume recruiting. DEI filters do not allow for filtering by "male only," which was an issue for a team that had only females and was searching for a qualified male candidate.
Projects in LinkedIn seem to be comparable, but those are manual searches. While it may be a cheaper alternative, there is much more manual labor involved compared to SeekOut.
If they are hiring for high-volume requisitions, they may run out of credits monthly. SeekOut also includes similar features as LinkedIn and GitHub. SeekOut will yield more results than LinkedIn alone.
AI improvements and updates have enhanced diversity search results. The price has increased significantly. You can tag certain candidates so they aren't receiving multiple contacts from different recruiters for the same role.
This tool is very good for large corporations with 10,000+ employees. I am unaware if there are global capabilities, but it works well for US-based roles.
Small start-up companies won't be able to justify the expense. Cheaper sourcing alternatives would be a better fit for smaller companies.
Turing
Turing is one of the go-to names for hiring developers. They've got a huge database of 2 million software engineers and use AI to find the best talent worldwide across different career levels. Plus, it's low-risk with a two-week money-back guarantee if things don't work out.
PROS
- Fast talent recruitment, usually within 5 days.
- Thoroughly vetted developers with detailed proficiency stats.
- Timezone-matched developers with 4+ hours of workday overlap.
- Secure project dashboard for tracking productivity and protecting IP.
- On average, recruiting talent takes only 5 days from when you first engage with Turing’s platform, to collaborating with a software engineer.
- Turing developers undergo 5+ hours of tests and interviews to build a deep developer profile with detailed proficiency stats. Because they are so well-vetted, hiring risk and timeous skills testing are taken out of your recruitment process.
- Developers are matched to your timezone with at least 4 hours of workday overlap.
- The Turing project dashboard, which they also refer to as the Turing Virtual Machine, has built-in security to protect the IP of your code and data while allowing you to track productivity, hours worked and deadlines met.
CONS
- The support team can take around 24 hours to respond to a customer’s query.
- Limited customer service with 24-hour response time.
- Developers are not employees, which may affect control over their schedules and compliance.
- Limited choice of candidates for short-term hires due to developer preferences for long-term engagements.
- Although reviewers are quick to compliment Turing, slow communication from their side is a common critique.
- Turing’s customer service is limited. Logging a query means you can expect an answer somewhere in the course of 24 hours which may seriously delay your project.
- Although most developers are hired through Turing for long-term projects, they are not your employees. This means that, although your software engineers are required to keep you in the loop of their schedule, you are not the party approving their time off, negotiating their rates, or handling their compliance.
- Because most of the Turing developers prefer a long-term or full-time engagement, you'll have a limited choice of candidates for short-term hires.
Turing has honed in on developer hiring and truly excels in this niche. The platform stands out with its database of 2 million software engineers worldwide, at various levels of expertise, and available to work immediately. But this vendor’s real hook is their promise of taking only five days to link their clients with a matched skilled software engineer. Having a bit of history in this space, we can’t help but doubt this claim, as the commonly acknowledged time to fill such in-demand roles is two weeks, if not longer.
However, after Sherlocking the platform further, we discovered the reason behind Turing's confidence. Turing makes its claimed delivery speed possible thanks to its rigorous pre-vetting process: All candidates aspiring to be software engineers listed on Turing have to go through 5+ hours of tests and interviews, and only the qualified ones are connected with clients. So, technically speaking, it’s not that the whole recruitment process just got shorter. Rather, it’s just that Turing takes on the first pre-screening rounds so users can save over five hours of DIY during these rounds with each candidate.
But do Turing’s pre-vetted developers truly meet clients’ requirements? We asked the system to find us a senior front-end developer to see how this goes. To our surprise, not only did the platform get back with really good candidates in a matter of minutes, but it also provided proficiency stats for each suggested profile to explain why it thought they were suitable. Turing claims on its website that its talent pool is the top 1% of remote developers. Although we couldn’t verify this, the quality of candidates received and the swift delivery shown in our testing earned it a spot in this guide for developer hiring.
The way Turing takes into account timezone compatibility also deserves kudos. While some, like us, love having as wide a coverage of timezones as possible from their employees, others find it more beneficial when all their teammates have good overlaps in work time. We love that whatever your case might be, Turing is open to tailoring its suggested profiles based on your needs. Say, if you’re after the wide timezone overlaps, the platform will ensure all the developers it matches you with are in your timezone with at least 4 hours of overlap in your workday.
We found Turing’s project dashboard to be very well-organized. It provided access to all our code and data, enabling tracking of hired developers’ productivity, worked hours, and project deadlines—tidy and clear.
However, since developers hired through Turing aren’t your employees, you lack control over aspects like their time off, rates, or compliance. We can totally relate to those feeling uneasy about this and demanding responsive support for quick turnaround when potential problems with the hires arise. Sadly, our experience with the support team was quite grinchy—it took Turing an entire day to respond. Teams dealing with time-sensitive projects may find this to be too big a drawback.
All in all, if you're looking for long-term or full-time developers and don't mind waiting a bit for responses, Turing could be your endgame. But if you need short-term hires and require super speedy support from the recruiting tech, you might want to explore other options.
Turing has helped 3,000 companies to hire developers worldwide. A few of their customers include Coinbase, Reddit, and Dell.
Turing doesn't charge upfront for talent search or hiring remote software engineers. After a two-week trial, payment begins based on the developer's rate, which the developer, not Turing, determines.
Best For
Turing specializes in catering to the software engineering requirements of tech companies, start-ups, and global teams seeking remote, full-time developers for their long-term projects.
Why Use Recruitment Software?
There are many reasons why organizations should adopt recruitment software, including time savings, improved quality of hires, and scalability.
- Time savings: Studies suggest that automating tasks with recruitment software can save business leaders up to 3 hours per day. That's precious time regained for strategic work.
- Cost reduction: Recruitment software, with features like job board integration, cost tracking, and recruitment spending analytics, allows organizations to reduce expenses associated with manual processes.
- Improved quality of hires: Advanced algorithms and AI tools in recruitment software assess candidates against job criteria, vet skills, and provide predictive analytics, resulting in more precise and confident hiring decisions.
- Less guesswork: Recruitment software provides real-time analytics, reporting tools, and data visualization, giving HR leaders a clear view of their recruitment process' performance for data-driven decision-making.
- Efficient candidate management: Built-in features like applicant tracking, candidate pipelines, and automated notifications keep everything in check.
- Scalability: Scalable plans, multi-user access, and customizable workflows eliminate the need for major system overhauls as your organization grows.
- Global hiring: Multinational organizations that prefer to hire directly rather than use employer of record services benefit from features like multilingual support, country-specific compliance features, and centralized candidate databases.
- Enhanced candidate experience: Mobile-optimized portals, intuitive interfaces, and responsive candidate support create a seamless and user-friendly application process.
- Reduction in manual errors: Features like error-checking algorithms, data validation, integration, and automated workflows minimize human errors and ensure a smoother, more accurate hiring process.
- Competitive advantage: Early birds catch the worms. Being ahead of the curve with advanced recruiting technology can set your organization apart in attracting top talent.
However, the mere presence of a recruiting solution won't guarantee a better recruitment process. In fact, choosing the wrong tool or falling into specific pitfalls can worsen the situation.
Pitfalls of Choosing Recruitment Software
When investing in recruitment software, it's crucial to avoid costly mistakes like neglecting data security, underestimating user training, and failing to integrate software effectively.
- Neglecting data security: Selecting recruitment software lacking robust data security measures can put sensitive candidate information, such as social security numbers and contact details, at risk. This oversight may result in a public relations crisis, legal actions, and a damaged reputation, making it challenging to attract top talent.
- Underestimating user training: Organizations can sometimes be so focused on the software selection process that they overlook what follows. Inadequate training for HR staff during implementation can create significant knowledge gaps, leading to inefficiencies, missed candidate communications, and delays in the hiring process.
- Ignoring integration capabilities: It's not uncommon for organizations to choose what appears to be an all-in-one recruiting suite, assuming they won't need to integrate with other tools. However, problems can arise when they introduce new technology into their recruitment system, only to discover that their existing software cannot seamlessly communicate with it. This not only increases manual work but also limits the full potential of their HR tech stacks.
- Neglecting candidate experience: Effective recruitment software should be evaluated from both the employer's and job seeker's perspectives. Unfortunately, many companies prioritize their internal processes when selecting software and pay little attention to how candidates experience it. A powerful solution for recruiters becomes ineffective if it leaves candidates frustrated.
- Not evaluating software development: While it's natural for software to have a learning curve, committing to a vendor that doesn't plan to develop their product features in the future can be a red flag. Your software should grow and evolve alongside your needs.
- Overlooking compliance requirements: This can have severe consequences given today's global business landscape. For instance, neglecting GDPR compliance when choosing recruiting software for your European operations can lead to hefty fines and legal troubles for mishandling candidate data.
Recruitment Software Pricing
Recruitment software pricing can vary widely depending on your organization's size and needs. Here's a general overview:
- Small Businesses (Up to 100 Employees): Price typically ranges from $50 to $200 per user per month. There are also free recruiting software options that could serve as a solid starting point for these businesses.
- Medium-Sized Businesses (100-500 Employees): Monthly fees typically fall in the range of $150 to $400 per user.
- Large Businesses (Over 500 Employees): The cost can range from $400 to $1,000 per user per month or even more.
- Enterprises (Thousands of Employees): Usually negotiate pricing and can reach thousands of dollars per user per month.
Besides subscription fees, keep in mind other potential costs, including implementation, customization, integration, support, maintenance, third-party services, data storage, data migration, security, training, overages, and additional features. These factors can significantly impact your total recruitment software expenses.
What Are the Key Features of Recruiting Software?
The various types of recruiting software have different key features. For example, for ATS software it’s robust analytics and open APIs, for AI recruiting software it’s 1-click sourcing and automation, and for video interview software it’s real-time responses.
Let's break down the key features to look for in each category:
- Key ATS features: Automated resume parsing, job-specific filters, customizable job applications, career pages, data security, advanced search capabilities, mobile-first design, analytics, candidate sourcing, and employee referral program.
- Key features of AI recruiting tools: AI sourcing, advanced filtering, anonymous screening, conversational AI, candidate recommendations, and automated email outreach.
- Key features of video interview software: Automated scheduling, pre-recorded interviews, live interviews, structured candidate evaluation criteria, native rating tools, candidate ranking, and integrations.
- Key Features of HR Chatbots: Real-time career site chat support, text-based recruiting, job suggestions based on job seekers’ answers, initial screening via chats, interview scheduling, employee onboarding, employee referrals, and multilingual capabilities.
- Key Features of candidate sourcing tools: Smart filtering, AI-based recommendations, automated email outreach, recruiting CRM, and integrations.
Each category offers unique benefits, so consider your specific needs and goals when choosing the right recruitment software for your team.
What Are the Questions to Ask During Demos with Recruiting Software Vendors?
When demoing recruiting software, it's essential to have a clear game plan since most vendors don't reveal prices upfront or offer free trials. To make the most out of the demo, focus on your key use cases and prepare specific questions:
Candidate Sourcing and Search:
- How does your software source candidates from different platforms and databases?
- Can I customize search filters to find candidates based on specific criteria?
- Does the software use AI or machine learning algorithms to recommend suitable candidates?
Applicant Tracking and Management:
- How does the ATS handle job applications and candidate profiles?
- Can I track candidates' progress throughout the hiring process?
- Does the ATS offer automated email responses to candidates?
Interview and Assessment Tools:
- What types of interview and assessment tools does the software offer?
- Can I conduct video interviews and screen candidates remotely?
- Does the software provide customizable interview templates?
Reporting and Analytics:
- What kind of data and analytics does the software provide for recruitment performance?
- Can I generate customized reports on key recruitment metrics?
- How does the software track the effectiveness of different sourcing channels?
Integration and Compatibility:
- Does the software integrate with other HR systems or job boards?
- Can it sync with our existing ATS or HRIS?
- How does the software handle data security and compliance?
- What if our HR software isn’t in your native integration options?
- Does API integration cost extra? Is there any support available for this?
User Interface and Ease of Use:
- How to (please fill in features you will likely use frequently here)? For example, post jobs on different platforms, create a career page, search for specific candidate profiles, etc. By asking questions like this, you’ll get a chance to see all the features that are essential to your team in action.
- Is there a learning curve for the recruiting team to adapt to the software?
- Could you show me how to customize the software to match our company's branding?
Customer Support and Training:
- What customer support options are available if we encounter issues or have questions?
- Are there any additional costs associated with these customer support options?
- Is there a dedicated customer success manager for onboarding and training?
- Does the vendor provide ongoing support after implementation?
Gathering key information from your team before the demo will also help you be prepared and provide vendors with a clear understanding of your hiring needs and expectations. This way, they can showcase how their software can effectively address your unique requirements and streamline your recruitment process.
What Will the Implementation of Your Next Recruitment Tool Look Like?
The implementation of your next recruitment software will be straightforward, especially since most of the tools we've mentioned are cloud-based SaaS providers. Training will likely be done online, and connecting the tool to your HR system won't be complicated.
Some tools, like myInterview and Fetcher, are focused on specific tasks, making sign-up and usage quick and easy. Setting up fully might involve data migration and integrations, but it's generally hassle-free.
For ATS implementation, the process can differ based on factors like the number of open jobs, the complexity of your recruiting process, and the availability of in-house engineering resources. Many companies have an ‘Implementation Overview’ page that offers specific answers to your questions and links to video training or support centers.
Recruiting Software FAQs
What is recruiting software?
Recruiting software is a specialized tool designed to streamline and optimize various aspects of the recruitment process. It helps organizations do talent sourcing, manage job postings, track applicants, assess and communicate with candidates, and ultimately make more efficient and effective hiring decisions.
What are the different types of recruiting software?
The following are different types of recruiting software:
- Applicant tracking systems (ATS)
- Video interview software
- Talent sourcing tools
- AI chatbot
- Recruiting automation software
- Virtual career fairs
- Candidate relationship management (CRM) software
- Recruitment marketing platforms
- Candidate assessment tools
Is there any free recruiting software?
Yes, there is. You can find out more about it in our review of the best free recruitment software.
How much does recruiting software cost?
Some recruiting software is free or offers a free trial. Then, it can start at $39 per month all the way up to $1,600 per month depending on the solution.
What is the best recruiting software?
The ‘best’ is relative as different business types require different recruitment software features. Here are recommendations for different scenarios:
- Best recruitment software for small businesses: Small businesses benefit from budget-friendly and user-friendly options like GoHire, Manatal, or Zoho Recruit, which offer free or cost-effective plans.
- Best recruiting software for enterprises: VidCruiter, ClearCompany, and Eightfold excel in handling complex, high-volume hiring needs.
- Best recruitment software for agencies: Manatal, Bullhorn, and Recruit CRM are solid choices. Explore our full guide on the best recruitment and staffing agency software for more options.
- Best recruiting software for developer recruitment: Turing, SeekOut, or Toptal may be the best fit, given their specialization in tech talent acquisition.
Final Thoughts on Choosing the Right Recruiting Software
As you approach the stage of scheduling demos with your shortlisted software vendors (usually 2-3 options that closely match your talent acquisition strategy), a bit of preparation can go a long way.
Our demo questions can serve as a great starting point, and you can adjust them to align with your unique requirements. This effort not only demonstrates your knowledge but also signals to the vendor's sales team that you're a well-informed potential customer. They're more likely to provide you with the essential details and possibly even a better deal compared to someone less familiar with the software.
Also, don't be afraid to ask for a free trial, even from software providers who don't openly promote such offers on their websites. Because sometimes, these opportunities are there for the taking. Make the most of this chance to get a genuine feel for how the software works for you.
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.