Who needs applicant tracking systems
Any company that hires more than a handful of people a year. Below roughly 10 hires a year a shared inbox and spreadsheet still work; above that an ATS pays for itself in saved coordination time.
When to buy
Buy first. The ATS is the foundation the rest of the stack integrates with, so choose it before sourcing, scheduling, or assessment tools.
The best applicant tracking systems, ranked
| # | Tool | Best for | Score /40 | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ashby | Startups and scale-ups (20–2,000 employees) that want analytics and scheduling without extra tools | 33 | No |
| 2 | Greenhouse | Companies of 200–5,000 employees that want structured interviews and a deep integration marketplace | 32 | No |
| 3 | SmartRecruiters | Global enterprises with thousands of hires a year and many hiring managers | 31 | No |
| 4 | Lever | Mid-sized companies that want CRM nurture campaigns inside the ATS | 30 | No |
| 5 | Workable | Companies of 10–300 employees that want posting, tracking, and basic HR in one subscription | 30 | No |
| 6 | Bullhorn | Staffing agencies and recruitment firms with 10+ recruiters | 30 | No |
| 7 | Recruit CRM | Agencies with 2–50 recruiters that want transparent pricing and a modern UI | 30 | No |
| 8 | Breezy HR | Small teams and nonprofits that want a free or low-cost pipeline | 29 | Yes |
| 9 | iCIMS | Large employers in retail, healthcare, and manufacturing with heavy compliance needs | 29 | No |
| 10 | Loxo | Executive-search and agency recruiters who want sourcing data inside the ATS | 29 | Yes |
| 11 | JazzHR | Small businesses hiring 5–50 people a year on a tight budget | 28 | No |
Ashby
Ashby has been the fastest-growing startup ATS since 2023 because it folds four purchases into one: tracking, interview scheduling, a sourcing CRM, and genuinely good analytics. Teams that previously ran Greenhouse + GoodTime + Gem + a BI tool often replace the lot. The marketplace is smaller and the product is opinionated.
Pricing: Published starting prices for small teams (Ashby Foundations) with per-employee pricing; mid-market and enterprise plans quote-based.
- Best built-in analytics of any ATS
- Native scheduling handles panel loops well
- Transparent entry pricing for small teams
- Fast product velocity
- Smaller integration marketplace than Greenhouse
- Opinionated workflows can frustrate non-standard processes
- Younger company; enterprise compliance features still maturing
Greenhouse
Greenhouse popularised structured hiring: every role gets a scorecard, interview kits, and a defined plan, and reporting shows where the process leaks. Its marketplace of 500+ integrations means almost every tool on this site connects to it. The trade-off is price and a product that rewards process-mature teams more than tiny ones.
Pricing: Quote-based; three tiers (Essential, Advanced, Expert). Mid-market contracts commonly run $7,000–$30,000+ per year.
- Best-in-class structured interviewing and scorecards
- Largest ATS integration marketplace
- Mature DE&I, compliance, and reporting features
- Strong candidate experience and careers-page tooling
- Expensive for teams under ~100 employees
- Scheduling and CRM are add-ons or weaker than specialists
- Reporting UI lags Ashby's built-in analytics
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters is an enterprise ATS and CRM suite with a consumer-grade hiring-manager experience, a large partner marketplace, and the Winston AI assistant for screening and scheduling. It competes with Workday Recruiting and iCIMS for global programs and is friendlier than either.
Pricing: Quote-based; priced per employee, typically six figures annually at enterprise scale.
- Hiring-manager UX is unusually good for enterprise
- Strong global compliance and multilingual support
- Large marketplace and open API
- Enterprise pricing and implementation timelines
- Overkill below ~1,000 employees
- Reporting customization has a learning curve
Lever
Lever was the first mainstream ATS to merge the applicant tracker with a candidate relationship manager, so passive candidates, nurture emails, and pipeline live in one record. Now owned by Employ (alongside JazzHR and Jobvite), it remains a strong mid-market choice with a cleaner UI than Greenhouse and slightly fewer integrations.
Pricing: Quote-based (LeverTRM and LeverTRM for Enterprise); typically $5,000–$25,000+ per year.
- Native CRM, nurture sequences, and talent pools
- Clean, fast interface recruiters like
- Good automation rules and approvals
- Product investment slowed after the Employ acquisition
- Analytics require the enterprise tier or an add-on
- Fewer marketplace integrations than Greenhouse
Workable
Workable is the easiest path from 'we post on LinkedIn and hope' to a real pipeline: one-click distribution to 200+ boards, AI-assisted screening and job descriptions, self-scheduling, and e-signature offers. It has added HRIS, time-off, and payroll modules, making it a plausible all-in-one for small companies.
Pricing: Published plans from roughly $149 per month (Starter) to $599+ per month (Premier), billed annually, plus optional HR and payroll modules.
- Fast setup and strong job-board distribution
- Transparent published pricing
- AI screening and sourcing assist included
- Growing HR module set
- Reporting and structured-interview depth below Greenhouse/Ashby
- Per-job pricing tiers can get expensive for high-volume hiring
- Sourcing database is shallow compared with dedicated tools
Bullhorn
Bullhorn is built for the agency workflow: client companies, job orders, candidate submittals, placements, and back-office billing in one system. Its marketplace of staffing-specific integrations (VMS feeds, pay/bill, sourcing tools) is unmatched, which is why most sourcing tools advertise a Bullhorn sync.
Pricing: Quote-based per-user licensing; commonly $100–$200 per user per month plus implementation.
- Agency-native data model (clients, job orders, placements)
- Largest staffing-specific integration ecosystem
- Scales from boutique to global staffing firms
- Dated UI and per-user cost
- Customisation often requires a partner
- Not designed for in-house corporate recruiting
Recruit CRM
Recruit CRM combines applicant tracking, client CRM, email sequencing, and a Chrome sourcing extension in a product agencies can set up in a day. It is a common Bullhorn alternative for smaller firms that want published pricing and responsive support.
Pricing: Published per-user plans from roughly $85 to $125+ per user per month.
- Published pricing and quick setup
- Built-in email sequences and sourcing extension
- Workflow automation on higher tiers
- Lighter back-office (pay/bill) than Bullhorn
- Fewer VMS and enterprise integrations
- Reporting is adequate rather than deep
Breezy HR
Breezy HR's kanban pipeline, candidate self-scheduling, and video screening make it one of the friendliest small-business ATS products, and its free tier is genuinely usable for a single opening. Larger teams outgrow its reporting quickly.
Pricing: Free plan for one active job; paid plans from roughly $157 to $529 per month.
- Free tier for one job
- Intuitive drag-and-drop pipeline
- Self-scheduling and video questions included
- Weak reporting
- Per-active-job pricing limits
- Few enterprise controls
iCIMS
iCIMS is one of the longest-standing enterprise ATS platforms, with modules for CRM, text recruiting, video, and offer management. It is chosen for configurability and compliance at scale rather than usability; implementations are substantial projects.
Pricing: Quote-based enterprise contracts, commonly six figures per year.
- Deep configurability for complex processes
- Strong compliance and audit trails
- Broad module set including text and video
- Interface feels dated next to modern suites
- Long implementations and change-management overhead
- Expensive for mid-market
Loxo
Loxo bundles an agency ATS/CRM with its own 1B+ profile database, contact finder, and outreach sequences, so recruiters can source and track in one place. Its free tier is a rare entry point for solo recruiters.
Pricing: Free tier with limited features; published paid plans with per-user pricing.
- Sourcing database and contact data built in
- Free plan for solo recruiters
- Modern interface with AI matching
- Contact data quality varies by region
- Smaller integration ecosystem
- Enterprise agency features thinner than Bullhorn
JazzHR
JazzHR (part of Employ) is one of the lowest-cost full ATS products: unlimited users, job distribution, custom workflows, e-signature offers, and EEO/OFCCP reporting. It lacks sophisticated analytics and sourcing, but for a small company it covers everything a spreadsheet cannot.
Pricing: Published plans from about $75 per month (Hero) to about $420 per month (Pro), billed annually.
- Among the cheapest full-featured ATS plans
- Unlimited users on every plan
- Good compliance reporting for the price
- Dated interface
- Limited analytics and automation
- Integration set is smaller than mid-market peers
What to look for
- Structured pipeline stages and scorecards
- Job posting to boards and careers page
- Interview scheduling or calendar integration
- Collaborative feedback and approvals
- Reporting on time-to-hire, source of hire, and funnel conversion
- Open API and marketplace of integrations
- Compliance (EEOC/OFCCP, GDPR consent, data retention)
What applicant tracking systems cost
Roughly $100–$400 per month for small-business products (often priced per open job), and $6,000–$60,000+ per year for mid-market and enterprise suites priced per employee or per recruiter seat.
Common buying mistakes
- Buying an HRIS bundle's 'recruiting module' and discovering it has no sourcing, scheduling, or structured interviews
- Choosing an enterprise ATS at 50 employees and paying for process you do not have
- Ignoring the integration marketplace: a closed ATS forces manual re-keying for every other tool
Our pick by company type
| Company type | Pick | Alternative | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startups (under 50 employees) | Ashby | Workable | Ashby bundles ATS, scheduling, CRM, and analytics so you avoid three more purchases; Workable if you want published pricing and heavy job-board distribution. |
| Scale-ups (50–500 employees) | Greenhouse | Ashby | Greenhouse for structured hiring and the deepest marketplace; Ashby if you want analytics and scheduling built in. |
| Enterprise (500+ employees) | SmartRecruiters | iCIMS | SmartRecruiters for hiring-manager experience; iCIMS or Workday Recruiting where HRIS alignment dominates. |
| Staffing & recruiting agencies | Bullhorn | Recruit CRM | Bullhorn for firms with 10+ recruiters and VMS feeds; Recruit CRM or Loxo for smaller firms that want published pricing. |
| High-volume & hourly hiring | iCIMS | Workable | Enterprise volume needs a configurable ATS; Workable serves multi-location SMBs. |
| Solo recruiters & small teams | Breezy HR | Loxo | Breezy's free tier for in-house; Loxo's free tier for independent recruiters. |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an ATS and a recruiting CRM?
An ATS manages people who have applied or been added to a specific job; a recruiting CRM manages relationships with people you may hire someday (talent pools, nurture campaigns, events). Most modern ATS products now include a basic CRM, and most CRMs push candidates into the ATS once they are attached to a role.
Do small businesses need an applicant tracking system?
If you hire more than about ten people a year, yes. Small-business ATS products such as JazzHR, Breezy HR, and Workable start around $100–$150 per month and replace email threads, spreadsheets, and lost resumes.
Which ATS do startups use most?
Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby dominate venture-backed startups because of their structured-interview workflows, analytics, and integration marketplaces. Ashby has grown fastest since 2023 on the strength of its built-in analytics and scheduling.