.jpg)
"SSR is the best platform to discover top 1% HR tools. Their 10 years of HR Tech experience makes their reviews the best in the industry! Every time I speak about HR technology, SSR is my number one recommendation to for people pros."
"SSR is my go-to place when it comes to researching HR tools. Their product reviews are real time-savers and trustworthy, and the online community is fantastic for bouncing questions and ideas off of others in the Talent space!"
"I trust SSR's HR Tech Reviews because they talk to so many experts, know the right questions to ask and uncover during in-depth product demos to come up with their best picks"
We spend all day researching the best HR software so you don’t have to. We never take money from vendors during our research phase and rely heavily on experts to refine our recommendations. We may earn a fee if you click on vendor links on this page. Learn more about SelectSoftware Reviews
In this Guide
- Best Recruiting Software
- Intro and Our Criteria
- Our Reviews of the Top Vendors
- Pitfalls of Choosing Recruitment Software
- Benefits and ROI of Using Recruitment Software
- Pricing of Recruitment Software
- Recruitment Software Categories: What are They and What are Their Key Features?
- Demo Questions
- What will the Implementation of Your Next Recruitment Tool Look Like?
- Recruiting Software FAQs
- Last advice
Hand picked by our HR Technology experts after product testing, user research, and much debate - enjoy!
Most recruiters and hiring managers know that the best choice of recruiting software will supercharge their hiring process while making their lives easier. From candidate sourcing and recruitment marketing to resume parsing and interview scheduling, the right recruiting tools mean more of the best talent in your pipeline and more efficient recruiting cycles.
Of course, the landscape of top talent acquisition technology is fairly complex. There are many different categories of solutions, and sometimes hundreds of vendors to choose from within each landscape. That's why each month we talk to dozens of new HR Tech vendors to learn what tools our community should be using. We also spend a lot of time with forward-thinking People/HR/TA leaders to understand how these tools can actually drive value to job seekers and, ultimately, new employees.
So, here is our view on the best talent acquisition software out there. We’ve broken it down into the few top solutions per each software category, along with a small explanation of what that category entails and what features it should have later on.
Pro Tip: We write up a ton of content about each of the specific landscapes related to recruiting software (ATS, AI, Chatbots, etc) and have linked to each so that you can get a sense of pricing, pitfalls, etc for each category. Good luck!
Our criteria: How we chose the best vendors
We take research seriously. To make sure we’re offering our readers the very best solutions in a given software category, we are methodical, rigorous, and expansive in our research. We consult with HR professionals, vendors, and industry experts. We cut through the noise to bring you a carefully curated list of vendors, along with other essential information, to help you find the right software platform for your business.
Here’s how we chose who makes the cut:
Product: We believe in gaining a comprehensive understanding of a product before we recommend it, so we start by getting to know the software. Whenever possible, we meet with a senior executive (CEO or Head of Product) for a demo and Q&A. We also test the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best-in-class offering.
User feedback: We go straight to the source and compile feedback on user experience. Real-world input supports our commitment to diligence in our software evaluation methods and the products we recommend. Keeping up with the everyday experience of HR pros also puts new vendors on our radar, and it keeps us close to our community so we can better connect the right products to the right people.
Financial metrics: We are certified finance nerds, so we use all the data we can get our hands on to make selections for our guides. We comb through data for concrete statistics like retention rates, growth, profitability, and scalability. We evaluate the bottom line of each product because we know making a software purchase can put your reputation on the line.
Best for a use case: Software is never a one-size-fits-all product. Sometimes the best solution is free or cheap. Other times it’s the one that is best for global companies or the one that’s sized right for early-stage startups. Keeping this in mind, we include solutions across the spectrum so our readers can find the best fit for their unique needs.
Here's more detail if you want to read more about how we research vendors. Our dedicated staff writers rely on hard data, impartial experts, and user feedback to ensure our reviews are helpful, truthful, and hopefully a pleasure to read!
Top Recruiting Software
We track thousands of HR Tech solutions. Here are the best recruiting software as of 2023.
Why we love it
:
VidCruiter's online hiring platform offers a streamlined, user-friendly approach to hiring great people anywhere on earth.
- VidCruiter’s customers can choose the modules they want and purchase them individually, or purchase the entire recruiting suite, inclusive of all modules, i.e. video interviewing, applicant tracking, skill assessments, scheduling, and more.
- VidCruiter’s pre-recorded interview feature saves hiring managers a lot of time and eliminates scheduling conflicts. It also offers candidates the flexibility to record their answers at their convenience.
- VidCruiter supports mobile recruiting for on-the-go access. Both candidates and recruiters can view pre-recorded video interviews or join live video interviews/conferences from their iOS and Android mobile devices.
- VidCruiter’s account managers are quite hands-on. Besides helping you get started with the platform, they’ll also help you perform other processes, such as setting up the tracking and conversion metrics of your targeted ad campaigns so you can measure their success.
- VidCruiter is a multilingual recruiting solution. Besides English, it’s available in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, and Korean, both for recruiters and candidates.
- Several users have reported a steep learning curve and that the UI takes some time to get used to.
- A few users reported occasional video lag issues that aren’t internet connectivity-related.
- VidCruiter’s skills assessment module is great as an add-on, but isn’t built out enough compared to point solutions in that space. For example, it doesn’t really support advanced technical skills testing.
- VidCruiter doesn’t have a lot of pre-built integration options with HRIS/Payroll systems. That said, VidCruiter’s team is working on expanding their partner network and might create integrations upon customer requests.
VidCruiter
Review:
VidCruiter goes beyond basic video interviewing to deliver a web-based, end-to-end recruitment solution. This totally customizable hiring software can include applicant tracking, online skills testing, interview scheduling, digital interviewing (live and pre-recorded options), and automated reference checking. Each product can be used independently or as part of an all-in-one recruitment platform.
Their recruiting suite can be tailored to any hiring process, and can incorporate video, voice, text, weighted logic, automation, built-in structured interview questions and standardized rating rubrics. This feature-packed platform is helping hiring teams worldwide find and hire quality employees in the most efficient, cost-effective way.
VidCruiter
Customers:
Lionsgate, Samsung, US Foods
VidCruiter is used by over 40,000 recruiters, including ones from Lowe’s, Lionsgate, Samsung, Bears, US Foods, and United Nations.
VidCruiter
Stats:
- Used by 75,000 recruiters
- Customers see time-to-hire reduced by up to 80%
- FGH Security, a UK-based security services company, managed to reduce their time-to-hire from 10 days to 48 hours using VidCruiter.
- BioScript Solutions, a Canadian provider of specialty medications and health care support, used VidCruiter and accelerated their time-to-hire by 33%.
- Achievement First, a US-based charter school network, was able to reduce their average interview scheduling time by 35% with VidCuiter.
VidCruiter
Pricing:
The pricing of VidCruiter’s solutions is not disclosed on their website and is calculated based on your number of hires. You can get in touch with VidCruiter’s Sales team for a custom price quote.
Best For
Large companies.
Why we love it
:
ClearCompany has an incredibly high customer retention rate thanks to strong features coupled with great customer service.
- 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.
- 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
Review:
As we’ve written in the past, ClearCompany’s ATS is notable for having a 99% customer retention rate across their 2,000+ clients. We’ve chatted with some of their users and this is in great part due to their amazing customer service, as well as key features like video interviewing, interview scheduling, a career site builder, and a referral tool.
Further, a great aspect of ClearCompany is that their game doesn’t stop with recruitment software. They also offer a full-on HR suite that allows organizations to track the full employee lifecycle. If used like this, their ATS is able to identify the best available talent based on the company’s top performers.
ClearCompany
Customers:
Fujifilm, the Salvation Army, Supreme Court for the State of Arizona
ClearCompany
Stats:
- 2,000+ clients
- Founded in 2004
- 640,000 total users
ClearCompany
Pricing:
Best For:
ClearCompany is best for large companies looking for a talent management suite.
Why we love it
:
Gem gathers data from tools that recruitment teams use on a day-to-day basis, such as LinkedIn InMail, ATS, and email, and combines it into a single talent management hub that automates candidate sourcing and engagement while providing detailed insights to support and optimize your recruiting strategy.
- Gem helps you discover qualified candidates across multiple channels, send personalized messages, visualize your recruitment pipeline, and stay on top of crucial hiring metrics
- Gem's integration with LinkedIn and various ATS means that all candidate data is stored in a centralized location. Users find this feature extremely useful.
- According to users, one of Gem's finest features is the ability to create automated drip campaigns to engage with both active and passive candidates
- Gem helps you discover qualified candidates across multiple channels, send personalized messages, visualize your recruitment pipeline, and stay on top of crucial hiring metrics
- Gem's integration with LinkedIn and various ATS means that all candidate data is stored in a centralized location. Users find this feature extremely useful.
- According to users, one of Gem's finest features is the ability to create automated drip campaigns to engage with both active and passive candidates
- Some users have experienced slow load times and lags while using the application
- In rare cases, the contact information, such as the email address or phone number of a sourced candidate, might be wrong
- While Gem currently integrates with LinkedIn, it does not provide the option to automate messages via LinkedIn InMail
- Some users have experienced slow load times and lags while using the application
- In rare cases, the contact information, such as the email address or phone number of a sourced candidate, might be wrong
- While Gem currently integrates with LinkedIn, it does not provide the option to automate messages via LinkedIn InMail
Gem
Review:
Gem has taken many of the best practices your sales team uses to engage leads and applied them to your recruiters’ workflows when engaging candidates. It is primarily a talent engagement platform with features to support talent sourcing, candidate outreach, and recruitment pipeline management. Hiring teams can use Gem to capture information about relevant candidates, engage with them through multistage drip campaigns, and see what's working and what's not through analytics. The best part about Gem is that it integrates with a range of ATS, LinkedIn and email.
Gem
Customers:
Coinbase, Slack, Asana, Dropbox, Lyft, Indeed, Pinterest, and Doordash
Gem
Stats:
- Gem is used by over 1,200 recruitment teams worldwide
- Clients that use Gem experience a 2x increase in response rates and 5x faster talent sourcing
Gem
Pricing:
The cost of Gem's services is based on the size of your recruitment team, the number of hires, and other factors like custom ATS integrations. You can reach out to their sales team for a quote.
Best For:
Gem is best suited for large enterprises and staffing agencies that need to hire more employees in a short time period.
Why we love it
:
- myInterview has a neat screening feature that can sift through thousands of video submissions and identify suitable candidates not only based on skills, but also personality.
- The platform provides analytics that help you understand how well your current application process is working, so that you can make improvements as needed.
- It lets you add instant candidate ratings so you’re able to compare candidates and make data-based decisions.
- myInterview lets you create a branded, customized interview process. You can choose from their library of pre-recorded questions, or create your own.
- myInterview ensures that all your interviewers have access to the same information about each candidate. This is so they’re all asking the same questions and given a fair chance at evaluating each candidate's answers.
- A few users have noted that myInterview doesn't offer many customization options. For example, you can't customize the email templates without contacting support.
- myInterview currently doesn’t have a mobile app neither for hiring managers or candidates.
- Though they do have a free forever plan, it is limited to only 1 active job post at a time.
MyInterview
Review:
MyInterview
Customers:
myInterview customer list include prominent names like Ocado, Facebook, Six Flags, Chick-fil-A, and more.
MyInterview
Stats:
- The platform has received over 5,000,000 candidate videos to date.
- On average, myInterview users are able to speed up their time to hire by up to 70%.
- 71% of interviews are completed in under 15 minutes.
MyInterview
Pricing:
myInterview has with five pricing plans:
- Starter (Free forever): 1 active job, 2 user seats, 10 one-way interviews a month, 24/7 customer support, and other basic features.
- Growth ($59/month): 2 active jobs, 5 user seats, 360 one-way interviews a year, 24/7 customer support, and more.
- Team ($179/month): 5 active jobs, unlimited user seats, 1200 one-way interviews a year, 120 live interviews per year, templates, video questions, advanced analytics, 24/7 customer support, and more.
- Performance ($539/month): 20 active jobs, unlimited user seats, 6000 one-way interviews a year, 360 live interviews per year, all Team features, and more.
- Enterprise (Custom pricing): Unlimited active jobs, unlimited user seats, custom one-way interviews a year, custom live interviews per year, all Performance features, and more.
Best For:
Companies of all sizes can use myInterview and derive value while staying within their budgets.
Why we love it
:
Seekout are one of the long-standing companies in candidate sourcing software. They have a robust candidate search engine, enabling recruiters to reach a wide pool of talent from multiple channels.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Review:
While it can certainly integrate with an ATS, SeekOut is an AI-powered talent search engine whose main function is to source and help you recruit candidates from multiple channels. Their filtering capabilities are quite refined, letting you browse talent based on work history, keywords, location, education, and skills from a growing database of more than 780 million candidate profiles.
The SeekOut platform also offers a blind hiring module that hides the candidate’s gender, race, or ethnicity details, which is why they’re often praised as an excellent tool for diversity hiring. They also excel when it comes to finding talent in the tech sector thanks to their novel Github sourcing feature. Their AI capabilities let them match a candidate's Github profiles to a job’s required coding skills, for instance.
Seekout
Customers:
SeekOut is used by enterprise customers such as VMware, Salesforce, Merck, UiPath, and Anaplan.
Seekout
Stats:
- 300+ customers
- 780+ public profiles
- 40M+ GitHub profiles
- 70M+ expert profiles
Seekout
Pricing:
Seekout has a few different plans:
- Premium: Access to 441M+ candidates, diversity sourcing and hiring tools, people insights, contact info for 500 candidates per month and exporting of 5,000 profiles per month.
- Premium Tech: All of Premium, plus specific tools for sourcing tech talent. These include Coder Score rankings, GitHub search tool, direct access to candidate's code, and tailored insights.
- SeekOut Expert: Designed specifically for Engineering and Life Sciences hiring.
The actual pricing of SeekOut’s plans and services isn’t disclosed on their website. You would have to contact their sales team for a custom price quote.
Seekout also provides a free Chrome extension for sourcing, SeekOut Sourcing Assistant. It’s free to use but with a limit of getting verified social links and emails for 10 candidates per month.
Best For:
Seekout has segmented pricing plans for different industries. While there is a general plan for most businesses, Tech, Engineering, and Life Sciences hiring managers get the most functionality from Seekout. The tool can be used by companies with large in-house recruiting teams as well as small agencies looking for a user-friendly tool to reach a diverse pool of talent.
Why we love it
:
We love Freshteam because it has great AI and automation features, a free-forever plan, as well as a lengthy 21-day free trial of its paid offerings.
- Freshteam is very user-friendly, with an intuitive UI that’s easy to navigate. It features a customizable, Kanban-style view of the full hiring process from initial contact to offer sending. Drag and drop mechanism makes it easy to move candidates around as they progress through the different stages.
- Freshteam is affordable for SMBs to use while still having a comparable feature set to more expensive solutions.
- Freshteam is quite scalable. With four plans to choose from, customers can start out with the free plan, then upgrade to more features as their business grows.
- While Freshteam has a free-forever plan that small companies can use, the plan is limited in features and allows for only 3 published job postings. That said, Freshteam’s paid plans are quite affordable, and can be used by small businesses - should they need to - without breaking the bank.
- Freshteam might not be suitable for enterprises and agencies that do volume hiring and are in need of advanced applicant tracking, candidate sourcing, and relationship management capabilities.
Freshteam
Review:
While Freshteam by Freshworks is better known as an all-encompassing HR software, its use as a CRM for recruitment and a recruitment management system makes it worth mentioning here. Most of the tools we’ve discussed focus just on the recruitment side of things, while Freshteam can do most of the tasks of an ATS right where all the other HR action happens.
If that wasn’t enough, their software also uses AI and automation to cut time from the daily routines of talent management pros. Some examples of automated tasks are rejecting candidates with certain test scores, filing candidates based on their interests, and sourcing from job boards like Glassdoor, Adzuna, LinkedIn, Ziprecruiter, and Indeed.
Freshteam
Customers:
JCDecaux, SAP, University of Pennsylvania, Nissan
Freshteam
Stats:
- 3,000 customers
Freshteam
Pricing:
Freshteam has four pricing plans:
- Free: Free for up to 50 active employees
- Growth: $1 per employee/month + $59 platform fee/month billed annually
- Pro: $2 per employee/month + $99 platform fee/month billed annually
- Enterprise: $4 per employee/month + $169 platform fee/month billed annually
Best For:
Any sized company will find a home in one of Freshteam's flexible plans.
Why we love it
:
Pinpoint literally does it all, with everything recruiting team need from a branded career site to sourcing tools to video interviewing.
- Robust career site builder that allows teams to attract and convert the right talent
- A flexible ATS that allows teams to customize the solution to their recruiting needs
- A large and growing list of integrations with best in class HR Tech tools
- Their employee onboarding module does cost extra, but this is probably no surprise given most ATS’s do the same.
- If you’re looking for the cheapest ATS out there, this is not the right solution for you
- If you want to hire consultants to build very specific customizations into your system, Pinpoint won’t support you
Pinpoint
Review:
Pinpoint’s employee onboarding solution seamlessly integrates with their ATS. They built this module with the goal of keeping a strong candidate experience throughout the hiring process versus handing applicants off to an HRIS that may not have as great of a UI/UX.
HR teams assign candidates to a team, and then select the relevant workflow template so that your new colleague gets the relevant information to them (how their team works, tech stack they will be using, etc), and adds the relevant information for their office and job.
Pinpoint
Customers:
Jersey Electricity, JT Group, Coinshare, BDO Greenlight
Pinpoint
Stats:
- Customers attract up to 4x more candidates
- Customers spend up to 80% less time on admin
- Customers make hires up to 40% faster
Pinpoint
Pricing:
Pinpoint has two pricing plans, Growth and Enterprise. Growth is the starting plan, with up to 20 active jobs at one time. Enterprise adds more features along with unlimited active jobs.
Best For:
Companies with larger in-house recruiting teams.
Why we love it
:
Eightfold's recruiting software allows you to manage your job postings, applications and resumes in one place and provides deep insights into potential candidates' profiles. It can also automatically match qualified candidates with roles that fit them.
- 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.
- 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
Review:
From sourcing and screening candidates, to managing interviews and tracking your hiring pipeline - Eightfold's Recruiting software helps you manage the hiring process from beginning to end. Candidates can fill their details, upload a resume, and apply for job opportunities with a single click. Eightfold’s deep learning and AI algorithm scours through millions of candidate profiles and ranks the most relevant profiles to match them with suitable jobs.
eightfold
Customers:
Eightfold’s client list includes prominent enterprises like TATA Communications, LG, Vodafone, Bayer, Chevron, Morgan Stanley, and more.
eightfold
Stats:
- Eightfold has more than 100 clients spread across 25 countries.
- In 2022, Eightfold increased its revenue run rate to $45.2 million with 100 customers.
eightfold
Pricing:
Eightfold's pricing plans are not disclosed on its website. Contact their Sales team for a custom quote.
Best For:
Eightfold is best suited for large companies and enterprises hiring more than 100 candidates a year.
Why we love it
:
Traffit is an affordable recruiting solution with CRM capabilities built-in. It also aims to improve your team’s productivity with candidate suggestions, workflow automations and ready-to-use templates for email and SMS outreach.
- Traffit packs the capabilities of a recruiting solution and a CRM system within their platform. It’s also big on boosting productivity with automations and pre-made templates that you can instantly use.
- On top of having affordable plans, you only pay for Recruiter user seats, which enable access manage recruitment processes, users and control candidate progress. Hiring Manager get free access to the platform, enabling them to view job pipelines, candidate info, and contribute notes.
- Transparent, scalable pricing with free trials.
- Third-party integrations are limited, especially with job boards. Zapier-enabled integrations are possible but you’ll need to be on the Pro plan or higher. Lastly, Traffit does have an API for custom integrations but it is accessible to Elite plan customers only.
- A few users have reported bugs and lag issues when performing actions such as job posting, candidate searching and filtering.
- Traffit doesn’t currently have a mobile app to support your recruiting efforts on-the-go.
Traffit
Review:
Traffit is a recruitment platform that allows companies and recruitment agencies to source and recruit candidates while automating manual processes and enhancing internal collaboration. Through it, you can customize your recruitment process as well as build a talent pool that you can search whenever you need to find suitable talent. Traffit also allows you to create a no-code careers page and distribute your job ads to several job boards for maximum reach.
Traffit
Customers:
Randstad, No Fluff Jobs, Inhire.io, Neoteric, Brand24
Traffit
Stats:
- 14,000+ recruiters and hiring managers use Traffit in over 60 countries.
- Over 6,500,000 candidates have applied through Traffit, out of which, 314,000 were successfully hired.
Traffit
Pricing:
Traffit has three plans. When billed monthly, they cost as follows:
- Lite: Ideal for growing teams, this plan covers the essential recruiting needs and costs $12 per user per month (5 active jobs per user).
- Pro: For $50 per user per month, the Pro plan packs everything in the Lite plan along with advanced customizations and automations so you can deliver a great recruitment experience.
- Elite: For $75 per user per month, the Elite plan delivers advanced hiring solutions and premium support options to large companies and high-volume recruiters.
Note: Annual billing is also available with a 20% discount on the above plans.
Best For:
Companies and recruiting agencies of different sizes can find value in Traffit’s offerings. SMBs may particularly appreciate their Lite plan, which is quite affordable for a single user with up to 5 active job posts at a time.
Why we love it
:
Not only is Greenhouse a feature-rich recruiting solution, you can further extend its capabilities with over 300 pre-built integrations.
- Greenhouse's onboarding module is quite comprehensive. We found no trouble transitioning successful candidates into employees through the software alone. No third-party app integration is required.
- The mobile app is in good shape. You can work on almost every stage of your hiring process via the Greenhouse app, like reviewing applications, checking interview kits, seeing candidate profiles, completing scorecards, and managing offers.
- There are over 360 third-party integrations with solutions for diverse categories, bringing more convenience for users.
- Greenhouse’s pricing remains “X factor” on their website. The software doesn't offer a free trial either.
- Users have found Greenhouse’s reporting customization features are quite limited and not so easy to navigate.
- While Greenhouse offers an extensive knowledge base for self-service, their in-person support could be improved. Several users noted that the customer support team takes a long time to respond to their questions.
Greenhouse
Review:
Greenhouse makes software for recruiting and onboarding, as well as more specialized solutions for structured hiring and candidate experience. You could say with absolute certainty that their focus is on making things better for job seekers and talent acquisition professionals. Their recruiting solution is a comprehensive ATS + CRM that scales to the size of your business.
Greenhouse aids recruitment teams in classifying and following up with candidates. They also place a strong emphasis on equitable hiring processes, which means they design features with an effort to reduce unconscious bias and concentrate instead on the right skills and qualifications.
Greenhouse
Customers:
AirBNB, Pinterest, Hubspot
Greenhouse
Stats:
- Helped more than 4,000 companies
- Named one of Inc.'s 5000 fastest growing companies in 2019
Greenhouse
Pricing:
The standard Greenhouse contract is a one-year prepaid subscription. Additional discounts are available for two and three-year prepaid agreements. Here're three plans for their Recruiting product:
- Essential: Core features and one event.
- Advanced: Everything from Essential, plus custom reporting, scalable workflows, and ten events.
- Expert: Everything from Advanced, plus upgraded CRM, enhanced security, developer sandbox, DEI feature set, and unlimited events.
The software pricing is based on your company’s total headcount, so you have to contact their Sales for pricing details. Besides their core Greenhouse Recruiting product, they also offer the Onboarding add-on. Subscription tiers are available if you want additional functions. Add-ons such as Sourcing Automation can be priced either on a company-wide headcount basis or per-seat user basis.
If you're a company-wide subscription, you'll gain access to unlimited hiring, onboarding, or sourcing without any price increases.
Best For:
Small to midsized businesses as well as enterprise corporations will find a home with Greenhouse.
Why we love it
:
Fetcher is an AI-based recruitment automation software that uses a simple but effective 3-step methodology of ‘source, engage, and track’ to ensure that you have a continuous stream of qualified candidates and meet your hiring needs.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Fetcher
Review:
Fetcher is a recruiting automation software that handles top-of-the-funnel hiring tasks such as sourcing candidates, cold outreach, and candidate engagement. Rooted in AI, Fetcher's sourcing tool provides curated profiles with the skills and background you're looking for. Their outreach tools make it possible to create automated and customized email sequences for different candidates and positions. You can even assign reminders to individual conversations to ensure that replies are sent on time. The reporting dashboard helps you track hiring stats and diversity metrics and evaluate the performance of your candidate outreach and engagement efforts.
Fetcher
Customers:
Fetcher is used by over 500 businesses worldwide, including Andela, Frame.io, Magnite, Foursquare and CarGurus.
Fetcher
Stats:
- Fetcher is used by 500+ recruiting teams across the globe
- Emails sent to candidates from Fetcher have a 95% open rate
Fetcher
Pricing:
The pricing of Fetcher's plans is based on the number of seats your team needs and the number of vetted candidate leads sourced. You can contact their sales team for a custom quote based on your specific hiring requirements.
Best For:
Fetcher can be used by small, mid-sized, and large organizations looking to automate their sourcing and candidate outreach processes and increase hiring efficiencies.
Why we love it
:
We love Recruiterbox because it is a scalable platform that's easy and quick to set up. It is also a great fit for remote teams.
- 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.
- Trakstar Hire has limited integration options with third-party HRIS and payroll solutions.
- Several users have complained about being unable to sort candidates and search results in an order other than displayed.
- Trakstar Hire isn’t a scalable platform; they have a single plan, all features included, which means customers may end up paying for features that they don’t need.
- Trakstar doesn’t publically list their pricing nor allows visitors to create trial accounts directly from the website, which is unusual for a software solution aimed at mid-market companies.
Trakstar Hire
Review:
A key aspect of Recruiterbox is that it can grow with your company. Small companies are able to set it up in as little as 90 minutes, and many keep using it even as their hiring needs skyrocket. The reason for that is that they have a solid feature list that also includes workflows, letting hiring managers automate certain tasks.
Recruiterbox is also very mindful of remote teams, so they make collaboration through their platform much easier by having notes and insights about candidates available in the same place. It also lets you organize your team into hiring teams or fewer profiles as need be.
Recruiterbox is favored by companies like Olark, Couchsurfing, Lonely Planet, and Untappd.
Trakstar Hire
Customers:
Makita, Couchsurfing, Lonely Planet, Untappd
Trakstar Hire
Stats:
- 300,000+ applicants added in last 30 days
- 1 million+ applicants interviews
- 5,000 hired per month
- Over 2,000 customers
Trakstar Hire
Pricing:
Recruiterbox is priced on a per employee per month basis, starting at an annual minimum of $3499.
Best For:
Medium to large companies, especially ones with remote teams.
Why we love it
:
Turing pairs tech companies with high-quality talent in the software engineering space according to the specific skills and experience required.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Review:
Turing's platform uses AI to match companies with the best developer talent across the world at all different career levels. With over 2 million software engineers in their database, they can assess ideal candidates based on the specific skills required for a project. It’s also relatively risk-free. Turing offers a two-week money-back guarantee if your new talent doesn't work out.
Turing
Customers:
Turing’s client list includes big names like Reddit, Dell Computers, Pepsi, Amazon, Disney+, and Volvo.
Turing
Stats:
- Project hires through Turing have a 97% success rate.
- The AI-backed Intelligent Talent Cloud offers you access to 2 million+ developers from 150 countries.
- Turing’s talent database includes 15+ job types, 100+ technologies, and 7+ levels of seniority in the software development landscape.
- Developers are listed after passing 3 tests: A seniority assessment, a tech stack test, and a live coding challenge.
Turing
Pricing:
There is no upfront cost to searching for talent or hiring a remote software engineer through Turing. Once a developer is employed, Turing offers a two-week trial. You start paying based on the developer’s rate only after the trial ends. Rates are set by the developer, not by Turing.
Best For:
Turing is geared towards servicing the software engineering needs of tech companies and start-ups.
Why we love it
:
Brazen is an easy-to-use virtual career fairs platform. Fortune 500 companies & top universities rely on Brazen to offer a great candidate experience with events that include live presentations, 1:1 video, audio or text chats, and much more.
- Their customer support is great, especially the chat support. When it comes to creating online events, their team would give you a step-by-step walkthrough of the entire process. Every month, their team arranges a monthly call between their customers and their appointed account representative to make sure everything is working fine. Their response time for customer queries is also fairly quick and you will usually hear back from them within the same day.
- Brazen makes networking easier. There are multiple networking booths for events where attendees can talk to employers via text, voice, or chat. Attendees can also easily switch between different booths.
- Before, after, and during each event, you’re provided with detailed analytics and data about signups, candidates, attendance, and other such metrics.
- Their team comes up with updates on a frequent basis and not only asks for client feedback but also takes end-user feedback into mind when rolling out new features.
- Their customer support is great, especially the chat support. When it comes to creating online events, their team would give you a step-by-step walkthrough of the entire process. Every month, their team arranges a monthly call between their customers and their appointed account representative to make sure everything is working fine. Their response time for customer queries is also fairly quick and you will usually hear back from them within the same day.
- Brazen makes networking easier. There are multiple networking booths for events where attendees can talk to employers via text, voice, or chat. Attendees can also easily switch between different booths.
- Before, after, and during each event, you’re provided with detailed analytics and data about signups, candidates, attendance, and other such metrics.
- Their team comes up with updates on a frequent basis and not only asks for client feedback but also takes end-user feedback into mind when rolling out new features.
- Customizations are limited. For instance, emails for the events are system automated and that can limit you from displaying your voice and brand.
- Compared to other popular video conferencing tools, Brazen’s built-in audio and video tool is not as stable and there can be occasional bugs.
- Initial setup can be a little confusing and it takes some trial and error to figure out a structure that helps you make the most out of your virtual events.
- The pricing of the platform isn’t transparent and self-signup free trials aren’t available at this time.
- Customizations are limited. For instance, emails for the events are system automated and that can limit you from displaying your voice and brand.
- Compared to other popular video conferencing tools, Brazen’s built-in audio and video tool is not as stable and there can be occasional bugs.
- Initial setup can be a little confusing and it takes some trial and error to figure out a structure that helps you make the most out of your virtual events.
- The pricing of the platform isn’t transparent and self-signup free trials aren’t available at this time.
Brazen
Review:
One of the reasons that Brazen stands out from this landscape is that they’re actually a virtual event platform that specializes in hiring events. They also happen to be great at using recruiting chatbots for this, focusing on creating a solid virtual experience for both the TA team and the job seekers.
With Brazen, recruiters can host virtual hiring events where they can engage with candidates on a variety of channels. These include live chat, recruiting chatbots, scheduled chat, and live video. Within the same platform, team members can route candidates to other recruiters or toggle the chatbot back on so that no message goes unanswered.
Brazen
Customers:
Brazen serves universities, companies, associations, workforce development organizations, and more. Notable customers include Spectrum, CVS Health, Temple University, KPMG, Lincoln Financial Group, and Houston Methodist.
Brazen
Stats:
- Founded in 2007
- iRelaunch increased their event registration rate by 250% after implementing Brazen.
Brazen
Pricing:
Pricing is not disclosed upfront. You have to request a price quote by filling out a form online with details about your company.
Best For:
Brazen is best suited for large organizations, universities, and companies with frequent and high-volume hiring needs.
Pitfalls of Choosing Recruitment Software
An ATS is one of the main software purchases that an HR team will ever make. The same is ringing more true each day with the other more novel types of recruiting software, like HR chatbots and AI platforms. They’re important to get right because not only are you going to be working with them for a potentially long time, but they will also alter your chances of hiring the best people.
That’s why we spend so much time researching each tool and its various use cases. While doing that and chatting with people that have used each solution in different ways, we’ve come across the main mistakes that HR practitioners make when choosing to work with a specific vendor:
- Choosing a category from the start: If you’re here, you’re likely already circumventing this. But when most people think of recruiting software, they think immediately of a well-defined concept like an ATS, a career site builder, or perhaps even a chatbot. Bringing this pre-conceived notion of what you’re after too early in the buyer journey might lead to your team missing out on great opportunities. How sure are you that a chatbot is what you really need? Do you need that specific technology or are you simply looking for a better way to attract new hires? Wouldn’t certain tasks be better performed by other sorts of software
- Short-term fixes vs. long-term needs: Tied to the first most common mistake, HR teams often get carried away trying to alleviate their daily pain points without drafting a plan for how the new solution can also improve other processes in the long run. The best bet is the one that’ll fix today’s problems with an eye towards the future.
- Leaving out key players: This refers to two things: team members and other software tools. For the former, it’s important to make sure that every stakeholder within the hiring process is on board with the change and will be able to access and work with the new tool. For most companies, new hires aren’t just a preoccupation of the HR staff since that new employee's future teammates often get to interview him/her before a final decision is reached. As to the latter element mentioned, software tools, it’s very important to make sure that the new software will integrate nicely with the tools you’ll continue to use.
Benefits and ROI of Using Recruitment Software
Naturally, the metrics presented above are also what will help you measure the Return On Investment on your recruitment software in the future. If you don’t do it already, being aware of these things will be crucial not just for the demo but for determining the success of your purchase later on.
Also, measuring ROI in recruitment doesn’t just stop at the number of new hires and the time each one of them takes. You can also look for ways to evaluate the quality of the candidates, the diversity in your teams, other costs associated with hiring, and employee happiness or culture fit.
Pricing of Recruitment Software
As to the dollar & cents aspect of the equation, the norm with recruitment and talent management software seems to be to keep it undisclosed until you request a demo. While we’ve made sure that these solutions are of varied prices to accommodate SMBs and large enterprises alike, we can’t reveal their starting prices if they don’t want us to.
However, you can rest assured that nearly all of them offer a free demo and will base the pricing on the size of your company, so it’s very likely that you’ll find something that works for you among this selection.
The only exceptions to the pricing question were myInterview and Frestheam. MyInterview is free forever if you only use it for one job opening, 2 users, and a maximum of 30 candidates. After that, it gets more robust and ranges from $39 to $259 per month (less with the yearly plan) unless your requirements reach the Enterprise level, which warrants a personalized quote.
Now Freshteam, as with most HRMS, offers various plans and a free trial that takes seconds to sign up for. It’s free for up to 50 employees and the highest-priced plan is $250 per month.
For more free trials and completely free options, make sure to check out our guide on the best free recruiting software.
Recruitment Software Categories: What are They and What are Their Key Features?
From the above list of the best recruiting software out there, you probably noticed that it’s not limited to one category. Instead, we spent hours selecting the best out of each landscape, whether you're after an AI recruiting tool, a standard ATS, an HR chatbot, or you simply want to improve your hiring processes in any way that’ll make sense for your team.
Therefore, the key features to look out for in any recruitment tool will vary widely from one landscape to another. Let’s take a look at the main ones for each category:
- Key Features from Applicant Tracking Systems
As one of the core pieces of talent acquisition software, the ATS acts primarily as a database for job applicants. In fact, many people view applicant tracking systems as synonymous with recruiting software since they can handle everything from receiving applications to hiring. For that reason, Applicant Tracking Systems often get compared to Customer Relationship Management systems, and straight-up referred to as Candidate Relationship Management software.
Today’s modern applicant tracking system should have robust analytics, open APIs, a great candidate experience, employee referrals, and capabilities that help source/engage talent. There are literally hundreds of ATS’s out there, so if you’d like to read more about ATS’s alone, we wrote a buying guide about the best applicant tracking systems with more options, advice on how to think about ROI, pricing models, questions to ask on demos, and more.
- Key Features for AI Recruiting Tools
Artificial intelligence is permeating all of the software we use today, from Google's search algorithm to self-driving cars. However, some HR software vendors are leveraging this technology in more noteworthy ways. Not surprisingly, AI is also playing a major role in recruiting software, specifically in helping to source, schedule, and assess candidates in order to free up recruiter’s schedules and let them focus on more important tasks. Mainly, this is done through AI-powered features like 1-click sourcing, and the automation of certain tasks based on candidate behavior, like email outreach and applicant sorting.
If you’d like to read more about other vendors in the AI Recruiting Software space, we wrote a buying guide about the best AI recruiting tools with more options, key use cases, pitfalls, and more.
- Key Features for HR Chatbots
Recruiting chatbots are an exciting new category of HR Tech that allows recruiting teams to leverage the power of AI/NLP to take a lot of work off their plate. Specifically, most bots offered should be able to:
- Answer questions that applicants have when they are researching your company on your career site, in real-time.
- Direct potential applicants to the right jobs and therefore increase the conversion rate on your career sites
- Schedule interviews
- Conduct initial screens
- Handle employee referrals
- Re-discover passive talent in your ATS, and more.
In essence, HR chatbots should be able to integrate seamlessly with your ATS, HRIS, or other software. A key feature to have is the ability to turn the chatbot on and off depending on the recruiter’s availability and willingness to chat with certain candidates. Some would also offer multilingual capabilities and be able to process mixed media like video and audio or even send documents like offer letters.
Are you still curious about HR chatbots and would like to read about more vendors? We’ve recently written a buying guide about the top recruiting and HR chatbots in 2022.
- Key Features for Video Interview Platforms
Video interview software was new about ten years ago, but there are still companies out there who haven’t started to leverage video interview platforms in their initial screens. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies that didn’t use this kind of software have simply shifted towards Zoom or Hangouts. However, the right video interview software can save recruiting teams a lot of time and effort in producing new hires.
So what’s the main difference between using standard video conference software as opposed to something specifically made for the hiring process? While the answer to that question varies depending on each vendor, you’re mainly looking at automated scheduling, pre-recorded interviews, interview templates, and ATS integration. This alternative way of gathering candidate information may only be good for one stage of the recruiting process, but it can save your team a ton of time and energy.
- Key Features for Candidate Sourcing Tools
Realistically, many of the best candidates are never in the market for a new job. Nowadays, however, the fact that we have many active pools of candidates thanks to work-focused social media sites like LinkedIn or Glassdoor has allowed for the rise of software tools that leverage these and other databases.
The main idea of these solutions is to handle sourcing for teams in a time-saving manner. For that reason, the key features are smart filtering capabilities, AI-based recommendations, automated email outreach, and integrations with your ATS or other recruitment solution.
Demo Questions
Since most of the best recruiting software out there doesn’t reveal a set price until after the demo, and not all of them offer free trials after, it’s even more important to approach the demo with a clear gameplan. You want to narrow down the use cases that are most important to you and your team and the questions that you need answers for.
To do this, you can use the following list of questions as inspiration or download our excel organizer for free.
- What are the key features I want to try out and validate?
- What expectations do we have for this software? What are the key things that it should help us achieve?
- How will this solution fit into the rest of my tech stack and therefore what integrations do I need?
- How will others in the organization use this solution?
- How will this tool improve the experience of our applicants?
- What are the things that would make me or my coworkers nervous about switching our current processes to this platform?
- How is employee data kept safe if trusted to this vendor?
- What conclusions can I start to make about the quality of customer support? Is there a help center? Are the support articles clear and easy to read?
Similarly, since the final price is likely to vary depending on your requirements, it will really help the process if you and your team go to the demo with certain key numbers already available and verified, such as:
- How many users you’ll need.
- The average number of open positions/job postings
- The average number of applicants per week, month, year.
- The usual length of the hiring process.
- The average number of new hires per month, year.
- An estimation/expectation of how these numbers should shift in the foreseeable future.
- Other insights about your hiring activities, such as how often you hire for C-level or entry-level positions and everything in between, your multilingual and international necessities, etc.
What will the Implementation of Your Next Recruitment Tool Look Like?
All of the recruitment tools we’ve mentioned here are essentially cloud-based SaaS providers. Because of that, training will rarely be in person and you won’t require much in the way of starting to use it and connecting it to the rest of your HR stack. This is true especially of the vendors that are more narrowly focused on a single type of task, such as myInterview or VidCruiter with Video Interview software and Fetcher with AI. These tools can take minutes to sign up for and start using. After that, setting up fully is mostly a matter of how much data migration and integrations you need to do.
Additionally, and especially in the ATS side of things, the implementation process will vary depending on factors such as the number of open jobs that’ll need to be created, the complexity of your recruiting process, and even the availability of engineering resources that you might have in-house. To guide you through this, most companies have some sort of Implementation Overview page, such as this one by Greenhouse. There, you should find specific answers to each question and links to video training or a support center.
Recruiting Software FAQs
What is recruiting software?
Recruiting software is any software tool that recruiters, hiring managers, and HR/TA teams use to streamline their recruiting workflow.
What kinds of tools are considered recruiting software?
The following are different types of recruiting software:
- Video interviewing
- Sourcing tools
- AI chatbot
- Virtual career fairs
- Recruiting CRMs
- Candidate assessment tools
- Recruiting ATSs
What are some recruiting software benefits?
Some benefits your company will see from using recruiting software include faster time-to-fill, high quality candidates, diversity hiring, and saved money.
Are there pitfalls when using recruiting software?
There are some pitfalls to avoid when choosing recruiting software. First, instead of looking for a short-term fix, look for a long-term need. Next, think about what you really need before choosing a category. Don’t get shiny object syndrome. Finally, make sure every key employee is on board with the software you choose.
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 $249 per month depending on the solution.
Last advice
As a last word of advice, our recommendation would be to first choose a category based on the vendors that we’ve briefly reviewed. Then, you can use some of the links we shared for more detailed buying guides on each landscape. From there, the natural next step would be to get demos with 2-3 vendors and arm yourself with the question guide we linked above, as well as defining the key metrics we outlined.
Lastly, remember that most of these will not give you a set price until you’ve demoed the solution and explained your particular needs to them. That being said, there’s much more that counts other than price so this shouldn’t be the main aspect driving the decision. Whether you’re a staffing agency, a human resources head, or a small business owner looking into recruiting, we’re sure that one of these solutions may have what you’re looking for, or at least point you in the right direction. Best of luck!
Best Recruiting Software
Stay on top of what really matters in HR and People Tech. Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up on the latest news, trends, and culture.
We put in the effort to make this guide awesome
92
Hours Researched
.svg)
9
Experts Consulted
.svg)
>100
Vendors Reviewed
Featured in
Looking for HR Tech Advice? Join our community
Ask questions, share knowledge, find new job opportunities, network and more in our closed HR Tech Buyers Community
Join 20,000 HR Tech Nerds who get our weekly insights
