Best applicant tracking systems (ATS) in 2024

One of the toughest tasks in recruiting for small businesses is spotting the best fit for a job among several qualified candidates. The AI-based candidate assessment tool included with Manatal’s applicant tracking system helps companies identify the top candidates among their list of finalists.

Businesses that want to put AI to work in their recruiting efforts will find several other applicant-tracking functions boosted by Manatal’s use of AI, such as tools that gather job-relevant information from applications and other sources.

Almost any organization engaged in hiring can afford Manatal’s entry-level Professional plan, which costs $19 per user per month. The package supports up to 15 jobs per account and accommodates as many as 10,000 job candidates. Larger businesses can step up to the Enterprise offerings that start at $39 per user per month and allow for an unlimited number of job postings.

Smaller organizations choosing the Professional product will have to do without some useful features, however. Workflow automations are included with both of Manatal’s enterprise plans, and Zapier integration and Open API access are available in the high-end Enterprise Plus package.

Time matters when it comes to a growing company’s need to find qualified candidates for its open positions. The quicker you can staff up, the sooner you’ll reach your organization’s goals.

That’s why an investment in applicant-tracking technology can pay off in the short term and long term. Manatal’s AI-based recruiting and candidate-matching capabilities spot top candidates based on various sources of information that it parses automatically and converts into rankings.

Value

At only $19 per user per month, Manatal’s Professional offering delivers a lot of bang for a small business’s recruiting efforts without requiring all that many bucks. While the plan lacks workflow automations and several other useful applicant-tracking features, it includes nearly all of the company’s AI-based tools and covers your business’ compliance requirements as well. Larger firms will appreciate the Enterprise package’s removal of Professional’s cap on jobs and candidates.

Functionality

In addition to candidate scoring, Manatal applies its AI technology to several other recruitment tasks, such as collection of candidate information from social media and parsing of resumes and LinkedIn profiles. The system automatically recommends candidates based on the job description, candidate profiles and other custom criteria and filters. Manatal even uses its AI capabilities to generate job descriptions automatically.

Manatal’s Professional plan for individuals and small teams is limited to 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates per account, but it supports unlimited hiring managers and lets you create as many custom job pipelines as you need.

Sorting through a mountain of potential hires is made easier by the company’s quick search, advanced search and boolean search options. The applicant tracking system lets hiring managers screen candidates quickly and add custom tags, such as “available” and “blacklisted.”

All Manatal plans integrate with Microsoft Outlook and Office 365 as well as Google Workspace and Gmail. They let interviewers add screening and knockout questions such as legal work status and possession of a valid driver’s license. In addition to workflow automations, the Enterprise Plus offering adds management of user groups, single sign-on, priority support and custom integration capabilities.

Support

Manatal’s Professional and Enterprise packages come with 24/5 chat and email support from within your account, as well as free data migration assistance, and free onboarding and training. Weekend support is limited to “urgent matters,” according to the company.

Small businesses won’t need to start their applicant searches from scratch because Manatal provides collections of templates for job descriptions, HR emails, interview questions and HR forms. Other resources are a knowledge base, documentation, an HR glossary and live training webinars. Manatal’s Enterprise Plus plan, which costs $59 per user per month, comes with priority support, although there’s no information on what support services it adds.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Hiring employees is often an ad-hoc affair for small businesses, which typically lack a dedicated HR staff. Keeping everyone involved in the process is much easier when you use the collaboration tools in Workable’s solutions for recruiting and applicant tracking. Team members can easily link their email and calendars, and they share a single applicant dashboard that shows them the job status and candidate progress at a glance.

Managers can connect with job candidates directly from the dashboard and approve or deny requests from team members. They can also push notifications through Workable’s mobile app and confirm that the hiring process is moving forward as expected. Workable distributes job postings to more than 200 job boards and supports social media recruitment campaigns.

These features come at a price that suggests Workable’s applicant tracking system is intended for SMBs with more than a few dozen employees. The entry-level Starter plan, which costs $149 per month and is available to companies with up to 50 employees, lets you have only two active jobs. Workable’s Standard package supports unlimited jobs but is priced from $932 per month for businesses with 51 to 100 employees, and $1,620 for those with 101 to 250 workers.

Small businesses looking for a recruiting and applicant tracking product usually purchase a bunch of other HR features as well, whether they need them or not. Workable’s applicant tracking software gives these companies the option to buy a solution that focuses primarily on finding and onboarding new hires while adding a handful of HR features, such as an org chart and employee directory. Then they can upgrade to the company’s higher-end plans to add other employee-management functions as the needs arise.

Value

Finding and hiring the best candidates for your business’ open positions can spell the difference between a thriving operation on the way up and one that’s floundering. Small and midsize businesses will realize the value of Workable’s Starter plan through enhanced communication among the people involved in the hiring process (and with job candidates). Team members share a dashboard that shows at a glance where candidates stand in the hiring process, and they receive timely notice of actions required to keep the ball rolling.

Justifying Workable’s relatively high price becomes easier for companies with more than 50 employees that can benefit from the applicant tracking features available in the Standard and Premier plans. These include employee onboarding, time management and Premier’s payroll integrations.

Functionality

The separation of recruiting and most other HR functions in Workable’s plans gives SMBs the ability to choose the features they need now and upgrade to additional ones as they expand. However, the Starter package’s limit of two active jobs makes it a viable applicant tracking solution only for small businesses with modest hiring needs.

A great option for SMBs intending to add staff more quickly is to take Workable’s Standard package for a 15-day free spin around the block to try out some of its advanced recruiting and applicant tracking features. These include employee onboarding, e-signatures for company files and time off management. However, Workable sells several recruiting tools separately: texting is an additional $39 per month, video interviews are $49 per month and candidate assessments cost $29 per month.

Support

Workable’s support staff can be reached by clicking the user icon in the top-right corner of your account and selecting “Help” then “Ask a question.” The company’s phone and chat support hours are 3 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday to Friday (excluding holidays). Its normal response time is within three hours of receipt during regular hours.

You can also contact support using the company’s web form or by email. The Workable help center features getting-started guides, a video library and tips for using the product. To learn the ins and outs of Workable’s recruiting and applicant tracking products, sign up for the company’s academy that features self-paced instruction on hiring, onboarding, reporting and other HR topics.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Not all businesses take a DIY approach to recruiting and applicant tracking, instead choosing to work with a staffing agency that does the heavy lifting. Other companies go to the opposite extreme and choose to take full charge of the platform they use to fill their open positions.

HiringThing focuses on offering applicant tracking and onboarding solutions as private-label systems that agencies can brand for themselves, while also serving as a platform that integrates recruiting and hiring with a business’s internal systems.

HiringThing describes private-label (or “white label”) applicant tracking systems as the “backbone” of its business. The solutions address all aspects of hiring by covering recruitment, onboarding, payroll, employee engagement, HR analytics and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) optimization.

The company’s applicant tracking platform integrates with background checks and screening, popular email services, calendars and job boards for distributing job postings. The HiringThing developer program offers a free sandbox and/or demo account, partner API keys and a referral agreement with co-marketing prospects. Its API documentation describes several use cases, including quick-apply and skill assessment tools.

This isn’t the applicant-tracking solution for your typical small business, but HiringThing still provides a valuable service to small companies by giving the staffing and recruiting agencies they’re likely to deal with the tools mom-and-pop-style organizations need to find qualified, talented workers to fill their open positions. Larger businesses benefit from HiringThing’s services for developers, which allow companies to tightly integrate applicant tracking with their other business processes.

Value

Companies with positions to fill can get a lot of mileage out of free job boards, but paid job boards are where they’re likely to find the deepest and broadest talent pools. All HiringThing plans let you post to free job boards, but adding your positions to paid boards requires the company’s Standard plan which costs $99 a month.

The applicant tracking and onboarding packages that HiringThing sells to agencies and businesses are priced based on a custom quote from the company. For staffing agencies, HiringThing’s value lies in the return they can realize by offering their client businesses a private-label applicant tracking and onboarding system. The value delivered to SMBs is the control they can exercise over all aspects of their integrated applicant tracking system.

Functionality

HiringThing puts management of how applicants are recruited and tracked in the hands of agencies and HR departments. The products HiringThing sells meet the needs of private-label applicant tracking systems and companies looking for custom solutions that are tightly integrated with their other work processes.

Hiring companies and job applicants benefit from features such as calendaring, candidate self-scheduling options and videoconferencing. The applicant tracking solutions from HiringThing use AI to screen resumes and help with writing job descriptions. To ensure your job postings reach as many potential candidates as possible, the service distributes to free and paid job boards such as LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter and Totally Hired.

Support

Support is available by opening the chat window in the bottom-right corner of pages on HiringThing’s site and then creating a support ticket by entering your name, email address and other information, including the severity of the problem for your company’s workflow. After you click the Submit button, you’re notified that you’ll receive a response from the company’s support team soon.

From within your HiringThing account, you can open a live chat window, access the support database and submit a support ticket. The HiringThing knowledge base includes sections on security, billing and plans, background checks and integrations. It also features a video library illustrating scorecards and how to customize forms.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

The challenge of modern recruiting is sifting through the deluge of resumes and other job candidate information to make sure you spot the gems among the mountains of data rubble. Zoho Recruit takes much of the pain out of skill- and experience-matching by automating bulk resume uploads then creating a short list of top candidates.

This and other recruiting and applicant-tracking automations let businesses of all sizes respond faster to job seekers, who in turn benefit by knowing the status of their applications. Candidates are able to pose questions using Zoho Recruit’s chatbots, which serve as a first level of candidate screening. Other automations send emails and text alerts, assign tasks and update records based on preset triggering events.

Many of the automated recruiting and applicant tracking features sold by Zoho Recruit are available only in the company’s Enterprise plan. This includes Blueprint, which lets companies create automated workflows by dragging and dropping sequences of actions with branching decision trees based on specific conditions.

Taking advantage of Zoho Recruit’s state-of-the-art applicant tracking technology sends a message to job applicants that your company is taking the lead in putting business tech to work for the benefit of its customers and employees alike.

Still, the tangible rewards of adopting automated recruiting and candidate tracking are speed and accuracy: Your organization can identify top applicants quickly and guide them smoothly through the hiring pipeline.

Value

Startups and very small businesses can take advantage of Zoho Recruit’s free plan as a sort of extended trial, although the limit of a single active job makes the freebie impractical for most companies no matter their size. The true value of the company’s applicant tracking systems for small businesses is its Standard package, which costs $30 per recruiter per month and supports 100 active jobs.

Many SMBs will choose Zoho Recruit’s Premium plan so they can take advantage of the service’s assignment rules that direct records to specific recruiters based on preset criteria. Other added features of the Premium offering, which costs $60 per recruiter per month, are support for 250 active jobs, custom reports and dashboards, and recruitment forecasts.

Functionality

It’s difficult to imagine a recruiting or applicant-tracking feature that Zoho Recruit doesn’t offer. In fact, the abundance of functions in the company’s plans can overwhelm small businesses with relatively basic recruiting and hiring needs.

For example, Zoho Recruit’s Standard package comes with the ability to create 50 custom fields, 50 custom views and as many as 100 workflow alerts per user to a maximum of 3,000. Smaller operations may be daunted by the many customization options and would be better served by a solution that they can use right out of the box.

Of course, other companies will jump at the chance to create their ideal system for attracting and hiring qualified job applicants. These organizations can apply Zoho Recruit’s automations and customizations to foster closer ties to potential employees and speed up the interview and job-offer process.

However, many useful recruiting and applicant-tracking features are available only as add-ons, including video interviews ($12 per license per month) and client portals ($6 per license per month).

Support

Zoho Recruit’s paid applicant tracking systems are supported 24/5 by telephone, while its Enterprise customers have 24/7 telephone and live chat support. All of the company’s customers can reach its support staff by email with a maximum response wait of three hours for paid plans and one hour for Enterprise users. Paid customers receive 45 days of product onboarding support (Enterprise plans extend this to 60 days).

Getting started with Zoho Recruit is facilitated by the company’s help center which includes resources on talent sourcing and management, customization, automations and integrations.
Other help center resources are a developer and API guide, training videos, webinars and community forums.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Some businesses will find an abundance of job seekers with the background their open positions require. Others are looking to fill jobs that have more specific skills, training and other characteristics. For these companies, finding a job candidate with the unique combination of background and skills for a particular position can feel like they’re diving into haystacks in search of the world’s smallest needle.

Recruit CRM’s candidate matching feature clears away much of the proverbial straw by letting you search for candidates based on another candidate with the qualifications you seek. The company’s applicant tracking systems save businesses time by integrating with GPT, the AI engine behind the popular ChatGPT app, to help with writing job descriptions and creating email templates, among other uses

These advanced recruiting features don’t come cheap, however. Recruit CRM’s entry-level Pro package costs $100 per user per month and limits some of the product’s best features, such as allowing only two matches per candidate. Most SMBs will be better served by the company’s Business offering, which is priced at $150 per user per month and supports 50 matches per candidate.

Endless rounds of pre-interview interviews and post-interview follow-ups can make filling an open position tedious and tiring. Recruit CRM comes to the rescue with an applicant tracking solution that applies techniques that allow the best matches for jobs to rise to the top of that towering stack of resumes. Companies that can afford the product’s high price will find it helps them make short work of recruiting and hiring the best people available.

Value

Determining whether Recruit CRM’s applicant tracking systems represent a good return on your investment can be tricky because the benefits of spending less time to find higher-quality candidates may not be easy to quantify. Much of the equation will depend on the nature of the positions a company is trying to fill.

For example, an aerospace engineering business hiring rocket payload specialists will have a narrower field of candidates than a company looking for general office support staff. Similarly, locating suitable candidates for a senior management position at an import/export business requires a particular set of skills that will have been acquired over a very long career (ones that even Liam Neeson lacks).

With prices of $100 and $150 per user per month, respectively, Recruit CRM’s Pro and Business plans are most valuable to companies that struggle to find suitable candidates for their open jobs.

Functionality

AI-based resume parsing and GPT integration are examples of Recruit CRM’s application of technology to enhance a company’s bottom line by helping quickly fill jobs with the most qualified candidates available. However, the solutions also deliver the basic recruiting and applicant tracking features that help businesses establish and maintain a connection with job candidates.

Keeping in touch with applicants is facilitated by email scheduling and sequencing that combines tasks with automatic emails that continue on a preset schedule until you receive a response. Candidates can submit information through a portal to update their profile, and custom dashboards make it easy to view the status of all candidates in your job pipelines. However, some functions are limited in the entry-level Pro plan, including a single email sequence and only 15 custom fields.

Support

All Recruit CRM subscribers have access to 24/7 live chat support that claims to have an average response time under one minute. The support is available in French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Dutch as well as English (the company’s plans are offered in these languages as well).

Recruit CRM’s help center describes the company’s products and features and explains its applicant tracking system, job posting and onboarding, among other topics. The company also provides a video library with dozens of short videos offering tips for improving your business’ recruitment and hiring. Lastly, the Experts’ Corner features tips and advice for managers and recruiters.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Organizations of all types thrive when their workforce represents everybody. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) keeps businesses in tune with their customers, partners and neighbors and strengthens relationships across the board. Ceipal’s AI-based diversity hiring program lays out a three-step process for companies to assess their current level of diversity, create a plan for filling the gaps and then put that plan into action.

A big part of DEI is making sure your job postings reach as many qualified candidates as possible. Ceipal promises to broaden your ads’ audience by 70% or more through passive candidate sourcing powered by the company’s AI technology. Once you’ve identified the best candidates, you can maintain contact with them through email campaigns and communication by text, voicemail and video.

Ceipal’s lone applicant tracking package suits small businesses by being priced at $24 per user per month. The plan covers every step of the recruitment and hiring process from lead management to candidate assessments, interview management and onboarding. It’s uncertain how well the service will scale for enterprises looking for integrated HR or those requiring management of teams whose members cross departments.

Ceipal bills itself as an all-in-one staffing solution for IT, general and healthcare businesses. Its applicant tracking takes advantage of AI techniques to automate resume harvesting and calendar notifications. In addition to its diversity assessments and goal setting, the product is designed to meet the applicant-tracking needs of staffing companies, systems integrators and managed service providers.

Value

Ceipal keeps things simple by selling a single plan at an affordable price of $24 per month per user. The plan includes plenty of features you typically find in high-end offerings, such as compliance tracking, a career page, role-based permissions and onboarding.

Startups and small businesses can take advantage of resume harvesting and lead management that let them compete for talent with larger organizations. Enterprises are able to manage their hiring by using Ceipal’s total talent pipeline management, which features candidate matching and ranking plus automated chatbots for staying in touch with candidates.

Functionality

For many healthcare organizations, filling open positions with qualified professionals has an added urgency because doing so can avoid delays in providing needed services to patients. Ceipal’s solution for healthcare providers features AI-powered auto sourcing and candidate matching and ranking as well as automatic credential checking and confidential communication with applicants.

Similarly, systems integrators and managed service providers (MSPs) have to keep pace with innovations and shifting markets, so their recruiting, hiring and onboarding can’t slow them down.

The Procurewise vendor management system (VMS) combines with Ceipal’s applicant tracking system for MSPs, while the company’s solution for systems integrators handles all aspects of workforce management from tracking applications and hiring to improved retention.

Support

You can reach Ceipal by telephone during business hours and by email. The company doesn’t have live chat support, and when we called the support line on a Thursday afternoon PT we were sent directly to voicemail.

The Ceipal help center provides dozens of articles on how to use Ceipal’s application tracking system and workforce add-on as well as tips for using tasks. Lastly, the company provides videos on candidate relationship management and other aspects of applicant tracking.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Companies that employ an international workforce will appreciate the global reach iCIMS provides. In addition to its two U.S. offices, the company has facilities in Ireland, England, India and France. iCIMS’s applicant tracking systems are used in more than 200 countries and support 25 languages for recruiters and 37 languages for job candidates. Its eight hosting sites include the U.S., Canada, France and Germany.

The center of iCIMS’s applicant tracking solutions is the company’s Talent Cloud that focuses on optimizing your business’ recruitment marketing using behavior-based sourcing campaigns, candidate lead scoring and the company’s Candidate Experience Management (CEM) system.

SMBs can establish connections with potential job applicants and personalize the recruitment process through iCIMS’s Career Sites that introduce candidates to your company and give applicants tools for promoting their skills and experience.

It’s common for organizations to overlook qualified candidates for open positions who are right under their noses. Talent Cloud addresses this gap in applicant searches by promoting internal mobility through programs that simplify internal job searches and actively encouraging staff members to become engaged in the process.

The rise in virtual workspaces broadens the potential talent pool for businesses whose operations can accommodate work schedules that extend across time zones and continents. iCIMS brings companies closer to valuable talent resources beyond their immediate vicinity, which also promotes the expansion of SMBs into the global marketplace.

Unlike other vendors in the space, iCIMS focuses exclusively on offering applicant tracking systems for retailers, manufacturers, healthcare providers, financial services and insurers.

Value

Because iCIMS doesn’t publish its prices or the specific features of its applicant tracking plans, it’s difficult to gauge the products’ value to SMBs. The functionality and complexity of the company’s solutions indicate that it provides the greatest value to midsize and larger businesses that either operate internationally or have plans to expand into global markets.

For example, iCIMS designs its applicant tracking products so they integrate seamlessly with human capital management (HCM), payroll and other internal systems, including Workday, ADP, SAP and Oracle. Small businesses are less likely to require this level of business process integration. Larger organizations are also better able to realize the value of iCIMS’s Video Studio component that records current employees sharing their experiences through video testimonials.

Functionality

It’s difficult to imagine an aspect of applicant tracking that iCIMS hasn’t addressed in its comprehensive solutions, which support high-volume hiring for fast-growing companies, as well as equitability in hiring through its programs for identifying skills and experience that candidates and employees themselves may not have listed.

In addition to breaking down its applicant tracking features by business need and industry, iCIMS devises solutions for four specific roles: chief human resources officers (CHRO), talent acquisition, information technology and human resources operations. Businesses are able to create career sites that engage candidates and include tools to help them promote their qualifications. The product’s features extend from talent search to onboarding, and every hiring step in between.

Support

iCIMS provides direct support to its customers by telephone. There’s no indication on the company’s site of the support line’s hours of operation. iCIMS doesn’t offer live chat or email support. The only other support options are the iCIMS community, which includes a knowledge base, release notes and Level Up courses on such topics as searching and reporting, experience management and tool management.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Filling open positions can sometimes feel like a trip down the rabbit hole. Either your recruiting efforts are attracting too few or the wrong kind of candidates or you’re deluged with responses from qualified applicants. JazzHR addresses both situations by helping businesses attract the right kind of candidates and providing tools that make quick work of narrowing your candidate list to the top contenders.

Nothing slows the hiring process like opening your mailbox to a tsunami of applications with no way to identify the candidates with the most promising backgrounds and skills. JazzHR lets you sift through candidates in a jiffy by opening the company’s Candidate Quick Screen feature that lets hiring managers access and scan all pertinent documents from a single intuitive interface

Very small businesses may be priced out of JazzHR’s entry-level Hero package which costs $99 a month and supports only three active jobs (additional jobs cost $9 a month). However, organizations of any size that are expanding rapidly will appreciate how quickly they can get their first job openings posted when they sign up for JazzHR’s applicant tracking service.

The most qualified candidates for your company’s open jobs are likely fielding multiple offers from other employers, so the quicker you can get on their radar, the better your chances of landing them.

JazzHR minimizes the time between your initial signup and your first job postings. Once the applications start rolling in, the system gives you the tools you need to adapt the applicant tracking process to your operation and assess the qualifications and suitability of applicants.

Value

The speed and efficiency JazzHR brings to recruiting and applicant tracking comes at a price that may break the budgets of many small operations. The entry-level Hero plan costs $99 a month, but the price includes only three active jobs and excludes many useful add-ons such as candidate texting (starting at $39 a month) and Zoom integration (from $29 a month). The Hero plan is limited to email support and does without the company’s interview guides and Workflow Helpers.

A better option for SMBs is JazzHR’s Plus package, which costs $325 a month and supports an unlimited number of active jobs. This plan comes with the ability to act on a group of candidates at one time, as well as knockout questions, interview guides, Workflow Helpers and task automation.

However, adding offers and e-signatures costs an extra $59 a month, and advanced visual reporting will set you back another $59 a month (Zoom integration and candidate texting also cost extra).

Functionality

Candidates for your company’s open jobs will be introduced to your brand from the start when you customize the career page JazzHR provides to represent your culture and workplace climate.

The real magic starts once applicants have submitted their information and you apply the service’s custom workflows and shared candidate assessments. Tasks can be assigned automatically to ensure the hiring process doesn’t get bogged down, and personalized message templates keep you in close contact with applicants.

JazzHR lets you post your jobs to free job boards at no charge, but placing them on premium job sites will ring up added fees. You can use the company’s mobile app to screen resumes and transfer candidate information to your company’s HR information system with just a few clicks.

Many of JazzHR’s features for interviewing and assessing candidates are available only in the midrange Plus plan and high-end Pro package, which costs $499 a month. These include background checks, interview guides and candidate self-scheduling.

Support

The entry-level Hero package from JazzHR is limited to email support. The company’s Plus plan adds live chat support, and telephone support is included with the Pro offering. Live chat and phone support are available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. The JazzHR support page has a form for submitting questions as well as links to a half-dozen articles with tips on getting started, job posting best practices and other topics.

Self-support options include training resources, getting started guides and FAQs. The company’s help center provides information on accounts and settings, sourcing and syndication, communicating with candidates, and screening and interviewing.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

PCRecruiter’s applicant tracking systems are a great choice for companies that want to make a good first impression. They accomplish this by making it easy for HR departments to add a branded, customized job board to their company’s site. The service also lets you add your brand and other customizations to interview forms and other documents. But at a deeper level, PCRecruiter gives hiring businesses an opportunity to show they take ethics seriously.

The best way to attract the most-qualified applicants for your business’ open positions is by presenting the company as a great place to work. One aspect of an organization’s public image is its adherence to ethical business standards, which may preclude the automated, indiscriminate collection of personal data about candidates by information-scraping bots.

PCRecruiter offers HR departments, staffing agencies and permanent placement operations a way to gather applicant information from social media and other sites without scraping. The company’s PCR Capture browser plugin captures data that’s displayed to an authorized user and then downloads it to local storage before collecting it. Even if data scraping hasn’t been ruled illegal by U.S. courts, the practice may violate some third-party vendors’ terms of service.

First impressions do make a difference, and most job applicants will get a feel for the way a company operates by the way it handles initial contact and subsequent exchanges. The candidate management tools sold by PCRecruiter combine applicant tracking with customer relationship management (CRM) that accommodates job prospects, candidates and referrers as well as hiring managers and internal job applicants.

Value

Most of the value of PCRecruiter’s applicant tracking services is derived from its integration of email, voice, text and other business tools with the recruitment and hiring process. Managers save time by using the company’s Position Pipeline to automate communication with applicants and add candidate data gathered from the PCR Capture browser plugin, PCR for Outlook extension and other sources.

The PCRecruiter pricing model quotes a starting price for basic applicant tracking services of $85 per user per month on a two-year contract, but the company assumes that customers will require add-on capabilities that will increase their final price.

In addition to a setup fee, PCRecruiter charges for data migration and conversion, training and custom HTML services. The ultimate value of the company’s applicant tracking systems comes down to their ability to identify, track and engage the most qualified candidates available.

Functionality

PCRecruiter’s services are designed to meet the recruiting and hiring needs of permanent placement firms that need to work with a variety of systems and record formats, staffing agencies looking for recruiting support that integrates with their daily business processes, and HR departments that want to combine applicant tracking with compliance and reporting regulations. The company’s Position Pipeline serves as the foundation for meeting the needs of all three groups.

The candidate pipeline at the heart of PCRecruiter’s applicant tracking makes it easy to create custom workflows for each position. The workflows include automatic triggers, groupings and actions that keep the hiring process moving forward.

The company’s Open API allows businesses to integrate recruiting operations with voice and SMS systems, and its Resume Inhaler parses resumes automatically, transferring them from your inbox or desktop folder directly into name records.

Support

PCRecruiter customers can call the company’s support telephone line from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET Monday through Thursday, as well as 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET on Friday. Limited support is available on Sunday evenings from 6 p.m. to midnight ET.

The support staff can also be reached by live chat, email and online support ticket. The company’s learning center features information about the PCRecruiter platform, tools such as PCR Capture and Resume Inhaler and a list of FAQs.

Developers have plenty of API support for creating integrations using PCRecruiter’s Open API, including a sandbox and access to API keys and developer information through a 3Scale site. Non-developers can create integrations by using the Zapier add-on which works with Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Microsoft Outlook, Gmail and other productivity tools.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

The last thing a hiring manager wants to do is attract the perfect candidate for an open position only to have the person bail on them because of a clunky applicant intake system. Jobvite does its best to keep applicants focused on the job they’re applying for and the company posting the ads by helping employers create a branded career site that generates excitement among applicants at the prospect of working for their business.

Applicants are presented with content that relates to their job prospects and interests based on parameters set by employers. They are steered toward the positions that best match their background by AI-based language guides. Ads for your business’ open jobs appear in Google for Jobs with the look and content you choose. Careers sites can be multilingual and are easy to integrate with more than two dozen applicant tracking systems.

Unlike other applicant tracking system vendors, Jobvite’s products are designed specifically for HR departments rather than for recruiting and staffing agencies. Another way Jobvite distinguishes itself from competing services is by integrating the onboarding process from the initial contact with applicants. The result is a fast and seamless recruiting and hiring process that keeps job applicants and hiring managers on the same page throughout.

Small businesses with only a handful of open positions at any given time may not need a full-featured career site to attract qualified candidates. However, any company HR department that’s feeling pressed to keep pace with their job growth and/or turnover will improve the effectiveness of their recruiting and hiring by using Jobvite to create a site that not only attracts candidates but excites them about the prospects of joining their operation.

Value

Jobvite doesn’t publish its prices or information about its applicant tracking plans, so it’s difficult to determine the value of its services for small businesses. The company’s focus on meeting the recruiting needs of HR departments suggests that it targets midsize and larger firms for its products.

For these companies, the value of the product will be measured in how much time and effort they save by automating common recruiting processes and by keeping their top candidates for jobs in the loop and jazzed at the prospect of working for them.

By promoting consistent messaging and an employee focus, Jobvite boosts a business’ employer value proposition by giving applicants confidence that their working relationship will be a win for them, a win for the company and a win for its customers. How well this morale-boosting approach translates into monetary returns is anybody’s guess.

Functionality

Rather than seeing the process of finding, evaluating, hiring and onboarding new hires as separate operations, Jobvite gives organizations a soup-to-nuts solution through its Evolve Talent Acquisition Suite

The system captures the knowledge of experienced recruiters to create workflow automations that let humans focus on the applicants rather than administration. It promotes collaboration among hiring team members by integrating with the communication tools and work processes they already use.

Businesses don’t need to worry about plugging any gaps in the platform because along with a branded career site and guidance from recruitment to onboarding, Jobvite provides a Source & CRM tool that connects with candidates using their preferred medium: email, text or social networks. The solution supports employee referrals, internal candidates and job broadcasting to job boards, social media and partnering agencies.

Support

Jobvite relies on a web form for contacting its customer support staff directly. However, only named support contacts are able to create support tickets using the company’s help center. Customers can check on Jobvite’s system status, and job candidates can submit a Job Seeker Support Case and find helpful information on job applications and other matters.

Hiring managers and job applicants can look for answers to their recruiting and applicant tracking questions by searching Jobvite’s resource hub, which includes guides, videos, reports, webinars and other material. The company’s collections combine support material for specific industries such as tech, manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare and finance.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.