How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Manatal is the published price champion: 15 dollars per user per month for an ATS and candidate CRM with AI recommendations, though API access waits at the 55 dollar tier.
- Zoho Recruit covers agencies and in house teams from about 25 to 30 dollars per recruiter per month, with a free plan for one job.
- Workable at 299 dollars per month flat and Ashby Foundations at 400 dollars per month price by company size rather than seats, which suits whole company hiring.
- Greenhouse and Lever are quote only; buyer data aggregated by Vendr puts Greenhouse deals anywhere from about 10,000 to 75,000 dollars a year, with a median near 26,570 dollars.
- Agencies live in Bullhorn at about 99 dollars per user per month and Recruiterflow at 119 dollars per user per month billed annually, where CRM means client and candidate relationships together.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Manatal | Affordable ATS plus candidate CRM | $15/user/month | No |
 Zoho Recruit | Budget agencies and small teams | From $25/recruiter/month (reported) | Yes |
 Workable | Flat priced hiring for small companies | $299/month | No |
 Ashby | Data driven in house teams | $400/month (Foundations) | No |
 Greenhouse | Structured hiring at scale | See website | No |
 Lever | Talent relationship pipelines | See website | No |
 Bullhorn | Staffing agency CRM and ATS | From $99/user/month (reported) | No |
 Recruiterflow | Agency pipeline and outreach | $119/user/month (annual, reported) | No |
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The best CRM software for recruiting
#1Manatal
Best for: Affordable ATS plus candidate CRM4.8/5 on
G2 (147 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit manatal.com
Starting price$15/user/month
Free planNo
Manatal is the tool that made recruiting software cheap without making it toy. At 15 dollars a seat it undercuts the entire market while covering the core loop: post, pool, pipeline, outreach. Agencies and small in house teams start here more than anywhere else in 2026 comparisons.
Know the two walls before you build on it: the candidate cap, which a busy agency will meet, and the API tier, which your first integration will demand. Priced at 55 dollars a seat with those included, Manatal remains good value; just budget the real tier from the start.
What we like- The standout published price in recruiting software: 15 dollars per user per month for job posting, a candidate database, pipeline management and AI recommendations, a genuine candidate CRM: talent pools, enrichment from public profiles and campaign style outreach to past applicants, a 14 day free trial in current listings, interface simplicity that small teams adopt without a project
Watch out for- The Professional plan caps active jobs at 15 and the candidate pool at 10,000 in comparison reports, so success forces an upgrade, API access sits at the 55 dollar per user tier, a steep step from 15 dollars, AI interviewer features are add ons, reporting depth trails Ashby and Greenhouse
#2Zoho Recruit
Best for: Budget agencies and small teams4.4/5 on
G2 (1,867 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit zoho.com
Starting priceFrom $25/recruiter/month (reported)
Free planYes
Zoho Recruit is the suite answer: an agency that already runs Zoho's CRM or books gets recruiting in the same account, at budget rates, with the client side of agency work built in rather than adapted. Its free tier is a real starting point for a first hire desk.
The pricing opacity is the current frustration. A vendor this size retiring its public prices in 2026 forces every buyer into a signup flow to learn the cost; use the free plan and the trial to fix your tier before the conversation, so the number they give you meets a decision you already made.
What we like- A full ATS and CRM for agencies and corporate teams at reported rates around 25 to 30 dollars per recruiter per month, a free plan covering one job lets the smallest agency start properly, staffing agency features are native: client and candidate management with submissions tracked in one system, part of the Zoho suite, so CRM, HR and payroll siblings connect without third party tools
Watch out for- Zoho removed prices from its site in August 2026 per comparison tracking, so current figures need confirming at signup and this entry relies on last published rates, the interface carries the whole Zoho design language, functional rather than loved, AI and automation depth trail the category leaders, per recruiter pricing punishes agencies where everyone touches candidates
#3Workable
Best for: Flat priced hiring for small companies4.4/5 on
G2 (706 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit workable.com
Starting price$299/month
Free planNo
Workable prices like a utility: one bill for the company's hiring, whoever touches it. For a growing business where founders, managers and team leads all interview, that model ends the seat counting that makes per user tools painful, and its candidate database becomes a company asset rather than a recruiter's silo.
Run the two models side by side before choosing. Three recruiters on Manatal cost 45 dollars a month; Workable costs 299. Thirty occasional users reverse the answer completely. The shape of your hiring, not the feature list, decides.
What we like- Flat pricing by company size: 299 dollars per month covers companies of 1 to 20 staff in current pricing, so every hiring manager and interviewer logs in without a seat fee, a complete ATS with a strong candidate CRM side: sourcing, talent pools and automated outreach, AI features and a mobile hiring app that managers actually use, add ons are published: texting, video interviews and assessments priced openly per month
Watch out for- Flat pricing is expensive for a lone recruiter and cheap only when the whole company hires through it, add ons accumulate: the three listed above add more than 250 dollars a month combined, AI agent usage is metered in credits beyond an allowance, per 2026 pricing details, not an agency tool: no client CRM
#4Ashby
Best for: Data driven in house teams4.7/5 on
G2 (212 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit ashbyhq.com
Starting price$400/month (Foundations)
Free planNo
Ashby is what in house teams graduate to when hiring becomes a numbers game: conversion rates by stage, source quality, interviewer load, forecast fills. Its CRM keeps silver medallists and past finalists warm in pools the analytics can then mine, which is the talent relationship model done properly.
It is priced and built for companies hiring dozens a year with a team to run it. Below that scale its strengths are theoretical, and Manatal or Workable will serve the same pipelines for a fraction of the commitment.
What we like- The analytics leader: reporting and dashboards that treat hiring as measurable operations, praised across 2026 comparisons, Foundations starts at 400 dollars per month priced by company headcount, with all plans including its core ATS and CRM, sourcing, scheduling and pipeline automation in one system rather than stacked products, a 250 plus integration marketplace and an API that data teams genuinely use
Watch out for- Four hundred dollars a month is the floor, aimed at funded companies, not first time hirers, buyer reported deal data spans roughly 9,000 to 119,000 dollars a year as companies scale, so growth reprices you, its depth asks for an owner: a team without a recruiting operations mindset buys dashboards it never reads, no agency client CRM
#5Greenhouse
Best for: Structured hiring at scale4.4/5 on
G2 (4,033 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit greenhouse.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Greenhouse sells a method as much as a system: define the role, plan the interviews, score against the plan, and let the data argue. Companies whose hiring quality or fairness is under scrutiny, from boards or regulators, buy exactly that defensibility.
The price distribution tells the buying story: the median deal says real companies pay in the mid twenty thousands per year. If your hiring volume is ten roles a year, that maths never closes; at two hundred, the cost per hire is trivial against one bad senior appointment.
What we like- The structured hiring standard: interview plans, scorecards and kits that make evaluation consistent and defensible across hundreds of interviewers, the deepest integration ecosystem in the category, with the top integration scores in 2026 comparisons, candidate relationship tools and talent pools sit inside the same platform, an installed base across technology and enterprise that makes it the safe board level answer
Watch out for- Quote only, annual contracts
- Aggregator Vendr's buyer data spans about 10,159 to 75,125 dollars a year with a median near 26,570 dollars, implementation is a programme with real change management, small teams pay enterprise prices for discipline they could run in a spreadsheet, add ons and tiers inside the quote need line by line scrutiny
#6Lever
Best for: Talent relationship pipelines4.3/5 on
G2 (2,123 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit lever.co
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Lever's founding insight, that the best future hires are people you already know, made it the talent CRM benchmark, and its nurture machinery remains a reference implementation: sequences, pools and rediscovery of past applicants inside the hiring flow.
Evaluate it freshly rather than on reputation. The market moved while Lever changed owners; Ashby took the analytics crown and Manatal took the price floor. Lever's answer must be won in a trial against your real pools and campaigns, which any confident vendor should welcome.
What we like- Built around the CRM idea before it was fashionable: nurture campaigns, talent pools and a unified view of applicants and sourced prospects in one pipeline, strong for teams whose hiring is continuous courtship of scarce specialists, now part of Employ's family of hiring products, alongside Jobvite and JazzHR, analytics and automation have deepened under that ownership in recent releases
Watch out for- Quote only
- Buyer reported deals span about 6,714 to 51,864 dollars a year in aggregator data, no first party AI assistant server appeared in an October 2026 survey of ATS integrations, a small sign of platform pace to check in evaluation, its star has been partly eclipsed by Ashby in the technology segment it once owned, agency use is not its design centre
#7Bullhorn
Best for: Staffing agency CRM and ATS4.2/5 on
G2 (1,232 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit bullhorn.com
Starting priceFrom $99/user/month (reported)
Free planNo
Bullhorn is the answer when CRM for recruiting means money relationships: clients who give you roles, candidates you place repeatedly, margins tracked across both. Corporate ATS tools bolt this on; Bullhorn was born as it, and its GRID industry reporting shows a user base measured in tens of thousands of recruiters.
Agencies outgrow spreadsheets and Manatal into Bullhorn when placements, compliance and payroll for contractors intertwine. That is a later stage purchase, priced like one, and agencies that reach it rarely leave.
What we like- The staffing industry's operating system: candidate and client CRM, applicant tracking, timesheets, billing and back office in one platform built for how agencies actually earn, reported entry around 99 dollars per user per month in current comparisons, with final pricing by edition and quote, automation tuned to agency work: redeployment, shift filling and candidate re engagement at volume, the largest agency ecosystem of integrations and trained users in the industry
Watch out for- In house corporate teams should not buy it
- Its model is agency shaped through and through, implementation and editions make the true price a sales conversation, the interface rewards training
- Casual users find it heavy, costs scale per seat across every consultant
Starting price$119/user/month (annual, reported)
Free planNo
Recruiterflow is the focused agency alternative: the Bullhorn job, pipeline plus client plus outreach, at a size and price a boutique firm can adopt in a month. Its sequencing tools acknowledge the agency truth that candidates must be courted, not merely tracked.
Compare it against Manatal with clear eyes: you pay roughly eight times more per seat, and what the money buys is agency specificity, client records, submission workflows and outreach depth. Agencies bill clients for exactly that specificity, which is why the tier exists.
What we like- An agency ATS and CRM built by people who studied the workflow: pipelines, client submissions and outreach sequences in one place, reported at 119 dollars per user per month billed annually in current comparisons, email sequences and automation that suit direct hire agencies courting passive candidates, simpler to adopt than Bullhorn, with migration pitched at firms leaving spreadsheets and generic ATS tools
Watch out for- Pricing reported from comparison sources
- Confirm the current per user figure and what annual billing commits you to, smaller ecosystem than Bullhorn's, so niche integrations may need its API, in house teams gain less: its client features are agency rent, depth in analytics trails Ashby and Greenhouse
How we chose
We compared recruiting CRM and ATS platforms available in October 2026 across in house and agency use. Pricing comes from vendor pages checked in September to October 2026 comparison research; quote only platforms carry ranges from buyer deal aggregators, clearly labelled as reported buyer data rather than list prices. CRM capability was judged on talent pools, outreach and rediscovery, not only pipeline tracking. We did not run hiring processes on these platforms for this guide.
Choosing between seat, flat and quote pricing
Price your real user count in month twelve, not month one. Per seat tools start cheap and scale with the recruiting team; flat tools start dear and scale with the company. The crossover in this list sits near ten active users: below it Manatal and Zoho win on price, above it Workable and Ashby's flat bands start to make sense.
Interrogate the quote with buyer data. Greenhouse and Lever deals span five to one ranges in aggregator data for similar companies, which means the first quote is an opening position. Comparable buyer figures, even rough ones, are the strongest negotiating tool you can bring, followed by a credible alternative in active trial.
Count the add ons before they count you. AI features across this market have moved to add ons and credit meters in 2026: Manatal's AI interviewer, Workable's agent credits, Ashby's tiered credits. The ATS core is priced to advertise; the AI layer your team will actually use is priced to bill. Ask for the all in figure with your expected AI usage included.
Protect the candidate data. Your database is the asset the CRM exists to compound. Confirm export of candidates, notes and history in usable formats before signing anything annual. A platform that holds your talent pool hostage owns your agency's or your team's most portable asset.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a recruiting CRM and an ATS?
An ATS manages applicants for open jobs: postings, stages, interviews, offers. A recruiting CRM manages relationships with people not yet applying: pools, outreach sequences and rediscovery. Most platforms here combine both; Bullhorn and Recruiterflow add the client CRM agencies need on top.
How much does recruiting software cost?
From 15 dollars per user per month at Manatal to 400 dollars per month at Ashby Foundations, with enterprise platforms quoted per company: buyer data puts Greenhouse's median near 26,570 dollars a year. Agencies pay around 99 to 119 dollars per user per month at Bullhorn and Recruiterflow.
Which tool is best for a staffing agency?
Bullhorn for established agencies needing the full front to back office; Recruiterflow for boutique and mid size firms wanting agency pipelines and outreach without Bullhorn's weight; Zoho Recruit and Manatal for young agencies where price decides.
Which is best for a small in house team?
Manatal if a recruiter or two runs hiring, for price and simplicity. Workable when the whole company interviews and flat pricing wins. Ashby when hiring becomes a measured operation with volume to justify 400 dollars a month.
Can these tools source candidates, or only track them?
The CRM side exists to source: pools of past applicants, silver medallists and prospects, contacted in sequences and rediscovered when a matching role opens. Dedicated sourcing databases are a separate category, but the rediscovery of your own pool is usually the highest converting source a team owns.
Sources we checked (0)
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.