8 Best Recruiting Software for Small Businesses in 2023

Zoho is one of the few on the list that provides a forever-free plan, which works for a single job ad at a time with candidate management. (Indeed allows more job ads at once.) It also has a 15-day free trial for its paid plans.

Zoho is unique in that it not only lets you cancel at any time but offers a 45-day money-back guarantee. Others will allow you to cancel, but rather than refund partial payments, they let you finish out your month.

Corporate Plans (for HR teams)

• Free plan: One active job, free posting, candidate management, email management, interview scheduling, 24/5 support
• Standard plan ($30/recruiter per month): 100 active jobs, Free plus candidate sourcing, branded career site, employee referrals, social recruiting, assessments, hiring pipeline, standard reports, department hierarchy, integrations
• Enterprise plan ($60/recruiter per month): Standard plus AI candidate matching, candidate and staff portals, layout rules, advanced customization, territory management, automations, advanced analytics, custom reports, SMS and phonebridge, autoresponders

Staffing Agencies

• Free plan: One active job, free posting, candidate management, email management, interview scheduling, 24/5 support
• Standard plan ($30/recruiter per month): 100 active jobs, Free plus candidate sourcing, premium job boards, social recruiting, resume management, applicant tracking, talent pipeline, standard reports, integrations
• Professional plan ($60/recruiter per month): 250 active jobs, Standard plus AI candidate matching, candidate portals, screening and assessments, background checks, assignment rules, advanced analytics, custom reports
• Enterprise plan ($90/recruiter per month): 750 active jobs, Professional plan plus custom roles and profiles, custom functions and buttons, client portals, staffing portals, web tabs, layout rules, territory management, advanced assignment rules, autoresponders

Zoho Workerly (for Temp staffing)

One plan at $59 per month for 25 temps. Includes unlimited recruiters, unlimited jobs, invoice generation, interactive temp portal, temp engagement channels, and more.

Add more temps:

• 26–500: $1.50 per temp
• 500+ temps: $1 per temp

Add-ons

• Additional licenses: $10/month
• Vendor portal: $6/month
• Video interview: $12/job slot
• Client portal: $6/license/month

Zoho Recruit makes it easy to reuse previous jobs or post existing jobs to additional boards. (Source: Zoho Recruit)

• Job recruiting: Zoho posts to over 300 job boards. In addition, Zoho lets you create your own recruiting campaigns by emailing past applicants about new jobs they may qualify for. Only ZipRecruiter, Monster, and Indeed offer a similar function.
• Assessment assistance: Zoho Recruit has a resume parser and background checks to help you find the best candidate. In addition, its AI, Zia, can rate candidates and provide you with a list ranked by how they match job requirements. Manatal’s AI also scores candidates by suitability.
• Temp job searches: Temp agencies can benefit from Zoho’s Workerly plan. It searches your database of temps based on your criteria, then handles the assignment, time sheet tracking, and invoices. No other recruiting software on our list has a similar feature.
• Candidate portal: Zoho Recruit’s higher-tier plans include a candidate portal where applicants can see what jobs they’ve applied to and the status of their application. This is a great feature for large companies. Only ZipRecruiter and Indeed offer a similar service to applicants, and they are not company-specific.
• Customizable reports: Of all the recruiting software we evaluated, Zoho has the most complete report builder. It lets you create a report from the ground up, choosing up to 25 data points, setting up in-depth filters, and choosing how the reports are displayed. Once you’ve created reports, you can save them to re-run or modify.

Workable lacks a free plan but has a 15-day free trial.

Its pricing structure is unique, in that the larger your company, the more you pay for the Standard and Premier plans. The Paygo plan is a flat rate.

• Paygo ($129/month): Post to 200 boards, career page, 200 AI-sourced profile views per month, automated actions, self-scheduling, e-signatures and offer letters, compliances, background checks (via integration), email communication, reporting, self-guided onboarding.
• Standard ($360–$1,500/month): Paygo plus unlimited jobs, 10,000 AI-sourced profile views, onboarding assistance
• Premier ($720–$2,340/month): Standard plus hiring plan, requisition approvals, 20,000 AI-sourced profile views per month, native language options, single sign-on, dedicated account manager, custom onboarding.

In addition, you can get video interviewing for $99 per month, texting for $79 per month, and assessment tools for $59 per month.

Workable has a clean and bright interface and is easy to use. (Source: Workable)

• Automations: While several products on our list include automated emails, Workable takes it further with automated invitations to self-schedule interviews. It also has e-signatures for NDAs, offer letters, and more.
• Templates and forms: Workable has over 700 templates for jobs and emails. Even more, however, it lets you build a mobile-friendly job application.
• AI candidate sourcing: Workable says that in just minutes, it can scan its database of over 85 million resumes to provide a list of 50 candidates that match your job description. This handy tool is available with all plans. Some software only offers this service in higher-tier plans.
• Collaborate on the app: Like Manatal, Workable lets your entire hiring team communicate about a candidate on the app, making it easier to hold discussions and keep organized.
• Pre-screening tests: Workable offers integrations with several services that provide not only skills tests, but also personality assessments, something we didn’t find in others on our list. (Applicant Pro has behavioral and cognitive tests, however.)
• Mobile app: Like Zoho Recruit, Workable has a mobile app that lets managers do their work from anywhere. It’s not rated as highly as the other two, but is nonetheless a good choice. (3 out of 5 on Android and 3.3 out of 5 for iOS)

Manatal lacks a free plan but does have a 14-day free trial. However, its pricing is among the cheapest on our list, making it a great choice for startups and small businesses on a budget. It has three plans:

• Professional ($19/month): 15 jobs per account, 10,000 candidates. Candidate enrichment, AI recommendations, a complete applicant tracking system, career page, email communications, job posting, team collaboration, reports, and 24/5 chat and email support.
• Enterprise ($39/month): Basic tools, but unlimited jobs and candidates.
• Custom (Call for quote): Premium + integrations, text messaging, custom compliance reports, phone support, single sign-on, and a dedicated account manager.

Once you enable your Careers Page, you can start posting to job boards. (Source: Manatal)

• Post to over 2,500 job sites: Manatal offers one of the widest ranges of free and paid job posting sites, including some on our list, like Indeed. Even more, you can import resumes directly from LinkedIn. (Workable has something similar.) Regardless of the number of boards you use, you manage all the campaigns from Manatal’s ATS.
• Modern ATS: Manatal uses a Kanban board to track applicants through their process, with each board holding all the candidate’s information.
• Advanced AI: Manatal uses artificial intelligence to filter and score candidates and parse resumes. It can suggest candidates based on your job requirements.
• Social media enrichment: Manatal was the only recruitment software for small businesses that included social media enhancement of candidate profiles. It searched for data on over 20 social media and public platforms to give you information not found in a dry resume or application.
• Resume branding: If you are a hiring agency using Manatal, the software lets you watermark and even change resume contact information, so your clients go to you about a candidate rather than straight to the applicant themselves. We didn’t find another recruitment software with this hiring tool.
• Excellent collaboration tools: Unlike several on our list (such as Indeed), Manatal lets you have multiple users so your hiring teams can collaborate in-app. This makes it much easier to evaluate and decide on candidates.

Indeed offers free job posting and limited ATS tools. (Source: Indeed)

• Cooperation with Glassdoor: If you use Glassdoor, you can work through it to get premium branding on Indeed and Glassdoor, have your open jobs on Indeed pushed to your Glassdoor page, and target competitors on Glassdoor to post jobs on their page as well.
• Campaign management: If you have several sponsored jobs in Indeed, you can now combine them into one campaign with a single overall budget, plus you benefit from reports that track the performance of the campaign as a whole.
• Job posting: Indeed is a job search engine, which means it aggregates jobs from thousands of boards. Unlike other recruiting apps on the list, it does not post to other job boards, with the exception of Glassdoor (see our Glassdoor vs Indeed guide). It is represented in 60+ countries. (ZipRecruiter, while more popular, is only in four countries.) Like ZipRecruiter, it sends job ad alerts to interested applicants.
• Pay-per-application promotion: Indeed lets you advertise your ad by giving it premium space on its newsletters, website, and mobile app. You pay for this by the application, and you can set a limit to how many applications you want to pay for before stopping the promotion. This pricing is unique to Indeed and ensures you pay for serious applicants.
• Free resume search: Not every recruiting software on our list has resume harvesting, which lets you view, download, and review resumes submitted by job seekers who have not applied for your job. Indeed lets you view as many of its over 245 million resumes as you wish. (ZipRecruiter set limits.) However, it charges you if you wish to contact them through the system.

ZipRecruiter has a four-day free trial, the shortest trial on our list; however, it says most businesses get candidates within a day, so it may be enough.

ZipRecruiter’s daily pricing options ($16 to $24 per job post) make it more accessible for businesses needing to make an affordable hire in a short period of time. Indeed, by comparison, lets you place ads for any amount of time and pay for promotion on a daily basis.

Daily pricing:

• $16 per job post—one reusable job slot, unlimited applications, access to partner job boards
• $24 per job post—premium job distribution, 25 resume views

Monthly pricing is complex, based on the number of ads, users, and resume searches. Contact Sales for an exact quote. Below is a sample subscription plan for a single ad per month:

• $299—one ad with no switching, one user, no resume access
• $349—one ad, but can switch, two users, 25 resume views
• $599—one ad with switching, eight users, 200 resume views

Traffic boost: $120/month per ad

ZipRecruiter has a simple thumbs-up/thumbs-down rating system for assessing candidates. (Source: ZipRecruiter)

• Job boards: ZipRecruiter has its own highly popular job board. In fact, most of the recruiting software on our list will post to it. In addition, it automatically posts to over 100 other job sites. Many are niche sites that have smaller but more focused job seekers. It also makes it possible to post your job ads on social media and your website and have them run through ZipRecruiter. (Learn how ZipRecruiter fares against LinkedIn.)
• Email outreach: It is also proactive in that it sends job alerts to interested job seekers, like Indeed. This means that when you post a new job ad, it gets sent to potential applicants via newsletter. If you purchase a traffic boost, you also get better placement there and on the job board. (Learn how ZipRecruiter compares to Indeed.)
• Machine learning: As you rate candidates and resumes on the app, ZipRecruiter’s AI takes that information into account and changes its algorithms to bring you better candidates. Only Indeed also has an AI that learns from your preferences to supply you with better candidates. Most depend on your search parameters.
• ATS Integrations: While ZipRecruiter does not have a strong applicant tracking system, it does integrate with a multitude of ATS software. Most of the others on our list have limited integrations in general.

Applicant Pro does not have a free plan nor does it mention a free trial. The pricing is custom, so you must call for a quote. However, we were able to get a range of pricing, and it is competitive with others on our list, especially when considering the dedicated support you get with ApplicantPro.

ApplicantPro offers several collaboration tools, including the ability to see where a team member is in the application. (Source: ApplicantPro)

• Recruitment marketing: Rather than a shotgun job posting that you’ll find with others on our list, ApplicantPro offers a dedicated recruiting strategist that analyzes where your ideal applicant seeks jobs so that you can target your job ad dollars to the most effective spots. If you are using multiple paid job sites, this could save you money and effort. (Recruitee uses an AI to make these recommendations.)
• Job boards: ApplicantPro posts to over 4,000 job boards (paid and free) and social media, and lets you gather recommendations in-house. This is more than most on our list.
• Custom job ads: Experts at ApplicantPro will write three job ads for you, optimizing recruiting strategies. The rest on our list only offer templates you can customize yourself.
• Background checks and skills tests: Only Indeed and ApplicantPro offer both skills testing (like typing tests) and background checks. (Others require integrations, while Workerly has personality and skills tests.) ApplicantPro goes further with cognitive and behavioral assessments, and puts it all together in an employee profile that gives you insight into the whole person.
• Onboarding: ApplicantPro offers a reference checking system, online new hire paperwork with e-signatures, electronic verification that an employee can legally work, and more. It even checks to see if you qualify for tax credits such as those offered for hiring veterans, Native Americans, or ex-felons, something Zoho Recruit, out #1 choice, does not offer.
• Reports: ApplicantPro has some of the best reporting of those on the list. Not only does it collect data on your hiring pipeline, but also visitor traffic to your website, candidate sources, and more. It collects EEO and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) data, although it may charge extra for this feature.

Recruitee does not have a free plan, but it does offer an 18-day free trial of the Scale plan. Pricing depends on the number of job slots you need each month.

• Launch ($269–$538/month, 10–20 slots): 1,450 job boards, smart campaigns, career sites, hiring management, candidate videos, mobile app, unlimited users and data, talent sourcing, quick evaluations, social media connections, team notes, API access
• Scale ($479–$959/month, 10–20 slots): Launch plus EEO compliance, multilanguage career sites, questionnaires webhoods, workflows, calendar meeting rooms, screening questions, automations, event and job schedulers
• Lead (Custom Pricing): Scale plus external data imports from ATS, tailored onboarding and rollout, regular consultations, dedicated representative, testing sandbox, referrals hub, custom contracts, SSO, business intelligence connector

Email templates are just one of its many customizations. (Source: Recruitee)

• Job boards: Recruitee posts to over 1,250 job boards, some of which must be paid for. This is typical of several products on our list. However, it alone offers discounts for bulk orders. It uses AI to recommend the best job boards. (ApplicantPro has live assistance for this.) Additionally, you can set up social sharing and social media campaigns and create a hosted career site.
• International reach: Recruitee lets you advertise and receive jobs across the world. You can set up career sites and applications in a multitude of languages. Recruitee has four installed—English, German, French, and Dutch—or you can add other languages. While others on our list can handle other languages, Recruitee is the only one with multilanguage career site management.
• Team collaboration: Recruitee makes it easy for hiring teams to work together. First, it allows unlimited users, so you don’t pay for each person who needs to comment on a candidate. It lets you create project flows, post notes, collaborate via in-app chat, and more.
• Customizations: Recruitee has a commendable number of customizations. You can start with a customizable job listing, then create a workflow by starting with its default settings and adding or subtracting as needed. It has customizable templates, editable questionnaires and evaluation forms, and more.
• Mobile app: Recruitee is one of the few on our list that has a mobile app for employers rather than job seekers. It earned 3.8 out of 5 on Android and 4 out of 5 on iOS. Unlike Zoho Recruit, which is more comprehensive, Recruitee focuses on managing to-do lists, following progress, and communicating with candidates.

Vultus Recruit does not have a free plan, but it does have a free trial. Vultus does not say how long the trial is, however.

Vultus differs from the others on our list because its pricing varies by number of users rather than feature set. All Vultus plans come with its complete set of recruiting and applicant tracking features and free configuration.

• Three to five: $18.99/month per user
• Six to 30 users: $14.99/month per user
• 30+ users: $9.99/month per user

It’s easy to post to multiple job sites. (Source: Vultus)

• Job posting: Vultus has its own job board, plus it can help you post to Dice, Monster, TechFetch, and CareerBuilder. With integrations, you can post to other boards. This is not as many job boards as others on our list, but it also allows you to post on social media and with vendors or gather employee referrals.
• Candidate sourcing: Here, Vultus really shines. Vultus parses resumes into searchable data and keeps all the candidate information, from resume and interview notes to email and feedback, all in one place—even if the same candidate applies more than once. While others store information in a single area, not all combine duplicates like this.
• Recruiter business tools: Vultus aids bench sales and recruitment businesses with candidate sourcing tools, profit margin tracking, and more. It also has bulk actions—from letting you import up to 500 resumes at a time for parsing to sending out mass emails via mobile.
• Highly rated by users: While Vultus didn’t have a large number of reviews, users did praise it highly. It has an average of 4.69 out of 5 stars from various user review sites, the highest after Manatal. Users say the interface is clean and easy to use, and that it does an excellent job managing the data. They also described customer support as responsive and reliable.