This article will help you quickly compare and evaluate the best applicant tracking systems (ATS).
Why?
Because applicant management and tracking is a daunting task. As soon as you hit “publish” on any job posting site, the resumes and qualifications from job seekers will start rolling in. It can be overwhelming to keep track of them all, not to mention pick out the most qualified candidates and remember why they stood out.
Some people rely on spreadsheets and email threads as their version of a “free applicant tracking system” but that is never a fully reliable method for narrowing down the candidate pool to find the perfect fit.
A complete recruitment management system may simply collect and organize applications—this is a main function of applicant tracking software—but nowadays the entire system may also include many additional features, including recruitment CRM, talent acquisition, human resource management, talent management, metric-based recruiting, candidate experience, and predictive analytics. Finding the right recruitment software can take care of a lot of administrative overhead.
In this post, I’ll share with you the basics of what applicant tracking software tools do, tell you what you should look for in an application tracker, and highlight a few of the best ones I’ve come across.
The Best Applicant Tracking Systems List
The below recruiting software can help streamline application management, the recruiting process, onboarding, and HR. Here’s a sneak peek:
- Manatal - Best for social media recruitment & AI tools
- Pinpoint - Best for in-house talent acquisition and people teams
- monday.com - Best customizable ATS solution
- Zoho Recruit - Best applicant tracking system for staffing agencies
- Oracle Taleo - Best for large enterprises
- SAP SuccessFactors - Best for data analytics and reporting
- iCIMS Recruit - Best for advertising job postings
- SmartRecruiters - Best for ease of use and user interface
- Workday - Best for integrations
People Managing People is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you click through links on our site — learn more about how we aim to stay transparent.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Applicant Tracking Systems
Here’s a brief description of each of the ATS tracking tools that are featured on this top 10 list.
Manatal - Best for social media recruitment & AI tools
Manatal users can streamline the recruitment process by organizing candidates and process stages onto Kanban boards.
Pros
- Intuitive user interface
- AI-based recommendation of candidates and social media recruitment
- Built-in CRM tools
Cons
- No free plan
- No free trial extension
- No payroll management system
Pinpoint - Best for in-house talent acquisition and people teams
Pinpoint’s dashboard offers an overview of candidates, their status, their scorecards, and more.
Pinpoint is extremely powerful yet easy-to-use with an intuitive design and user experience. Recruiters and hiring managers can be onboarded and get up and running quickly, and additional support from the customer success team is available.
Pinpoint has core ATS and talent CRM features such as job board multiposting and social media advertising, unlimited customizable workflows, automation, interview scheduling, and employee onboarding. Data protection and security features include single sign on, two factor authentication, and tools to help manage compliance with local regulations like the GDPR / CCPA.
Pinpoint offers unique features like a custom careers website, blind screening to help reduce unconscious bias, candidate scorecards for gathering fast and objective hiring manager feedback, and a suite of reporting tools that includes a custom report builder.
Pinpoint offers native integrations with hundreds of other platforms, as well as a Zapier integration that enables integration with over 3,000 other tools.
Pinpoint costs from $500/month when paid annually. They offer personalized demos, as well as an on-demand demo video.
Pros
- Exceptional customer success and support
- Focus on employer brand and candidate experience
- Powerful automation and careful design for ease-of-use
Cons
- Not suitable for most recruitment agencies due to lack of client management features
- No payroll or HRIS features
- Some features only available in the Enterprise tier
monday.com - Best customizable ATS solution
monday.com lets users decide what information they want to see at a glance.
No-code automations make it possible for hiring managers to simply streamline manual tasks. Whether it’s communicating with applicants, emailing team members about updates, or reminding everyone of upcoming deadlines, no-code automations make sure that information never falls through the cracks. When you have notes or comments on an applicant, simply write them on the in-app section of the platform. So, all relevant information is easily accessible.
Keep in mind that the no-code automations kick in at their standard plan ($14/user/month) and above. This is one of their most popular plans, most likely for this reason. You will also get access to third-party integrations, timelines charts, and calendar views. HR teams looking for full ATS functionality will want to start here (skip the freemium).
This platform integrates with G-suite, LinkedIn, Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and dozens of other tools.
monday.com is free for up to 2 users. Paid plans cost from $11/user/month and come with a 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Enterprise-grade security, including HIPAA certification
- Scalable workflows
- Pre-made fully customizable templates
Cons
- Dedicated success manager only for enterprise package
- No built-in payroll
- Too robust for companies under 10 people
Zoho Recruit - Best applicant tracking system for staffing agencies
Zoho Recruit provides breakdowns and reports on open job status, jobs by industry, and more.
Pros
- Reduces drop-off rates through continuous candidate engagement
- Offers intelligent recruitment automation capabilities
- Enhances job opening visibility through candidate sourcing features
Cons
- Various features can be overwhelming
- Mobile app does not allow users to manage hiring process on mobile
- Client and vendor portal access only available in the enterprise edition
Oracle Taleo - Best for large enterprises
Job submissions are laid out to highlight information that makes pre-screening easy.
Oracle Taleo is a complete talent management solution with tools to support everything from onboarding, compensation, performance management, learning management, goals management, and succession planning. This holistic approach is useful for any enterprise hiring team that doesn’t want to have to bounce between different software for different aspects of people management.
Oracle Taleo is limited in its handling of searching and shortlisting candidates during the interview process. A more comprehensive and user-friendly search engine would certainly be a welcome improvement. For shortlisting candidates, it would be nice to have more options for flagging, filtering, or otherwise highlighting your best contenders.
Oracle Taleo integrates with Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Edge, and offers web API integration with other third-party apps. It also, of course, connects seamlessly with other first-party Oracle software like Oracle Analytics, Oracle Content Management, and Oracle ERP.
Oracle Taleo costs from $5000/year and offers a 30-day free trial.
Pros
- Bulk candidate communication
- Excellent employee portal for ongoing training
- Applicant information well laid out
Cons
- Resume parsing missed some info
- More notification/follow-up options needed
- Customer service not as responsive as competitors
SAP SuccessFactors - Best for data analytics and reporting
SAP SuccessFactors can analyze any current or impending staffing shortages.
SAP SuccessFactors has a ton of cool reporting and analytics capabilities if you really dig into it. For example, the ability to create reports like the one in the screenshot above to predict staffing surpluses and shortages for the upcoming years. SAP SuccessFactors can even pinpoint what departments are likely to have openings.
SAP SuccessFactors struggles to unite their recruiting and onboarding systems, which may result in some duplicate administrative work on your part and the part of your incoming new hires. There is definitely room for improvement here as the best ATS software will be seamless from application to onboarding.
SAP SuccessFactors can integrate with third-party applications using the SAP Integration Center. They also have SAP Cloud Platform Integration for complex integrations. Coding knowledge may be required.
SAP SuccessFactors costs from $8/user/month and offers a 30-day free trial.
Pros
- Integrates with other SAP software offerings
- Excellent performance management module
- Good built-in candidate communication tools
Cons
- Third-party integrations can be challenging to connect
- Expansive software means steep learning curve
- Dated and clunky interface
iCIMS Recruit - Best for advertising job postings
Track incoming candidate applications and sort by metrics of interest.
iCIMS Recruit is highly customizable with custom fields ready to accommodate any unique data entry you may require from applicants. Their mobile app also works quite well, which is a bonus for any modern hiring team. iCIMS offers flexible reporting, allowing you to track any metrics that matter, like where critical drop-offs happen most.
iCIMS Recruit can implement your new career page but they won’t actually design it for you; you’ll need a dedicated team on your end to provide the career site mockup, so keep that in mind when you factor in time and costs.
iCIMS Recruit integrates with ADP, Ceridian, Microsoft solutions, and UKG. Third-party integrations may require a connector fee to implement.
iCIMS Recruit costs from $299/month and offers a free demo.
Pros
- Good searching and reporting features
- Easy to learn and use
- Mobile app works well
Cons
- Can’t send offers in bulk
- More custom notifications/alerts needed
- Doesn’t allow uploading of large files
SmartRecruiters - Best for ease of use and user interface
Rank candidates as cold or warm, depending on their potential for hiring.
Just looking at the screenshot above, you can see that SmartRecruit makes ease of use a top priority for their app. Rather than getting into the weeds with picky hiring metrics, they keep it so simple that anyone in the hiring process can understand what’s going on. Applicants get simple 5-star ratings; job boards are linked right to the dashboard; and you can quickly see where your leads are coming from (paid vs organic).
SmartRecruit’s next step should be to improve the functionality of their mobile app. It’s usable as it is but any tool boasting superior usability would be wise to make sure smart device support is at the forefront of their roadmap. For example, being able to schedule an interview right from the mobile app would be an awesome update.
SmartRecruit integrates with 350+ pre-integrated recruitment solutions and 200+ job boards.
SmartRecruit costs from $10,000/year. They also offer a freemium product, SmartStart, for organizations of up to 250 employees hiring fewer than 10 roles at a time.
Pros
- Simple grading/rating system
- Easy referral system
- Can template email comms within the app
Cons
- Mobile version is limited
- No Indeed sponsored jobs support
- Two-way integrations sometimes jumble data
Workday - Best for integrations
Profile your team, talent by region, and average compensation metrics.
Workday has a ton of first-party offerings to extend your HCM stack without leaving their platform. You can access tools for finance management, enterprise planning, payroll systems, project management, and resource tracking. If that doesn’t do it for you, Workday can connect with over a hundred of third-party apps for additional functionality.
Workday’s language translation feature doesn’t work on any custom data fields you might have added; they will have to be manually translated and updated. This is something for multi-language teams to keep in mind, as it requires one extra step.
Workday integrates with Adobe, ADP, Amazon Business, Box, Checkr, DocuSign, Equifax, Google Cloud, HackerRank, HireRite, Hiretual, Indeed, Informatica, Intuit, Jitterbit, LinkedIn, Microsoft Platforms, Okta, Salesforce, SkillSurvey, Textio, Udemy for Business, and dozens of other apps.
Workday costs from $100/user/year and offers a 30-day free trial.
Pros
- Upcoming and outstanding to-do notifications
- User-friendly email-like task/alert inbox
- Good in-app collaborative feedback system
Cons
- In-app search engine needs improvement
- No auto-save on certain key pages
- Steeper learning curve
Best Applicant Tracking System Summary
Other Applicant Tracking Systems
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top applicant tracking systems list. If you need additional suggestions, check these out.
- Workable – Best for customization according to specific needs
- JazzHR – Best for small businesses
- Bullhorn – Best for combination CRM and ATS solutions
- Greenhouse – Best for automating recruiting and hiring tasks
- Jobvite – Best customer service satisfaction
- Ascendify – Best gamified hiring processes
- Yello – Best for career fair events
- Avature – Best for recruiter training
- Zenefits – Best syncing to benefits and payroll
- Namely – Best custom job workflows
- Ultimate Software – Best employee sentiment tools
- Beamery – Best easy-to-use CMS
- Hiretual – Best AI-powered candidate search platform
- BambooHR – Best cross-department communication hub
- Symphony Talent – Best recruitment marketing platform
- Freshworks Freshteam – Best Facebook job sourcing
- Breezy – Best automated assessments and questionnaires
- Lever – Best candidate/customer portal
- MyRecruitment Platform – Best free ATS for startups
- Collage – Best digital offers letters with e-signature
- Smashfly – Best career site with programmatic advertising
- Hiring Room – Best for multilingual applicant tracking.
ATS System FAQ
If you’re looking into ATS software for the first time, start here with these common questions.
What is ATS?
ATS stands for “applicant tracking system”, which is a digital tool that assists with collection, sorting, and analysis of online job submissions. Using an ATS is a way to lessen the administrative burden of the recruitment process and the hiring process.
How do applicant tracking systems work?
Applicant tracking systems manage the process of filling an open job role by either aggregating data from third-party sources (like Indeed and Yello) or platforming all of those tasks within the ATS tool itself.
An ATS tool may encompass all or just a few of the following processes: job posting, resume parsing and collection, qualification analysis, referral programs, interview scheduling, HR, CRM, onboarding, and so on.
What Do You Think About These Applicant Tracking Systems?
Have you tried out any of the applicant tracking systems listed above? Let us know in the comments what you look for, and which features you’ve found most useful in your work.
Make sure to subscribe to our People Managing People newsletter for all the latest on tools and best practices in the world of managing people.
Need expert help finding the right Applicant Tracking Software?
We’ve partnered with the software comparison portal Crozdesk.com to help you find the right solution. Crozdesk’s Applicant Tracking Software advisors can give you independent advice and shortlist software products that best fit your specific needs. Our partnership gives you free access to their tailored software selection advice and community negotiated discounts, taking the hassle out of the research process.
It takes just a minute to submit your requirements and they will give you a call at no cost or commitment. You’ll get custom product shortlists covering the top solutions that best fit your specific needs from their team of software experts (via phone or email) and they can even connect you to your choice of the selected vendors. To get started, please submit the form below:
