In my 20+ years in people and culture, I’ve been responsible for every part of the employee lifecycle and worked with a variety of applicant tracking systems (ATS) and other recruitment software.
In this article, I will take you through my pick of the best applicant tracking systems on the market today.
The Best Applicant Tracking Systems List
Here’s a shortlist of the best applicant tracking software I’ll cover in this article, with summaries of each tool below:
VidCruiterBest for high volume recruiting and candidate screening
- Pinpoint
Best for in-house talent acquisition and people teams
- monday.com
Best customizable ATS solution
- Tracker
Best for recruitment and staffing firms
- Manatal
Best for social media recruitment & AI tools
- Eddy
Best for small, local businesses
- Zoho Recruit
Best applicant tracking system for staffing agencies
- Recooty
Best ATS for ease of use
- SAP SuccessFactors
Best for data analytics and reporting
- iCIMS Talent Cloud
Best for advertising job postings
Applicant Tracking Systems: Comparison Criteria
Wondering how I selected the best applicant tracking software for this list? Here’s a summary of my ATS platform evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): A clear and uncluttered user interface makes it easier to organize each step of the recruitment process.
- Usability: ATS platforms must be simple and straightforward to use, without endless clicking or scrolling to access the feature you need.
- Integrations: The best applicant tracking software should integrate with commonly used applications like email programs, social networking sites, and popular job posting boards.
Applicant Tracking Systems: Key Features
Here are a few of the core features you can expect to find in the best applicant tracking systems:
- Talent pools and pipelines: A talent pool is a roster of potential candidates for each position, whereas a talent pipeline is a visualization feature that shows you where each candidate is in the recruitment process.
- Workflow automations: These are automations that take care of menial tasks like sending out interview reminders, following up on references, or sending bulk rejection emails.
- Direct links with job posting sites: Many ATS systems automatically submit new postings to popular job boards as soon as they’re published.
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 ATS tracking tool, including their noteworthy features, pros and cons, screenshots, and pricing details.
VidCruiter - Best for high volume recruiting and candidate screening
Rank candidates and add them to talent pools easily using VidCruiter’s ATS and candidate screening software.
To make it easier to reach candidates on the go, you can even communicate via text, right from VidCruiter’s system. VidCruiter’s system supports collaborative hiring too. Recruiters can share candidate profiles with hiring managers using a secure link, without the manager ever needing to log in. Once top candidates have been determined, recruiting teams can take advantage of their system’s advanced video interviewing capabilities.
To save more time, while also standardizing the interview process, VidCruiter enables structured digital interviews where candidates record answers to pre-set interview questions at their convenience. This reduces hiring biases and also provides a better candidate experience. Beyond that, their platform also includes more advanced screening features such as live video interviews, automated reference checking software, and skills assessment tests.
VidCruiter has direct integrations with popular job board sites such as Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor, and with commonly used calendar programs such as Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and iCloud. They also have integrations with other specialized programs for skills testing, background checks, and some HRIS systems too.
Pricing for VidCruiter is available upon request. A free demo can be requested through their website too.
Pros
- Skills testing software + integrations make it useful for staffing technical positions
- Useful time-saving features like automation, collaborations, and structured video interviews
- Digital signatures are supported
Cons
- Pricing details are not transparent
- Not many existing connections to HRIS or payroll software
Pinpoint - Best for in-house talent acquisition and people teams
Pinpoint's dashboard offers an overview of each qualified candidate, 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
Tracker - Best for recruitment and staffing firms
Visualize recruiting and hiring pipelines on intuitive Kanban boards.
The tool includes features for sourcing candidates, nurturing and matching applicants, and making placements. Tracker also offers tools like resume parsing to help eliminate manual data entry. Also included are tools for sales and client relationship management, marketing and job board integration, back office support, and more.
Users can integrate Tracker with external job boards, as well as set up custom candidate portals, dashboards and reports, and workflows.
Tracker can integrate with a variety of third-party tools.
Tracker costs from $80/user/month. They also offer a free trial.
Pros
- Intuitive, easy-to-use interface
- Ability to customize views, fields, workflows, and more
- Highly regarded local support and success team
Cons
- No background check integration
- No built-in payroll, but integration with Quickbooks and others
Manatal - Best for social media recruitment & AI tools
Manatal users can streamline the recruitment process by organizing candidates and process stages onto Kanban boards.
Manatal’s interface is both practical and intuitive, and as a result, little to no training is required and teams can quickly start leveraging its tools. The platform includes all the standard ATS features such as daily recruitment processing, drag and drop pipelines, compliance tools (i.e. GDPR, CCPA, & PDPA), a full analytics suite, skill bank, candidate and job history, activities management, collaboration tools, a placement management system, and all main functions that relate to applicant and employee information and records.
More innovative features include things like powerful search functions, AI-based recommendations, candidate scoring, and social media recruitment (Linkedin, Facebook, GitHub, and more). These features have proven extremely valuable in streamlining activities like candidate sourcing and screening, as well as in helping leverage large existing candidate databases.
Finally, Manatal includes a complete CRM (customer relationship management) system and an easy-to-use, customizable career page builder so users can start showcasing openings.
Manatal offers an open API and integrations with Linkedin, Gmail, Outlook, Mailchimp, and more.
Manatal costs from $15/user/month (billed annually) and comes with a 14-day free trial.
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
Eddy - Best for small, local businesses
Eddy's drag and drop hiring pipeline and automated stage actions simplify the hiring process.
Eddy offers a base HR package with onboarding, document storage and electronic signatures, employee directory and employee profiles, training tracking, PTO tracking, and time tracking. Their ATS package is offered as an add-on, as is payroll and HR advising. This makes them flexible and scalable, as you only pay for the services you need.
Eddy is great for small businesses because they offer a jack-of-all-trades tool at an affordable price. They also prioritize an ease-of-use UI so that anyone can get up to speed on the platform with minimal training. A lot of their major processes have been distilled into drag-and-drop or point-and-click, so no technical expertise is required.
Eddy costs from $99/month for their HR processes + ATS module and then an additional $8/employee/month on top of that.
Pros
- Super easy to use & intuitive
- Excellent document management system
- Friendly, helpful customer support team
- Training tracking tools are great for onboarding
Cons
- No free trial or freemium plan
- ATS module costs extra
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
Recooty - Best ATS for ease of use
Recooty lets you post jobs to the world's best job boards like Monster, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, & Google for Jobs.
Recooty offers tools like resume parsing to eliminate manual data entry, candidate tracking and management, and workflow process automations. Their ATS solution collects both qualified candidates that have actively applied to your posting as well as passive candidates with relevant qualifications that have been sourced online.
Recooty has a lot of quality-of-life resources for HR professionals, too. For example, they offer a library of free job descriptions that can be copy-pasted and customized when you’re launching your own candidate search. Plus, you can use their welcome poster template to make personalized welcome announcements for new hires by email or social media.
Recooty has built-in Gmail and Calendar integrations to take the pain out of candidate coordination. They are currently working on API documentation so that you will eventually be able to connect and integrate more of your tech stack with their ATS and recruitment platform.
Recooty’s basic plan is free forever for 1 job posting and 1 user. Paid plans costs from $49/month for 10 users/10 active job slots. They offer a 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Clean, intuitive user interface
- Affordable plans for SMBs
- Super easy/fast to launch new postings
- Connects to over 250 job boards
Cons
- Free plan only accommodates 1 posting
- Job listings don’t auto-save as you work
- Can’t add/customize
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 job 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 Talent Cloud - 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 job applicants. Their mobile app also works quite well, which is a bonus for modern hiring teams who need to connect with potential candidates while on the go. iCIMS offers flexible reporting, allowing you to track any metrics that matter, like where critical drop-offs happen most.
iCIMS Talent Cloud 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 Talent Cloud integrates with ADP, Ceridian, Microsoft solutions, UKG, and many other software systems. Third-party integrations may require a connector fee to implement.
iCIMS Talent Cloud 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
Best Applicant Tracking Systems Comparison Chart
Other Applicant Tracking Software
Here are a few more great tools that didn’t make the top applicant tracking systems list:
- 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 – A complete employee lifecycle software with applicant tracking features
- Smashfly – Best career site with programmatic advertising
- Hiring Room – Best for multilingual applicant tracking
What is Applicant Tracking Software?
Applicant tracking software is a type of HR software that assists recruiters and HR teams with tracking candidates progress throughout the hiring process.
An ATS system may include features such as a recruitment CRM, talent acquisition, human resource management, talent management, metric-based recruiting, candidate experience, and predictive analytics. This type of software is often described more generically as recruiting software or talent acquisition software.
How Do Applicant Tracking Systems Work?
Applicant tracking systems manage the process of filling a job opening 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, and onboarding.
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.
If you’re recruiting for a smaller organization, you’ll also find value in our list of the best applicant tracking systems for small businesses too.
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 selecting the right Applicant Tracking Software?
People Managing People has joined forces with the software comparison platform Crozdesk.com to assist you in finding the best tool for your needs. Crozdesk’s Applicant Tracking (ATS) Software advisors can create a personalized shortlist of software solutions with unbiased recommendations to help you identify the solutions that best suit your business’s needs. Through our partnership you get free access to their bespoke software selection advice, removing both time and hassle from the research process.
It only takes a minute to submit your requirements and they will give you a quick call at no cost or commitment. Based on your needs you’ll receive customized software shortlists listing the best-fitting solutions from their team of software advisors (via phone or email). They can even connect you with your selected vendor choices along with community negotiated discounts. To get started, please complete the form below:
