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Effective hiring is built on speed, efficiency, and ensuring a great candidate experience from start to finish—all things that the right recruitment software can help with.

There are solutions available to give organizations of all sizes a competitive advantage at every stage of the recruitment process, from showcasing your employer brand to negotiating the offer.

To help you find the best solution for you, I've drawn from my experience using these tools to put together this list of the top recruiting software and included tips and guidance for narrowing down your selection.

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As HR professionals ourselves, we know how critical and difficult it is to make the right decision when selecting software, so we invest in deep research to help our audience make better software purchasing decisions.

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Best Recruiting Software: Pricing Comparison Chart

This comparison chart summarizes pricing details for my top recruitment software selections to help you find the best software for your budget and business needs.

Best Recruiting Software Reviews

Here are my detailed summaries of the best recruiting software that made it into my top 10 list, including notes on why I picked them. Each review offers a detailed look at the key features, pros & cons, software integrations, and ideal use cases of each system to help you simplify your selection process and find the best tool for you.

Best for a full-feature mobile app

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.3/5

Greenhouse's modern recruiting software was designed to help organizations and staffing agencies eliminate chaotic and biased hiring practices and build inclusive, higher-performing teams. Their software development team is well-versed in recruiting best practices, so much that they even published a book on the subject. Their software is also used by over 4,000 companies and counting, including big names like Hubspot, Squarespace, and Wayfair.

Why I picked Greenhouse: Greenhouse lets you create a customized interview scorecard, ensuring that all recruiters score applicants uniformly. You can track, measure, and report on your company's recruitment process to generate OKRs and KPIs that you can use for future tweaks or large-scale initiatives. You can also use Greenhouse to create custom candidate surveys and receive valuable feedback to improve your hiring process.

Greenhouse Standout Features & Integrations:

One of Greenhouse's standout features is their mobile app for iOS and Android devices which covers a wide assortment of functionalities. Key features include summaries of open jobs, stages & candidates; application review and in-app approval processes; mobile interview prep kits, which include job details, interview questions & candidate scorecards; candidate profiles with activity feed, resume, attachments & submitted scorecards; and an interview dashboard that summarizes upcoming interviews and outstanding scorecards.

Integrations are available natively with 400+ software systems, including BambooHR, Bob, Calendly, Checkr, Deel, Gem, Google Meet, LinkedIn, Microsoft Teams, Real Links, and many others. They also have an open API to support any other custom integrations you may need.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • All packages include a robust customer onboarding implementation plan
  • Includes tools to track diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) metrics and mitigate unconscious bias
  • Their Essential (basic level) package offers good value for small businesses

Cons:

  • Business intelligence tools are only available in their top-tier paid plan
  • Pricing details are not transparent

Best for in-house talent acquisition and HR teams

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.7/5

Pinpoint is an applicant tracking system designed for internal talent acquisition and people teams rather than recruitment agencies.

Why I picked Pinpoint: Pinpoint is extremely powerful yet easy-to-use with an intuitive design and user experience. Recruiters and hiring managers can get up and running with their software quickly, or request additional help from their customer support team as needed. Unlimited support by live chat, phone, or email is included in all their paid plans.

Pinpoint Standout Features & Integrations:

Standout features that make Pinpoint unique include blind screening to help reduce unconscious bias, candidate scorecards for gathering fast and objective hiring manager feedback, and a suite of reporting tools including a custom report builder. They also offer access for an unlimited number of users, since their software isn't priced per user.

Pinpoint's recruiting software also includes core ATS and recruitment CRM features like job board multi-posting and social media advertising, a custom careers website, 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.

Integrations are available natively with hundreds of other platforms. Plus Pinpoint has a Zapier integration that enables integration with over 3,000 other tools.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Hired candidates can sign their offer letters with digital e-signatures
  • Multilingual capabilities are available in their top-tier plan
  • Blind recruitment tools available in every plan

Cons:

  • Onboarding tools are an optional add-on
  • May be too expensive for small recruiting teams

Best for recruiting tools within a full HRIS suite

  • 7-day free trial
  • From $6.19/user/month (billed annually)
Visit Website
Rating: 4.4/5

BambooHR is an all-in-one HR platform that can handle everything from recruiting candidates to employee onboarding to compensation tracking to staff satisfaction surveys.

Why I picked BambooHR: Their system can scale from a basic recruiting solution to a full HRIS suite (at an additional cost) with full-picture support for the entire employee lifecycle. Their recruiting solution unlocks its best features (onboarding, training tracking, ATS) with their advantage subscription tier, which tends to land in the $8-9/user/month range.

You can pay to unlock everything from time tracking and payroll tools to employee engagement and performance reviews. Even if you don’t think you’ll need those things now, BambooHR can put you in a position where feature scalability is incredibly easy in the future.

BambooHR Standout Features & Integrations:

One of Bamboo HR's standout features includes its reporting feature that comes with 49 built-in reports and customizable dashboards you can use to make data-driven decisions and help make HR a more strategic partner of the business.

BambooHR doesn’t partner with as many job boards as some of the others on this list. If you are going for quality over quantity, they tend to do a good job. However, if you want a broader or more creative/niche reach, then you might find BambooHR lacking somewhat. This can easily be overcome through additional copy-and-pasting on your part, it’ll just take a bit more time.

Integrations include Northpass, Lucidchart, GoodHire, Okta, Lattice, Greenhouse Software, 15Five, JazzHR, Netsuite, Slack, Swipeclock, BreezyHR, and a growing list of other options through their apps marketplace, which unlocks with their mid-level subscription tier. You can also connect to hundreds more using a paid account through Zapier.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Offer letters with e-signature signing capabilities
  • Affordable for small businesses
  • Smooth workflow between hiring and onboarding

Cons:

  • Not a recruiting-first system
  • Only for North American businesses

Best for modern, text-based recruiting

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.6/5

ClearCompany’s easy-to-use recruiting software is designed to give hiring teams the tools they need to rapidly attract and hire the right talent. Their software has empowered thousands of companies to source, screen, hire, and onboard A-level talent, engage their teams, and use strategic insights to keep their recruiting competitive.

Their software is best suited for companies based in the U.S. and Canada.

Why I picked ClearCompany: I chose ClearCompany because of their integrated text recruiting suite called ClearText. ClearText helps recruiters connect with candidates easily via mobile devices, which is the preferred method for communicating with most candidates these days. Features within this modern module include Text-to-Apply, 1-on-1 or bulk texting, and text-specific recruiting templates. You can also create mobile-friendly interview packets and screen applicants using their mobile app.

ClearCompany Standout Features & Integrations:

Other features that make ClearCompany stand out include AI-assisted job descriptions and automation workflows for interview scheduling and candidate screening & grading. They also offer additional modules for related processes like employee onboarding, performance management, employee engagement, and analytics, making them a very well-rounded piece of HR software.

Integrations are available with 100+ software tools for skill assessment tests, background checks, calendars, job postings, payroll, benefits, video conferencing, and single sign-on (SSO).

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Integration with LinkedIn Recruiter allows candidates to apply without leaving LinkedIn
  • Referral Management feature supports and tracks internal employee referrals
  • Easy to build talent pools and stay connected with potential candidates long term

Cons:

  • Geared towards sourcing candidates within North America
  • Pricing details are not transparent

Best for sourcing qualified passive candidates using AI

  • 15-day free trial + free demo
  • From $169/month, with up to 20 seats
Visit Website
Rating: 4.6/5

Launched in 2012, Workable has amassed over 27,000 customers who leverage the recruiting software for candidate sourcing, applicant evaluation, and automated HR workflows. Current users include Forbes, Soho House, Sephora, and Joey Restaurants.

Why I picked Workable: I included Workable in this list because they maintain a database of over 160 million job seekers. Each time you post a new position, their software uses its AI-based sourcing engine to automatically provide you with a list of 50 qualified candidates, helping you speed up your hiring process significantly. The platform also enables you to share your job on 200+ job sites, so you can increase your reach.

Workable Standout Features & Integrations:

One of Workable's standout features is its passive candidate search functionality. It crawls social media platforms and creates detailed candidate profiles that include email addresses and social links, so you can contact highly skilled individuals directly. In addition, their automation features make it ideal for businesses trying to source the best candidates with specific skill sets, such as those operating in tech or SaaS. 

Integrations are available natively with numerous other software systems, including ADP Marketplace, BambooHR, Checkr, Facebook, G Suite, Glassdoor, HRCloud, Indeed, LinkedIn, Microsoft platforms, Monster, Namely, Oracle HCM, RightHire, Sapling, Stack Overflow Talent, Workday, and many other options. They also have an open API to support any additional custom integrations you may need.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Includes robust onboarding features including workflows, an org chart, and an employee directory
  • Custom workflows are easy to set up
  • Includes thousands of hiring templates to save you time

Cons:

  • Requisition forms could be more customizable for different types of hiring needs
  • Job requisition forms require location field data - a potential issue for wholly remote organizations

Best ATS & CRM for staffing and recruiting firms

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.6/5

Tracker is a recruitment and staffing software that acts as a combined ATS and CRM. The tool is designed to help staffing and recruiting firms manage and optimize their candidate, client, marketing, and operational processes.

Why I picked Tracker: I included Tracker in this list because of its dual purpose as an ATS and CRM system, which makes it a great choice for recruiting firms and staffing agencies that have a heavy customer relations focus. Tracker's back office functions cover client onboarding, assignment management, sales & marketing, and accounting. Plus, they have an integrated vendor management system (VMS) that helps teams proactively source talent 24/7 thanks to their rules-based parsing engine and auto-match technology.

Tracker Standout Features & Integrations:

Features include their AI-powered candidate assessment and sourcing tool that uses data such as a candidate’s past success in similar roles, their fit with a specific role, and even feedback from people who’ve worked with them before. This, combined with automated lead nurturing, will help ensure you have a healthy recruitment and sales pipeline.

Other features include the ability to set up custom candidate portals, dashboards, workflows, and reports easily thanks to their user-friendly interface. Plus, Tracker also offers tools like resume parsing to remove resume formatting and help eliminate manual data entry.

Integrations include a wide variety of job boards, as well as third-party tools like Outlook, Gmail, Google Chrome, LinkedIn, Office 365, and QuickBooks through their RESTFul API. You can also connect Tracker to 30+ other software solutions using their Zapier API integration.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Highly regarded customer support and success team
  • Ability to customize views, fields, workflows, and more
  • Intuitive, easy-to-use interface

Cons:

  • No built-in payroll, but integration with Quickbooks and others is offered
  • No background check integration

Best recruitment software for staffing agencies

  • 15-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $25/user/month (billed annually)
Visit Website
Rating: 4.4/5

Tools from the Zoho suite are used by over 60 million users around the globe, including teams from Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, KPMG, and HP. Zoho Recruit is their answer to recruitment management software for corporations, staffing agencies, and temp workforces, but it also works for in-house talent acquisition teams too.

Why I picked Zoho Recruit: I included this Zoho Recruit because they offer a sliding scale of customizations and integrations that can really expand what you're able to offer your clients. Additionally, they have staffing tools for temp workers specifically, like a jobs-vs-temps report, flexible timesheet approvals, and detailed scheduling calendars.

Another reason I chose them is that even their basic free forever plan includes candidate management, email templates, job board connections, and interview scheduling.

Zoho Recruit Standout Features & Integrations:

Other features that stand out in include their instant AI-based candidate matching tools and several collaboration features that help professional recruiters engage more effectively with their clients. For example, you can share your candidate shortlist with your clients through the applicant tracking portal, then empower them to leave comments and highlight their favourite candidates who they'd like to proceed with for the next stage. The product also includes a full-featured mobile app for Android and iOS devices that makes SMS communication with candidates easier.

Integrations are available with 45+ other Zoho tools for CRM, finance, marketing, IT, and other departments. Zoho also integrates with third-party apps like Slack, G-Suite, Outlook, Checkr, Mailchimp, ResumeLibrary.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Twilio, Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, DropBox, and a whole host of others. You can also access hundreds more through a paid plan with Zapier.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • An add-on is available for live and one-way video interviewing capabilities
  • Includes comprehensive sourcing reports so you can evaluate your recruitment KPIs
  • You can post new positions on 75+ job boards with one click

Cons:

  • Customer support is only available during standard business hours (8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday)
  • Duplicating candidate assessments requires a lot of copying and pasting

Best all-in-one solution for recruitment agencies

  • Free trial available
  • From $84/user/month
Visit Website
Rating: 4.8/5

Recruit CRM is a cloud-based recruiting software that combines the capabilities of an applicant tracking system (ATS) and customer relationship management (CRM) platform. It provides an end-to-end solution for executive search firms and recruitment agencies to manage client and candidate relationships.

Why I picked Recruit CRM: The easy-to-use interface helps firms manage their recruiting operations, candidate sourcing, day-to-day activities, and client database. Recruit CRM also allows recruiting teams to keep track of job vacancies, hiring status, applicant data, and notifications throughout their candidate pipeline. Users also can rely on a 24/7 support team to assist with platform utilization.

Recruit CRM Standout Features & Integrations:

Recruit CRM's standout features revolve around specific recruitment agency needs. These include data visualization, invoice management, team collaboration, Kanban workflows, and a mobile app for on-the-go recruiting. Their software also allows white-labeling, which means that recruiting agencies can personalize their job application forms and their hiring and sales pipelines. You can also add your company logos and digital signatures to invoices easily.

The resume parser enables recruiting teams to instantly convert a PDF or Word file into a potential candidate profile within just seconds. An advanced search function is also available, with Boolean + Filter search, which searches for keywords in both fields as well as in resume files. Their hotlists and talent pools feature allows agents to tag candidates with similarities in several aspects, including job positions, skill sets, and even geographical radius.

Integrations with popular software systems are available by connecting Recruit CRM to a paid Zapier account.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Includes a robust reporting & analytics suite
  • Includes powerful AI features like resume parsing, email sequencing, and candidate matching
  • Provides a powerful Chrome extension
  • Dashboards are easy to customize
  • Designed to simplify the process of recruiting for multiple clients

Cons:

  • Service Level Agreement (SLA) feature is limited to their Enterprise plan
  • You need to purchase calling credits separately to make calls within the system (and access call recording)

Best for social media recruitment

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $15/user/month
Visit Website
Rating: 4.9/5

Manatal is an award-winning recruitment and applicant tracking software solution that connects with thousands of popular and niche job posting channels from paid and unpaid sources. Their software is used in over 90 countries and includes sophisticated features like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

Why I picked Manatal: Manatal offers advanced social media recruitment tools like a Chrome extension for importing LinkedIn profiles and simple job post social sharing directly from your career page to platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Line. Their user interface is also simple to follow, meaning little to no training is required for you to get up and running with their system fast.

Manatal Standout Features & Integrations:

Standout features for Manatal include their intelligent candidate sourcing and AI-powered recommendations. These features work in tandem to help you sift through your stacks of candidate data, with the system automatically picking out candidates who check the most boxes. To make this feature the most effective, you can use customizable fields and search criteria for the AI engine to use in its algorithm, giving more weight to whatever factors you deem most important for each role, be it specific skills, work experience, academic background, or any other requirements.

Manatal also has a handy duplicate monitoring system and a merge profiles option in case you receive identical applications from two different sources.

Integrations are available with Facebook, Gmail, G Suite, Line, LinkedIn, Microsoft Outlook, Office 365, Wechat, and WhatsApp. Zapier integration and API access are available on their custom plan subscription.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Candidate sourcing tool draws from 2,500+ job platforms
  • Includes task tracking and team collaboration tools
  • You can create customizable career landing pages with embedded application forms

Cons:

  • Text messaging & SMS recruitment features only available in their top-level plan
  • No option to pay month-by-month

Best for multi-tiered video interviewing

  • Free demo available
  • Price upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.8/5

VidCruiter’s applicant tracking system is set up for high-volume recruiting, making it a great choice for enterprise organizations or small teams with big hiring goals.

Why I picked VidCruiter: The platform is user friendly and easy to navigate. You can customize it to fit your specific hiring process, whether you're a small business or a large corporation.

But what really makes VidCruiter stand out are its features. The video interviewing tool, for example, is a game-changer. It allows you to conduct live or pre-recorded interviews, which is a time saver. Plus, it's got a great feature that enables you to rate and comment on candidates' responses, making it easier to compare and evaluate them.

VidCruiter Standout Features & Integrations

Features include the ability to reach candidates on the go via text, and several helpful collaborative hiring tools. 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.

The platform also 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.

Integrations include Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and iCloud. They also have integrations with other specialized programs for skills testing, background checks, and some HRIS systems too.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Customizable interview templates
  • Candidate self-scheduling
  • Thorough customer support

Cons:

  • No free trial
  • Tool commands can be complicated

Other Recruitment Software Options

Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best recruitment software list. If you need additional suggestions for a recruitment management system, these are also worth checking out:

  1. PowerToFly

    For a focus on diversity and inclusion

  2. Gem

    For nurturing candidates through the recruitment process

  3. myInterview

    For AI-powered candidate screening

  4. Recruitee

    For collaborative hiring

  5. JazzHR

    For small businesses and startups

  6. Factorial

    For customizable recruitment processes

  7. Sage HR

    For custom application scorecards

  8. TalentReef

    For hiring and retaining hourly workers

  9. Jobvite

    For AI-powered workflow automations

  10. Recooty

    Recruitment software for ease of use

  11. Wild Noodle

    For assessing and hiring programming professionals

  12. Arcoro

    For construction companies

  13. Journeyfront

    For data-driven hiring accuracy

  14. Haystack Pro

    For video-forward recruitment strategies

  15. Klimb.io

    For building a career site with a chatbot

  16. TestGorilla

    For pre-employment testing and skill-based assessments

  17. Vincere

    Recruiting agency software with integrated CRM features

  18. PeopleStrong Alt Recruit

    Recruiting software for enterprise organizations

  19. Deel

    For global agency-sourced hiring

  20. monday.com

    For customizability and scalability

  21. hireEZ

    For outbound recruiting with access to 800+ million candidates

  22. WorkBright

    For intelligent talent spotting

  23. AvaHR

    Recruiting software for service-based small businesses

  24. Teamtailor

    For end-to-end process management

  25. Mitratech Trakstar

    For recruitment benchmarking data and hiring analytics

  26. Findem

    For deep candidate sourcing tools for hard-to-fill niche roles

  27. Paycor

    For sourcing, recruiting, and onboarding in one

  28. Unnanu Hire

    For access to a pre-populated talent database

  29. Bullhorn

    For a built-in career portal and a recruitment CRM

  30. Freshteam

    For interview scheduling automation

Selection Criteria for Recruiting Software

Selecting the right recruiting software involves carefully evaluating how well the software will meet your specific needs to help you improve your recruiting process.

My approach to choosing the best recruiting software is based on my personal experience and extensive research into how these software systems address the needs, pain points, and goals of recruiters and hiring teams in real, day-to-day scenarios.

My Expertise and Experience in Recruiting Tech

In the past, I spent years sorting through stacks of candidate data and organizing applications to help hiring managers decide who to interview. As a team, we hired easily 100+ candidates per year, for numerous technical positions.

To create this list, I put myself back into my old recruiting shoes, to add more expertise to my assessment.

Using my experience as a guide, I was able to recall all the key features I found useful back when I was dealing with large volumes of job applications myself.

My Evaluation Process for Recruiting Tools

To create this list, I started by reviewing recent recruitment software market data to compile a long list of the most popular recruitment software systems out there.

Next, drawing on my personal recruiting experience, I dug into each recruiting software system further, evaluating the core functionalities and key features of each in detail.

To make my final selections, I then compared my top choices using the specific criteria below to see how each recruiting platform compared to the next one.

Here's a summary of the main points I assessed:

Core Recruiting Software Functionalities (25% of total score): For a recruitment system to land a place in my initial list, it needed to fulfill the following basic functionalities to start:

  • Job posting tools to help you advertise positions across multiple platforms
  • Either an integrated applicant tracking system (ATS), a candidate relationship management (CRM) database, or a customizable dashboard where you can track job applications for your open positions
  • Candidate screening tools, including side-by-side comparisons, skill-based comparisons, and resume screening to speed up candidate selection
  • Interview scheduling tools to automate the booking process
  • Collaboration tools to make it easier for internal teams to discuss hiring decisions as a group
  • Tools to help you develop and host a career site on your company website

Additional Standout Features (25% of total score): This portion of my evaluation focuses on innovative and unique features that set a tool apart from its competitors. Software that offers cutting-edge technology or solves specific challenges scores higher.

  • Workflow Automation Tools: Workflow automation tools help you work more efficiently by reducing tedious and time-consuming tasks such as sending out personalized emails in bulk, scheduling interviews, requesting reference check details, or following up on incomplete tasks such as skill tests or assignments. They are a crucial feature for teams managing high-volume hiring needs.
  • Time-saving Software Integrations: Integrations with other software systems will improve your overall productivity and help you work more efficiently. That's why I selected recruitment software that offers native integrations with many popular software systems. Key integrations to verify are email providers, digital calendars, human resources information systems (HRIS), and skill assessment platforms.
  • Mobile-optimized Recruiting Features: Since 89% of job seekers use their mobile devices to search for open positions, it's crucial to make your job openings mobile-friendly. Mobile accessibility is even more important if you're sourcing candidates for an industry with workers who are often mobile, field-based, or deskless. Key features to look for include:
    • apps for Android and iOS mobile devices
    • mobile-friendly job postings
    • the option to communicate directly with candidates via text messages
    • text-based communication templates
    • mobile-friendly interview packets and skill assessment tests

Usability (10% of total score): Usability testing focuses on the software’s interface design, ease of navigation, and overall user experience, including mobile app usability. Tools that provide intuitive, clean interfaces with minimal learning curves will be used more and score higher here.

  • The software should have a user interface that simplifies complex processes like interview scheduling using drag-and-drop tools.
  • Customizable dashboards and other visualization aids such as color-coding, status flags, and recruiting pipelines in a Kanban-style format are also helpful.

These simple features help you quickly digest your candidate data at a glance, without needing to open each record to see the status.

Onboarding (10% of total score): This criteria evaluates how quick and efficient the customer onboarding process is for new users. Factors that influence this include the availability and quality of training materials, the simplity of the setup process, and any other available resources for new users.

  • It should be quick and easy for recruiters to start using the software. This includes how easy it is to import existing candidate data into the new system to minimize transition time.
  • The software provider should offer comprehensive onboarding resources, including training videos, product tours, and interactive tutorials.
  • Evaluating whether or not the software provider offers a dedicated customer success representative for a more personalized onboarding process.

Customer Support (10% of total score): This assessment criteria considers the availability of customer support, as well as their responsiveness. Software with multiple support channels (such as email, phone, and live chat) are favored here.

  • An assessment of post-implementation customer support availability.
  • Reviewing what self-service support resources are available, such as a customer-facing knowledge base, wiki, or FAQs page to help troubleshoot issues.
  • Considering whether the software vendor has an active user community or forum for peer-level assistance and advice.

Value for Price (10% of total score): To score the value of each software, we compare the tool's pricing structure to its feature set, considering different team sizes and needs. Software that offers transparent, flexible pricing models with a strong feature-to-cost ratio if rated favorably.

  • The availability of free trials or demo versions to do a test run on the software before purchasing.
  • Transparent pricing models that clearly explain which features are included.
  • Pricing plans that cater to different business sizes, from small businesses up to enterprise-level needs.

Customer Reviews (10% of total score): We review customer feedback from various sources to analyze user satisfaction, usability, and customer support. Software with positive testimonials and consistently high ratings score higher in this category.

  • We analyze feedback from current and past users to identify common issues or points of praise and gauge user satisfaction levels.
  • We consider overall rating trends to gain a consensus on each software's reliability and performance over time.

Using this comprehensive criteria framework helped me identify recruiting platforms that stand out against others in the market thanks to their innovative features, user-friendly design, effective support, and overall value.

How to Choose Recruiting Software

Recruiting software can solve many different challenges and improve numerous workflows. To help you figure out which recruiting software best fits your needs, you need to pinpoint your key users and document their specific challenges first.

As you work through your own unique recruiting software selection process, keep the following points in mind:

  • What problem are you trying to solve? Start by identifying the challenges you're trying to overcome. This will help you clarify the features and functionalities the recruiting software needs to provide. These challenges may include:
    • Expanding the reach of your job postings to reach a wider talent pool,
    • Automating large portions of your recruiting process to reduce administrative burdens for your team,
    • Improving your candidate experience to make the application process less labor-intensive,
    • Empowering candidates with features such as self-scheduling, or
    • Improved team collaboration tools to support group-based hiring.
  • Who are your main users? Consider who will use the software and how many licenses you'll need. Once that's clear, it's also useful to rank the needs of your different users to identify your key priorities for your recruiting software power users, managers, and future candidates, to ensure they're all met.
    • For recruiting software, you'll need to evaluate if it'll just be your talent acquisition specialists, or your entire HR department that needs access.
  • What is your budget? Some recruiting software charges a flat monthly fee while others charge a fee per user. Consider the size of your current hiring team and whether you'll need access for everyone or just key members. This will help you determine your monthly costs upfront.
    • Determining a realistic budget for your new recruiting software up-front is crucial, so you don't waste time considering software that's too expensive.
  • What outcomes are important? Review the capabilities you want to gain or improve, and how you will measure success. Being clear on your desired outcomes upfront is crucial to avoid wasting valuable time. Key outcomes you may want to measure include:
    • Achieving full automation of currently manual tasks,
    • A shorter time-to-hire rate,
    • Improved quality of candidates thanks to increased exposure and more advanced screening tools,
    • Tools that eliminate unconscious bias and monitor for diversity, or
    • Improved team collaboration abilities.
  • Do you require specific software integrations? Clarify whether your new recruiting software will replace existing tools, or need to integrate with them. Important systems to integrate with include HR management systems or onboarding software.
    • Can you reduce your monthly SaaS costs by replacing multiple tools with a consolidated recruiting platform?
    • Are all the integrations you need available, or can they be custom-configured using an API?
  • Does the recruiting system satisfy your technical requirements? Consider the software selection alongside your workflows and delivery methodology. Evaluate what's working well, and any problem areas that need to be addressed.
    • Does the recruiting system offer security features that meet your needs (e.g., two-factor authentication (2FA), etc.)?
    • Does the recruiting system support mobile recruiting through a dedicated mobile app or a mobile-friendly user interface (for both recruiters and candidates)?

Remember, every business is different — don’t assume that a recruitment tool will work for your organization just because it's popular.

How to Implement Recruiting Software

Once you've chosen the winning recruitment software for your needs, now comes the hard part.

You need to develop an implementation plan to integrate the software into your organization.

Step 1: Clean Up Your Data

As you know, the recruiting process produces a hefty amount of data, so a big part of getting ready to implement a new recruiting system is cleaning up your data for eventual migration. You'll need to decide which candidate records, job postings, hiring templates, and other details you want to transfer to your new system.

Be selective, so you don't bog down your new system with information you don't need!

Step 2: Consider the Timing

Most businesses have fluctuations in their recruiting needs and volume throughout the year. It's important to keep this in mind so you can plan to implement the new system during a slower period rather than when your staff are already working at their peak capacity.

Pro Tip

Pro Tip

It’s not always feasible to wait until you’re not busy to implement a new tool, but if you have flexibility with your timing, try to schedule the iPro Tipmplementation and training for a time when your team isn’t already at their workload maximum. Your team members will need some time to get used to the new system before they can use it to its full effect. If they’re trying to do this when they’re already stretched for time, it’s going to be a more stressful process than it needs to be.—Matt Erhard, Managing Partner at Summit Search Group

Step 3: Vet the Integrations Carefully

Integrating the recruitment software with your existing systems, such as your HRIS, payroll software, and background checking systems, is vital for smooth operations. You'll need to address all technical aspects such as data mapping and API connections to information flows smoothly between systems.

“We learned the hard way during our last software implementation that just because a program integrates with your ATS or other tools like Office 365, LinkedIn, etc. doesn’t mean it offers the full range of capabilities you’re looking for.” – Matt Erhard

Step 4: Set up the Software

Most recruiting platforms are cloud-based, meaning they have low IT requirements since you simply log in through a web interface. However, an on-premise recruitment software implementation would involve setting up a server to run it from (this is why most platforms are cloud-based now).

Step 5: Train Your Users

Effective training is key to user adoption. You should offer role-specific training in a variety of formats, including a blend of in-person sessions, online courses, and detailed support documentation. 

Step 6: Run Test Scenarios

Thorough testing of all software features and integrations is essential. Create test scenarios that reflect real-world use cases you've already encountered. This will help you identify and resolve any issues before full deployment.

Step 7: Celebrate the Launch to Promote User Adoption

Once you've ironed out all the wrinkles, you're ready to unleash your new recruiting software for widespread use. That's worth celebrating! To encourage adoption, highlight the software's benefits and provide ongoing support to your different user groups based on their unique needs.

Step 8: Monitor and Evaluate Performance

Set up regular reporting to track key metrics such as time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, and candidate satisfaction. This will help you understand the software's performance and measure your long-term ROI.

To dive a bit deeper, read our step-by-step guide on how to make your recruitment software implementation a success next.

I don’t think this will surprise you, but currently one of the biggest trends impacting recruiting is the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities. Software developers are quickly integrating many AI capabilities into their tech to help modernize their systems.

For recruiting software, specifically, here are some of the key features that now use AI and ML:

  • Candidates Sourcing and Screening: Since AI models are able to handle large volumes of data very quickly, they can be used to quickly scour, categorize, and compare candidate data at scale. This can help recruiting teams immensely by narrowing the number of candidates in their talent pools to only those that are truly the best fit, based on the exact criteria in each job requisition.
  • Reducing Screening Bias: AI models don’t come with any unconscious bias the way human brains, unintentionally, do. This is helpful for recruiting software because a system that’s built on AI will compare candidates based on their skills and other relevant details (e.g., credentials, years of experience, etc.) and will not give any significant weight to other characteristics such as their perceived gender/pronouns, perceived ethnicity based upon their name, or anything else that could lead to discrimination. Most diversity recruiting platforms do run off of AI models for exactly this reason.
  • Candidate Engagement: Conversational AI chatbots can help recruiting teams significantly by communicating back and forth with candidates to answer basic job-related questions. This type of candidate communication is frequent, time-consuming, and also, mundane. That’s why the best recruiting systems are all starting to integrate this type of feature, to reduce administrative burdens for their users.
  • Predictive Models: Sophisticated AI and ML models can help recruiters compare candidates and predict how successful they might be in any given role, based on all the candidate data you have for them in your recruiting system (e.g., previous job history, skills, qualifications, etc.). This allows recruiting teams to make better data-driven decisions, without relying on their gut feeling or intuition, which is the way it’s traditionally been done until now.

If this topic interests you, definitely pop over to my list of the best AI recruiting software to see how you can start leveraging AI capabilities to hire more efficiently.

It's also important to regularly audit any hiring software using AI to rank your candidates to ensure there are no biases within the system itself.

Pro Tip

Pro Tip

Using AI for recruiting is growing, but as a candidate, being interviewed by an AI bot might feel impersonal. There’s a balance to strike between tech and the human touch.—Maria Marcakis, Fractional HR Consultant

What is Recruiting Software?

Recruiting software covers a broad category of tools designed to help optimize all phases of the hiring process, including posting jobs, screening candidates, tracking applicants, conducting skill assessments, creating offer letters and onboarding.

This category of HR software is often referred to as applicant tracking systems (ATS) or talent acquisition software, but more sub categories do exist.

In addition to standalone recruiting software, you can often find similar features within HR software suites, too.

Recruiting software can optimize your hiring process using automation and other tools like resume parsing, skill matching, and side-by-side candidate comparisons. These features work together to reduce manual work, making your hiring team more efficient and improving your time-to-hire.

Recruiting software can also improve the quality of your hires and support better data-driven decision-making thanks to advanced screening and filtering capabilities and reporting dashboards.

Features of Recruiting Software

Recruiting the right talent for each role is a complex process that involves multiple stages and people.

Recruiting software can help you efficiently track, screen, and engage with candidates throughout the hiring process and automate your workflows to save you time.

To help you find the best recruiting software for you, here are the most important recruiting software features to look for:

  • Job Posting and Distribution: This feature makes it easy to post job openings to multiple job boards and social media platforms with a single submission. It's useful for maximizing the visibility of your job openings and attracting a diverse pool of candidates.
  • Recruitment Marketing Capabilities: This refers to any tools that allow you to advertise your job openings across a variety of marketing channels, including social media recruiting through popular social media or messaging platforms.
  • Applicant Tracking System (ATS): An ATS automates the collection and organization of candidate applications, helping you to quickly identify the most promising candidates so you can move them forward in your process.
  • Candidate Screening Tools: This includes any sort of internal review and candidate evaluation tools, such as artificial intelligence-powered ranking and sorting for qualified candidates or built-in skill assessment tools.
  • Recruiting Process Automations: Automations can help recruiters cover a lot of ground including candidate communication, tools to schedule interviews, or send reminders about interviews or next steps. Another useful feature is automatic resume parsing, which automatically deconstructs job applications to fit the relevant details into your recruiting database.
  • Video Interviews: Some recruiting software includes integrated video interview software that allows you to host standard two-way video interviews, or one-way videos, where candidates record video answers to pre-loaded questions, allowing recruiters to review them in batches for better efficiency.
  • Integrated Workflows: For recruiting software, it's important to be able to link your candidate data up to other key human resource processes, like your onboarding process. Doing so will provide a smooth user experience for your successful new hires.
  • Reporting and Analytics: Built-in reporting tools can help you analyze your hiring process and track your typical time-to-hire for each of your sourcing channels. These valuable insights can help you optimize your recruitment strategies and improve your overall efficiency.

For a more detailed breakdown of these key features, read What is an ATS? Features, Benefits, and Best Practices for more info.

Benefits of Recruiting Software

Depending on the size of your recruitment outreach, you're likely dealing with a handful of positions that you’re scouting for simultaneously, all with distinct candidate skills and requirements.

On top of that, you have candidates submitting their applications around the clock, vying for your attention and time.

Without the right tools, juggling all that information can be overwhelming. With a good business case for new software and leadership buy-in, you can expect the following benefits once you implement it:

  • Increased Efficiency: Recruiting software automates many of the time-consuming tasks associated with hiring, such as posting job openings and sorting through applications, significantly reducing the time to hire and increasing overall recruitment efficiency.
  • Improved Candidate Quality: Advanced screening and matching algorithms help identify the most suitable candidates for a position and referral tools help encourage current employees to refer people they think would be a good fit.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Many recruiting platforms offer communication and collaboration tools to support collaborative hiring, ensuring all stakeholders can easily share feedback and make cohesive hiring decisions together.
  • Better Candidate Experience: With modern features like automated communications and mobile-friendly application processes, recruiting software provides a smoother experience for candidates. This is worth investing in since a positive application experience can enhance a company's employer brand and attract more top talent to open positions.
  • Data-Driven Decision Making: Comprehensive reporting and analytics tools give organizations valuable insights into their recruitment processes. This data can be used to identify bottlenecks, assess the effectiveness of recruitment channels, and make informed decisions to optimize hiring strategies.

By leveraging the right recruiting software, your talent acquisition staff can save time and resources, improve internal hiring processes, provide a better candidate experience, and gain a competitive edge in the talent marketplace.

Costs & Pricing for Recruiting Software

Recruiting software pricing varies depending on the size and scope of your outreach efforts. Some recruiting software also includes a price per number of job postings, which can work well for smaller teams with lower hiring needs.

In general, the best recruiting tools tend to cost between $15 to $150 per user, per month. Some systems do include a one-time set-up fee too. However, most recruiting software providers are happy to offer you a free demo or free trial so you can get a first-hand feel for their system before signing up.

In addition, some hiring tools, like Zoho Recruit or Recooty, are available for free with limited features such as restrictions on the number of users or active job postings you can have simultaneously.

Plan Comparison Table for Recruiting Software

Plan TypeAverage PriceCommon Features Included
Free$0Limited job postings, basic applicant tracking, email alerts, and limited reporting
Basic$15 - $100 per user, per monthJob posting and distribution, basic applicant tracking, email integration, and simple reporting
Professional$100 - $250 per user, per monthEnhanced ATS features, CRM capabilities, interview scheduling, advanced reporting, and access to a larger job board network
Enterprise$250 - $600+ per user, per monthCustomizable workflows, advanced analytics, dedicated support, integration with HR systems, and unlimited job postings
A breakdown of plan types, costs, and features for recruiting software.

When considering which plan to choose, you should weigh the complexity of your hiring needs against the cost and features of each plan.

The trick is to find the sweet spot where the software provides all the essential features you need to overhaul your recruitment process while still realizing a positive return on your investment.

If your hiring needs are minimal, you may be able to start with a free or basic plan initially. However, there are many reasons why you may want to opt for a more advanced plan, including:

  • Increased Hiring Volume: If your company is experiencing rapid growth, handling numerous applications and candidates manually becomes impractical. Advanced recruiting software can streamline this process with automated workflows and bulk processing features.
  • Need for Enhanced Analytics: Basic plans often lack comprehensive reporting tools. Upgrading allows you to access detailed analytics and insights, helping you make data-driven decisions to improve your hiring process.
  • Improved Candidate Experience: To attract top talent, providing a seamless and professional application process is crucial. Advanced plans offer customizable career pages, automated communication, and a better user interface for applicants.
  • Branding and Customization: If you want your recruitment process to reflect your company's brand, basic plans may be too limited. Upgraded plans often offer extensive customization options to align with your brand identity.
  • Better Support and Training: When you need more personalized support and training, basic plans will fall short. Advanced plans typically offer dedicated support, onboarding assistance, and comprehensive training resources.

Ultimately, it's important to secure a plan that offers the features you require to satisfy your current needs and solve your challenges without exceeding your budget.

New & Noteworthy Product Updates

These tools are constantly evolving, with the best vendors listening to their users to develop genuinely useful new features.

Below I've summarized the most recent release notes and product updates for my top recruiting software recommendations.

2025 Q1 Recruiting Software Updates

Workable

So far this year, Workable has introduced a raft of new hiring-focused updates aimed at enhancing recruitment efficiency and data-driven decision-making.

For example, the scheduled report delivery feature allows users to automate the sending of saved reports to key stakeholders on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis, ensuring timely dissemination of crucial recruitment metrics.

With the LinkedIn profile export enhancement, recruiters can now transfer candidate information from the LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect to Workable with a single click, streamlining the sourcing process and maintaining up-to-date candidate records.

The introduction of automatic signature dates in offer letters eliminates manual date entries by automatically recording signature dates for both candidates and company representatives, reducing errors and expediting the offer process.​

Furthermore, the enhanced disqualifications report provides deeper insights into candidate drop-off points by displaying disqualifications across pipeline stages and detailing rejection reasons, enabling recruiters to refine their hiring strategies.

Workable disqualifications feature.
Workable's new disqualifications analysis feature.

Lastly, the flexible candidate surveys feature allows for the distribution of surveys at any stage of the hiring process, facilitating continuous feedback collection and improving the overall candidate experience.​

Verdict: Hot! These updates significantly enhance Workable's functionality, offering tools that streamline recruitment operations, improve data accuracy, and foster a more engaging candidate journey.​

Greenhouse

In March 2025, Greenhouse introduced several updates designed to improve the flexibility, efficiency, and personalization of its recruiting platform.

The new features aim to streamline tasks for hiring teams and enhance the candidate experience—key areas of focus for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working to scale effectively.

Highlights include the launch of Design Studio, which allows teams to visually customize job boards without engineering help—ideal for SMEs looking to maintain brand consistency.

Greenhouse's new customizable jobs board.
Greenhouse's new customizable jobs board.

Report Builder now features AI-powered filter suggestions, speeding up report creation.

Sourcing Automation campaigns can now include resume-based sentence personalization, making outreach more engaging. Lastly, recruiters and coordinators can now be assigned at the application level, giving more control over workflows.

Verdict: Hot! These updates bring helpful efficiency and customization improvements, especially for smaller teams with limited technical resources. They meaningfully support more agile and branded hiring.

Manatal

​In Q1 2025, Manatal introduced several enhancements to its recruitment platform focusing on integration capabilities, job management, and performance tracking

For example, The Open API search endpoints enhancement allows users to efficiently retrieve data on candidates, jobs, contacts, and organizations, facilitating seamless integration with other systems and enabling more customized workflows.

The addition of the "Planning" job status provides recruiters with the ability to categorize jobs that are in the preparatory stages, enhancing pipeline organization and strategic planning.

Manatal's new job planning feature.
Manatal's new job planning feature.

Lastly, the weekly account summary emails feature delivers automated reports to administrators every Monday, summarizing key recruitment activities and metrics from the previous week, aiding in performance tracking and informed decision-making.​

Verdict: Hot! These updates significantly enhance Manatal's functionality, offering users improved integration, organization, and performance monitoring capabilities within their recruitment processes.

Pinpoint product update notes

​In February 2025, Pinpoint introduced several enhancements aimed at streamlining the hiring process and improving collaboration. These updates include a new Kanban-style 'Board View' for candidate tracking, AI-generated summaries of scorecard feedback, tailored notifications for Recruitment Managers, and simplified tools for agency collaboration.​

The 'Board View' offers a visual representation of candidates' progression through the hiring stages, allowing users to drag and drop candidates between stages or manage multiple candidates simultaneously.

Pinpoints swish new kanban style candidate tracking tool.

Pinpoint AI now also provides concise summaries and sentiment analysis of scorecard feedback, enabling quick assimilation of key insights.

Additionally, Recruitment Managers receive notifications pertinent to their roles, and the platform's agency collaboration features have been refined for more straightforward interaction with external partners.​

These updates enhance user experience by providing intuitive tools that facilitate efficient candidate management and decision-making.

Verdict: Hot! The new updates bring useful enhancements to candidate tracking, feedback analysis, and collaboration, making recruitment more efficient.

Workable product update notes

In early 2025, Workable introduced several recruitment-focused enhancements to improve efficiency and insights in the hiring process.

These updates include automatic signature dates for offer letters, deeper analytics in the Disqualifications report, a new candidate database filter, greater flexibility in sending candidate surveys, and the addition of Workable Assistant, an AI-powered recruiter support tool.

The automatic signature dates feature simplifies offer management by ensuring that offer letters always reflect the correct signing date, reducing manual adjustments.

Further, enhancements to the Disqualifications report provide more granular insights into why candidates are removed from the pipeline, helping recruiters refine their hiring strategies.

Their new candidate database filter makes it easier to search and segment candidates based on specific attributes, improving sourcing efficiency.

Workable's new candidate database filter.

Workable also introduced the ability to send candidate surveys at any stage of the hiring process, allowing teams to gather feedback beyond just post-interview stages.

Lastly, Workable Assistant offers real-time AI-powered guidance, surfacing best practices and recommendations to help recruiters optimize job postings and candidate interactions.

Verdict: Warm! These updates add useful automation and analytics capabilities, particularly for recruiters focused on refining their hiring processes and improving the candidate experience. While not game-changing, they contribute to a smoother, more data-driven recruitment workflow.

Greenhouse product update notes

In February 2025, Greenhouse released several updates to enhance the recruitment process, focusing on efficiency, customization, and data management.

Key updates include:

  • AI-powered interview questions: Leveraging artificial intelligence, this feature generates interview questions based on job descriptions and titles, streamlining the preparation process for recruiters.​
Greenhouse's new AI-powered interview questions.
  • Calculated custom fields and default options: Users can now set default values or create calculated fields using formulas in custom fields, reducing manual data entry and ensuring consistency in offer details.​
  • New filter options in Talent Filtering: Enhanced filtering capabilities allow recruiters to exclude candidates based on specific keywords in resumes and remove those previously rejected for a job, refining candidate searches.​
  • Reject candidates while closing a job: A new prompt ensures that active candidates are systematically rejected when a role is closed, maintaining data integrity and providing closure to applicants.​

Verdict: Hot! These updates significantly enhance the recruitment workflow by introducing AI-driven tools, improving data accuracy, and offering greater customization, thereby streamlining processes and enhancing the candidate experience.

Recruiting Software: FAQ

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about recruiting software, to get you on the right track. Keep reading to find out more about the different types of recruiting software, and the main features and benefits they have to offer.

How can I pick the best recruiting software for my organization?

I know it may seem a little daunting, but helping people select the best software for their needs is one of my specialties. Here’s a framework that I recommend using as you evaluate which recruiting software to invest in:

  1. Make a business case. List out your specific business needs and determine a realistic budget for what you can spend on your new recruiting software.
  2. Identify your current pain points. This is important because it will help you make sure that any new software you’re considering will specifically address these points.
  3. Form an internal implementation team. Two heads (or more) are better than one! You shouldn’t be picking software for your team in a silo. Instead, make sure to involve key stakeholders from every relevant department.
  4. Research your options. That’s where this list can do the heavy lifting for you. And if this list doesn’t have exactly what you’re looking for, pop up to our search field instead. Chances are, we’ve got another top 10 list that does.
  5. Narrow down your list. I recommend narrowing your list down to your top three choices, based on feedback from the team hat will execute your recruitment software implementation.
  6. Request a personalized demo or free trial. This will give you a hands-on experience of what it’s like to use the software and whether it will work for your business needs as you imagined, or not. This step will also make it easier for you to compare the top three systems against each other too.
  7. Make your final selection. Base your final decision on how well each system satisfies your business needs, addresses your pain points, works with your budget, and provides a good user experience. If you want to get really granular, you can even assign each system a score for those four categories to make the comparison process easier.

For more detailed information to support you throughout this process, read How to Make a Business Case for HR Software too.

Are there different types of recruiting software I should consider?

You bet there are, and thankfully we’ve done a lot of the leg work for you already. Here are some other types of recruiting software you may also want to consider, and why:

  • Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are also a core part of the hiring experience. They can collect resumes, parse for skills and keywords, rank candidates, and track communication & updates.
  • Diversity recruiting software is another type of recruiting tool that can help you source top talent from a more diverse pool of candidates. This type of recruiting software is an excellent choice if you’re looking to develop more inclusive hiring practices and improve your diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics.
  • Recruitment marketing software is another subset to consider if you’re hiring for open positions in a very competitive industry. These recruiting platforms include robust tools to help you promote your open jobs far and wide, including through social media, popular talent networks, and career sites. These systems include extra bells and whistles to help you entice candidates to apply, including rich job descriptions.
  • Recruiting CRM software is another worthwhile option to consider if you’re aiming to manage your candidate relationships over a longer time frame. This is often the case for HR teams or staffing agencies recruiting for very specialized, technical positions, since you definitely don’t want to lose sight of any unicorn or needle-in-a-haystack candidates.

Last, but definitely not least, if you’re coming at this from an agency perspective, recruiting agency software is a strong option worth considering too.

Are there any industry-specific recruiting solutions?

Yes, many staffing software solutions cater to specific industries by addressing unique challenges and requirements. For example, healthcare, technology, and construction sectors often use specialized platforms that provide features tailored to their hiring processes, such as compliance checks, skill-specific assessments, and integration with industry-specific job boards. These solutions help streamline the recruitment process by focusing on the nuances of each industry’s workforce needs.

For recruiting within high-compliance industries, including construction or manufacturing, take a closer look at our in-depth review of Arcoro, which offers more than just recruiting features. Or, if you’re looking to hire within a service industry, including retail or restaurants, our in-depth review of TalentReef is another logical next step.

What applicant-facing features provide the best candidate experience?

Creating a positive candidate experience is a crucial component of a successful recruitment process, and it will set your organization apart from your competitors. There are many features that can create a smooth application process for your candidates. Here’s a summary of some key points to consider:

  • Mobile-friendly applications processes: Many candidates will apply directly from their mobile devices, so it’s important that your career page or job posting portal is mobile friendly for smartphones (both iOS and Android) and tablets. Another related features is a “one-click apply” capability that allows candidates to use their existing LinkedIn profile to apply without needing to rehash their personal details in a digital form.
  • Personalized communications: No one wants to receive an obvious templated email, or even worse, and email that says “Thank you for your application, Sir/Madame.” Instead, get yourself set up with templates and automations to make your candidate communications more personalized.
  • Video interviews: Offering the option to provide pre-recorded or live videos helps candidates demonstrate their personalities and feel more engaged in the application process. This is also a must for anyone hiring for remote positions, since you will most likely only interact with your chosen candidates virtually anyway.
  • Digital offer letters: Once you’ve decided on your winning candidate, sending them a digital offer is the way to go. And by digital offer, I don’t just mean an email or a PDF. Many recruiting systems now include document management capabilities (or integrations with document management systems) that allow you to send candidates an electronic document which they can sign using e-signature software. This avoids the need for candidates to print, sign, and scan documents, which absolutely provides a better candidate experience.

How do recruiting platforms handle diversity and inclusion?

Recruiting platforms are increasingly adding features to promote diversity and inclusion, such as anonymized resumes, bias-free job descriptions, and diversity-driven recruitment analytics. These tools aim to mitigate unconscious bias by focusing on candidates’ skills and experiences rather than personal identifiers. Additionally, some platforms offer insights and reports to help organizations track their diversity goals and improve their recruitment strategies accordingly.

If diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a big part of your hiring process, take a closer look at our in-depth review of Pinpoint, which offers numerous features in this area. Or, to cast your net a little wider, we also have a list of the best diversity recruiting software as well.

How can I measure the ROI of recruiting software?

To measure the return on investment (ROI) from implementing new recruitment software, you need to evaluate your tangible and intangible benefits against the total costs. To calculate this for your organization, use the following approach:

  1. Identify costs: Total up all the initial and recurring costs associated with your new software, including the cost of any hardware, monthly subscriptions, installation or maintenance fees, and training for your new staff.
  2. Quantify tangible benefits: Measure the following metrics before and after implementing your software, so you can compare each value:
    1. Time to hire
    2. Cost per hire
    3. Quality of hires
    4. Administrative efficiency
  3. Evaluate intangible benefits: Some aspects of the candidate experience are hard to measure, but candidate surveys or other feedback mechanisms can be helpful for understanding if your candidate experience has improved post-implementation.
  4. Calculate the ROI: Subtract your total costs above from the total benefits, then divide that by your total costs x 100
    1. Example: If your total benefits (cost savings + estimated value of intangible benefits) in one year are $100,000 and the total costs are $40,000, the calculation looks like this:
      1. ($100,000 – $40,000) / $40,000 x 100 = 150%
      2. (Total Benefits – Total Costs) / Total Costs x 100

Keep in mind that measuring ROI from recruiting software is not just about your immediate cost savings. Investing in recruiting software should be viewed as an important pillar of your strategic plan to improve your recruiting capabilities in the long term.

Attending HR staffing workshops can introduce you to cutting-edge recruiting software and how to make the most out of your chosen system.

What metrics can you use to assess the effectiveness of recruiting software?

To assess the effectiveness of recruiting software, you can use the following key metrics:

  • Time to hire
  • Cost per hire
  • Hiring source effectiveness
  • Candidate experience ratings
  • Retention rates.

These metrics help HR professionals understand how well the software streamlines the hiring process, optimizes recruitment spending, attracts quality candidates, and ultimately contributes to long-term employee retention. Monitoring these metrics can guide organizations in refining their recruitment strategies and software choices.

If you’d like to dive deeper into recruiting metrics, this article discusses 10 key recruiting metrics in detail, plus 12 advanced ones.

Can I outsource recruiting?

Yes, you can outsource recruiting for your company. This means hiring an external recruiting agency or recruiter to handle the hiring process for you. They will search for candidates, screen resumes, and conduct interviews on your behalf. Outsourcing can save you time and resources, especially if you don’t have an in-house HR team or need to fill positions quickly. However, it’s important to choose a reliable recruiting partner and communicate your specific hiring needs clearly to ensure you find the right candidates for your company.

 

Additional Recruiting Software Reviews

As you can see, there are a lot of different options to consider when it comes to recruiting solutions. However, your journey doesn't have to end here. In case you're looking for a different style of recruiting software, one of these other lists is sure to have what you're looking for:

Stay In Touch

I hope this list gave you a thorough explanation of what recruiting software has to offer. By leveraging modern recruiting features like AI-sourcing, automation, team collaboration tools, and more, you'll gain hours back in your week, so you can focus on more important portions of your hiring process.

Before you go, I also recommend subscribing to our People Managing People newsletter. You'll stay up-to-date on our latest articles, podcasts, and other resources specially curated for HR professionals.

Kim Behnke
By Kim Behnke

Kim Behnke is an HR Tool Expert & Writer for People Managing People. She draws on her 9 years of human resources experience and her keen eye for systematic processes to support her analyses of the top HR tools on the market. She is passionate about maximizing efficiencies and streamlining workflows to ensure internal systems run smoothly. Kim's HR experience includes recruitment, onboarding, performance management, training and development, policy development and enforcement, and HR analytics. She also has degrees in psychology, writing, publishing, and technical communication, and recently completed a Certified Digital HR Specialist program through the Academy to Innovate HR. When away from her desk, she can usually be found outside tending to her ever-expanding garden.