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Pricing is one of the most important factors in choosing any software, especially an ATS (applicant tracking system).
Some vendors provide transparent pricing information on their websites, while others prefer to provide a specialized quote, as companies’ requirements for software may vary.
We’ve developed this pricing guide to detail pricing types, additional costs a company needs to consider and pricing examples from well-known ATS vendors.
What Is an ATS?
Applicant tracking systems (also known as recruiting software) automate many functions of the recruiting and hiring process, including sourcing passive candidates, posting job openings, collecting applications, parsing resumes, communicating with candidates and scheduling interviews. These solution have many benefits for recruiters, such as reduced costs, streamlined hiring cycles, better ability to focus on top candidates and assurance the company stays in compliance.
ATS Pricing Models
Most ATS solutions are deployed in the cloud, however, there are a few vendors that offer on-premise hosting. With cloud-based deployment, the vendor hosts the software, so companies typically pay a monthly or annual subscription fee. With on-premise hosting, the client hosts the data on their own servers and pays for the software upfront. This is also known as perpetual licensing.
There are three common pricing models for ATS solutions:
Pay per recruiter/user – This pricing model charges companies based on the number of employees who have administrative access to the software. These accounts allow users total control to post jobs and view candidate information. Recruiters are the standard users in this pricing model, although some solutions allow access for hiring managers. Most vendors offer pricing tiers that deploy the per-user/per-month strategy and provide different features under each tier.
Pay per position – Some vendors will offer pricing based on the number of open requisitions in a company’s organization. This pricing method typically accepts unlimited applications for each job and allows an unlimited number of users to have access while charging for a capped amount of openings each month. ATS vendors that charge based on open positions are also more likely to focus on posting openings across job boards and have fewer features for screening candidates, such as video interviewing capabilities.
Pay per module – This pricing model only exists for unified HR solutions rather than best-of-breed solutions. It’s offered by vendors that may also provide solutions for onboarding, training and talent management. These vendors often have a complete Human Resource Management Software (HRMS) suite and may not allow their ATS to integrate with other HRMS solutions. In turn, clients must purchase their HRMS and either pay for the whole suite or individual modules. Examples of vendors that offer this pricing model are BambooHR and PDS Vista.
Additional Costs to Consider
Many features or services are included in the original price. However, some vendors may provide others at additional costs, so companies will need to take that into consideration.
Features not included in base price – Some vendors may offer specific features as add-ons, such as onboarding or background checks. That way, companies are only paying for the features they really need.
Implementation – Prices of implementation services vary by vendor and can include access to a dedicated implementation specialist, installation, software customization, data migration and integration to other software (e.g., HRMS systems).
Training – Some vendors may include basic training services for free, but others may offer them at an additional cost, especially if the training is done at the client’s site.
Support – Basic support (e.g., knowledge base, email support) is typically included in the base price. But, some vendors may offer plans that include advanced support, such as priority support or access to a dedicated customer service manager.
ATS Vendor Pricing
Below, we’ve compared pricing for popular applicant tracking systems. Some vendors in the market don’t publicly provide pricing details, so you’ll need to contact them directly for a quote.
ApplicantStack – Companies can purchase either ApplicantStack Recruit or ApplicantStack Onboard as stand-alone products for $105 per month. They can also buy a bundled package of both modules for $150 per month. The price covers a single administrator/recruiter license and five hiring manager licenses. It’s pay-as-you-go, so there are no contracts, and companies can cancel or change plans at any time.
Ascendify – Ascendify charges a license fee based on the number of users in the organization, typically $5,000 per month for mid-size organizations and $10,000 per month for a global, enterprise license. If the client has a contract with a CRM or ATS, Ascendify makes it free to switch by delivering its platform free of licensing fees until the current contract end (up to six months).
Big Biller – Pricing starts at approximately $70 per user per month if paid annually ($89 per user if paid monthly). It covers full access to the ATS and recruiting CRM system, plus training and support.
Breezy HR – There are five pricing plans (billed annually). The Bootstrap plan is a free plan that covers one active job position, access to over 50 job boards, unlimited candidates (only new candidates added within the past 30 days) and users and a branded career site, among other features. The Startup plan ($157 a month) adds on other features, such as unlimited job positions and candidate pools, custom pipelines, background services integration, candidate automations and candidate questionnaires.
The Growth plan ($273 a month) includes all features of the Startup plan, plus automated reference checking, customizable scorecards and interview guides, employee referrals, eSignature, an external recruiter portal, the Hello Messenger feature and multiple recruiting pipelines.
The Business plan ($439 a month) includes the features of the Growth plan, plus multi-path questionnaires, integration with assessment tools and HRMS software, candidate comparisons, candidate nurture campaigns, custom roles, job and offer approvals, and offer management.
The Pro plan adds on even more advanced features, such as a dedicated account manager, advanced reporting, SSL encryption and data import/export For pricing and additional information, please contact Breezy directly for a quote.
CEIPAL ATS – CEIPAL’s monthly subscription pricing starts at $24 per user, per month. Some features are optional, such as unlimited mass emails, auto-populating job parsing and proactive email cleanup.
Crelate– There are four pricing tiers: Professional ($79 per user, per month), Business ($99 per user, per month), Business Plus ($144 per user, per month) and Enterprise (please contact Crelate directly for a price quote). Professional supports an unlimited number of open positions, up to 5 GB of data storage and recruitment marketing. Business boasts up to 15 GB of data storage and advanced features, such as analytics and GDPR compliance tools. Business Plus adds on even more features, such as a client portal, field-level auditing and up to 25 GB of data storage. The highest tier, Enterprise, is intended for companies with custom recruiting needs.
Freshteam – Freshteam has a free plan for companies with up to 50 employees with some basic features, such as a mobile app, up to three published job postings and a recruitment team inbox. Then, there are three paid plans. The Growth plan costs a $71 platform fee per month plus $1.20 per employee, per month and has additional features, such as up to 20 published job postings, a customizable career site and time-off approval workflows. The Pro plan costs a $119 platform fee per month plus $2.40 per employee, per month, and some of its additional features are up to 100 published jobs, social recruiting, onboarding and unlimited holiday calendars. Finally, the Enterprise plan costs a $203 platform fee per month plus $4.80 per employee, per month and adds on custom user roles, unlimited onboarding/offboarding checklists and one-click data export.
HiringThing – HiringThing offers flexible plans that start at $69 per month. All plans includes unlimited users, analytics, keyword matching, integration with background check services, Equal Opportunity Employer and OFCCP data collection, automatic resume parsing, API access, customized confirmation and rejection emails, disclosure statements, secure hosting, secure data storage, and SSL encryption.
JazzHR – Pricing starts at $49 per month for the Hero package, $239 per month for the Plus package and $359 per month for the Pro package. The Hero package includes job posting and syndication for up to three jobs, custom job workflows, email messaging and LinkedIn integration. The Plus package includes additional applicant tracking features, such as candidate assessments. The Pro package adds on e-signature, reporting and compliance features.
JazzHR offers several add-on features. Some of those features include candidate texting (starting at $39 per month), career page customization (starting at $39 per month), advanced reporting ($59 per month) and a dedicated account manager ($119 per month).
PCRecruiter – Pricing starts at around $85 per user per month for a basic two-year contract, plus a setup fee to cover training and implementation.
Recruiterflow – Recruiterflow offers customized plans aimed at staffing agencies and internal recruiters. For staffing agencies, there are three plans: Growth, Scale and Enterprise. The Growth plan costs $85 per user, per month (annual billing) and includes unlimited job openings, CRM functionality, and reporting tools. The Scale plan is priced at $90 per user, per month and adds on email sequences, Zapier integration and candidate texting functionality. The Enterprise plan costs $99 per user, per month and covers recruiting automation as well as priority phone, chat and email support.
Internal recruiters also get a choice of three pricing plans: Growth, Scale and Enterprise. The Growth plan costs $99 per user, per month (annual billing) for up to five active job openings. The Scale plan costs $149 per user, per month for up to 10 active job openings. The Enterprise plan costs $249 per user, per month for up to 20 active job openings. In each plan, additional job openings cost extra.
Workable – Workable offers several pricing plans with different features. The most basic plan, Paygo, is $129 per job, per month. There are two other plans: Standard and Premier. The Standard plan costs $299 per month and includes unlimited jobs, a careers page builder, AI-powered sourcing and other features. The Premier plan costs $599 per month and adds on a hiring plan, requisition approvals, native language options, single sign-on, custom onboarding and a dedicated account manager.
Zoho Recruit – Zoho Recruit has a Forever Free plan and three priced plans: Standard ($30 per user, per month), Professional ($60 per user, per month) and Enterprise ($90 per user, per month). The free plan includes basic features like candidate management, email management and interview scheduling. The Standard plan adds on resume parsing, job posting templates and reporting tools. The Professional plans includes pre-screening assessments, social recruiting and advanced analytics. Finally, the Enterprise plan has auto responders and custom roles and profiles.
For Corporate HR, there are two pricing plans: the Standard plan costs $30 per recruiter, per month, and the Enterprise plan costs $60 per recruiter, per month.
Bottom Line
Many of the vendors listed here follow the per-user per-month pricing strategy that’s available via pricing tiers based on features offered in each tier. It’s key to decide what features are required for your company and see if additional features, implementation or support costs extra. You’ll also want to find out if the plan requires a signed contract or if it’s pay-as-you-go and can be cancelled without any penalties.
If you’d like more information on ATS software or want to compare different solutions, we’ve reviewed over 45 software vendors.