Best Hiring Software
Best Applicant Tracking System (ATS) in 2026
Quick answer: Greenhouse is the best applicant tracking system for companies with a dedicated recruiting team, Workable is the strongest self-serve platform for growing companies from $299/mo, and AvaHR or Breezy HR are the right answer for small businesses hiring a handful of people a year — where Greenhouse would be both unaffordable and unnecessary.
Ask this question anywhere and you will mostly be told "Greenhouse." That answer is not wrong — it is just answering a different question than most people asking it.
Greenhouse is genuinely excellent, and it is built for companies with recruiters on staff running structured hiring at volume. If you are a 15-person business trying to hire a service technician, it is the wrong tool at roughly ten times the price you need to pay. So this guide splits by hiring volume, because that single variable decides more than any feature list.
What an applicant tracking system actually does
An ATS does four things. Everything else is elaboration:
- Distributes the job to job boards from one place, instead of you posting on Indeed, then ZipRecruiter, then your own site.
- Collects every applicant in one pipeline, so applications stop living in an email inbox where they get lost.
- Moves candidates through stages — applied, screened, interviewed, offered — so anyone on the team can see where a person stands.
- Handles the communication, so candidates get replies instead of silence.
If your current process already does those four things well, you may not need to buy anything. If applications are sitting unread in a shared inbox, almost any ATS will pay for itself in the first hire.
What it costs, side by side
| Platform | Typical monthly cost | Billed as |
|---|---|---|
| AvaHR | $99–$457/mo | Flat per plan |
| Breezy HR | $0–$439/mo | Flat per plan |
| JazzHR | ~$83–$459/mo | Flat per plan |
| Zoho Recruit | €0–€50/recruiter/mo | Per recruiter seat |
| Manatal | $15–$55/user/mo | Per user seat |
| Workable | $299–$719/mo | Flat per plan, banded by headcount |
| BambooHR | $10–$25/employee/mo | Per employee on payroll |
| Greenhouse | Not published | Custom quote |
| Lever | Not published | Custom quote |
Pricing above was taken from each provider's own pricing page in August 2026. Always confirm the current numbers before buying — hiring software pricing changes often, and the three billing models in this category (flat per plan, per recruiter seat, and per employee on your payroll) make headline prices hard to compare without doing the arithmetic for your own headcount and number of open roles.
Under ~10 hires a year: small business
You need speed and low cost, not scorecards and reporting suites.
AvaHR at $99/mo is the cheapest serious entry point, and it includes distribution to 100+ job boards, a branded careers page and resume parsing on every plan rather than gating them behind upgrades. The limitation to know about: the $99 Lite tier is genuinely one user. Two managers reviewing candidates means $165/mo.
Breezy HR has the best free plan in the category. Bootstrap costs nothing, allows unlimited users and distributes to 50+ boards — capped at one active position at a time. If you hire one role at a time and never overlap, that is a real answer at $0. Its paid Startup tier at $157/mo lifts the cap to unlimited positions.
Zoho Recruit deserves a look at €25 per recruiter per month if you already run other Zoho products, though its job caps are per licence rather than per account: 10 active jobs on Standard.
10–50 hires a year: growing company
Here you start needing more than one person's judgement recorded somewhere durable.
Workable is the most complete self-serve option, bundling the ATS with an HRIS, onboarding and time-off tracking. It starts at $299/mo for 1–20 employees and rises with headcount. Watch the add-ons: texting, video interviews and assessments are each extra on the Standard plan and can add $257/mo between them.
JazzHR is worth pricing out because its tiers differ sharply. Hero at $1,000/year (~$83/mo) is the cheapest entry price on this page but omits structured interviews and automation entirely; the tier most people actually want, Plus, is $3,480/year (~$290/mo).
BambooHR at $10–$25 per employee per month makes sense only if you want the whole HR suite. At 50 staff that is $500–$1,250/mo, which is an expensive way to buy applicant tracking alone.
50+ hires a year, with recruiters on staff
Now the usual answer becomes the right one. Greenhouse is built around structured hiring — consistent interview kits, scorecards, and reporting that survives audit. Lever and Ashby are the credible alternatives, with Ashby favoured by data-heavy teams.
None of the three publishes pricing. All three quote through a sales process, and all three assume someone owns the system as part of their job.
Agencies are a different product
If you place candidates for clients rather than hiring for yourself, you want a recruiting CRM, not an ATS — the object you manage is a client relationship, not a job. Manatal at $15–$55 per user per month is the value pick there. See our guide on recruiting software for that distinction in full.
Pricing
| Platform | Plans | What that actually gets you |
|---|---|---|
| AvaHR | Lite $99 · Plus $165 · Premium $332 · Max $457+ | Per month, billed monthly; annual billing saves up to 17%. Unlimited candidates on every plan. Lite covers 3 live jobs and 1 user; Plus 50 jobs and 5 users; Premium unlimited jobs and 25 users. 7-day free trial. |
| Breezy HR | Bootstrap $0 · Startup $157 · Growth $273 · Business $439 | Per month; annual billing includes 2 months free. Unlimited users on every plan, including the free Bootstrap tier — but Bootstrap allows only 1 active position at a time. SMS and Breezy Intelligence are paid add-ons on all tiers. 14-day trial. |
| JazzHR | Hero $1,000/yr · Plus $3,480/yr · Pro $5,508/yr | Billed annually; monthly billing is available and costs up to 24% more. Hero starts at 3 job postings/month; Plus allows up to 200 active jobs. Offers & eSignatures are Pro-only. Some features are consumption-billed on top of the plan. |
| Workable | Standard $299 · Premier $599 · Enterprise $719 | Per month at the 1–20 employee band, billed annually ($3,588/$7,188/$8,628 per year); the price rises with company headcount. Texting (+$89/mo), video interviews (+$109/mo) and assessments (+$59/mo) are add-ons on Standard. The AI agent runs on credits sold separately from $0.095–$0.12 each. 15-day trial. |
| Zoho Recruit | Free €0 · Standard €25 · Enterprise €50 | Per recruiter per month, billed annually (EUR pricing shown; check your region). Active jobs are capped per licence: 1 on Free, 10 on Standard, 20 on Enterprise. 15-day trial and a 45-day money-back guarantee. |
| Manatal | Professional $15 · Enterprise $35 · Enterprise Plus $55 | Per user per month on yearly billing. Professional caps you at 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates; Enterprise and above are unlimited. Hiring managers are unlimited on every tier, so you only pay for recruiters. 14-day trial, no card required. |
| BambooHR | Core $10 · Pro $17 · Elite $25 | Per employee per month — you pay for everyone on staff, not just the people doing the hiring, so the applicant tracking is effectively bundled into an HR suite. Payroll, benefits administration and time tracking are separate add-ons. Quoted rather than self-serve; volume and non-profit discounts apply. |
| Greenhouse | Core · Plus · Pro — quote only | Greenhouse publishes no prices. Plans are quoted based on hiring volume and organisational complexity, and every tier goes through a sales demo. In practice this puts it well above the self-serve tools on this page. |
Pricing above was taken from each provider's own pricing page in August 2026. Always confirm the current numbers before buying — hiring software pricing changes often, and the three billing models in this category (flat per plan, per recruiter seat, and per employee on your payroll) make headline prices hard to compare without doing the arithmetic for your own headcount and number of open roles.
The mistake that costs the most
Buying on feature lists. Nearly every ATS on this page can post a job, collect applicants and move them through stages. What differs is how much configuration the tool expects before it becomes useful, and whether the price scales on something you control.
Check specifically whether you are billed per seat, per active job, or per employee on payroll. A 60-person company that hires twice a year pays wildly different amounts under those three models for identical usage.
Frequently asked questions
What is an applicant tracking system?
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software that collects job applications in one place, moves candidates through hiring stages, and handles the job postings, screening, and communication around that — instead of tracking applicants in an email inbox or a spreadsheet.
What is the best option for this use case?
Greenhouse is our top pick for this use case, based on setup time, pricing, and how well it fits the way these teams actually hire — though the right choice depends on headcount and budget, which the sections above cover.
Do I need a paid ATS, or is a free plan enough?
A free plan or a job board alone is usually enough if you hire once or twice a year. Once you're running multiple open roles at a time, or more than one person is reviewing applicants, a paid ATS starts paying for itself in time saved.