By Industry
Best ATS for Landscaping Companies in 2026
Quick answer: AvaHR at $99/mo is the best-value ATS for most landscaping companies because flat pricing absorbs a crew that triples in spring and shrinks in winter. Team Engine is the strongest tool for this industry specifically — built for blue-collar crews with bilingual two-way texting — but at $500/mo it costs five times as much, which is only justified if you also need to reach the crew you already have.
Landscaping compresses a year of hiring into about six weeks. You need thirty people by April, you keep a fraction through winter, and you do it again next spring. Almost nothing about that resembles the office hiring most applicant tracking systems were designed around.
Four things that make this industry different
- Extreme seasonality. Headcount can triple between February and May. Software billed per employee on payroll charges you most at your busiest and keeps charging as crews roll off.
- Volume over precision. You are not filling one carefully-specified role. You are filling twenty crew positions fast, and the bottleneck is throughput.
- Bilingual workforces are normal. If a meaningful share of your crew works in Spanish, an English-only application form is silently cutting your funnel.
- Rehiring is the cheapest hiring you will do. Last year's good crew members are your best source. Losing their records every winter is the most expensive mistake in this industry.
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 |
| Team Engine | $500–$800+/mo | Flat per plan, banded by headcount |
| CareerPlug | Not published | Flat per plan, unlimited users |
| Workstream | Not published | Custom quote |
| Workable | $299–$719/mo | Flat per plan, banded by headcount |
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.
Team Engine — the best fit, if you can justify the price
This is one of the few industries where the expensive specialist has a genuine case. Team Engine starts at $500/mo (up to 50 employees, billed annually; $800/mo to 250). It is built explicitly for blue-collar and seasonal workforces, and its core feature is two-way texting with applicants and existing crew, including scheduled announcements and multi-language support.
For a landscaping company, that combination maps directly onto the actual job: recruit a crew in spring, then communicate with that crew all season about schedules and weather. If you would otherwise buy a separate crew-messaging tool, the effective price gap narrows a lot.
AvaHR — best value, and enough for most companies
AvaHR at $99/mo handles the part that matters most: flat pricing regardless of crew size, so a spring surge to forty people costs the same as a winter crew of eight. 100+ job boards included, unlimited candidates on every plan — which is what keeps last season's crew reachable rather than purged.
The catch: $99 is one user and three live jobs, so Plus at $165/mo is the realistic tier once your operations manager and crew leads are all reviewing applicants. Text messaging is Max-tier only at $457/mo — which for this industry is a real gap, and the main reason Team Engine's case is stronger here than in most trades.
The rest of the field
Classet targets skilled trades and appears frequently in landscaping recruiting results; no public pricing.
Breezy HR free Bootstrap is a genuinely good way to test the concept: unlimited users, one active position, no cost. Startup at $157/mo gives unlimited positions with unlimited users, which suits a company where several crew leads review applicants.
CareerPlug charges nothing per user on any plan, which fits distributed crew-lead reviewing well, but requires a sales conversation and commits you for 12 months.
Workstream is strong on high-volume hourly hiring but is built around multi-location restaurants and is quote-only. Workable from $299/mo is more platform than this industry usually needs.
What actually moves the needle
- Offer the application in Spanish. If your crew is bilingual and your form is not, you are losing candidates before you ever see them. Check this specifically — it is the highest-impact and most-overlooked item on this list.
- Keep last season's applicants. Unlimited candidate storage is not a vanity feature here; rehiring known good workers is the cheapest headcount you will ever add.
- Refuse per-employee pricing. With a crew that triples seasonally, it is the worst possible billing model.
- Time the application on a phone. Over two minutes and your spring funnel suffers measurably.
- Decide honestly about texting. If it is how you actually reach crews, price Team Engine properly rather than dismissing it on headline cost.
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. |
| Team Engine | From $500 · From $800 · Custom | Billed annually. The entry tier covers up to 50 employees, the second up to 250, and anything above roughly 500 is quoted. Built specifically around trades and blue-collar workforces with two-way texting to applicants and existing staff — which is why it costs several times what a general SMB ATS does. |
| CareerPlug | Limited · Hire · Grow — prices not published | CareerPlug publishes plan tiers but not prices. Notably there is no per-user charge on any plan, so you can add every hiring manager for free. Both monthly and annual billing are 12-month commitments, and monthly billing is only offered on the top Grow tier. 14-day Grow trial, once per account lifetime. |
| 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. |
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.
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?
AvaHR 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.