10 Best ATS Software Based on User Reviews in 2026, Compared

Quick comparison

The best ATS software based on user reviews

#1

Greenhouse

Best for: Growing companies that want structured hiring with scorecards and interview kits for every role

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (4,061 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit greenhouse.com

Starting priceCustom quote (priced by employee count on annual contracts)

Free planNo

Greenhouse is the reviewer favorite for a reason: it turns hiring into a repeatable process, not a series of gut calls. Scorecards and interview kits mean every interviewer judges the same things, and the reporting shows exactly where candidates stall. It took the top ATS spot in G2's Summer 2026 rankings, and the 4.4 rating rests on more than 4,000 reviews — the largest base here by a wide margin.

The price is the catch: Greenhouse prices by employee count on annual contracts and publishes no list price, so budgeting starts with a sales call. Implementation needs real configuration before the first hire, and companies under 50 often find it more system than they need. Buy Greenhouse when hiring is a core process worth structuring; buy Breezy HR or JazzHR when the team is small and the budget is fixed.

What we like

• Structured hiring with scorecards and interview kits keeps every interviewer judging the same things
• The largest review base here: 4.4 on G2 from 4,061 reviews, and the top ATS in G2's Summer 2026 rankings
• Deep integrations with HR, sourcing and assessment tools cover the whole hiring stack
• Reporting shows where candidates stall, so bottlenecks get fixed instead of guessed at

Watch out for

• No published price — budgeting starts with a sales call and an annual contract
• Implementation needs real configuration work before the first hire goes through it
• Companies under 50 people often find it more system than they need

#2

Lever

Best for: Mid-market teams that want an ATS plus a CRM for nurturing past candidates

★★★★★★★★★★4.3/5 on G2 (2,127 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit lever.co

Starting priceCustom quote (priced per company; annual contracts)

Free planNo

Lever's pitch is that hiring does not end when a requisition closes. The platform pairs a full applicant tracking system with CRM features for nurturing past candidates and silver medalists, so the talent pool keeps working between hires. Reviewers like the automation for follow-ups and the analytics on which sources produce actual hires, and the 4.3 rating rests on 2,127 G2 reviews.

Lever publishes custom pricing rather than fixed tiers, and the product clearly targets mid-market and enterprise teams. Implementation takes time, and the breadth of features can overwhelm a two-person recruiting team. Companies that hire continuously and want to build long-term pipelines get the most from it; a team filling a handful of roles a year will find it oversized.

What we like

• Combines a full ATS with candidate relationship management, so silver-medalist candidates stay warm
• Automation handles nurture sequences and follow-ups without manual chasing
• Analytics track which sources produce actual hires, not just applicants
• Candidate experience surveys measure how applicants felt about the process

Watch out for

• Pricing is custom and quote based, with annual contracts as the standard
• Implementation takes time, and the breadth of features can overwhelm a small team
• Smaller teams report it feels built for bigger companies

#3

Ashby

Best for: Startups that want hiring analytics from day one without a data team

★★★★★★★★★★4.7/5 on G2 (258 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit ashbyhq.com

Starting priceCustom quote (priced by company size; annual contracts)

Free planNo

Ashby has become the default ATS recommendation in startup circles, and user reviews read like fan mail. The analytics show exactly where candidates drop off, which interviewers are slow and which sources convert, without needing a data team. The interface is quick, scheduling works, and offer management is clean — and at 4.7 on G2 it carries the highest score in this list, though from only 258 reviews.

The main complaints are about pace rather than quality: Ashby ships changes fast, and some users find the interface shifting under them. Pricing is quote based, though generally positioned below Greenhouse. Enterprise buyers with strict compliance needs should verify requirements during the trial, since the biggest vendors still lead there.

What we like

• The highest G2 score here at 4.7, with analytics that show where candidates drop off
• Reports name slow interviewers and weak sources without needing a data team
• Fast, modern interface with scheduling and offer management that work smoothly
• Reviewers praise the value: no extra charges for new features as the product grows

Watch out for

• Pricing is quote only, so the budget is unknown until the sales call
• The product ships changes fast, and some users find the interface shifting under them
• Enterprise compliance features lag the bigger vendors

#4

Workable

Best for: Small businesses hiring across many roles that want published pricing and fast setup

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (709 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit workable.com

Starting price$299/month (Standard, billed annually for 1-20 employees; $360/month billed monthly)

Free planNo — 15-day free trial

Workable suits the small business that hires a little bit of everything: a driver, a bookkeeper, a salesperson. One-click posting pushes the job to many boards, candidates flow into a simple pipeline, and hiring managers can review on their phones. The free trial lets teams run a real hiring round before paying, and the 4.4 G2 rating rests on 709 reviews.

Note the price change: the old $149 Starter plan is gone, and Standard at $299 a month is now the entry point for companies with 1 to 20 employees. Pricing scales with company headcount rather than recruiter seats, which can surprise growing teams at renewal. Reporting covers the basics but lacks the depth of Greenhouse or Ashby — for straightforward hiring without a recruiting team, though, Workable's simplicity is exactly the point.

What we like

• Published pricing from $299 a month for Standard, with one-click posting to 200+ job boards
• Unlimited active jobs on Standard, with AI sourcing and structured interview kits included
• The mobile app lets hiring managers review candidates anywhere
• A 15-day free trial lets a team run a real hiring round before paying

Watch out for

• Pricing scales with total company headcount, not recruiter seats, which can surprise growing teams at renewal
• Reporting covers the basics but lacks the depth of Greenhouse or Ashby
• Video interviews and SMS texting are paid add-ons on top of the plan price

#5

Breezy HR

Best for: Small teams that want a visual pipeline and a flat monthly price with unlimited users

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (696 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit breezy.hr

Starting price$189/month (Startup, billed monthly; $157/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free Bootstrap plan (1 active job)

Breezy HR is the friendly face of applicant tracking. The kanban pipeline makes it obvious where every candidate stands, and even non-technical hiring managers pick it up in an afternoon. A free Bootstrap plan covering one active position means very small teams can hire without paying anything, and the 14-day trial opens the paid features.

The honest limit is scale. Breezy works well up to a few dozen hires a year; beyond that, teams tend to want the reporting and automation of bigger systems. The plan most growing teams need is Growth, not Startup: scorecards, interview guides and e-signatures all sit there at $273 a month. For a first ATS, though, it is one of the easiest starts available.

What we like

• A free Bootstrap plan covers one active job, so very small teams can hire at $0
• Flat monthly price with unlimited users and unlimited candidates on every paid plan
• The drag-and-drop pipeline is genuinely easy for non-technical hiring managers
• One-click distribution to 50+ job boards, with candidate messaging built in

Watch out for

• Scorecards, interview guides and e-signatures sit on Growth at $273 a month, not Startup
• AI evaluation and SMS texting are paid add-ons on every plan
• Reporting is thin, and larger teams tend to outgrow it

#6

JazzHR

Best for: Small businesses that want published pricing and unlimited users on a tight budget

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (854 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit jazzhr.com

Starting price$1,000/year (Hero, billed annually only; about $83/month)

Free planNo — 21-day free trial

JazzHR earns its place through transparency. The Hero plan is published at $1,000 a year, billed annually only, unlimited users are included, and a 21-day free trial gives teams a real evaluation window. For small businesses that want to know the price before talking to sales, that openness stands out in this category.

Reviewers are candid about the tradeoffs. The interface feels older than Ashby or Workable, and the feature set covers recruiting fundamentals rather than advanced analytics. Note the reprice: the old $75-a-month Hero figure is gone — Hero is now sold yearly only at $1,000, with no monthly option. As a workhorse ATS for steady hiring on a budget, JazzHR delivers the essentials at a fair published price.

What we like

• Published pricing with no sales call: Hero is $110 a month, or $1,000 a year
• Unlimited users on every plan, so the whole hiring team gets in at one price
• A 21-day free trial is the longest here, giving a real evaluation window
• Job posting and syndication are included from the entry plan

Watch out for

• Hero caps at 3 job postings a month, so a fourth open role forces Plus at $3,480 a year
• The interface looks dated next to Ashby or Workable
• Texting, e-signature and advanced reporting are paid add-ons

#7

SmartRecruiters

Best for: Enterprises hiring hundreds of people a year across several countries

Visit smartrecruiters.com

Starting priceCustom quote (enterprise annual contracts)

Free planNo

SmartRecruiters is built for companies hiring hundreds or thousands of people a year across multiple countries. The platform handles high-volume workflows, global compliance needs and large hiring teams with role-based permissions. The integration marketplace connects to most HR and assessment tools an enterprise already uses.

Everything about the buying process signals enterprise: quote-only pricing, annual contracts and an implementation project rather than a signup form. Small and mid-size teams should look elsewhere; this product assumes a recruiting operations function. For large talent acquisition teams, the scale handling is the reason to shortlist it.

What we like

• Built for high-volume, global hiring with role-based permissions for large teams
• The integration marketplace connects to most HR and assessment tools an enterprise already uses
• Collaboration tools suit hiring teams where many people touch each requisition

Watch out for

• Pricing is quote only at enterprise level, with annual contracts as the standard
• Implementation is a real project, not a signup form
• Small and mid-size teams will find it oversized for their hiring volume

#8

Recruitee

Best for: European teams and mid-size companies that hire collaboratively

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (450 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit recruitee.com

Starting priceCustom quote (Start, Advance and Optimize plans; no public base price)

Free planNo — 18-day free trial

Recruitee, now operating under the Tellent brand as Tellent Recruitee, is a European-built ATS with a strong following among mid-size companies. Collaborative features like shared candidate profiles, team scorecards and internal chat fit companies where hiring decisions involve the whole team. The branded careers pages look professional without developer help.

US buyers should know the brand is better established in Europe, so reference customers in their industry may be thinner stateside. Pricing is quote based: the Start, Advance and Optimize plans show no public base price, and third-party figures conflict, so we do not assert one. For companies that value collaborative hiring and proper GDPR handling, Recruitee deserves a demo alongside the American vendors.

What we like

• Collaborative hiring with shared candidate profiles, team scorecards and internal chat
• The branded careers site builder looks professional without developer help
• European data handling is built in, with GDPR compliance as a first-class feature
• Rated 4.5 on G2 from 450 reviews, the second-highest score here

Watch out for

• No public base price: the pricing page lists plans without numbers, so budgeting starts with a quote
• US brand recognition is lower, so industry references may be thinner stateside
• Screening and Matching Assistants start on Advance, not the entry Start plan

#9

Zoho Recruit

Best for: Budget teams already using Zoho that want a free plan and per-recruiter pricing

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (1,852 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit zoho.com

Starting price$30/month per recruiter (Standard, billed monthly; $25/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free plan (1 active job per recruiter)

Zoho Recruit follows the Zoho playbook: solid features at a fraction of rival prices. Corporate Standard starts at $25 per recruiter per month on annual billing, and a free edition handles basic job posting and candidate tracking. If your company already runs on Zoho CRM or Zoho People, the shared data and single login make it a natural add.

Expectations should match the price. The interface is workmanlike, automation is simpler than Greenhouse or Lever, and support runs through tickets. But for staffing agencies and small HR teams that need resume parsing, job posting and pipeline tracking without a big contract, Zoho Recruit covers the fundamentals honestly.

What we like

• A genuinely free plan covers one active job, with paid Standard from $25 per recruiter a month on annual billing
• Per-recruiter pricing means a one- or two-person hiring team pays very little
• Deep integration with Zoho CRM, Zoho People and the rest of the Zoho suite
• Resume parsing, premium job boards and a branded careers site start on Standard

Watch out for

• The interface is functional rather than polished, and support runs through tickets
• Automation is simpler than Greenhouse or Lever, and AI waits for Enterprise
• Separate Corporate and Staffing Agency editions price differently, so compare the right one

#10

Manatal

Best for: Small agencies and teams that want simple per-user pricing with AI included

★★★★★★★★★★4.8/5 on G2 (147 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit manatal.com

Starting price$19/user/month (Professional, billed monthly; $15/user/month billed annually)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

Manatal is the cheapest genuine applicant tracking system in this list with a public price. Professional costs $15 per user per month on annual billing, or $19 month to month, and it puts AI candidate enrichment, AI recommendations and an automated video interviewer on the entry plan — which no other ATS under $20 a seat currently does.

The cap is the thing to check before budgeting: Professional holds 15 open jobs and 10,000 candidates, and breaching it moves you to Enterprise at $35 a user, a jump of more than double per seat. Workflow automation waits for Enterprise too. But for a small agency or team that hires continuously, Manatal's published pricing and 4.8 G2 rating make it the easiest yes in this list.

What we like

• The highest G2 score here at 4.8, with AI candidate enrichment on the entry plan
• The cheapest published entry price in this list at $15 per user a month on annual billing
• Every plan publishes its price, so the bill is known before the sales call
• A 14-day trial needs no card, and setup takes about 15 minutes

Watch out for

• Professional caps at 15 open jobs and 10,000 candidates — a 16th job forces Enterprise at $35 a user
• Workflow automation waits for Enterprise, and API access plus SSO wait for Enterprise Plus at $55
• The AI Interviewer is a paid add-on, not included in the plan price

The best ats software based on user reviews is the tool other hiring teams already trust, not the one with the loudest marketing. We ranked the ten tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a growing company that hires steadily and wants a pipeline its managers will actually use — and every price was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 6, 2026.

How to choose the best ats software based on user reviews

• Start with the review base, not just the score. Manatal's 4.8 on G2 comes from 147 reviews; Greenhouse's 4.4 comes from 4,061. A high score on a small base is a hint, not proof — read the recent reviews for your company size.
• Name the billing unit before you compare prices. Manatal and Zoho Recruit charge per user, Breezy HR charges one flat monthly price, JazzHR charges one flat yearly price, and Workable charges by total headcount. The unit decides what a growing team actually pays.
• Count your open roles, not just your recruiters. JazzHR Hero caps at 3 job postings a month, Breezy HR's free plan covers one active job, and Manatal Professional caps at 15 open jobs. The cap you hit first is your real starting price.
• Check what the trial actually covers. Trials here run 14 to 21 days, and SmartRecruiters, Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby offer a demo instead of a trial. Run one real requisition through the trial before you pay.
• Think about who else touches hiring. If hiring managers will screen candidates themselves, a flat-price tool like Breezy HR or JazzHR keeps the bill still; per-user pricing punishes every extra seat.

Hiring is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the business also needs to be found online, our guide to recruitment marketing platforms covers the visibility side. And before you publish the job posts themselves, run your titles through the free SERP snippet preview tool — it shows exactly how the title and description will look in Google.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with real hiring before you pay. The trials in this list are long enough to run one genuine requisition — your job post, your candidates, your interviewers — and that round tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that hiring managers can move candidates without asking recruiting for help, and that the reporting answers which source produced the hire. Every tool here that offers a trial gives you that window for free, so there is no reason to buy before your team has used it.

ATS software pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a three-recruiter team hiring about 20 roles a year. On list prices, the subscription costs $57 a month on Manatal Professional at $19 per user, $90 on Zoho Recruit Standard at $30 per recruiter, $83 on JazzHR Hero, $189 on Breezy HR Startup, and $299 on Workable Standard for a company of 1 to 20 employees. Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real: JazzHR Hero caps at 3 job postings a month, so a team running several roles at once needs Plus at $350 a month, and Manatal Professional caps at 15 open jobs, so a busy quarter pushes the team to Enterprise at $35 a user.

Over a year on annual billing, that is $540 on Manatal Professional, $900 on Zoho Recruit Standard, $1,000 on JazzHR Hero, $1,884 on Breezy HR Startup and $3,588 on Workable Standard. The same three recruiters and the same 20 roles cost $540 a year at the cheap end and $3,588 at the dear end — a $3,048 gap that comes entirely from billing units and job caps, not from features. Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, SmartRecruiters and Recruitee sit outside this math entirely: all five sell by custom quote, so their cost is whatever the sales call produces.

Three costs sit outside every number above. First, the add-ons: video interviews and SMS texting cost extra on Workable, Breezy HR and JazzHR, and Manatal's AI Interviewer is a paid add-on. Second, implementation: the quote-only tools typically need a setup project, while the published-price tools can be running the same day. Third, the headcount trap on Workable — the price rises as the whole company grows, not just the recruiting team, so a hiring surge in another department can lift the ATS bill. If the team also runs payroll, see our guide to the best payroll software for small business.

Know the difference: an ATS vs a recruiting CRM

The confusion in this category is between tracking applicants and nurturing people. An ATS tracks applicants through open requisitions: posting, screening, interviews and offers. A recruiting CRM nurtures people who are not applying right now — past candidates, referrals and silver medalists — so the talent pool is warm when a role opens. Lever is the only tool here that combines both properly; most of the others are ATS-first, with CRM features only on higher tiers or not at all.

There is a second, quieter confusion: a job board is not an ATS. A job board shows the vacancy to candidates; an ATS manages what happens after they apply. All ten tools in this list post to job boards as part of the job, but the tracking, scoring and interview workflow is what the phrase "ATS software" means here. If a tool only posts jobs, it belongs in a different list.

A third distinction worth knowing is published pricing versus quote-only pricing. Five tools here publish a starting price, and five do not. A quote is not automatically a bad deal — Greenhouse and Ashby are the two best-reviewed tools here and both are quote-only — but it does mean the budget is unknown until the sales call, and the published prices in this list give you a negotiating anchor before that call happens.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting on the promo or the old price. Workable's $149 Starter plan is gone — Standard at $299 is the entry point now — and JazzHR's $75 Hero figure is gone too, replaced by $1,000 a year. Check the vendor page, not an old roundup.
• Buying on the per-user price, then adding the whole team. Per-user pricing punishes every extra seat: three recruiters on Manatal cost $57 a month, but ten hiring managers cost $190. Flat-price tools do not care how many managers pile in.
• Ignoring the cap that bites first. A tool can be cheap and still be the wrong buy: JazzHR Hero at about $83 a month is no bargain once you pass 3 job postings a month, and Manatal Professional at $19 is no bargain once you pass 15 open jobs.
• Treating a demo as a trial. Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and SmartRecruiters offer demos, not trials. A demo shows the product; only a trial shows whether your team will actually use it.
• Forgetting the quote-only half of the list. Five tools here publish no price. If you shortlist only the published ones, you never see the two best-reviewed tools in the category — get the quotes before you decide.

How we chose

We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 6, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, including the annual-billing figure where the page lists one, and we ranked the tools by fit for the most common buyer — a growing company hiring steadily — not by brand size. Ratings come from fresh G2 review pages, except SmartRecruiters, whose G2 page had no recent crawl, so we show no rating for it rather than a stale one. Two prices changed since older roundups: Workable's $149 Starter plan is retired, with Standard at $299 a month now the entry point, and JazzHR's Hero plan is now $1,000 a year, billed annually only. Recruitee publishes no base price, and third-party figures for it conflict between $199 and $270 a month, so we do not assert one. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.

What to do next

Start with the free plan or trial of your top pick and run one real requisition through it. Check that hiring managers can move candidates without help and that the reporting shows which source produced the hire before you commit to a year. If the hiring is sorted but new customers are not finding you, our monthly SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare providers in our guide to payroll software for small business. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.

Sources we checked (19)

• Greenhouse pricing — greenhouse.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Greenhouse G2 reviews — g2.com/products/greenhouse/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Lever pricing — lever.co/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Lever G2 reviews — g2.com/products/lever/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Ashby pricing — ashbyhq.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Ashby G2 reviews — g2.com/products/ashby-ashby/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Workable pricing — workable.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Workable G2 reviews — g2.com/products/workable/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Breezy HR pricing — breezy.hr/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Breezy HR G2 reviews — g2.com/products/breezy-hr/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• JazzHR pricing — jazzhr.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• JazzHR G2 reviews — g2.com/products/jazz-co/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• SmartRecruiters pricing — smartrecruiters.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Recruitee pricing — recruitee.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Recruitee G2 reviews — g2.com/products/tellent-recruitee/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Zoho Recruit pricing — zoho.com/recruit/pricing.html (checked November 6, 2026)
• Zoho Recruit G2 reviews — g2.com/products/zoho-recruit/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Manatal pricing — manatal.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Manatal G2 reviews — g2.com/products/manatal/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)