10 Best ATS Software for Small Business in 2026, Compared
Compare the 10 best ATS software for small business options on price, free plans and job limits, with every price checked live November 6, 2026.
Shamim Mia, Founder, SerpAstraLast verified November 6, 202614 min readWe compare pricing pages, documentation and public reviews. We never accept payment for rankings.
Key takeaways
- Breezy HR is the best fit for most small businesses: free for one job, then $157/month billed annually. Zoho Recruit follows at $25 per recruiter a month billed annually, and JazzHR at $1,000 a year, billed annually only.
- Manatal is the cheapest way to get AI resume parsing and sourcing at $15 per user a month billed annually, while Ashby is the analytics pick at $300/month for companies with 1 to 10 employees.
- The single most important buying factor is the limit that forces your next upgrade: open-job caps, per-seat pricing and headcount bands decide what you actually pay, not the headline price.
- Pinpoint and Greenhouse publish no prices at all, so budget for a sales conversation and an annual contract if either one makes your shortlist.
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Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breezy HR | Startups and small businesses hiring a few roles at a time | Free; Startup $157/mo | Yes (Bootstrap) |
| Zoho Recruit | Budget-conscious small businesses that already use Zoho apps and want the cheapest full ATS | Free; Standard $25/mo | Yes (free plan) |
| JazzHR | Small teams at 5 to 500-employee companies doing steady hiring who want a flat price | $83/mo (about) | No (21-day trial) |
| Manatal | Lean recruiting teams and staffing agencies that want AI sourcing at the lowest per-seat price | $15/user/mo | No (14-day trial) |
| Homerun | Small businesses where the careers page and candidate experience matter as much as the pipeline | €109/mo (annual) | No (15-day trial) |
| Workable | Small teams up to 500 employees that want hiring plus light HR in one subscription | $299/mo (annual) | No (15-day trial) |
| Recruitee | Fast-growing startups hiring across locations and languages with several hiring managers | Custom quote | No (18-day trial) |
| Ashby | Funded startups and tech scaleups up to 100 employees that run hiring on data | $300/mo | No (demo only) |
| Pinpoint | Mid-size companies that care about employer brand and candidate experience across several hiring streams | Custom quote | No (demo only) |
| Greenhouse | Teams that want structured, scalable hiring processes and are ready to pay for the category standard | Custom quote | No (demo only) |
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Request a listingThe best ATS software for small business
Breezy HR is the flat-price pick: unlimited users, unlimited candidates, one monthly number. Hiring managers and interviewers all get access without per-seat costs, which is rare at this price. Bootstrap is free for one active job; Startup runs $189 a month ($157 billed annually), Growth $329 ($273) and Business $529 ($439). Distribution to more than 50 job boards happens in one click, and annual billing saves roughly two months.
The honest catch is feature gating. The plan most growing teams need is Growth, not Startup: scorecards, interview guides, reference checks and e-signatures all sit there. AI evaluation and SMS texting cost extra. For a small business that hires steadily but not constantly, the flat pricing is hard to beat, and the free tier covers the first hire with no card required.
What we like
- Unlimited users and unlimited candidates on every plan, including the free Bootstrap plan
- One-click distribution to more than 50 job boards from a single posting
- A genuinely usable free tier for hiring one role at a time
- Flat monthly pricing, so adding hiring managers costs nothing extra
Watch out for
- Scorecards, interview guides, reference checks and e-signatures wait for Growth at $273/month billed annually
- AI evaluation and SMS texting are paid add-ons, not included on Startup
- The jump from the free plan to Startup at $157/month billed annually is steep for one extra role
Zoho Recruit
Best for: Budget-conscious small businesses that already use Zoho apps and want the cheapest full ATS
Zoho Recruit is the cheapest full-featured ATS on the market, full stop. Forever Free covers one active job and one recruiter; Standard is $25 per recruiter per month billed annually ($30 monthly), Professional $50 and Enterprise $75. AI features now appear on Standard, while AI candidate matching waits for Enterprise. Two editions serve corporate HR and staffing agencies separately, and the Zoho ecosystem integrations suit shops already running Zoho CRM or People.
The job-slot model is the catch most comparison pages bury. Standard allows 10 active jobs per license and Enterprise 20, so scaling means buying more licenses. Past about five users, flat-rate tools like Breezy or JazzHR get cheaper. Check the right edition before buying: the staffing agency edition differs. For a small team already in the Zoho world, it is the obvious value pick.
What we like
- The cheapest full-featured ATS here: Standard is $25 per recruiter a month billed annually
- A real free plan covers one active job with candidate management and interview scheduling
- Deep Zoho ecosystem: CRM, People, Mail and Gmail connect without third-party tools
- 45-day money-back guarantee on paid plans, longer than most rivals here
Watch out for
- Standard allows 10 active jobs per recruiter license, so scaling means buying more licenses
- Per-seat pricing loses to flat-rate tools once about five people touch hiring
- The interface packs in many menus and settings, so new users need time to learn it
JazzHR
Best for: Small teams at 5 to 500-employee companies doing steady hiring who want a flat price
JazzHR charges for hiring volume, not headcount. Unlimited users on every plan means the whole hiring team gets in free; you pay for open jobs instead. Hero at $1,000 a year billed annually only covers 3 open jobs, Plus at $3,480 a year and Pro at $5,508 a year raise the ceiling. Published pricing, fast implementation and free setup help make evaluation painless.
The Hero cap is the thing to watch: 3 open jobs forces most real teams onto Plus quickly, and extra jobs beyond the cap cost about $9 each a month. Candidate texting, e-signature and advanced reporting are add-ons on top. Owned by Employ Inc., which also owns Lever and Jobvite, it integrates with BambooHR, Gusto, Checkr and Criteria. For steady hiring where the team is bigger than the job count, the model fits well.
What we like
- Flat pricing by open job count, not per seat, so adding hiring managers costs nothing
- Unlimited users on every plan, including the Hero plan at $1,000 a year billed annually only
- Transparent published pricing with no sales call needed to learn the cost
- Fast setup with free implementation help and a 21-day trial
Watch out for
- Hero covers only 3 open jobs, so most real teams move to Plus at $269/month billed annually
- Candidate texting, e-signature and advanced reporting are paid add-ons
- No permanent free plan, only a 21-day trial
Manatal
Best for: Lean recruiting teams and staffing agencies that want AI sourcing at the lowest per-seat price
Manatal puts AI sourcing in reach at $15 a seat. Resume parsing, candidate enrichment and a sourcing Chrome extension come on the cheapest plan, which is capability competitors gate two tiers higher. Professional is $19 per user per month ($15 billed annually), Enterprise $39 ($35) and Enterprise Plus $59 ($55). The 14-day trial needs no card, and unlimited hiring managers are included on every plan.
The caps decide the real tier. Professional allows 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates, so growing teams land on Enterprise; the AI chatbot and LLM integrations need Enterprise Plus, and API access with single sign-on sits there too. Integrations cover LinkedIn, Gmail, Outlook, Mailchimp and more than 20 social platforms. For lean teams that want AI help without enterprise budgets, the value is real.
What we like
- AI resume parsing, candidate enrichment and a sourcing Chrome extension on the cheapest plan
- The highest G2 score in this list at 4.8 out of 5 from 147 reviews
- Unlimited hiring managers on every plan, so the whole team can review candidates
- Simple published per-user pricing with no sales call to learn the cost
Watch out for
- Professional caps at 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates, so growing teams land on Enterprise at $35/user/month billed annually
- The AI chatbot and LLM integrations need the top Enterprise Plus tier
- API access and single sign-on sit on Enterprise Plus, not Professional
Homerun
Best for: Small businesses where the careers page and candidate experience matter as much as the pipeline
Homerun is the design-led ATS in this list: a beautiful careers page, a live job-post editor and a clean candidate pipeline in one place. Core costs €139 a month on monthly billing (€109 billed annually) for 3 job slots and 25 team seats; Plus steps up to 5 slots and more seats. Pricing is by job slots and team seats rather than per recruiter, and a 15-day free trial needs no card.
The trade-off is scope. Reporting is plainer than the analytics-first tools here, and the 3-slot cap on Core means a busy quarter pushes you to the next tier. Extra seats run about €4 a month each. Dutch VAT of 21% is charged on top of the listed price. Pick Homerun when the careers page is part of the pitch to candidates, not an afterthought.
What we like
- The best-designed careers pages here, with a live editor that needs no code
- Flat pricing by job slots and team seats, so the bill never grows per recruiter
- GDPR-friendly handling with EU-based hosting and a signed data processing agreement
- Non-profits and B Corps get a 50% discount on every plan
Watch out for
- Priced in euros, so US buyers pay the conversion on top of the listed price
- Core covers only 3 job slots, so a busy hiring quarter means the next tier
- Reporting depth trails the analytics-first tools in this list
Workable
Best for: Small teams up to 500 employees that want hiring plus light HR in one subscription
Workable bundles the ATS with a light HRIS, which suits small teams wanting one subscription for hiring and basic HR. AI sourcing and automated screening speed up the first hire, and 200-plus job boards are covered. Standard is $299 a month for 1 to 20 employees on annual billing ($360 monthly), with Premier at $599 and Enterprise at $719; annual billing saves 20 percent. Pricing is per company, not per seat.
The catch is the headcount model. The price follows employees, not hiring volume, so a year with two hires costs the same as a year with twenty. The AI agent runs on credits beyond the included allowance, and texting, video interviews and assessments are add-ons. Integrations span 270-plus tools including Slack, Zoom and BambooHR. Good when hiring is constant; expensive when it is not.
What we like
- AI sourcing across a large candidate database plus automated screening on Standard
- Bundles the ATS with core HR: onboarding, time off and e-signatures
- Posting to more than 200 job boards from one place
- Unlimited active jobs on Standard, with no per-seat charges
Watch out for
- The price follows total headcount, not hiring volume, so a quiet year costs the same as a busy one
- Texting, video interviews and assessments are paid add-ons on Standard
- AI agent use runs on credits beyond the included allowance
Recruitee
Best for: Fast-growing startups hiring across locations and languages with several hiring managers
Recruitee is built for collaborative hiring across locations. Scorecards, evaluations and shared pipelines keep hiring managers in the workflow instead of email threads, and multi-language support suits distributed teams. Start is a custom quote for 1 to 20 employees, Grow $343 ($274), and Optimize is custom. The 18-day trial needs no credit card.
The price is the friction for small teams. With pricing by custom quote only, model it against Breezy or JazzHR before committing. Reporting depth and CV parsing get mixed reviews. Integrations include Slack, Google Workspace, BambooHR, Gusto and more than 250 boards. Best when collaboration across locations is the daily reality, not the aspiration.
What we like
- Strong collaborative hiring with scorecards, evaluations and shared pipelines
- Multi-language support that suits distributed teams hiring in several countries
- More than 250 job board integrations from one posting flow
- Unlimited users on every plan, so hiring managers join without extra seats
Watch out for
- Without a published price it is hard to place against Breezy or JazzHR for the same job count
- Start covers only 5 job slots for companies with 1 to 20 employees
- Reporting depth and CV parsing get mixed reviews from users
Ashby
Best for: Funded startups and tech scaleups up to 100 employees that run hiring on data
Ashby is the data-driven pick. The reporting is the best in class: funnel conversion, velocity and diversity analytics without a BI tool, plus a sourcing CRM and scheduling in the same product. Foundations pricing is published by company-size band, from $300 a month for 1 to 10 employees up to $900 for 76 to 100, with about 10 percent off on annual billing. Unlimited recruiter seats on Foundations; interview-only users are free.
The commitment is the catch. Annual contracts are required, and Plus (101 to 1,000 employees) and Enterprise are custom quotes, so costs jump past 100 headcount. Advanced scheduling automation, the AI notetaker and single sign-on are paid add-ons. For startups that run hiring on data, it earns the price. For occasional hiring, it is overkill.
What we like
- The best reporting in this list: funnel conversion, velocity and diversity analytics with no BI tool
- Sourcing CRM and self-scheduling sit in the same product as the ATS
- Unlimited recruiter seats on Foundations, and interview-only users are free
- Published pricing by company-size band, so the cost is known before any sales call
Watch out for
- Annual contracts are required, and the price is reassessed every year as headcount grows
- Advanced scheduling automation, the AI notetaker and single sign-on are paid add-ons
- Plus and Enterprise above 100 employees are custom quotes, so costs jump past that line
Pinpoint
Best for: Mid-size companies that care about employer brand and candidate experience across several hiring streams
Pinpoint is the candidate-experience pick for teams that hire in more than one shape: corporate and high-volume, early career and experienced, desk-based and deskless, all in one system. Its pricing page routes to a demo request form, so there is no public rate card; buyer-reported figures put Growth from about $345 a month on annual billing and Enterprise from about $1,200. Annual contracts only, with no free trial to de-risk the commitment.
What the quote buys is breadth. Background checks, one-way video interviews, reference checks and interview transcription are native, and AI features sit on every plan rather than the top tier. Onboarding is a paid add-on and API access is Enterprise-only. Pick Pinpoint when employer brand and candidate experience are the brief, and get the quote in writing before you compare it with the published prices here.
What we like
- AI job description generator, AI bias detection and candidate-side AI chat included on every plan
- Background checks, one-way video interviews, reference checks and interview transcription are native, not add-ons
- No feature gates by tier: every plan gets the same feature set
- Strong candidate experience with a careers-site CMS and multilingual flows
Watch out for
- No public rate card: every quote is custom, based on company size and hiring volume
- Annual contracts only, with no month-to-month option and no free trial
- Onboarding is a paid add-on and API access waits for the Enterprise tier
Greenhouse
Best for: Teams that want structured, scalable hiring processes and are ready to pay for the category standard
Greenhouse is the structured-hiring standard: interview kits, scorecards and a hiring methodology that growing teams build their process around. It sells three plans, Core, Plus and Pro, each custom-quoted; buyer-reported figures put Core typically from about $5,000 to $6,500 a year for teams under 100 employees, with year-one spend often landing higher once hiring managers and interviewers are added as seats.
The per-seat model is the cost to watch. Every recruiter, hiring manager and interviewer who needs access counts as a seat, so the quote grows with the team, not just the hiring volume. Texting and sourcing automation start at Plus, while the audit log and developer sandbox sit in Pro only. Implementation typically takes one to three months. Buy Greenhouse when structured hiring is the goal and the budget allows a sales conversation.
What we like
- The structured-hiring standard: interview kits, scorecards and a hiring methodology teams trust
- The largest review base in this list at 4.4 out of 5 from 4,063 G2 reviews
- 99 integrations spanning LinkedIn Recruiter, Gem, scheduling tools and HR systems
- Sourcing CRM, scheduling and reporting in the same platform on Core
Watch out for
- No published prices: every contract is custom-quoted after a demo
- Per-seat pricing means every recruiter, hiring manager and interviewer counts as a seat
- Implementation typically takes one to three months, longer than the self-serve tools here
The best ats software for small business hiring does one job well: it posts the role everywhere candidates look, keeps every applicant in one pipeline, and reminds you who to follow up with, without charging enterprise prices for the privilege. We ranked the ten tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a small US business hiring a handful of roles a year — starting with the free plans and ending with the custom-quote platforms, and every price was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 6, 2026.
How to choose the best ats software for small business
- Count your open jobs first. Breezy HR Bootstrap and Zoho Recruit Forever Free each cover one active job; JazzHR Hero covers 3, Recruitee Start 5, and Manatal Professional 15. The cap you hit first is your real starting price.
- Count the people who touch hiring. Per-seat tools like Zoho Recruit and Manatal charge for every recruiter, while Breezy HR, JazzHR, Workable and Recruitee include unlimited users at the entry price.
- Check the pricing model, not just the number. Flat monthly, per-seat, per-employee and headcount-based pricing behave very differently as you grow — a $299 headcount plan costs the same in a quiet year as a busy one.
- Decide whether the careers page matters. Homerun and Pinpoint sell the candidate experience as the product; if your careers page is a plain job list today, that upgrade is worth real money.
- Ask what the trial actually covers. Trials run 14 to 21 days here, and some disable job-board posting or outbound email during the trial, so test with a real role, not a demo job.
Hiring is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the business also needs candidates to find it online, our guide to recruitment marketing platforms covers the attraction side. And before you publish the careers page for the roles you are hiring for, 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 a real role before you pay. The free plans and trials in this list are long enough to run one genuine hire — your job post, your pipeline, your hiring managers — and that hire tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that applications flow in from the job boards without manual copying, and that your hiring managers can review candidates without needing a paid seat. Every tool here that charges per seat still lets interview-only users in free or cheap, so there is no reason to buy before the team has looked at it.
ATS software for small business pricing: what you will actually pay
Take a 10-person company with three people involved in hiring, filling about six roles a year. On annual billing, the subscription costs $540 a year on Manatal (3 users at $15 each), $900 on Zoho Recruit Standard (3 recruiters at $25 each), $1,000 on JazzHR Hero, $1,884 on Breezy HR Startup ($157 a month), $3,240 on Ashby Foundations with the 10% annual discount ($270 a month) and $3,588 on Workable Standard ($299 a month). Homerun Core adds about €1,308 a year (€109 a month billed annually), before Dutch VAT. Pinpoint and Greenhouse need a quote, so they sit outside this math.
Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real. First, Zoho Recruit Standard allows 10 active jobs per recruiter license, so three licenses cover 30 jobs — far more than six roles a year, which means a one-license Zoho setup at $300 a year would cover this company if only one person runs hiring. Second, JazzHR Hero covers only 3 open jobs at a time, so six roles a year works only if they are filled one after another, never in parallel.
Over a year, the same three people and the same six hires cost $540 at the cheap end and $3,588 at the dear end — a $3,048 gap that comes entirely from pricing models and billing choices, not from features. The per-seat tools are cheapest for a small hiring team and dearest as the team grows; the flat-rate tools cost the same whether two people or ten touch the pipeline.
Three costs sit outside every number above. First, the add-ons: texting, video interviews, e-signature and assessments are paid extras on Breezy HR, JazzHR and Workable, and typically add $60 to $200 a month when switched on. Second, job-board spend: sponsored postings on Indeed and LinkedIn are charged per posting or per click, not per month. Third, the quote-only tools: Pinpoint and Greenhouse both need annual contracts, and buyer-reported figures put Pinpoint Growth from about $345 a month and Greenhouse Core from about $5,000 to $6,500 a year for small teams.
Know the difference: an ATS vs a job board vs a recruiting agency
The confusion in this category is between three things that do different jobs. A job board is where candidates find your role — Indeed, LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter charge per posting or per click, and they send you applicants. An ATS is where you manage those applicants after they arrive: pipeline stages, interview scheduling, scorecards and hiring history. A recruiting agency does the finding and the managing for you, and charges a fee per hire, typically 15 to 25 percent of the first year's salary.
There is a second, quieter confusion: an ATS is not an HR system. Workable and Homerun bundle light HR features — onboarding, time off, e-signatures — but most tools here stop at hiring. If you need payroll, benefits and employee records in the same subscription, that is a different list, and buying an ATS for that job leaves you paying for a second system anyway.
A third distinction worth knowing is sourcing versus tracking. Tracking is what every tool here does: applications come in, you move them through stages. Sourcing is going out and finding candidates who never applied — LinkedIn Recruiter searches, talent pools, AI matching. Manatal, Workable and Ashby put real sourcing on the entry plan; on Breezy HR, JazzHR and Recruitee, the deeper sourcing features wait for a higher tier or a paid add-on. If most of your hires come from inbound applications, tracking is enough. If you hunt for every hire, pay for sourcing.
Quick comparison: tool type by need
| Buyer | Best pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Solo founder hiring one role | Breezy HR | Free Bootstrap plan, one active job, unlimited users |
| Cheapest paid ATS | Zoho Recruit | Standard is $25 per recruiter a month billed annually |
| Steady hiring on a flat price | JazzHR | Hero is $1,000 a year (about $83 a month), unlimited users |
| AI sourcing on a budget | Manatal | AI parsing and sourcing from $15 per user a month billed annually |
| Careers page matters most | Homerun | Best-designed careers pages, from €109 a month billed annually |
| Hiring plus light HR in one | Workable | ATS plus onboarding and time off from $299 a month billed annually |
Mistakes to avoid
- Budgeting on the annual price while paying monthly. The monthly rate is 17 to 24 percent higher on most tools here — Breezy HR Startup is $189 monthly against $157 annual, and JazzHR Hero is $1,000 a year, billed annually only. Compare tools on the billing term you will actually use.
- Buying on the free plan, then finding the second role costs $157 a month. Breezy HR Bootstrap and Zoho Recruit Forever Free each cover one active job. The moment two roles run at once, you are on a paid plan.
- Ignoring the cap that bites first. A tool can be cheap and still be the wrong buy: JazzHR Hero at $1,000 a year is no bargain once you pass 3 open jobs, and Recruitee Start, priced by custom quote, is no bargain once you pass 5 job slots.
- Paying for seats nobody needs. On per-seat tools, every hiring manager who only reviews candidates still counts. Check whether interview-only users are free — on Ashby they are — before buying seats for the whole team.
- Skipping the quote tools without asking. Pinpoint and Greenhouse look expensive because they publish no price, but a small team that hires constantly can negotiate a quote below the published prices of the mid-tier tools. Get the number in writing before you rule them out.
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 small US business hiring a handful of roles a year — not by brand size. Two figures are not vendor-published prices: Pinpoint's Growth figure of about $345 a month and Greenhouse Core's range of about $5,000 to $6,500 a year come from buyer-reported data, and we say so wherever they appear. Zoho Recruit's dollar figures are the vendor's published rates as read from its pricing page in October 2026 reads and confirmed by G2's vendor-supplied pricing ($30 a month for Standard); the page's price widget did not render in our November 6 crawl, though its plan names, job limits and free-plan terms did. Ratings come from the G2 review pages, except Pinpoint, whose G2 listing is a different product, so we used its Capterra page instead. 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 hire through it. Check that applications flow in from the job boards, the pipeline matches how your team actually decides, and hiring managers can review candidates without a paid seat 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 SEO companies for small business. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.
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Get a free audit→Sources we checked (20)
- Breezy HR pricing — breezy.hr/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Zoho Recruit pricing — zoho.com/recruit/pricing.html (checked November 6, 2026)
- JazzHR pricing — jazzhr.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Manatal pricing — manatal.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Homerun pricing — homerun.co/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Workable pricing — workable.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Recruitee pricing — recruitee.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Ashby pricing — ashbyhq.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Pinpoint pricing — pinpointhq.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Greenhouse pricing — greenhouse.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Breezy HR reviews — g2.com/products/breezy-hr/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
- Zoho Recruit reviews — g2.com/products/zoho-recruit/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
- JazzHR reviews — g2.com/products/jazz-co/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
- Manatal reviews — g2.com/products/manatal/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
- Homerun reviews — g2.com/products/homerun/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
- Workable reviews — g2.com/products/workable/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
- Recruitee reviews — g2.com/products/recruitee/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
- Ashby reviews — g2.com/products/ashby-ashby/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
- Pinpoint reviews — capterra.co.uk/software/174069/pinpoint (checked November 6, 2026)
- Greenhouse reviews — g2.com/products/greenhouse/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
Shamim
Founder of SerpAstra
A full-stack SEO and digital marketer who spends most days on Local SEO for dental practices, AI search visibility and lead generation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best ATS software for small business?
Breezy HR is the best fit for most small businesses: free for one job, then $157 a month billed annually with unlimited users. Zoho Recruit is the cheapest paid option at $25 per recruiter a month billed annually, and JazzHR is the best flat-rate pick at $1,000 a year, billed annually only.
How much does ATS software for a small business cost?
Entry prices run from $0 to $300 a month. Breezy HR and Zoho Recruit both have free plans, and the first paid plans cost $15 to $83 a month on annual billing. A three-person hiring team typically pays $540 to $3,588 a year for the subscription alone, before job-board and add-on fees.
Is there really free ATS software for small businesses?
Yes, with limits. Breezy HR Bootstrap is free for one active job with unlimited users, and Zoho Recruit Forever Free covers one active job and one recruiter. Both are real applicant tracking systems, not trials, but a second simultaneous role means paying for a plan.
What is the difference between an ATS and a job board?
A job board is where candidates find your role; an ATS is where you manage them after they apply. Job boards like Indeed charge per posting or per click, while an ATS organizes applications into pipelines, schedules interviews and keeps hiring history. Most tools here post to job boards from inside the ATS.
Do I need an ATS if I only hire a few people a year?
Yes, if hiring is spread across email and spreadsheets today. A free plan from Breezy HR or Zoho Recruit covers one role at a time at $0, and the pipeline, reminders and interview scheduling save hours even on a single hire. Pay for a plan only when you run several roles at once.
Can I switch ATS software later?
Yes, but plan the move between hiring rounds. Export your candidate database, job templates and pipeline stages from the old tool, then import them into the new one and check that applications, notes and interview history carried over before you close the old account. Switching mid-hire means running two systems at once.
What should a small business look for in an ATS?
Start with the limit that bites first: open-job caps, per-seat pricing or headcount bands. Then check job-board distribution, interview scheduling, a branded careers page and AI screening. Finally, confirm the trial length and whether texting, e-signature and assessments are included or paid add-ons.
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