Hire top talent for your startup with an applicant tracking system

Lavanya Bhatt

Lavanya Bhatt

Customer Success Manager

August 28, 2024

3 min

Talent is the lifeblood of a startup, but it’s not always easy to find. There’s no magic wand to wave that will put the top candidates in front of you, ready to accept your offer. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t tools that can make the hiring process much easier, for both your hiring team and your candidates.

An applicant tracking system, or ATS, helps organize your hiring process and track candidates through the recruiting journey. But there are a lot of ATS options out there. How do you find the right one for your startup? In today’s article, we’ll highlight some of the top ATS and recruiting platforms available today, so you can narrow down your decision. 

Talent is the lifeblood of a startup, but it’s not always easy to find. There’s no magic wand to wave that will put the top candidates in front of you, ready to accept your offer. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t tools that can make the hiring process much easier, for both your hiring team and your candidates.

An applicant tracking system, or ATS, helps organize your hiring process and track candidates through the recruiting journey. But there are a lot of ATS options out there. How do you find the right one for your startup? In today’s article, we’ll highlight some of the top ATS and recruiting platforms available today, so you can narrow down your decision. 

Top ATS & Recruiting Software Companies

Top ATS & Recruiting Software Companies

Ideally, your ATS solution gives you an all-in-one platform to manage your company's hiring process while also fitting your budget. Here are some software companies that could fit those parameters for your startup:

1. Lever

1. Lever

First up is Lever, which promises to help with your hiring quality and efficiency by way of its LeverTRM ATS + CRM platform. Some top features highlighted by Lever include:

  • Repeatable results - Lever offers tools to streamline your recruiting process and bring in quality candidates in a scalable and repeatable way.

  • Ease of use - They offer a user-friendly platform that gives you an easy-to-navigate dashboard to access information and data about the candidates in your hiring pipeline.

  • Automation - Lever offers custom automation workflows to eliminate tedious recruiting and hiring tasks, making the process more efficient while also reducing the workload for the HR team.

  • Built-in nurturing functionality - They offer preset nurture campaign templates to keep employees engaged. Personalize messaging to reach out to candidates and boost hiring conversion rates.

  • Actionable data - Access talent analytics to drill down on recent and historical recruiting performance and hiring metrics to find ways to optimize your hiring strategy.

  • Get candidate feedback - Send custom surveys to candidates after recruitment to learn ways to improve your hiring strategy and make the process better for potential talent.

Lever’s pricing data isn’t readily available, but you can reach out for a free quote. Lever offers their standard platform and an enterprise platform with additional features and functionalities.

2. Dover (free ATS for startups)

2. Dover (free ATS for startups)

Sure, we may be biased, but we think Dover is one of the absolute best ATS solutions for startups. Here are some of our top features to help you with recruiting and hiring:

  • Set up in minutes - Dover isn’t complicated to use. You can get set up and start finding top candidates in just minutes.

  • Harness the power of AI - Dover has powerful AI to help you with nearly every part of your hiring process. You can easily sort through candidates with our sophisticated AI resume-scoring system. You can generate career pages or job descriptions. Automate some of the most tedious recruiting tasks to hire in a fraction of the time.

  • Unlimited jobs - Get unlimited jobs and advertise your open jobs to over 50 job boards with just one click.

  • Easy collaboration - Collaborate with your hiring team and communicate about candidates every step of the way.

  • Comprehensive tracking - Track candidates from application to hire. Our platform helps you make sure top talent never slips through the cracks again in one centralized and user-friendly dashboard.

Dover’s ATS is completely free to use. With our free ATS, you get unlimited jobs, candidate tracking, AI-powered applicant sorting, job board integration and an onboarding call with our top-notch support team.

3. Ashby

Ashby is an all-in-one recruiting platform that offers help to companies of all sizes to improve their hiring process. Some top features highlighted by them include:

  • One-click sourcing - Ashby makes it easy to extend your talent pipeline through automated sourcing emails. Increase your response rate and talk to more qualified candidates.

  • Speedy scheduling - They offer tools to help you schedule interviews 2x faster, making it easier to keep the hiring process going and avoid missing out on candidates.

  • Candidate tracking - Ashby provides an intuitive, color-coded pipeline to keep track of all candidates throughout every step of their hiring journey.

  • Easy integrations - They offer integration with top tools like Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack and more to keep your hiring data in one place.

  • Scalability - Ashby scales with your company as you grow, offering multiple pricing tiers to fit your needs.

Ashby offers its Foundations tier for companies with 1-100 employees. Pricing starts at $300 per month for 1-10 employees and goes up to $900 per month for 76-100 employees. For companies with more than 100 employees, you can get in touch for a quote.

4. Zoho Recruit

Zoho Recruit is a cloud-based hiring platform that offers companies a suite of tools to hire for the roles they need. Some top features highlighted by them include:

  • All-in-one ATS and CRM - Zoho Recruit is an all-in-one talent acquisition platform that offers both an ATS and CRM for staffing agencies and HR teams.

  • Automated features -They offer automation tools for every step of the candidate journey – from sourcing to communication.

  • Easy sourcing - Zoho Recruit offers one-click sourcing, making it easy to post on numerous job boards.

  • Tracking candidates - They give you the tools to track every hiring stage, so you can make sure candidates are moving smoothly through the hiring process.

  • Advanced analytics - Zoho Recruit offers advanced analytics to understand and optimize your recruiting process.

Zoho Recruit offers a basic tier with one active job for free. This limited tier comes with candidate management, interview scheduling and email management features. The other priced tiers range from $25 per user per month to $75 per user per month.

5. JazzHR

JazzHR describes itself as a powerful recruiting software for small businesses. Some of the top features highlighted by them include:

  • Automate repetitive tasks - JazzHR gives you the tools to automate time-consuming manual tasks and streamline your hiring pipeline. 

  • Unlimited jobs and users - They offer unlimited jobs and users without additional fees or channel restrictions, allowing you to broaden your reach and field many top-quality candidates.

  • Easy implementation - JazzHR touts easy setup and implementation into your current hiring processes so you can get started as soon as possible.

  • Simple configuration - They offer custom configurations to tailor your platform to your company’s hiring needs.

  • Direct integrations - JazzHR offers direct integrations with other HR tools to make your recruiting stack more well-rounded.

JazzHR offers its basic tier for $75 per month, though this only allows for 3 active jobs with a cost of $9 per additional job. Unlimited job tiers range from $269 to $420 per month with the options for additional add-ons like candidate texting, Zoom integrations, E-signatures and more.

6. Workable

Workable is a comprehensive recruiting and management platform for hiring, onboarding and managing team members. Some of the top features highlighted by them include:

  • Sourcing candidates - One-click job posting to over 200 sites and AI-assisted sourcing to find candidates quickly.

  • Easy collaboration - Workable makes it simple to collaborate with hiring teams and get feedback on different applicants to find who should move to the next steps of the hiring process.

  • Automated hiring tools - Automate manual tasks like applicant approvals, interview scheduling and more.

  • Custom onboarding experiences - Workable gives you tools to customize the onboarding experience for new employees with features like e-signatures and employee information profiles.

  • Track HR processes - Use analytics and tracking tools to get a more comprehensive view of HR processes.

Workable offers its Starter tier for up to 20 employees for $189 per month. The upper tiers can range from $318 to over $3,000 per month depending on the number of employees you have and premium features you add on.

Workable is a comprehensive recruiting and management platform for hiring, onboarding and managing team members. Some of the top features highlighted by them include:

  • Sourcing candidates - One-click job posting to over 200 sites and AI-assisted sourcing to find candidates quickly.

  • Easy collaboration - Workable makes it simple to collaborate with hiring teams and get feedback on different applicants to find who should move to the next steps of the hiring process.

  • Automated hiring tools - Automate manual tasks like applicant approvals, interview scheduling and more.

  • Custom onboarding experiences - Workable gives you tools to customize the onboarding experience for new employees with features like e-signatures and employee information profiles.

  • Track HR processes - Use analytics and tracking tools to get a more comprehensive view of HR processes.

Workable offers its Starter tier for up to 20 employees for $189 per month. The upper tiers can range from $318 to over $3,000 per month depending on the number of employees you have and premium features you add on.

Workable is a comprehensive recruiting and management platform for hiring, onboarding and managing team members. Some of the top features highlighted by them include:

  • Sourcing candidates - One-click job posting to over 200 sites and AI-assisted sourcing to find candidates quickly.

  • Easy collaboration - Workable makes it simple to collaborate with hiring teams and get feedback on different applicants to find who should move to the next steps of the hiring process.

  • Automated hiring tools - Automate manual tasks like applicant approvals, interview scheduling and more.

  • Custom onboarding experiences - Workable gives you tools to customize the onboarding experience for new employees with features like e-signatures and employee information profiles.

  • Track HR processes - Use analytics and tracking tools to get a more comprehensive view of HR processes.

Workable offers its Starter tier for up to 20 employees for $189 per month. The upper tiers can range from $318 to over $3,000 per month depending on the number of employees you have and premium features you add on.

7. BreezyHR

BreezyHR is a modern hiring software and ATS that works for businesses of all sizes. Some top features highlighted by them include:

  • Single-click sourcing - BreezyHR helps more candidates see your job posting by advertising your job on over 50 top job sites.

  • Career site tools - They help you attract top talent with tools to build custom career sites.

  • Task automation - Automate tedious manual tasks like candidate pre-screening, emails, interview scheduling, collecting feedback and more.

  • Offer management and HRIS integrations - Easy integrations allow you to include your offer management and HRIS tools as part of BreezyHR’s hiring workflow.

  • Free Templates - BreezyHR offers over 800 HR and recruiting templates to improve your recruiting processes.

BreezyHR offers its basic tools for one position or pool for free. Other tiers range from $157 per month to $439 per month.

BreezyHR is a modern hiring software and ATS that works for businesses of all sizes. Some top features highlighted by them include:

  • Single-click sourcing - BreezyHR helps more candidates see your job posting by advertising your job on over 50 top job sites.

  • Career site tools - They help you attract top talent with tools to build custom career sites.

  • Task automation - Automate tedious manual tasks like candidate pre-screening, emails, interview scheduling, collecting feedback and more.

  • Offer management and HRIS integrations - Easy integrations allow you to include your offer management and HRIS tools as part of BreezyHR’s hiring workflow.

  • Free Templates - BreezyHR offers over 800 HR and recruiting templates to improve your recruiting processes.

BreezyHR offers its basic tools for one position or pool for free. Other tiers range from $157 per month to $439 per month.

BreezyHR is a modern hiring software and ATS that works for businesses of all sizes. Some top features highlighted by them include:

  • Single-click sourcing - BreezyHR helps more candidates see your job posting by advertising your job on over 50 top job sites.

  • Career site tools - They help you attract top talent with tools to build custom career sites.

  • Task automation - Automate tedious manual tasks like candidate pre-screening, emails, interview scheduling, collecting feedback and more.

  • Offer management and HRIS integrations - Easy integrations allow you to include your offer management and HRIS tools as part of BreezyHR’s hiring workflow.

  • Free Templates - BreezyHR offers over 800 HR and recruiting templates to improve your recruiting processes.

BreezyHR offers its basic tools for one position or pool for free. Other tiers range from $157 per month to $439 per month.

Why Startup Founders Choose Dover

You may have noticed by now that many applicant tracking systems offer many of the same features. It can make it pretty difficult to ultimately choose one, especially when some can cost hundreds or thousands per month. 

At Dover, we’ve set our ATS apart in a couple of key ways. Sure, we have best-in-class features and a user-friendly interface, but we also wanted to make sure our ATS specifically moved the hiring needle for startups. That’s why we:

  1. Make sure our ATS is free. The cost of an ATS can be exorbitant, and many startups may not have the funds to pay for them, despite the many benefits.

  2. Make sure our ATS is easy to use. Most ATS are difficult to configure and needlessly complex. This can sometimes work for big enterprises that have HR employees who can spend hours every day working on their ATS. Our ATS is ideal for startup founders and team members who want to spend less than an hour per week in their ATS, while also maximizing the benefits they get from it.

You don’t have to be a recruiting expert and you don’t have to spend a ton of money. Plus, you get all of the same features as the other ATS options out there. That’s why startups rely on Dover.

You may have noticed by now that many applicant tracking systems offer many of the same features. It can make it pretty difficult to ultimately choose one, especially when some can cost hundreds or thousands per month. 

At Dover, we’ve set our ATS apart in a couple of key ways. Sure, we have best-in-class features and a user-friendly interface, but we also wanted to make sure our ATS specifically moved the hiring needle for startups. That’s why we:

  1. Make sure our ATS is free. The cost of an ATS can be exorbitant, and many startups may not have the funds to pay for them, despite the many benefits.

  2. Make sure our ATS is easy to use. Most ATS are difficult to configure and needlessly complex. This can sometimes work for big enterprises that have HR employees who can spend hours every day working on their ATS. Our ATS is ideal for startup founders and team members who want to spend less than an hour per week in their ATS, while also maximizing the benefits they get from it.

You don’t have to be a recruiting expert and you don’t have to spend a ton of money. Plus, you get all of the same features as the other ATS options out there. That’s why startups rely on Dover.

You may have noticed by now that many applicant tracking systems offer many of the same features. It can make it pretty difficult to ultimately choose one, especially when some can cost hundreds or thousands per month. 

At Dover, we’ve set our ATS apart in a couple of key ways. Sure, we have best-in-class features and a user-friendly interface, but we also wanted to make sure our ATS specifically moved the hiring needle for startups. That’s why we:

  1. Make sure our ATS is free. The cost of an ATS can be exorbitant, and many startups may not have the funds to pay for them, despite the many benefits.

  2. Make sure our ATS is easy to use. Most ATS are difficult to configure and needlessly complex. This can sometimes work for big enterprises that have HR employees who can spend hours every day working on their ATS. Our ATS is ideal for startup founders and team members who want to spend less than an hour per week in their ATS, while also maximizing the benefits they get from it.

You don’t have to be a recruiting expert and you don’t have to spend a ton of money. Plus, you get all of the same features as the other ATS options out there. That’s why startups rely on Dover.

Try Dover’s ATS for startups today! 

Our ATS is completely free to use. Ready to learn how Dover can help improve your hiring pipeline and bring you more top hires? Sign up and get started with Dover today.

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Table of contents

Top ATS & Recruiting Software Companies

1. Lever

2. Dover (free ATS for startups)

3. Ashby

3. Ashby

4. Zoho Recruit

4. Zoho Recruit

4. Zoho Recruit

4. Zoho Recruit

4. Zoho Recruit

4. Zoho Recruit

4. Zoho Recruit

4. Zoho Recruit

4. Zoho Recruit

4. Zoho Recruit

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