Recruiting software, compared on published prices
Every price on these pages is the vendor's published list price, read on 2026-09-02, with the source linked. Where a vendor does not publish a rate, that is said rather than guessed. Digital Arrow is $189 per month flat at the Growth tier for up to 60 accounts, including timesheets, client invoicing and placement margin.
Agency ATS and CRM
Sold to staffing and recruitment firms placing people with clients. Almost all price per user, per month.
Bullhorn alternative
$99/user Starter, $165/user Core; back office quoted separately
Bullhorn is the reference point for staffing software and has been for twenty years. It is bought for depth, for its integration marketplace, and because procurement teams already recognise the name. It is priced accordingly, on a per-user annual contract, with the modules a contract-staffing firm needs quoted on top.
Loxo alternative
Core from $149/user, Professional from $199/user; Basic reported at $169/user
Loxo's strength is the front of the funnel: sourcing, contact data and AI-assisted outreach in the same product as the ATS. It is priced per user, and its Professional tier — the one that unlocks the sourcing agents — is quoted rather than published.
Recruiterflow alternative
$149/user monthly, $119/user on annual billing
Recruiterflow is built around recruiter workflow: sequences, pipeline automation and client management for search and perm agencies. Its pricing is per user, published, and discounted for annual commitment.
JobAdder alternative
Reported from ~$160/user; quote only · quote only
JobAdder is a long-established recruitment platform, strongest in Australia and the UK, with a large integration marketplace. Its commercial model is quote-based, so a like-for-like comparison depends on the offer you are given.
Manatal alternative
$15/user
Manatal competes on price and on being quick to adopt. It is an applicant tracking system with AI candidate recommendations, sold per user at a rate no other established vendor matches.
Recruit CRM alternative
~$99/user
Recruit CRM is a mid-market agency platform covering candidate and client management for perm and contract recruiting, sold per user with published rates.
Zoho Recruit alternative
Free (1 job) to $75/user Staffing Agency Enterprise
Zoho Recruit is the recruiting product inside the wider Zoho suite. Its appeal is price and the fact that it sits alongside Zoho CRM, Books and the rest of the stack.
In-house applicant tracking
Built for employers hiring their own staff. Listed because they come up in the same searches, though they do not cover agency back office.
Workable alternative
~$299/month, plus add-ons to ~$556
Workable is one of the best-known corporate applicant tracking systems, strong on job board distribution and structured hiring. It is not an agency product: there is no bill-rate-against-pay-rate model in a corporate ATS, because a corporate hiring team has no client to bill.
Recruitee alternative
€301/month base plan
Recruitee is built around collaborative hiring: careers pages, structured pipelines and getting hiring managers involved. It is a corporate ATS, sold to employers rather than to agencies.
Questions
What is the cheapest recruiting software for a staffing agency?
On published rates checked September 2026, Manatal is the lowest per-user price at $15 per user per month. Digital Arrow is flat rather than per user, at $49, $189 and $499 per month, so it is cheaper than any per-seat product above roughly thirteen users — and it includes timesheets, client invoicing and placement margin, which applicant tracking systems generally do not.
Which recruiting software includes timesheets and invoicing?
Digital Arrow includes timesheets, client invoicing, placements with bill and pay rates, and margin reporting in every paid plan from $49 per month. Bullhorn offers equivalent back-office functionality as a separately priced module reported at $30–50 per user per month on top of a $165 Core seat. Corporate applicant tracking systems such as Workable and Recruitee do not cover agency back office at all.
How much does agency recruiting software cost per user?
Published 2026 rates run from $15 per user per month at Manatal, through roughly $99 at Recruit CRM and Bullhorn Starter, $149 at Recruiterflow and Loxo Core, to $165–169 at Bullhorn Core and Loxo Basic. JobAdder and the higher Bullhorn and Loxo tiers are quote-only. Digital Arrow does not charge per user.
What is the difference between agency recruiting software and an in-house ATS?
An agency places people with client companies and bills those clients for their time, so it needs bill rates, pay rates, timesheets, client invoices and margin. An in-house applicant tracking system serves an employer hiring its own staff, which has no client to invoice, so products like Workable and Recruitee do not model any of it.
Product names are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to identify the products being compared. Digital Arrow is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Vendors change pricing; check theirs before deciding.