5 Free or Affordable Recruiting Software Systems
6 Free or Affordable Recruiting Software Systems
Whether you are a self-employed recruiter starting out, a small recruiting agency or an SME you will soon reach the point where you will need to change from your Excel-driven recruitment software to start using one of the many low-cost applicant tracking systems on the market.
This can be a challenging data migration and business re-engineering project requiring commitment and discipline but the rewards are high as a good recruitment software systems will automate many of the mundane and boring parts of the hiring process, such as CV sifting, (via CV Parsing) making it more efficient, and freeing you up to spend more time on the exciting parts of recruiting like interviewing, negotiation, and in the case of agency recruiter’s winning new business and acquiring more talent for your database.
But, of course, initially, you might not want to go all out and buy an expensive hiring system;, you might want to dip your toes in the water and fortunately you can do this by trying one of the following free or affordable recruiting software systems that are currently on the market.
6 Free or Affordable Recruitment Software Systems
hire great candidates. Here, we review and compare six of the best recruitment platforms for small businesses in 2025, with a focus on usability, features, and affordability.
1. Breezy HR – Best for Ease of Use
Ideal for: Companies hiring occasionally that need a simple, all-in-one platform
Breezy HR offers a beautifully simple interface and automation tools to move candidates through the pipeline with minimal hassle. Great for first-time ATS users.
Key Features:
- Drag-and-drop pipeline
- Interview scheduling
- Email templates and automation
- Team scoring and feedback
Pros: User-friendly, mobile-friendly, excellent support
Cons: Limited customization in lower-tier plans
Pricing: Free plan available; paid plans from approx. £49/month (USD $59)
2.Recruiteee ATS by Tellent is a web based, inexpensive applicant tracking system which enables companies to post to all the major free job boards with a single submission. Its a powerful ATS and comes with an inbuilt referral module so you can sources candidates using your staff’s contacts. There is an applicant tracking module, enabling you to track applicants at every stage of the hiring process. External email and calendars can be synchronized with recruitee so you can keep track of applicant communications and appointments. There is also a scorecard so you can rate applicants. Prices start at €49 euros a month.
Pricing: £147 month. 10 job slots. 15 jobs. $220 per month. £293 a mont 20 job slots.
Pros: Great customer service. Easy to use. Has all required features.
Cons: Approval workflow and automated processes. Price: not the cheapest
Try out Recruitee ATS by Tellent now.
3. Excel Applicant Tracking Systems. This smart, low cost applicant tracking system on Excel — loaded with macros and pivot tables — to track the status of the applicants (candidates) in a visible and organized manner. You can track application date, application source, dates of phone, 1st & 2nd interview, Offer date, hire date, rejection reasons, interview notes, phone number and more. The dashboard highlights key metrics such as the top reasons why candidates were not hired, along with other key metrics like time to hire and cost of hire and most popular hiring source. It’s GDPR friendly too as the personal data is stored on your machine not the cloud.
Pricing: At £99 one-off-payment is one of the cheapest applicant tracking systems on this list.
Pros: Easy to use.
Cons: Basic features. Little automation.
Click for more info or to try out StaffTRAK ATS now.
4.Manatal is cloud-based, recruiting software and low cost applicant tracking software tool with powerful features such as augmented candidate sourcing, allowing you to source talent from multiple channels, including Linked-In, social media, jobs boards, your own careers page and candidate referral. Comprehensive applicant tracking functionality includes candidate pipeline, holistic candidate profiles, customizable fields, integrations, API, CRM and search tools and much more. Other highlights include an AI-powered candidate scoring system and the ability for recruiters and hiring managers to collaborate within the system. Prices start at 15 USD per month per user and comes with a 14 day free trial.
Pricing: $15 per user month. 10,000 candidates. 15 jobs. $35 per user per month. Unlimited candidates an jobs. Enterprise plan prices on request.
Pros: Easy to use. Full featured, Can collaborate with clients through the system. Well-priced.
Cons: Boolean search functionality could be improved.
4.Gohire is another cloud-based, state-of-the-art applicant tracking system and affordable recruiting software system and pitches itself as the best recruitment platform for start-up and SMBs. Its GDPR compliant and comes with features such as Employer Branding, augmented multi-site job posting, an applicant tracking system and a neat interview scheduling tool. It also comes with a cool reporting architecture to support data-driven selection decisions. It’s UK based, but i currently used by over 2,500 companies all over the world. It comes with a 14-day free trial, and is competitively priced on a monthly subscription model with start-up and enterprise pricing packages available.
Pricing: £58 month. 3 Active Job Posts. £83 a month 10 active job posts. £165 a month Unlimited job posts. All grades have unlimited users.
Pros: intuitive interface. integrates with best jobs boards, heavily featured and constantly evolving.
Cons: Could do with more standard integrations with HR software
5.iSmartRecruit is an innovative, easy-to-use, and affordable ATS and CRM system that provides all the tools and features recruiters need to make more placements and achieve more significant ROI while providing a great applicant experience for candidates. With its free job promotion, powerful AI-based features, robust reporting, intelligent analytics, a modern design, and an easily customizable system, you can automate and simplify your day-to-day work and increase the overall quality of recruitment. Through the best ChatBot feature, you can connect with customers in a personal way without the expense of human representatives. You can also provide your candidates and clients with the best experience through our Self-Service Portals. Staring at $15 per user month means it is one of the more inexpensive applicant tracking systems on the market.
Pricing: $15 per user month. 10,000 candidates. 15 jobs. $35 per user per month. Unlimited candidates an jobs. Enterprise plan prices on request.
Pros: Easy to use. Great customer service. Constantly updating tool with new features,
Cons: Hardly any from what I can see. It would be nit-picking rely.
Explore the system on your own with their 14-day free trial.
6.Zoho Recruit. This is a powerful and fully featured free applicant tracking software (for up to 1 user) m and is one of the leading recruitment software systems on the market. It deserves its position as one of the low cost applicant tracking systems too as it has almost endless functionality to help you automate or streamline every process you could desire at an affordable price. End to end automation is a key feature of Zoho Recruit. From within the fully featured recruitment platform you can automate/streamline: uploading CVs/resumes, short-listing, the sourcing of candidates, sending offer letters, invoicing clients etc…
Pricing: free for 1 user and 20 customers. £39/month 3 users and 500 customers. £79 a month for 5 users and 2000 customers. £199 for 10 users and 5,000 customers.
Pros: secure, free recruitment platform with affordable freemium option, user-friendly and easy installation.
Cons: automation features is complicated implementation is not well documented
