Best applicant tracking systems for small businesses
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An applicant tracking system, or ATS, is a type of recruiting software designed to streamline the entire hiring process — from creating the job spec and advert to hiring the ideal candidate.
But finding the best ATS for your small business can be a real mission. And that’s because there’s no single ATS that offers the same experience for every type of business.
As a Senior Product Manager at Charlie, I was in charge of the development of our ATS (Applicant Tracking System) tailored to integrate seamlessly with our HR software for small businesses. This involved extensive research into competitor offerings to identify areas where we could be better.
The insights from that research are all in this guide to give you a comprehensive comparison and help you choose the best ATS for your needs. If you're a small business considering an ATS, this guide is a great place to start.
And before you dive in, check out our own solution!
Top 6 applicant tracking systems
Best applicant tracking software for small businesses – easy and seamless hiring
Whether you're a CEO, founder, director, or manager balancing multiple roles, or whether you're looking to upgrade from your current ATS to one better suited for your small business, Charlie Recruit is here to help.
We’ve built a tool for small businesses who need a simple and intuitive platform to streamline their recruitment process, and make better hiring decisions:
Streamline your hiring process – manage everything in one place and set up automation triggers to save time on administrative tasks.
Find the perfect fit – leverage match scoring to quickly identify the best candidates for your open roles.
Make informed decisions – use scorecards to fairly evaluate candidates based on the skills for each position.
Promote fair hiring – activate blind hiring to anonymise CVs and ensure decisions are based solely on competence.
Simplify interview scheduling – sync multiple calendars so candidates can choose their interview slot.
Customise your careers page – create and personalise your own careers page to advertise roles and post them to job boards.
Hire and onboard seamlessly – draft and send offer letters with AI, and seamlessly onboard candidates moved to the “hired” stage to Charlie’s HR software after getting contracts E-signed.
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You’re a startup or small business under 60 people
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You’re a large, international business
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You want your ATS to help you streamline your process
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You want to grow your candidates pipeline
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You need to have everything in one place, no need for other platforms
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You’re hiring several candidates each week
Pricing
- Starts at £55 a month based on the size of your team
- Includes all our hiring features
- No hidden fees
Best applicant tracking software for small companies – mobile app
BambooHR’s applicant tracking system, available with the Advantage plan, offers three main tabs to manage job openings, candidates, and candidate pools.
The ATS also includes reporting and analytics to track metrics like time-to-hire. One of BambooHR’s standout features is its mobile app, which allows you to post new job ads and manage your hiring pipeline on the go.
This makes it an excellent choice for businesses that need to stay on top of their hiring, especially when doing it quickly and reviewing numerous applications while on the move.
Get BambooHR Hiring mobile app for hiring on-the-go and at anytime
Collaborate as a team through the platform and in real time
Post your jobs on the most popular job posting platforms including LinkedIn and Indeed
Have access to a lot of reports and analytics related to your hiring so you can make the best decisions going forward
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You need to be able to have access to your hiring at anytime
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You don’t really need to get a mobile app to deal with hiring
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You’re based in the United States or are a big UK company
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You’re smaller than 50 employees and based in the UK
Pricing
Pricing on request. Companies with more than 25 employees are charged on a per-employee/per-month basis, and those with fewer than 25 are charged a monthly flat rate.
Best applicant tracking software for small businesses – best for recruitment agencies
Teamtailor is a user-friendly, candidate-focused platform that equips you with all the tools needed for efficient recruitment. It offers features like automated triggers, advanced analytics, AI-driven processes, anonymous hiring, customizable recruitment workflows, and a simple career site builder.
The generative AI assistant, co-pilot, powered by the same technology behind ChatGPT, is especially valuable for recruitment agencies, helping them save time when using an ATS to hire on behalf of other companies.
AI assistant to write job descriptions, get interview questions and summaries, summary of resumes, draft comms and summarise content
Capacity for hiring several thousand people
Personalised dashboard for every user
Collaboration made easier
Understand pipeline conversion with easy visuals and improve the way you attract candidates
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You’re a recruiter/recruitment company
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You’re just planning to use a recruiter, but are not a recruitment company
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You have to recruit people regularly
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You’re looking for a simple tool
Pricing
You’ll need to contact their team for a quote.
Best applicant tracking software for small businesses – recruit internationally
Workable ATS is a powerful tool for global hiring teams. The AI Recruiter instantly lists the top passive candidates for every role via a search of 400+ million profiles, and launches instant social media campaigns.
Although you’re a small business, it’s possible you’re looking for people based outside of the country you operate in, depending on which language you’d like to add to your product, etc. Perhaps that’s where Workable can come in handy.
Post to 200+ global jobs sites, in dozens of languages
Supports recruiting for any work arrangement, such as hybrid, remote or office based
Use a language kit to recruit in many other languages - English, French, German, Spanish, Greek and Portuguese – without the need for someone to translate
Search more than 400 million global candidate profiles by industry, experience and location
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You’re a large company
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You recruit solely in the UK
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You recruit globally
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You have a limited budget
Pricing
Choose from three different packages, depending on your business needs:
- For occasional hiring and essential HR, with up to 50 employees - the Starter package at $149USD/month
- For consistent hiring and enhanced HR - the Standard package starting at $313USD/month for 1 - 20 employees
- For strategic hiring and HR - the Premier package starting at $628USD/month for 1 - 20 employees.
Best applicant tracking software for small businesses – attract as many candidates as possible
GoHire is designed for those looking to attract a high volume of candidates. While drawing in many applicants is beneficial, it can be overwhelming if you have a limited team to screen CVs.
That’s why a reliable tool is essential to ensure the process is managed effectively. If you’re trying to fill a challenging role, GoHire could be the right solution for you.
Effortlessly post on multiple job boards to attract the perfect candidates
Gather all your applications in one convenient place for easy sorting
Enhance your visibility by adding a career page to draw even more talent to your job postings
Seamlessly schedule calls with candidates directly through the platform for a smooth recruitment process
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You’re looking to post on as many sites as possible
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You’re looking for an intuitive platform
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You want an easy tool to use and a customisable pipeline
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You want to cut time and build automated flows
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You’re looking to build an anonymised and fairer process
Pricing
GoHire offers different packages with different inclusions. The first package starts at £89 per month for 3 job postings and including all standard features (no screening questions and customisable pipelines).
Best applicant tracking software for small businesses – top-notch candidate experience
Rippling’s ATS integrates with payroll and will even calculate and submit your payroll taxes.
Plus, your employees can view their payslips through the mobile app.
Post and promote open roles across 1,000+ large and job boards in specific niches
Think about bias with features that include reminders for inclusive practices and take-home practice tests
Allow for 19 languages to be available on the platform and 6 languages for the interview experience
Have candidates record the correct pronunciation of their name + add their pronouns
Integrate take-home tests, background checks, e-signatures and more
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You need a seamless experience with many languages and options
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You want simpler options when it comes to blind hiring
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You need a platform that’s completely customisable
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You want a tool that doesn’t need a long and complicated setup
Pricing
Greenhouse doesn’t have pricing available on their website, so you’ll need to book a demo with a sales representative to get a quote.
Written by:
Jenny Tattum
Jenny is a Senior Product Manager at CharlieHR. She has years of experience with product planning and development, and user research too – she put together this guide by collecting data and information on competitors so we could improve our product and tailor it to small business owners.
FAQs
Applicant tracking systems (ATS) streamline your hiring process by guiding each candidate through a manageable workflow. ATS are invaluable for digging into resumes, ensuring candidates progress through each stage of your hiring process, and automating tasks like emails and interview invitations to reduce your time to hire.
They significantly reduce administrative work, helping you make more informed hiring decisions.
Small businesses often have tighter budgets than larger companies, making it challenging to understand when is the right time to invest in an ATS. Instead of asking, "How long can I manage without an ATS?" the real question should be "What advantages will an ATS bring to my recruitment process?"
At Charlie, we believe an ATS is a natural extension of your existing HR software, enabling you to free up valuable time, give a professional image, and have a more efficient hiring process.
For those handling HR and recruitment tasks alongside other responsibilities, an ATS can be a game-changer by automating and streamlining key tasks. Here’s how:
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Save time by eliminating back-and-forth emails with candidates.
- Automatically match with the right candidates, reducing the need to sift through countless CVs.
- Access ready-made templates or use AI to draft candidate comms such as interview invitation emails and job offer letters.
- Trigger automations as candidates progress through the interview stages.
- Add e-signatures and seamlessly integrate your hiring process into onboarding.
- Ensure fair hiring with automated blind hiring and scorecards that simplify decision-making.
By leveraging an ATS, you can delegate many of these tasks to an automated system, allowing you to focus on what matters most.
No one applicant tracking system is going to be the best for every type of business. And that’s because different businesses have different needs.
It’s more advantageous to identify the ATS that’s designed to deliver the right solutions for the work you do — whether you’re small or large, international or UK-based.
Small businesses can benefit hugely from an all-in-one HR tool that offers more than just ATS. The automated workflow that not only streamlines and simplifies the hiring process, but also onboards your new employees. Removing both the guesswork and the paperwork!
Costs of applicant tracking systems in the UK vary significantly depending on what they do and the sort of businesses they’re built for.
Workable’s pricing ranges from $149/month for the Starter plan (up to 50 employees) to $3,193/month on Premier plan if you have over 250 employees. After that, pricing is on request – if you’re looking for software that has a lot of functionalities, then perhaps it’s the right pricing for you.
Compare that with Charlie, which is built for small businesses offers an ATS that’s simple, but efficient, and you reduce your costs. Charlie’s pricing starts at £55 a month for smaller teams.
Simpler hiring for small teams
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