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In a fast-paced hiring environment, recruiting software allows you concentrate on what matters most. All the backend organizing and busywork is taken off your plate so you can focus on the candidates in front of you.

From attracting top talent to onboarding new hires, having the best recruiting software will improve the entire process. Imagine how much better someone feels working for a company that brought them on with zero-stress or confusion.

There is no single solution that maps cleanly on to every company’s hiring process, however. A great tool in the wrong situation is not going to be useful at all.

In this post, I’ll dive into the best recruiting software options on the market. You’ll find out why they are so popular as well as the specific purposes they serve. After the reviews, there’s a buyer’s guide to help you assess your options and pick something that’s actually going to help.  

#1 – Bullhorn Review — The Best for Recruiting Agencies

You might be wondering whether Bullhorn is an recruiting software a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Well, it’s both. 

If you’re a staffing agency with a hefty pool of applicants to manage, Bullhorn is your go-to system for streamlined and centralized hiring processes.

They make it easy to find and place talented hires in open roles at scale and without data storage limitations that might hold you back. 

Their interface brings together the ability to manage the applicant and recruiting cycle so your team can make the best hiring decisions faster.

Integrations with Outlook, Gmail, and LinkedIn, also make it easier to communicate with potential hires, which is a key function for any recruiting agency. With Bullhorn, you can edit and parse any resume, add notes to applications, and even search keywords to find the right candidates for any open role. 

One of their best features is the Bullhorn marketplace, with more than 100 applications to choose from. 

This makes them a truly customizable platform that allows staffing agencies of any size to personalize their hiring processes and create a system that works for their team.

Pros

• Centralized talent sourcing system that helps your team collectively find the best hiring fit
• Advanced reporting to learn the health of your hiring system within a few clicks
• Highly customizable workflows
• Email tracking and mass emailing
• Detail-oriented resume parsing and keyword search

Cons

• It can be a pricey investment for up-and-coming recruiting agencies

Pricing

Bullhorn lists Team, Corporate, and Enterprise as their three main pricing tiers, but they don’t readily list their prices. You’ll have to request a pricing quote on their site since it’s based on the number of people on your team that need access to their system. 

Request a free demo of Bullhorn here. 

#2 – Greenhouse Review — The Best Recruiting Software for Enterprise

Greenhouse is made for enterprises to manage hiring at scale. Structured hiring is the name of their game as they focus on creating an equitable interviewing and onboarding process for all candidates.

Their systems are designed to lessen problems like biased hiring by basing its decision-making on each applicant’s individual evidence and data. If you’re a big company focusing on hiring diversity, equality, fairness, and lessening bias, Greenhouse has built-in capabilities that help you nurture those values. 

The Greenhouse interface is specifically designed to scale easily and grow right alongside your business with more than 300 hiring and management applications. 

Their best recruiting tools include the ability to share application reviews, access to scorecards that evaluate candidates consistently, and even finer details like allowing candidates to pre-record the right pronunciation of their names for more inclusivity. 

Pros

• Automated surveys to measure hiring experience
• Predictive analytics along with machine learning help make data-based decisions
• Onboarding performance measurement
• Accessible mobile apps for easy access to specs like candidate profiles, summaries, and scorecards

Cons

• Can be an expensive addition to your hiring process

Pricing

Greenhouse doesn’t list their prices since their pricing is based on the size of your organization. 

You can get a custom quote by requesting their free demo here.

#3 – BambooHR Review — The Best Recruiting Software for Midsize Businesses

BambooHR is a great solution for smaller to medium-sized businesses with more significant hiring needs. Their user interface is immensely easy to navigate and helps you get through the hiring and onboarding cycle seamlessly.  

What makes BambooHR stand out is that it’s not just recruiting software–you get an entire human resources system.

This means their all-in-one system also helps you track things like time off, payroll, employee timesheets, and report management once you’ve already hired a candidate. For a hiring team, this can be a real time-saver. 

One of the more standout features of BambooHR is their expansive 45 app integrations with job sites like Indeed or Glassdoor to help you automate the job listing process. 

Additional app integrations, like signing in through Google, connecting with Slack, or Universal Background Screening, make it that much easier to manage your prospect pool. Plus, if there isn’t an app integration you’d like to get, they give you the option of requesting one or using Zapier to make it happen. 

Their best features make it easy to create and list job openings. They have an IOS and Android compatible app for easier access to hiring tools, data, and employee self-service features. This helps your hiring team create rapport and stay in constant communication with prospects and hires.

You can even add custom permissions at each stage of the hiring process for any company stakeholders wanting to give input on any candidate. 

Pros 

• Ability to create custom workflows from done-for-you templates
• Electronic signatures for easier paperwork management
• Applicant tracking for faster hiring
• User-friendly and easy to navigate
• HR reporting and analytics for optimal decision making

Cons

• Depending on your budget, some software capabilities will cost extra.
• If you choose the Essentials tier, you don’t get access to basic phone support. 

Pricing

Though they list either an Essentials or Advantage option with the ability for add-ons, BambooHR doesn’t provide cookie-cutter pricing tiers. 

Instead, they create personalized packages that work with your budget. You can either sign up for a free trial or receive a pricing quote on their website. 

Get started with a free BambooHR trial here.  

#4 – Recooty Review — The Best Recruiting Software for Small Businesses

Recooty prides itself on being the easiest recruiting software for small businesses.

If yours is a small business, chances are you’re trying out hiring software for the first time. With Recooty, you can easily cover all your hiring basics. 

You can post jobs, schedule interviews, check out possible resumes, and hire with a few simple clicks.

Though Recooty is geared towards smaller businesses, you can still create a branded careers page that fits your company profile. This, in particular, is a great feature that helps you differentiate yourself as a recruiter in the job market. 

But you don’t have to stop there. You can also be accessible and post to the most popular job boards in no time. 

Pros

• Bulk import and export when you’re ready to upgrade
• Branded careers page
• Ability to post to multiple job boards
• Social network sharing capabilities

Cons

• Very limited capabilities that don’t scale with the growth of your company
• Limited app integrations
• Does not offer CRM capabilities

Pricing

Recooty’s pricing is straightforward. You can choose to go with a monthly plan or save 20% with an annual payment.

For starters, Recooty has a great free plan that allows you to post three jobs, a branded career page, and lets you track applicants.

For more advanced options, you can choose the Pro Plan for $29 a month or the Ultra Plan for $49. 

Check out each of their pricing tiers in detail here. 

What I Looked at to Find the Best Recruiting Software

If you’re looking for an recruiting software or an applicant tracking system (ATS), it’s clear your main goal is to make quality hires for your business in the most efficient way possible. 

The question becomes, what criteria do you use to choose the best software-company fit? Here are a few key factors to consider: 

Hiring Budget

Your business is unique, and so is the budget you assign to your hiring process. 

With a bit of research, you can find recruiting software that fits your company without putting you over budget. 

If investing in robust recruiting software will save you money by making less bad hires in the long run, save you time by having instant access to large amounts of data, or let you employ less hiring managers, then the investment is well worth it.

Smaller companies with less of a budget can probably get away with tools that cost a lot less.

Specific Features  

Are you looking for a hiring system that lets you integrate email campaigns, pre-screenings, or specific candidate analytics? 

Is testing a big part of your hiring process? Maybe you’re looking for a basic system that lets you compare applications with straightforward data.

Make a list of the features your business can’t compromise on, and use those as a filter for narrowing your best options.

Usually, additional features like landing pages, automations, planning software, or workflow integrations can be added down the road. This allows you to make the best choice for where your company is now and you can upgrade and build on it later.

Hiring Frequency

You might be a small company with a lower turnover rate. Or maybe you’re a sizable  company with more than 500 employees and are constantly looking for new hires.

Your recruiting software needs to be able to handle the amount of hiring data you’ll be managing daily. 

Ask yourself how frequently you make new hires and what your average turnover rate is. This will be a good way to filter which software will fit you best. 

Recruiting Software Type

Are you a small up-and-coming business, a hiring agency, or a sizeable enterprise? 

This is an important distinction to make when you’re choosing a system. No software system is a catch-all for every business. There are too many hiring variables and unique business needs for this to be the case.

While some software is built to handle hiring agency needs, others are better for an established business with in-house HR and hiring managers. Do you need a simple ATS to move candidates through the hiring pipeline? Or are you trying to get new employees on a single system that tracks them from hiring to retiring?

Conclusion

With the right recruiting software, you can forget the piles of paperwork and overbearing spreadsheets that are inefficient for getting you through the hiring process.

Streamline your process today with one of my recommendations for recruiting software:

1. Bullhorn — Best for recruiting agencies
2. Greenhouse — Best for enterprise
3. BambooHR — Best for midsize businesses
4. Recooty — Best for small businesses

Adopting a system that caters to your specific business needs can make all the difference in the quality of applicants you get. Make the entire process simple for your employees and less stressful for prospective hires.

What recruiting software do you trust?