Top 5 Free Recruitment Software Tools for Small Businesses

by Aqui Team

Recruitment is already a costly undertaking for small businesses - between $1,000 and $5,000 per hire. These pre-existing expenses can deter some companies from using an ATS, even though they are valuable for recruitment.

Fortunately, there are many open source or free versions of paid ATS platforms available for small businesses. Free recruitment software is usually limited in volume or functionality, but the products we have listed here can provide small businesses with the support they need to find quality candidates on a very limited budget.

When should I choose free recruitment software?

Free ATS software is usually a cloud-based service that provides many important recruiting capabilities and features. You should consider a free ATS tool if:
  • You only recruit a limited number of employees
  • You are hiring for relatively simple/unskilled positions that are not very specialized
  • You only need an ATS for a very limited period of time (Note: if you need an ATS once, chances are you will need it again later).

However, free products often have certain limitations or disadvantages. For example, free ATS products often mean that 1) some or all of the advanced recruiting features such as interview and quote management, integrations and CRM functionality are missing, and 2) the software is limited by a limited trial period or the number of concurrent job postings.

Top 5 free ATS products and what they can do for you

The following products are the five most frequently tested free tools on TrustRadius. They are listed in order of the amount of reviews and reviews that either the free or paid version of the software has on TrustRadius.

Smartstart

SmartStart is the free version of the recruitment software SmartRecruiters. SmartStart offers an unlimited number of users and candidates. It allows recruiters or companies to easily track, email and manage candidates. At the same time, it enables the integration of different multi-platforms, so that you can easily publish your job offers on over 200 job boards and social media. It also allows applicants to easily apply, track the progress of their application and create a customized web portfolio or career website.

The main difference between SmartStart and SmartRecruiters is that SmartStart limits the number of job offers / roles to ten at a time. It is also important to note that it does not allow access to a number of multiple recruitment, application and management features that are accessible through a paid plan, such as internal job widgets, job alerts, saved searches, custom rejections, SSO, custom candidate and job fields, calendar integrations, offer templates or integrations with DocuSign.

SmartStart is an excellent tool if your current recruitment volume is low but an expansion in the future of your business is foreseeable. Users can easily upgrade to add additional functionality as you need more and more features over time. SmartRecruiters' paid offering has a significant volume of review across company sizes, demonstrating the provider's ability to support the growth of your business over time. Prices vary depending on your custom feature package and the number of employees in your company.

Zoho Recruit

Zoho Recruit is a leading, all-inclusive, cloud-based recruitment software tool. It is a recruitment CRM that provides integrated solutions for companies that want to combine both sales and recruitment on a single platform.

Zoho Recruit's free plan offers a range of beneficial tools for applicant, job and communication management, such as access to a free recruiter, career site, tracking of interviews and events, easy search technology, 5 free email templates, 50 search tags, 256 MB free storage space and much more.

Unlike Zoho Recruit's paid plans, Zoho Recruits' free option allows only one active job posting, one application/contact form, paper-only integrations and only one user profile. Nor does it offer the mass emailing, analysis and tracking, social media integrations or CV analysis technology that the paid plans offer.

If you choose to upgrade, the standard annual paid plans start at just $22.50 per month. Zoho Recruit offers a 15-day free trial period for the Business Plan.

Zoho Recruit is an ideal option if you also want to use Zoho's other business applications, such as sales CRM, mail application and project management software. If or when you scale beyond the free version of Zoho Recruit, consolidating your software into a single ecosystem can lead to significant cost savings and efficiency gains along the way.

"Zoho Recruit is an exceptional software designed for everyone, large or small. This software allows you to add the things that are most important to your business. Its custom features and preliminary design provide a platform that is user-friendly and easy to train, and best of all, it is super affordable.

MightyRecruiter

MightyRecruiter is a free ATS system that provides easy-to-use candidate and application management software for companies ranging from small one-person businesses to enterprise-level organizations. It gives users access to unlimited job openings, unlimited CV searches and unlimited user accounts. Users can post jobs to over 29 job boards, search for passive candidates, use a chrome extension, automatically post jobs to social networks, create a customizable career site, boost job postings, schedule interviews, and easily manage recommendations, candidate communication, and candidate evaluation.

MightyRecruiter is one of the few completely free products on this list, with no advertised freemium or paid add-on pricing models. Some reviewers criticize missing functionality that would improve the quality of life of recruiters, such as missing filtering capabilities. However, if you are willing to deal with some frictional losses in using the product, MightyRecruiter could be one of the best ATS options available.

"[MightyRecruiter's] free pre-test is really free. Your survey destroyed resumes that had no significant impact on my employment... I also like the way they provide a sweep for your activity postings. It saves someone from having to apply from a different mail department or time zone, for that matter. I was expecting to work with a representative later and found the experience, all in all, excellent.

iKrut

iKrut is an applicant tracking system that provides all the features you need for hiring and recruitment services. iKrut offers three service plans for users: Free, Premium and Premium+. The free version gives users access to an unlimited number of users and applications, an unlimited number of live job postings, a branded career site, basic reporting and tracking, an online interview planner, the ability to post social media networks, phone and email support, a bulk email rejection tool, and mobile compatibility.

Users can upgrade to the Premium account for $210 per month. Users receive access to four free weeks of premium functionality upon registration. The Premium and Premium+ plans give users access to a variety of additional features including employee referral tracking, job widgets, customizable workflows, video interviews, detailed reporting metrics, custom email tools, job notifications, master user training and more.

iKrut is a great option if you are new to recruitment processes and are unsure which premium features and functions are most important to you. iKrut's 4-week premium trial gives you room to see if the additional cost is worthwhile, while leaving the free version as an option if you don't need to upgrade yet.

OpenCATS

OpenCATS is a completely free, open source ATS. It is designed to help companies or individuals organize and track the recruitment and hiring process. The software can be installed via a web-based browser, a local network or on your local computer.

OpenCATS users get access to tools for resume, contact and applicant storage and tracking, competency-based tagging, integrated calendar system, website integration tools for easy applicant application, tools for applicant and customer management, reporting, different user access levels, integrated email capabilities and a notification system.

OpenCATS is the only true open source software on this list. If you or your team already have a knack for implementing and managing open source software, OpenCATS may be just what you need. If you are not comfortable with open source software alone, there will be less support for you than with the other products on the list. Pay attention to which side of this gap your company and your team falls on.

Withdrawal from free tools

As you can see above, every option has its limitations, and as your organization grows, you will probably feel these limitations more and more. Certain limitations of ATS software, such as the volume of jobs allowed to be posted simultaneously and access to detailed reports and analysis, may end up costing you more resources than you save by using free software.

There are a variety of options available to you when these growth constraints become untenable. If you are using a free version of paid software, upgrading to the paid version may be the smoothest transition, as you will not have to move data between systems.

If you want or need to explore what other vendors have to offer, take a look at the wider range of paid ATS products to see which system can best support your growth. You can also review the AquiTeam Applicant Tracking Systems to learn more about the leading paid ATS products and trends that will impact your recruiting strategy.