Best Recruitment Software Of 2024

• ZipRecruiter: Best for medium to large businesses
• LinkedIn: Best for recruiting for professional roles
• JazzHR: Best for employers with fewer than 500 employees
• Breezy HR: Best for fast-growing companies
• Zoho Recruit: Best for staffing agencies
• HiringThing: Best for small businesses
• Workday Recruiting: Best for Workday HCM users and large organisations
• SimplyHired: Best Commitment-Free Recruiting Software
• PCRecruiter: Best for Busy HR Departments

The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content to guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

We considered the leading providers and narrowed the list down to 15. We then scrutinised them across 13 metrics. Our ratings consider factors such as transparent pricing, employee self-sufficiency, compatibility with third-party integrations, access to customer support and ratings. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Recruitment software helps organisations manage the entire hiring process. The best recruiting software makes it easy to find, evaluate and select high-quality job applicants to interview.

Features you should expect in recruiting software include job posting on multiple career sites, résumé screening and candidate evaluation and tracking tools.

Recruiting software allows employers to streamline the often complicated and time-intensive recruitment process. The best recruiting software helps you improve hire quality, reduce administrative work and improve collaboration among multiple hiring decision-makers.

There are several different activities involved in the recruiting and hiring process, so it’s not surprising that a variety of solutions are available to address those activities. Some recruiting software providers include multiple types of recruiting tools in their platforms. Other providers specialise in specific actions, such as job placement or candidate screening.

Here are some of the most popular types of recruiting software available today:

Job placement software

For best results, hiring managers need access to a large pool of qualified applicants. Job placement software automatically posts job advertisements on multiple recruiting sites and job boards. There are hundreds of recruiting sites, the most popular being Indeed, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, Monster, SimplyHired, CareerBuilder and Google for Jobs.

Recruitment CRMs

In the business world, a CRM– customer relationship management tool – is software that helps businesses track interactions with customers and potential customers. Recruiting CRMs are similar but focus on the recruitment process.

Recruitment CRMs help recruiters build and organise their contact database so they can track interactions with potential job candidates. Recruitment CRMs are particularly useful for recruiting agencies, but large organisations might also find them helpful.

Video interviewing software

Nowadays, more hiring managers and recruiters are conducting job interviews via video link. Video interviewing is sometimes a built-in feature in all-in-one recruiting software or can be accomplished through a third-party integration with Zoom or another video app. VidCruiter and Spark Hire are software providers that specialise in video interviewing.

Applicant tracking software

Applicant tracking software (ATS)—also referred to as an applicant tracking system—is a type of recruitment software with more extensive capabilities. An ATS helps recruiters and employers manage the entire recruitment process, from job posting to employee onboarding.

ATS platforms include hiring team collaboration tools, messaging and interview scheduling tools, résumé parsing, reference checks and pre-employment testing tools. Zoho Recruit and Breezy HR offer excellent ATS solutions.

Pre-employment testing software

Employers use pre-employment testing software for various reasons, such as to assess a candidate’s skills or measure how well applicants might fit into the company culture. These standardised tests can evaluate candidates on several attributes, including technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, cognitive abilities, software competency, emotional intelligence and dominant personality traits.

You could be in the market for new recruiting software for several reasons. For example, you may be using a do-it-yourself method that your company has outgrown. Alternatively, you may be using software that does not meet your full needs. In this tighter job market, finding qualified candidates is getting more difficult, which is why you need to choose the most effective recruiting solution for your current and future business needs.

Quick tips

Here are our top tips for choosing a recruiting software that’s best for you:

• Test the software for overall functionality and user-friendliness before you commit to a purchase
• Decide what your truly “must-have” features vs. nice-to-have features are
• Establish essential features and select a solution that helps you find a strong pool of qualified candidates
• Verify that the software assures an unbiased recruiting process and promotes diversity and inclusion
• Consider software that can be customised to accommodate your organisation’s specific needs
• Choose recruiting software that integrates easily with other software and apps you use
• Don’t overspend; keep to your budget, preferably finding a solution that can scale with you as your needs grow or shrink

Top recruiting software features

The features you’ll need in your recruiting software will depend on your specific needs. Companies with modest hiring programs typically only require basic features. Organisations with more sophisticated recruitment management efforts, such as enterprise-level organisations and recruiting firms, need a wider variety of features to handle the recruitment process from job requisition through onboarding.

Here are popular features you can expect to see in the best recruiting software:

• Job requisition management. In most organisations, you can only conduct a candidate search once the position is approved. That’s why it’s helpful if your recruiting software provides job requisition management, preferably as a customisable option, so you can adjust the software to align with your organisation’s exact requisition process.
• Job posting. Most recruiting software solutions let you choose where and how your jobs are posted online. Many, such as ZipRecruiter, allow you to post jobs on more than 100 job boards with just one click.
• Automated sourcing. Do you expect your recruiting software to help you locate qualified candidates? If so, make certain the software offers sourcing tools, such as intelligent sourcing algorithms, employee referral programs and social media sourcing, especially LinkedIn.
• Individual candidate tracking. Every interaction with each candidate needs to be stored for easy access and viewing. Keeping thorough records on your recruiting and hiring efforts offers employment law compliance protection for your organisation.
• Pre-employment testing. Some organisations require applicants to complete assessments or perform other pre-employment testing. If your organisation does this, you may want to choose recruiting software that integrates with the tools you use.
• Background screening. Does your organisation conduct any applicant background screenings on your own or through a third-party provider? Findings from such screenings should be stored and many recruiting software options can do this for you either via a manual process or by integrating with a third-party screening app.
• Reference check. Contact dates, names of people contacted and findings from reference checks should be documented, so it’s helpful to choose a software solution where you can place that documentation.
• Electronic forms and signatures. If you plan to have candidates complete any form, such as nondisclosure agreements, noncompete agreements or job offer acceptance letters, it’s helpful if your software can handle this process electronically.
• Onboarding tools. Do you want your recruiting software to help you get new hires off to a strong start? Then look for a solution with built-in, customisable onboarding features, such as welcome messaging, first-week goals, benefits information and role-related corporate videos.

Software integrations

The best recruiting software can be even more effective through third-party software integrations. For example, you may want your recruiting software to integrate with your current email, calendar, video meetings or project management tools. When selecting recruiting software, be sure to double-check whether it integrates seamlessly with the software you already use.

Recruiting software cost

Recruiting software costs range from £20 to £578 per month, though solutions that handle large recruiting volumes can easily cost thousands. The amount you’ll pay varies by the provider you choose, job posting volume, number of users and the length of time you want your jobs posted.

Most recruiting software providers offer month-to-month and annual pricing plans. You’ll typically save 10% or more by entering a yearly contract.

You don’t necessarily have to go with a monthly or yearly plan; a few other pricing models are available. For example, LinkedIn has a recruiting option based on a pay-per-click basis; you set a custom budget and only pay when someone clicks on your posts. SimplyHired charges on a pay-per-contact basis; post unlimited jobs for free and only pay a fee when you want to contact an applicant.

Before investing in a recruiting solution, take advantage of free trials so you fully understand what each software brings to the table. You may find lower-priced software fits your needs just as well or even better than higher-priced options.

The best way to keep costs down for recruiting software is to understand your options in light of your recruiting needs. There’s no need to commit to a long-term contract for short-term recruiting needs. It’s also unwise to go with a short-term contract if your recruiting needs are ongoing or growing. Most of all, choose a solution that’s in your budget and has the “must-have” features you require.

Business size considerations

The differences in recruiting needs for small and large businesses are considerable. Small organisations often only need help with job postings temporarily. Also, smaller organisations are typically equipped to manage the much lighter administrative burden of periodic recruitment independently or with simple software.

Larger organisations require far more robust recruiting software with features that help streamline the process of managing multiple job candidates for multiple positions that multiple hiring managers have requested. Large employers and large recruiting agencies will want to ensure the following features are included in the recruiting software they select:

• CV parsing. If you’re managing a large number of job applicants, you’ll want recruiting software that comes with CV parsing. Parsing is an automated process that quickly identifies and extracts relevant information from résumés and cover letters, such as job-related keywords, experience levels, work history and other indicators that suggest an applicant might be a strong candidate for an open position.
• Candidate pool tracking. Recruiting software should track every candidate for each open role as well as their current status in the recruitment process. For example, it’s helpful when you can look at a dashboard and quickly see which applications have not been reviewed, reviewed but declined, invited to take an assessment or at another stage of the hiring process.
• Role and access management. Not all information in the recruiting process should be shared with all parties involved in the recruiting effort. Therefore, recruiting software that offers user access control on a feature-by-feature basis is preferred by many organisations.
• Document management. You need a central place where those involved in the recruiting process can view recruitment-related documents, such as job descriptions, applicant cover letters and résumés. Access to some of these documents, such as those with confidential personal details or salary information, may require user permission controls. Each recruiting software handles document management differently, so check if the solution you’re exploring will work for your needs.
• Interview scheduling and management. Scheduling and managing interviews can get complicated, especially when multiple interviewers need to access candidates on different dates. Also, group interviewing is becoming more popular and is helpful when your recruiting software can help you with calendar coordination.

To determine the best recruiting software for small businesses, we researched the leading providers in the space and narrowed our analysis to 15 companies. We reviewed them across five primary categories for a total of 13 different metrics. We then weighted those metrics to favor features that matter most to small businesses.

Here are the metrics we used to evaluate the top recruiting software.

Features and functionality

We analysed each of the top 15 providers, looking at features such as automatic candidate testing, applicant tracking tools and integrations, LinkedIn integrations and social media sharing capabilities. We weighed this category at 35% of our score.

Pricing

To consider the affordability of each provider, we analysed pricing, plans, extra fees and the cost of add-ons. This accounted for 15% of our scoring weight.

Ease of use

We looked at how easy the software is to set up and use. This metric considers how intuitive the interface is, whether or not there is a learning curve and how quickly businesses can post a comprehensive job listing and sort through incoming candidates. Together with special features, value for the money and popularity, this accounts for 35% of our total score.

Customer support

Software users usually want access to customer support to ask questions and troubleshoot problems, so Forbes Advisor reviewed solutions based on support modalities offered and support quality. For example, we looked at which support channels are available (e.g., live chat, email and phone), as well as the times at which support is available and how responsive it is.