Best Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
Applicant tracking systems (ATS) source, screen, and build pipelines to manage candidates for open positions. Recruiters, HR teams, and hiring managers use these tools to create and distribute job postings, parse resumes, schedule interviews, and manage documents like cover letters and references. In addition, an ATS also automates time-consuming manual tasks like scheduling interviews, communicating next steps, and sending alerts to candidates. An ATS also tracks and reports metrics like time-to-hire and cost-to-hire, enabling companies to optimize the return-on-investment (ROI) of recruiting software investments.
To best secure top of funnel hiring, this recruiting software ties into greater recruiting features such as job boards, employee referral software, recruitment marketing platforms, video interviewing software, interview scheduling software, onboarding software, and recruitment platforms. Some ATS may offer candidate relationship management software capabilities to help recruiters proactively discover and nurture potential candidates via email marketing, scheduling, and periodic communications.
Recruitment professionals across industries use applicant tracking tools to extract a candidate’s educational background, skills, and work histories from a resume, enabling recruiters to find the most qualified candidates for their organization. These tools allow hiring teams to acquire and manage candidates from multiple sources, including social media, referrals, and job board websites. An ATS also ensures collaborative hiring, coordinates multiple calendars while scheduling interviews, and integrates with existing recruiting software to boost hiring process efficiency.
To qualify for inclusion in the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) category, a product must:
Featured Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) At A Glance
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Greenhouse is more than an ATS – they’re a true hiring partner that gives companies of all sizes everything they’ll ever need to get measurably better at hiring. With Greenhouse, organizations can cut
14,403 Twitter followers
BambooHR® is an all-in-one HR software solution designed to eliminate inefficiencies and simplify people management. Trusted by thousands of companies in over 150 countries, BambooHR centralizes your
BambooHR is a human resources software that provides a platform for managing HR tasks such as scheduling time off, accessing company directory, and handling various tasks in one platform. Users like BambooHR's intuitive interface and mobile app, its easy accessibility, and the convenience of having all necessary features in one place, including timesheets, PTO, and organizational information. Reviewers noted some issues with BambooHR, such as buggy multi-stage time off approvals, difficulty in setting the correct number of hours in the timesheet section, and the platform being slow at times, especially when loading different tabs.
18,060 Twitter followers
Bullhorn is an AI-powered recruitment platform for staffing and recruitment firms of all sizes. It is not enterprise-only software. Solo recruiters use it. So do global enterprises with thousands of u
11,034 Twitter followers
Streamline your business with Rippling’s all-in-one platform for HR, IT, payroll, and spend management. Simplify IT with device management, software access, and compliance monitoring, all from one das
Rippling is a platform that integrates HR, payroll, and employee management for efficient workforce management, but it may require time for setup and can become more expensive with more activated modules. Users like that Rippling is easy to use, with clear navigation and helpful information readily available, and appreciate its ability to consolidate employee onboarding, payroll, and system access management in a single system. Reviewers noted that the initial setup for complex configurations can be time-consuming and the cost increases with the addition of more modules, and some users also reported occasional interface lags in the mobile app.
11,947 Twitter followers
At UKG, our purpose is people®. We’re on a mission to inspire every organization to become a great place to work through HR and payroll technology built for all. With UKG, you get more than 70 years o
UKG Ready is a software solution that provides workforce management tools such as timekeeping, payroll, and scheduling. Reviewers like the user-friendly interface of UKG Ready, its easy initial setup, and the convenience of accessing work-related content, timesheets, and community events. Users experienced issues such as difficulty in setting up access on mobile devices, lack of a dark mode, and the need for more accessible forms of communication within the app.
42,744 Twitter followers
JobDiva is a global leader in Platform as a Service (PaaS) technology for staffing enterprises, incorporating a patent-protected recruiting engine and supported by a full suite of advanced features to
1,525 Twitter followers
Ceipal is a comprehensive staffing software solution designed to assist organizations in efficiently managing their recruitment and talent acquisition processes. Developed by professionals with firsth
2,658 Twitter followers
Zoho Recruit is an applicant tracking system catering to multiple hurdles faced by recruiters. With complete solutions for both in-house recruiters and staffing agencies, Zoho Recruit helps you source
137,095 Twitter followers
Paycom is the most automated HCM platform and the only HR and payroll software built on a truly single, unique database that automates the entire employee life cycle. Designed as a unified system,
Paycom is a comprehensive HR and payroll system that centralizes employee data, time tracking, and expense reconciliation. Reviewers like the user-friendly interface, the automation of various HR tasks, and the ability for employees to manage their own information, which saves time and reduces errors. Reviewers experienced issues with customer support response times, system glitches after updates, and found the platform to be complex and overwhelming for new users.
33,453 Twitter followers
Teamtailor is the leading all-in-one recruiting platform designed to help businesses of all sizes attract, engage, and hire the right talent. Trusted by over 10,000 companies and 200,000+ users worldw
1,075 Twitter followers
Paylocity delivers the most innovative technology bringing HR, Finance, and IT together in one modern, easy-to-use platform to empower teams, simplify processes, and deliver real results. Run payroll,
Paylocity is a payroll platform that offers features such as timecards, payroll processing, HR features, and reporting tools. Reviewers frequently mention the ease of use, the ability to streamline scheduling and payroll, and the platform's high degree of customizability as positive aspects. Reviewers mentioned issues with customer service responsiveness, technical difficulties with the website, and challenges with initial setup and certain features like time tracking and benefits.
4,584 Twitter followers
Workable is an all-in-one HR platform designed to assist businesses in finding exceptional candidates, expediting the hiring process, and managing their teams more efficiently. This comprehensive solu
8,988 Twitter followers
100Hires ATS simplifies hiring with an intuitive, user-friendly interface. Post jobs to LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and Monster at no additional cost, and manage candidates effortlessly through our c
CareerBuilder Applicant Tracking brings advertising, data, search and sourcing technology into one recruitment environment. Recruiters can view and search candidates, run reports, measure performance
5,603 Twitter followers
Designed for organizations that prioritize diverse workforces and cultures of trust and belonging, UKG Pro® puts people at the center of your strategy. From HR and complex payroll to talent and indust
UKG Pro is a comprehensive system that provides a lifecycle around employees, combining payroll functionality, tracking of service hours, benefits, and organizational information into one place. Reviewers appreciate UKG Pro for its fully automated, real-time U,s. payroll and tax compliance, its user-friendly interface, and the availability of multiple support options, including a direct line and service requests. Reviewers noted that the system is often slow and unresponsive, data is inconsistent, and the reporting system is antiquated and slow, with some payroll reports slow to populate.
42,744 Twitter followers
Learn More About Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
Applicant tracking systems (ATS) overview
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a type of talent acquisition software that provides a centralized system for creating job postings, screening applicant resumes, storing candidate information, conducting interviews, and sharing offer letters.
More advanced ATS software applications may feature various capabilities like interview scheduling, applicant database management, job board integrations, automated emails, hiring analytics, and reporting.
Hiring agencies, talent outsourcing companies, and human resources (HR) teams use applicant tracking system software to automate traditionally manual recruitment tasks with artificial intelligence and cloud technology.
ATS systems sort candidate resumes with natural language processing (NLP) to find applicants with relevant experience and skills. Recruiters can use ATS tools to share interview status updates via email and text, meet Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, track metrics like time-to-hire, and enhance the overall candidate experience.
Some HRMS & HCM software may feature built-in ATS functionality. However, stand-alone ATS applications are ideal for managing diverse talent pools, screening resumes, communicating with candidates, and optimizing the hiring process with rich analytics.
Who uses applicant tracking systems?
Recruitment agencies, enterprises, and small or medium-sized businesses (SMBs) use applicant tracking systems to weed out irrelevant resumes, find qualified candidates with desired skills, and communicate with them throughout the hiring process.
ATS solutions serve the following business types:
- Startups
- Enterprises
- Recruitment agencies
- Small and medium-sized businesses
Types of recruitment and hiring professionals who use ATS include:
- HR managers: Talent leaders of organizations of all sizes rely on applicant tracking solutions to enhance the talent pipeline with efficient candidate sourcing, meet target headcount goals, and optimize hiring costs.
- Corporate recruiters: A corporate recruiter or talent acquisition specialist responsible for filling open positions uses an ATS platform to source and compare candidates, shorten interview cycles, and manage tasks across the recruiting funnel.
- Recruitment agency executives: ATS systems are invaluable to recruitment executives, helping them source and hire candidates on behalf of an organization. They rely on ATS to store applicant data, view real-time pipeline progress, and share updates with hiring managers.
- Diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) officers: ATS also aids DEI practitioners in visualizing and improving the presence of historically underrepresented and marginalized groups within the workforce.
- Executive search service providers: Executive recruitment agencies filling senior-level positions within companies use ATS systems to attract and convert top talent.
- Campus recruiters: On-campus and off-campus recruiters are responsible for sourcing and hiring college and university graduates. They use ATS software to manage talent databases and hire for open jobs at different companies.
- Freelance recruitment consultants: Freelance recruiters also may use ATS tools to manage, analyze, and interview candidates for various positions across organizations.
Types of applicant tracking systems
Below are different industry-specific ATS platforms available in the applicant tracking system software market.
- Recruitment: ATS solutions tailored for staffing agencies feature intelligent workflows to help them manage job postings and source candidates for multiple clients. These systems also feature email and SMS capabilities to help recruiters communicate with candidates.
- Government: Central and local government agencies use public sector ATS solutions to maintain candidate anonymity and eliminate recruiting prejudice or bias. These systems also enable shared service team members to support hiring managers during recruitment. Government organizations rely on these systems to meet internal standards, measure DEI progress, and comply with EEOC guidelines. Medical organizations and practices rely on healthcare staffing services to review credentials, verify licenses, assess skills, and run background checks.
- Hospitality: Leisure and tourism sector players use custom applicant tracking solutions to post on job boards, boost hiring pipelines, pre-screen candidates, and onboard them.
- Education: ATS platforms enable colleges and universities to create job templates, publish branded careers pages, maximize candidate pool, and boost screening efficiency.
- Retail: In-house retail recruiting teams turn to these systems to submit job requisitions, source candidates from job search sites, and share real-time updates with applicants.
- Manufacturing: Manufacturers run background checks, manage payroll, screen tax credit eligibility, and hire applicants based on behavioral assessments and knowledge-based evaluations.
- Nonprofit: Nonprofit organizations use cloud-based candidate relationship management (CRM) tools or ATS software to craft job ads, attract the right candidates, coordinate hiring across locations, and improve administrative efficiency.
Benefits of applicant tracking systems
Best-in-class applicant tracking systems are essential for hiring managers looking to:
- Automate tasks: The application process involves various manual tasks such as getting stakeholder approvals, creating job descriptions, posting on job boards, filtering resumes, scheduling interviews, and following up with candidates. ATS software enables hiring teams to automate these time-consuming administrative tasks with customizable and collaborative hiring workflows.
- Create a single source of truth: Tracking and managing the talent pool is challenging, especially with the volume of resumes recruiters receive from career sites and job boards. ATS makes it easier for them to centralize candidate information by department, talent source, hiring stage, and categories. Hiring managers can also use ATS to share candidate feedback with decision-makers.
- Digitize onboarding paperwork: Time-consuming administrative paperwork prevents recruiters from focusing on strategic hiring and training existing employees. ATS applications save time with document e-verification, digital paperwork storage, and approvals.
- Meet hiring compliance: Organizations must adhere to hiring, payroll, and labor-related laws and regulations. For example, they combine ATS systems and HR compliance software to comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) while sending notices and handling payments. Organizations hiring federal contractors and sub-contractors can meet Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) regulations with the right system.
- Collaborate with decision-makers: Recruiters often collaborate with or pass information to hiring managers and decision-makers while closing open roles. An applicant tracking system eliminates this back-and-forth with a collaborative portal that lets recruiters tag others, send reminders, get real-time notifications, and schedule automated emails. This organized hiring process helps recruiters avoid communication gaps and collaborate with other teams.
- Track recruiting KPIs: ATS systems also deliver useful recruitment metrics like time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, offer acceptance rate, quality of hire, and retention rate in a single analytics dashboard. The ease of accessing this data enables recruiters to monitor data, identify trends, set benchmarks, and optimize hiring strategy.
Which is the best recruiting software with built-in ATS?
- Greenhouse: Offers structured hiring workflows, customizable scorecards, and robust analytics, making it ideal for mid-to-large businesses seeking data-driven recruitment processes.
- Lever: Combines ATS and CRM functionalities, providing collaborative hiring features and advanced analytics to enhance candidate relationship management.
- iCIMS: Provides scalable recruitment solutions with AI-powered candidate matching and robust integration capabilities, suitable for large enterprises.
- Rippling: While mainly known for HR and IT management, Rippling also offers a simple, growing ATS solution integrated with its HRIS.
- BambooHR: Best known for HR management, BambooHR also features an easy-to-use ATS module for small to mid-sized businesses.
Applicant tracking systems features
The best-in-class software offer the following ATS features to help recruiters operate efficiently, streamline the hiring process, and offer a seamless experience to job seekers.
- Candidate sourcing is crucial for creating a talent pool from LinkedIn, job boards, and career sites and storing and finding candidate information.
- Application sorting uses intelligent automation to filter the best candidates based on their resumes, skills, previous work experiences, and qualifications.
- Interview scheduling eliminates manual scheduling tasks with calendar integration. Moreover, some ATS systems also provide interview kits and feedback forms to help interviewers prepare before the interview.
- Automated messaging delivers customized messages to candidates at the end of each phase of the interview process.
- Automation workflows allow talent teams to simplify and streamline manual processes like personalized candidate outreach, interview setup, candidate feedback collection, and meeting scheduling.
- Onboarding tools integrate with ATS to make it easy for hiring teams to welcome new recruits and provide them with training materials and other necessary information, such as employee benefits.
- Talent analytics is essential for tracking overall recruiting progress and diversity hiring metrics.
Applicant tracking systems pricing
Applicant tracking system software pricing varies depending on business size, feature requirements, number of users, and industry. Below are the standard ATS pricing models.
- A flat fee is a fixed monthly or one-time fee that an ATS software provider charges to provide the user company with a license. It’s best for small or medium-sized organizations with a limited budget. Some ATS vendors may charge additional installation fees.
- The pay-per-employee model charges organizations based on their hiring team size and doesn’t change with hiring frequency. This plan suits small businesses or enterprises with many hiring team members. Some ATS solution vendor companies may offer bulk discounts for more users.
- The pay-per-recruiter payment model considers the number of users who will actively use the ATS platform. Besides login credentials, they receive user privileges depending on their seniority in the organizations. This plan is suitable for organizations with seasoned hiring teams looking to control the total hiring cost.
- The pay-per-job model requires an organization to pay for each open job role. A vendor won’t charge the company after the position has been filled. This ATS pricing model suits organizations that open new roles occasionally. Companies with many open positions may end up paying more with this model.
- Subscription-based pricing is the most common model. Depending on the pricing plan, businesses opting for this model pay a recurring monthly or annual fee to the vendor. It’s suitable for organizations hiring throughout the year.
Which applicant tracking system is best for small businesses?
- Zoho Recruit: Offers a comprehensive solution for in-house recruiters and staffing agencies, with resume parsing, customizable workflows, and reporting tools to streamline hiring.
- Jotform: Offers a flexible, no-code form builder with robust e-signature and workflow automation features, making it easy for small businesses to collect applications, approvals, and contracts all in one place.
- JazzHR: Delivers powerful, user-friendly recruiting software with features like customizable workflows, candidate assessments, and collaborative hiring tools, helping small businesses attract and hire the right talent efficiently.
How to choose the best applicant tracking system
Below is a step-by-step process buyers can follow while picking an ATS solution for their organizations.
Planning stage
The planning stage involves understanding organizational requirements and recruitment complexity, assessing integration needs, and estimating timelines.
- Understand company goals: Organizations have different recruitment goals depending on their sizes. For example, a small business may want a user-friendly ATS for candidate sourcing. In contrast, an enterprise may wish to boost employer branding and tackle high-volume hiring recruitments. A solid understanding of company goals is crucial for choosing the right applicant tracking software.
- Evaluate recruitment complexity: Finding the right candidate for a high-demand role can be challenging. Moreover, companies typically have custom workflows for each position they hire. Assessing the recruitment complexity for each position helps buyers find the most suitable ATS.
- Estimate timeline and resources: Buyers must work with key stakeholders and decision-makers to estimate the budget and finalize the implementation timeline and other resources before looking for ATS solutions.
- List must-have functionalities: This step requires buyers to understand their companies’ hiring process and create a list of recruiting capabilities that an ATS or the integrated system must have. Organizations may need different must-have functionalities, including job posting, interview scheduling, candidate information management, branded communications, and onboarding.
- Determine integration needs: Organizations buying ATS systems may want to integrate their ATS with background check service providers, human resources information system (HRIS), payroll software, single sign-on (SSO) solutions, video interviewing applications, and time & attendance solutions. Knowing these integration requirements beforehand is critical for finding the right software.
- Set measurable goals: Buyers must set intelligent goals for measuring the success of an ATS solution. Organizations typically establish goals around the time they save while sourcing candidates, reviewing resumes, scheduling, and conducting interviews. Businesses should also consider the overall cost per hire, the time required to fill each role, and hiring manager satisfaction.
Research stage
The software research stage involves exploring solutions with the must-have features and integration capabilities an organization needs to streamline recruitment. The aim is to create a list of solutions that meet organizational requirements. Buyers must consider the following factors while attending software demos and using free trials.
- Centralized tool: Having a centralized ATS system is helpful for recruiters looking to post jobs, screen resumes, and manage candidate data, interviews, feedback, and onboarding from a single dashboard. They can also set up custom workflows and assign tasks to relevant decision-makers.
- Team collaboration: Best-in-class ATS solutions offer collaborative hiring features to enable different team members to meet the candidate during the multi-stage hiring process. This feature allows organizations to evaluate candidates holistically while providing them with a well-rounded experience.
- User-friendly interface: An intuitive user experience improves recruiters’ productivity and reduces the scope of errors with clear instructions. Buyers must consider purchasing user-friendly ATS solutions to minimize training time, boost user adoption, and enhance overall HR efficiency.
- Custom report and analytics: Purchasing an ATS system with reporting capabilities is essential for businesses to measure hiring metrics and make data-driven decisions. Without it, organizations can’t evaluate or improve recruitment efficiency and the time and cost they save.
Consideration and selection stage
This stage involves identifying ATS software systems with desired features and using free trials or demos to evaluate whether they fit into an organization’s existing HR software. Buyers can filter these solutions based on their budget, implementation timeline, and availability of vendor support.
Buyers should consider choosing ATS vendors providing dedicated onboarding assistance, customer support, and data import or export capabilities. At the end of this stage, buyers will be ready to choose a vendor based on their interaction with the vendor and the features they offer.
Applicant tracking systems trends
- Predictive analytics continue shaping talent acquisition strategies. ATS solutions with predictive analytics capabilities enable organizations to spot hiring process inefficiencies, reduce talent acquisition costs, and improve the ROI of recruiting software investments. These tools feature data visualization and trend identification capabilities to help businesses measure and improve time and cost per hire.
- AI-enabled ATS systems have become essential for talent intelligence. Innovative ATS solutions with natural language processing (NLP) capabilities allow organizations to minimize bias in candidate selection, automate job postings on job boards, screen resumes faster, identify top candidates, and answer applicant queries via chatbots. Some places around the world have instituted laws requiring such AI to be regularly audited or restricting their use due to discrimination concerns.
Reviewed and Edited by Jigmee Bhutia
