HR & Recruiting Software Comparison (2026)
This is the full side-by-side: every hr & recruiting tool in our database (25 in total), with the numbers that actually decide a shortlist.
For every tool you get its starting price, an honest free-plan verdict, its core audience and a one-line standout. Use it to draw up a shortlist, then click through to the full overview, review or pricing page for the detail.
How we compare: prices and free-plan status are read from each vendor's public plans; “free plan” means a tier you can keep using at $0, distinct from a trial. “Best for” and the standout come from each tool's own positioning and our enriched notes. We list every tool in the niche, including ones we wouldn't recommend, and flag any that are discontinued. How we evaluate →
All 25 hr & recruiting tools compared
| Tool | Entry price | Free plan? | Best for | Standout | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15Five review · pricing | See pricing | No | performance-management and manager-enablement | Manager-enablement performance platform centered on weekly check-ins and 1:1s. | Visit → |
| Ashby review · pricing | from $400/mo | No | data-driven-recruiting and scale-ups | ATS plus a built-in analytics builder powerful enough to replace a separate BI tool. | Visit → |
| BambooHR review · pricing | from $10/mo | No | small-business and hr-teams | A genuinely friendly all-in-one HRIS that small and mid-sized teams can run without a dedicated HR systems admin. | Visit → |
| Breezy HR review · pricing | from $157/mo | Free plan | small-business and free-tier | A free, visual drag-and-drop ATS that scales to unlimited users on every paid tier. | Visit → |
| Bullhorn review · pricing | from $99/mo | No | staffing-agencies and recruiting-crm | The default ATS+CRM for staffing agencies, built around placements and client relationships. | Visit → |
| ClearCompany review · pricing | from $7/mo | No | talent-management and mid-market | One suite spanning recruiting, onboarding, performance, learning and compensation across the lifecycle. | Visit → |
| Culture Amp review · pricing | from $4500/mo | No | employee-engagement and people-analytics | The category specialist for engagement surveys and people analytics with deep benchmarking. | Visit → |
| Freshteam review · pricing | Free plan available | Discontinued | legacy-users and migration-planning | A discontinued product, now relevant only for migration planning off Freshteam. | — |
| Greenhouse review · pricing | from $6500/mo | No | structured-hiring and scale-ups | The reference standard for structured, bias-reducing hiring at scaling and tech-forward companies. | Visit → |
| HiBob (Bob) review · pricing | from $5/mo | No | mid-market and distributed-teams | A culture-first HRIS built for fast-growing, globally distributed teams. | Visit → |
| iCIMS review · pricing | from $200/mo | No | enterprise and high-volume-hiring | A configurable enterprise talent-acquisition platform with a strong built-in talent CRM. | Visit → |
| JazzHR review · pricing | from $75/mo | No | small-business and budget-hiring | Unlimited recruiters on a flat monthly fee, the cheapest path to a real ATS for small teams. | Visit → |
| Lattice review · pricing | from $4/mo | No | performance-management and okrs | Modular people-management where performance, OKRs, engagement and growth snap together as needed. | Visit → |
| Leapsome review · pricing | from $7/mo | No | performance-management and people-enablement | A build-your-own people-enablement suite where each module (reviews, goals, surveys, learning, comp) is priced a la carte. | Visit → |
| Lever (LeverTRM) review · pricing | from $3500/mo | No | sourcing and recruiting-crm | ATS and sourcing CRM unified so passive-candidate pipelines and live requisitions live in one place. | Visit → |
| Manatal review · pricing | from $15/mo | Trial only | recruitment-agencies and budget-hiring | AI candidate scoring and social-profile enrichment at one of the lowest per-user prices on the market. | Visit → |
| Namely review · pricing | See pricing | No | mid-market and payroll-benefits | Mid-market HRIS that pairs payroll and benefits admin with a social employee experience. | Visit → |
| Personio review · pricing | from $5/mo | No | european-companies and hr-teams | The EU compliance-first all-in-one HR platform, with GDPR woven into the data architecture. | Visit → |
| Pinpoint review · pricing | from $345/mo | Trial only | in-house-recruiting and employer-branding | In-house recruiting ATS with org-wide automation and unlimited users on every tier. | Visit → |
| Recruitee review · pricing | from $199/mo | No | collaborative-hiring and mid-market | Collaborative hiring where the whole team contributes, priced by simultaneous job slots. | Visit → |
| Sapling (by Kallidus) review · pricing | See pricing | No | onboarding and people-ops | A dedicated onboarding/offboarding layer that automates the new-hire and exit journey across systems. | Visit → |
| SmartRecruiters review · pricing | from $14995/mo | No | enterprise and high-volume-hiring | Enterprise recruiting depth now sitting natively inside the SAP SuccessFactors ecosystem. | Visit → |
| Teamtailor review · pricing | from $300/mo | No | employer-branding and careers-sites | Employer-branding-led ATS with a no-code careers site that rivals a custom-built one. | Visit → |
| Workable review · pricing | from $99/mo | No | smb-hiring and job-board-distribution | Sign up and post to hundreds of job boards the same day, with self-serve published pricing. | Visit → |
| Zoho Recruit review · pricing | from $25/mo | Free plan | staffing-agencies and zoho-users | An affordable ATS+CRM with dedicated corporate and staffing editions, deeply tied to Zoho. | Visit → |
Prices verified 2026-06-28 from public vendor pricing. Plans and prices change — always confirm on the vendor's own site. No price here is guaranteed.
Shown for completeness but no longer recommended: Freshteam.
Key takeaways
- 2 of 25 offer a real free plan — Breezy HR and Zoho Recruit let you start at $0, while 2 more offer a trial only.
- Entry prices span $4–$14995/mo — from Lattice at the low end to SmartRecruiters at the top of the entry tiers.
- Cheapest paid entry: Lattice from $4/mo (no standing free plan).
- Most documented feature set: Lever (LeverTRM) — it lists the most features and integrations in our notes, which usually also means the steepest learning curve.
FAQ
How many hr & recruiting tools does this comparison cover?
All 25 hr & recruiting tools we track in the HR & Recruiting category are in the table above, compared on the same four points: entry price, free plan, best-for and standout. It's a full reference chart, not a curated shortlist.
Which hr & recruiting tool is the cheapest?
By verified entry price, Lattice is the cheapest paid option at $4/mo. Several tools above offer a free plan if $0 matters more than features.
Which of these hr & recruiting tools have a free plan?
Breezy HR and Zoho Recruit offer a genuine free plan you can keep using at $0. The free-plan column above marks each one, and separates them from tools that only run a trial.
How is this different from your best-of guides?
This page lists every tool in the niche side by side so you can scan the whole market. Our best-of guides instead pick the five to eight hr & recruiting tools we'd actually recommend for a specific job, with a full write-up on each.
Sources
The standout lines, audiences and free-plan facts in the table above are drawn from these vendor pages and independent reviews:
- 15five.com
- capterra.com
- stackscored.com
- pin.com
- leonstaff.com
- dover.com
- bamboohr.com
- peoplemanagingpeople.com
- comparedge.com
- breezy.hr
- pin.com
- treegarden.io
- bullhorn.com
- getapp.com
- itqlick.com
- pin.com
- softwarefinder.com
- outsail.co
- cultureamp.com
- vendr.com
- feedbackpulse.com
- peoplematters.in
- strongyes.co
- pin.com
- greenhouse.com
- leonstaff.com
- comparetiers.com
- hibob.com
- remotelytalents.com
- vendr.com
- pin.com
- treegarden.io
- research.com
- jazzhr.com
- pin.com
- treegarden.io
- lattice.com
- peoplemanagingpeople.com
- selectsoftwarereviews.com
- capterra.com
- comparetiers.com
- softwareadvice.com
- pin.com
- leonstaff.com
- capterra.com
- manatal.com
- pin.com
- peoplemanagingpeople.com
- softwareadvice.com
- capterra.com
- gartner.com
- saasrat.com
- treegarden.io
- vendr.com
- prepzo.ai
- selectsoftwarereviews.com
- pin.com
- recruitee.com
- treegarden.io
- selectsoftwarereviews.com
- kallidus.com
- g2.com
- softwareadvice.com
- leonstaff.com
- news.sap.com
- pin.com
- pin.com
- treegarden.io
- capterra.com
- g2.com
- treegarden.io
- pin.com
- zoho.com
- pin.com
- hiretruffle.com