Best ATS for a company of twenty to five hundred
Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable and Personio compared on published price, who each one is built for, and what search they include.
Ashby and Workable are the two that publish a price you can read without booking a call, and both put candidate search in their entry plan, which makes them the realistic picks for a company of twenty to five hundred people. Greenhouse, Lever and Personio all quote on request, and they are quoting for three different jobs. Greenhouse sells a structured process. Lever sells tracking and a talent pool in one system. Personio sells a whole HR suite in which hiring is one module.
| Criterion | Greenhouse | Lever | Ashby | Workable | Personio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A price you can read without a call | No. The quote moves with the plan you pick, your hiring volume and your complexity | No. Available on request, scaled to team size and hiring needs | The entry plan carries a published monthly price. The two plans above it are quoted | Yes. Three tiers, each published per month and per year, from the smallest headcount band upward | No published figure found |
| Who the vendor says it is for | Three plans described as an early stage business, a scaling company and a modern enterprise, with no headcount bands named | Any team size. Pricing scales with the team and the hiring need | Up to a hundred employees on the entry plan, then a band to a thousand, then enterprise | Bands running from the smallest team up to a thousand employees and beyond | Small and mid sized companies across the whole HR function, not hiring alone |
| Outbound search in the base product | Not named on the pricing page. It is sold as structured hiring, not as search | Tracking and a talent pool in one system, with screening included | Sourcing and a talent pool listed in every plan, including the entry one | A candidate sourcing suite in the entry tier | Recruiting is one module of the suite, and search is not what it leads with |
| What costs extra | The tier itself, and the capabilities each tier carries | Candidate insights, machine screening and onboarding are named add ons | Analytics is a separate product from a hundred employees upward. An annual commitment earns a discount | Texting, video interviews and assessments are add ons at entry and bundled above it. Assistant credits are metered | Bundles, and whatever the hiring side needs on top of them |
| When it is the right choice | You want a structured, auditable process and you are past a couple of hundred people | You want tracking and a talent pool in one system and you are happy to negotiate a quote | A team under a hundred that wants search, tracking and reporting in one and a price it can read today | You post in several countries and want the lowest published entry price with room to add pieces | Contracts, absence and payroll matter more than hiring, and hiring is occasional |
Which one fits which company
Under a hundred people, Ashby is the cleanest answer. Its entry plan is the only one in this set that names a monthly figure and still lists search, a talent pool, scheduling and reporting in the same plan, so nothing critical arrives later as an add on. Workable is the cheaper published entry point and the better fit if your problem is reach across several countries, as long as you read which pieces are add ons at that tier.
Past two hundred people, with several hiring managers and an audit trail to keep, Greenhouse earns the quote. Lever is the one to call when you want tracking and a talent pool in a single system and someone in your team enjoys a negotiation. Personio is a different purchase altogether. If contracts, absence and payroll are the real work and you hire a few times a year, buying an HR suite and living with its hiring module is a defensible trade.
What the comparison cannot tell you
A tracking system is judged on what it does with people who have already applied. That is a fair test of the product and a poor test of your hiring problem. If a role has been open for months, the list of applicants is not short because your tracking system is slow. It is short because the people who could do the job are employed somewhere else and were never going to read your advert.
Where a monthly search sits beside it
Every product above manages people who have raised their hand. For one hard to fill role we run a monthly search instead, find the most relevant people in your market whether they are looking or not, make sure each of them hears about that specific role, and bring the best few to a call with your team, at about a tenth of a recruiting agency. It sits beside whichever system you pick rather than replacing it. If the post is a narrow one, a data platform engineer for instance, see how a monthly search compares to an agency or read how it works.
If we would be a fit, we will bring a shortlist of the best few candidates for your role to the call.
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