An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software that helps organizations manage their hiring process. Small businesses and large enterprise-level corporations alike use applicant tracking systems to streamline their recruiting.
Applicant tracking systems are used to post job openings on job boards, collect and organize candidate data, screen candidates, manage documentation, and foster collaboration between hiring team members.
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An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software that helps organizations manage their hiring process. Small businesses and large enterprise-level corporations alike use applicant tracking systems to streamline their recruiting.
Applicant tracking systems are used to post job openings on job boards, collect and organize candidate data, screen candidates, manage documentation, and foster collaboration between hiring team members.
What are the best applicant tracking systems in 2024?
What are the best ATS systems for organizations to consider in 2024? To help you determine the top ATS choice for your organization, we have reviewed a long list of applicant tracking systems and narrowed the results down to the 6 best ATS in no particular order. And to make it even easier for you to understand which ATS fits your company’s needs, we’ve unpacked:
- Features
- Price
- User-friendliness
- Support
- Integrations
- User reviews
- And more
Please note that this analysis is based on publicly available information we gathered in our research. Now, let’s dive into the must-know details on our top-performing applicant tracking systems list.
Best ATS comparison & ratings chart
Software Name | Best For | Price | G2 Rating (Out of 5 Stars) |
---|---|---|---|
Spark Hire (formerly Comeet) | SMB to Mid-Market. Good for organizations looking to scale up with an all-in-one hiring suite. | Custom pricing Three plan tiers | 4.6 / 5.0 |
Lever | Mid-Market to Enterprise looking for ATS + CRM combo | Custom pricing | 4.3 / 5.0 |
Greenhouse | SMB to Enterprise, looking for a hiring and onboarding platform | Custom pricing Three tiers of recruiting plans | 4.4 / 5.0 |
JazzHR | SMB on a budget looking for a simple point solution for low-volume hiring | SMB on a budget looking for a simple point solution for low-volume hiring | 4.4 / 5.0 |
Workable | SMB to Mid-Market looking for ATS + HRIS combo | Three plan tiers $149 to $3.1k+ | 4.6 / 5.0 |
Workday | Mid-Market to Enterprise with high-volume needs | Custom Pricing | 4.0 / 5.0 |
6 top applicant tracking systems reviewed
The best applicant tracking system will differ based on your organization’s needs, budget, and size. What may be the best ATS for recruiters may not meet the integration needs of, say, your Human Resources’ preferred HRIS.
Similarly, some of the most popular ATS systems may not be within your price range. We’ve gathered a variety of the top applicant tracking systems to help you differentiate their benefits and drawbacks.
1. Spark Hire
Spark Hire is a talent acquisition suite with full-featured ATS (formerly Comeet), video interviews, and assessment tools. An HR tech industry leader since 2012, Spark Hire boasts an ATS with a wide variety of applicant tracking system features designed to address recruiters’ needs while increasing efficiency and team collaboration.
Geared towards small-to-midsize growing organizations, Spark Hire’s ATS delivers easily customizable hiring workflows, task-based automation, robust native reporting, and an AI assistant. Paired with Spark Hire’s top-rated one-way video interviews and assessments, organizations can screen candidates efficiently and move forward with top talent quickly.
Top Features
- Customizable workflows
- Native one-way video interviews
- Deep, customizable reports
- AI assistant
- Task-based automation to engage hiring managers
- Built-in calendar with auto-scheduling
Pros
- Easy to customize
- Consolidated HR tech suite
- 24/7 customer support
- Suitable for all industries and a wide range of organizational sizes
- More affordable than enterprise-level solutions
- More feature-rich than budget options
Cons
- May not be suitable for enterprise-level organizations (10,000+ employees)
- Fewer integrations compared to some competitors
Integrations
Spark Hire’s ATS integrates with 50+ top HR software vendors, including job boards, sourcing tools, assessments, HRIS & onboarding, background check software, employer branding suites, career page builders, calendars, e-signature tools, video conferencing, texting, single sign-on, and analytics and compliance vendors.
Support
In addition to a robust help center, Spark Hire’s ATS features a dedicated team of award-winning 24×7 customer support. Certain plans also include a dedicated customer success manager.
Ratings and Reviews
With hundreds of user reviews, Spark Hire’s ATS is consistently lauded for its user-friendly interface, enabling seamless collaboration between recruiters and hiring managers. Users also praise the customer support team for fast and helpful responses.
While some users have struggled with situations like duplicate candidate applications and a sometimes hard-to-navigate analytics UI, Spark Hire actively addresses customer complaints with new features and enhancements to improve user experience.
Scoring 4.6/5 and 4.7/5 on G2.com and Capterra.com, respectively, from 300+ reviews, Spark Hire is a player to watch in the ATS space.
Pricing
Spark Hire’s ATS pricing starts at $250 per month (on an annual basis).
2. Lever
Lever is a comprehensive applicant tracking system designed to streamline the hiring process for organizations. It offers features such as automated workflows, candidate relationship management, and robust analytics, making recruitment more efficient and data-driven. Lever integrates seamlessly with various tools, providing a user-friendly interface that enhances collaboration among hiring teams.
Lever is best suited for mid-sized to large organizations across diverse industries, including tech, finance, healthcare, and retail. Its scalability and customization options cater to the complex needs of growing companies, ensuring they can effectively attract, engage, and hire top talent.
Top Features
- Automated workflows
- Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) tool
- Collaborative hiring tools
- Advanced analytics and reporting
- Customizable pipelines
Pros
- ATS and CRM in one
- Designed for high-volume hiring
- Mobile-friendly design
Cons
- Expensive
- Complex for new users
- Users report limited customization options
- Users report slow customer service response times
Integrations
Lever features 100+ integrations for most common HR tools. These include HRIS & payroll, job boards, sourcing tools, assessments, background checks, schedulers, communication tools, onboarding, CRM, email marketing, and analytics and reporting.
Support
Lever’s team provides dedicated customer success managers to enterprise-level clients, but all customers enjoy access to a Help Center, email support, live chat, and a community forum. Users have reported variability in response times and satisfaction with the level of support provided.
Ratings and Reviews
Lever users give the platform an overall positive review, with many praising the ease of use, user interface, and navigation. The most common complaints are poor candidate management, missing features, limited customization, and slow customer response times.
Lever scores a 4.3/5 on G2 and 4.6/5 on Capterra based on 2,500+ reviews.
Pricing
Lever features three base plans, each with custom pricing. These include Lever Hire (SMB to mid-market focused), Lever Nurture (adds CRM capabilities), and Lever Enterprise (comprehensive). Further add-ons and integrations are available for additional costs.
3. Greenhouse
Greenhouse is a widely used applicant tracking system that enjoys strong name recognition. It offers features such as automated interview scheduling, collaborative hiring tools, and customizable reporting, making it easier to attract, evaluate, and hire top talent efficiently.
Greenhouse is best suited for mid-sized to large organizations across most industries. Its scalability and comprehensive features cater to the complex needs of growing companies, ensuring a data-driven and inclusive approach to recruitment.
Top Features
- Automated workflows
- Structured hiring
- CRM and Onboarding modules
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) tools
Pros
- Consolidated hiring suite (ATS, CRM, Onboarding)
- Rich feature set
- Strong candidate experience
Cons
- High costs make it less accessible to smaller businesses
- Limited reporting capabilities
- Users report difficulty in filtering and organizing candidates
- Large ecosystem of integration that lacks depth in functionality
Integrations
Greenhouse boasts one of the largest integration partner lists, though users complain about a lack of functionality. Their integrations include 300+ vendors: HRIS & payroll, job boards, sourcing tools, assessments, background checks, schedulers, communication tools, onboarding, CRMs, email marketing, analytics & reporting, video interviewing, and DEI platforms.
Support
Greenhouse’s enterprise customers have dedicated customer success managers, and all customers have access to email support, live chat, training and onboarding, a help center, and a community forum.
Ratings and Reviews
Greenhouse customers frequently praise its user-friendly interface, robust feature set, customizable workflows, and structured hiring that caters to diversity initiatives. In addition to high prices, users complain that it can be difficult to see meaningful metrics and that the complex tool set has a steep learning curve.
Greenhouse scores a 4.5/5 on both G2 and Capterra.
Pricing
Greenhouse software has three plan levels: Essential (entry-level), Advanced, and Expert, each with custom pricing. Users report that Greenhouse prices are higher than most competitors’. Add-ons and customizations are available for additional costs.
4. JazzHR
JazzHR is an affordable applicant tracking system designed with smaller businesses in mind. It offers all the fundamental features needed for smaller recruiting operations, such as job posting, resume parsing, interview scheduling, and career pages. Compared to other competitors in the space, JazzHR’s ATS is more of a point solution and does not offer modules for additional features like CRM or video interviewing.
JazzHR is best suited for small to mid-sized organizations with lower hiring volumes. Its affordability makes it a popular choice for small businesses and start-ups looking to improve their recruitment processes without the complexity and cost of larger ATS solutions.
Top Features
- Job posting
- Customizable workflows
- Interview scheduling
- Offer management
- Resume parsing
Pros
- Affordable for smaller businesses
- Less complex than some competitors
- Automates communication between hiring stakeholders
Cons
- Lacks flexibility in customization
- Not scalable for high-volume hiring
- Limited features and functionality
- Reporting is lacking
- Requires additional costs for third-party vendors if you need more functionality
Integrations
Because JazzHR is a simpler ATS solution, users often use additional integrations to expand functionality. JazzHR has a substantial list of 40+ partners, including HRIS and payroll, job boards, sourcing tools, background checks, assessments, schedulers, communication tools, onboarding platforms, CRMs, marketing tools, analytics and reporting, and video interview tools.
Support
JazzHR offers dedicated success managers for Enterprise customers. Customers can access a help center, email and phone support, live chat, training, and a community forum.
Ratings and Reviews
JazzHR consistently receives praise for its affordability and user-friendly interface. Customers enjoy the ability to customize workflows and job postings, though it is noted that only administrators can do so.
Common pain points include significant limitations on reporting depth, a mobile experience that lacks user-friendliness compared to the desktop version, and an overall lack of feature depth compared to more robust competitors.
JazzHR scores 4.4/5 on G2.com and 4.3/5 on Capterra from 1,000+ user ratings.
Pricing
JazzHR offers three levels of plans: Hero (for small businesses and startups), Plus (for growing businesses), and Pro (for larger companies). JazzHR’s transparent pricing begins at $75/mo and ranges upwards of $420/mo for Pro plans. Add-ons are available for additional costs.
5. Workable
Workable is an HR hiring suite featuring an applicant tracking system and an HRIS platform designed for onboarding and payroll. It also features robust integration capabilities and customizable workflows, making it adaptable to various industries and recruitment needs.
Workable is best suited for small to mid-sized businesses. Its scalable features cater to growing teams looking to streamline recruitment efforts.
Top Features
- Candidate sourcing
- Workflow automation
- Auto-scheduler
- HRIS & Onboarding module
Pros
- Combo ATS + HRIS + Onboarding
- Transparent pricing
- Native one-way video interviews
Cons
- Limited candidate scorecard functionality
- Users report difficulty in reaching account managers for support
- The complex interface can be difficult to navigate
Integrations
Workable offers over 40 integrations with job boards, HRIS systems, communication tools, background screening services, and more.
Support
Workable offers premium support and custom onboarding for Premier plan members. Customers can access call or chat support, standard onboarding, email support, and a help center.
Ratings and Reviews
Workable receives favorable reviews on major review-aggregation sites, with customers praising the ease of use, strong integrations, and efficient job posting. However, users often report difficulties in managing candidates, lackluster support from dedicated success managers, and limited customizability for features like scorecards and user permissions.
Workable earns a 4.6/5 on G2.com and a 4.4/5 on Capterra.com based on 800+ user reviews.
Pricing
Workable offers transparent pricing for three plan levels, beginning at $149/mo for Starter plans up to 50 employees, ranging up to $3.2k/mo on Premier plans for up to 500 employees. Custom quotes are provided for organizations with >500 employees.
6. Workday
Workday’s applicant tracking system is part of a broad suite of business solutions, including financial planning, HRIS, supply chain management, and more. It offers scalability and robust customization options to meet the needs of large enterprises. Workday ATS enhances collaboration through shared feedback and real-time updates, optimizing recruitment efficiency and candidate experience.
Workday ATS is best suited for large organizations catering to hospitality, retail, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, and government agencies. Its comprehensive capabilities make it ideal for enterprises looking to manage complex hiring needs and streamline recruitment operations at scale.
Top Features
- AI- and M-driven job recommendations
- SMS messaging and interview management
- Candidate engagement and marketing
- Reporting, compliance, and analytics
Pros
- Large ecosystem of enterprise-level solutions
- Trusted by large, well-known organizations
- High-volume efficiency
- Comprehensive integration
Cons
- High cost
- Highly complex with a steep learning curve
- Mixed reviews on customer support, with frequent delays reported
- Reports of system performance issues, particularly during peak usage times
Integrations
Workday does not disclose the total number of integrations available, but they are known to have integrations with HRIS and payroll, recruitment and applicant tracking systems, financial management platforms, learning management tools, employee time and attendance trackers, analytics and reporting, communication tools, and benefits managers.
Support
Workday features a robust support portal, customer support teams, community forums, training, and education. Dedicated support is limited to enterprise customers.
Ratings and Reviews
Workday users are most often enterprise customers who need complex business solutions, and using Workday’s Human Capital Management (applicant tracking system) module is only one part of their experience.
Users often appreciate the access to the comprehensive suite of tools and their ability to scale at high volumes with in-depth reporting. However, the high cost and complexity of learning the suite make onboarding difficult. With mixed reviews on customer support response times and somewhat frequent performance issues, Workday is recommended only for those large organizations needing the advanced toolset.
Workday scores 4.0/5 on G2.com and 4.4/5 on Capterra.com based on 2,900 reviews.
Pricing
Workable offers transparent pricing for three plan levels, beginning at $149/mo for Starter plans up to 50 employees, ranging up to $3.2k/mo on Premier plans for up to 500 employees. Custom quotes are provided for organizations with >500 employees.
What features to look for when choosing your applicant tracking system?
The best applicant tracking systems offer essential features needed to recruit efficiently and collaboratively with your hiring teams. Your needs will vary based on your hiring volume, company size, reporting needs, and existing tech stack, but here are some of the most important features to look for when reviewing popular or best ATS systems.
- Integrations with job boards
- Customizable workflows
- Collaboration tools for all hiring stakeholders
- Candidate screening and evaluation tools
- Interview management and auto-scheduling
- Integrations with your existing HR tech stack
- Native reporting and analytics
- Offer management
- Compliance and security
Here are some nice-to-have features that will enhance your experience with your ATS and improve hiring efficiency and quality:
- Native video interviewing
- Native candidate relationship management (CRM)
- Native candidate skills assessments
- Custom candidate scorecards
- Mobile-friendly user interface
- AI assistant to automate frequent tasks
- SMS candidate communication tool
- Native e-signature tool
Which of the popular ATS systems features is right for you?
Start by evaluating your organizational hiring needs. Consider your hiring process, hiring volume, and the complexity of the jobs you’ll be hiring for.
✔️ High-Volume Hiring Solutions
High-volume hiring teams need a robust system that can operate at scale, possibly in multiple locations around the world. You’ll want to look at solutions focused on enterprise-level activity that integrate with a wide variety of business tools and emphasize security and scalability.
✔️ Specialized Roles and Candidate Assessment
Hiring fewer employees with more specialized roles? Consider some of the top ATS software that includes more candidate assessment features that analyze skills and behavioral matches for your hiring team. Those ATS solutions with native assessment modules will improve your hire quality and retention while minimizing costs that would otherwise be spent on third-party integrations.
✔️ Universal Considerations
Some considerations will be universal, like cost, customer support, and compatibility with your existing tech stack, so always take the time to consider your budget and check out user reviews on trustworthy websites like G2 and Capterra.
✔️ Collaborative Decision-Making
Whether you’re choosing between HR systems or applicant tracking platforms for the first time or considering migrating from your existing platform, be sure to make your decision a team effort that considers the needs and usage of all hiring stakeholders. Engage with vendor websites and demo teams to see if the functionality and support meet your needs.
✔️ Engage with ATS Vendors
Don’t be afraid to ask questions – the best ATS teams will answer you with expediency and transparency, and they will be able to help address your hiring challenges with their solutions.
Purchasing a new ATS can be a daunting experience for your organization as it involves a significant investment of time, money, and migration of information, but you will ultimately find that the right tool will greatly enhance your overall hiring capabilities and improve your business outcomes.
Looking for an applicant tracking system?
700+ customers love Spark Hire’s ATS for driving recruitment efficiencies, holding hiring managers accountable, and making data-driven decisions.