Best Applicant Tracking System for Small Business in 2026

Why the Right ATS Matters for a Small Business

A company with 5 to 200 employees hires differently from an enterprise. There is usually no recruiting operations team, no dedicated system admin, and often no full-time recruiter. Hiring is run by a founder, an office manager, an HR generalist, or a department head who also has a day job. The applicant tracking system has to work for those people, not for a team of specialists.

That changes what "best" means. Enterprise buyers look for configurability, audit trails and governance. Small businesses need four things above everything else:

• Predictable cost. A tool priced for a 2,000-person company is wasted money at 40 people. Published prices also matter, because they let you budget without sitting through three sales calls.
• Fast setup. If the system takes a quarter to configure, you will hire your next five people from your inbox anyway.
• Hiring managers who actually use it. The most common failure is not a missing feature. It is a manager who never leaves feedback, so candidates sit in a stage for two weeks.
• Room to grow without a migration. Moving from 15 to 120 employees should not force you to switch systems.

This guide compares seven applicant tracking systems through that lens: Workable, Breezy HR, JazzHR, Ashby, Tellent Recruitee, Greenhouse and Lever. We checked every plan name, price, trial and plan limit on each vendor's own website in October 2026. Where a vendor does not publish prices, we say so rather than estimate.

One naming note before we start: Recruitee was acquired by Tellent and is now sold as Tellent Recruitee. It is still the same product at recruitee.com, so we include it under its current name.

Workable review

Workable is an all-in-one recruiting platform that also sells an optional HR module. For small businesses its main strengths are clear published pricing, unlimited active jobs on every plan, and sourcing tools that would cost extra elsewhere.

Key features

• Applicant tracking with custom hiring pipelines, interview kits and scorecards, offer letter templates and automated actions
• Job distribution to 200+ job boards, a careers page builder, and integrations with Indeed Easy Apply and Apply with LinkedIn
• Sourcing across 400M+ candidate profiles, past-candidate resurfacing and a Chrome extension for LinkedIn profiles
• Scheduling with self-scheduled interviews, two-way Gmail and Microsoft 365 calendar sync, and Zoom, Teams and Meet integration
• Workable Agent, an AI recruiting agent that sources, screens and qualifies candidates using AI credits

Pricing

Workable prices by company size (total employees, not hires). Recruiting-only prices for the size bands most small businesses fall into:

• Premier and Enterprise are billed annually only. Monthly billing is available on Standard.
• Premier and Enterprise include texting, video interviews, assessments and referrals. On Standard, these are add-ons. For 1-20 employees on annual billing: Texting $89/month, Video interviews $109/month, Assessments $59/month. Add-on prices also rise with company size.
• Every paid account gets 3,000 free AI credits for Workable Agent. Extra credits cost $600 for 5,000, $1,000 for 10,000 or $4,750 for 50,000. Credits expire after one year and the free trial does not include the agent.
• An optional HR module (HRIS, onboarding, time off, time tracking) can be bundled. For 1-20 employees, Standard with HR is $359/month billed annually.
• 15-day free trial of the Standard feature set, no credit card required. There is no free plan.

Pros

• Published prices for every size band up to 1,000 employees, so you can budget before talking to sales
• Unlimited active jobs on every plan (subject to fair use)
• Sourcing database and job distribution included, which reduces spend on separate tools
• Interview kits, scorecards and API access on all plans, so you do not need to upgrade to get structure

Cons

• The entry price ($299/month on an annual plan) is higher than Breezy HR or JazzHR
• Texting, video interviews and assessments are paid add-ons on Standard, and those add-on prices rise with headcount
• Prices step up at 21, 51 and 101 employees, so a growing company pays more each time it crosses a band

Who it's for

Small and mid-sized companies hiring steadily, roughly 5 to 10 or more roles a year, that want a complete ATS without hiring an admin. It is also a good fit when you need to source passive candidates and do not want to pay for a separate sourcing tool.

Breezy HR review

Breezy HR is a visual, pipeline-first ATS. Its pricing is unusual: plans are flat monthly fees with unlimited users, so the price does not climb as your headcount grows. It also has the most useful free plan in this comparison.

Key features

• Drag-and-drop pipeline with customizable stages and bulk candidate actions
• Job distribution to 50+ job boards and a branded, mobile-friendly career site, even on the free plan
• Candidate automations that trigger messages and interview scheduling when a candidate changes stage (Startup and above)
• Interview self-scheduling, one-way video and built-in video interviews, plus Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams (Startup and above)
• Breezy Intelligence, AI candidate evaluation, interaction summaries and resume auditing, on credits

Pricing

• Bootstrap: free. Unlimited users, 1 active position or candidate pool at a time, unlimited candidates added in the last 30 days, career site, 50+ job boards and resume parsing.
• Startup: $157/month billed annually, or $189/month billed monthly. Unlimited positions, automations, questionnaires, self-scheduling, video interviews, background check integrations, EEOC/OFCCP reporting and analytics.
• Growth: $273/month billed annually, or $329/month billed monthly. Adds customizable interview guides and scorecards, reference checking, employee referrals, e-signatures, internal positions, external recruiter portal and multiple pipelines.
• Business: $439/month billed annually, or $529/month billed monthly. Adds HRIS integrations, offer management, position and offer approvals, custom roles and permissions, assessment integrations, candidate nurture campaigns and priority support.
• Custom Pro: quote. Business plus a dedicated account manager and options such as API access, advanced reporting and data export/import.
• Add-ons: Breezy Intelligence credits from $30 per 100,000; SMS/texting from $41/month; Onboard from $49/month; Perform and expert training are quoted.
• 14-day full-feature free trial, no credit card, with 100,000 Breezy Intelligence credits.

Pros

• A genuine free plan that works for a business hiring one role at a time
• Flat pricing with unlimited users, so a 150-person company pays the same as a 15-person one
• Easy visual pipeline that hiring managers pick up quickly
• Automations and self-scheduling arrive on the cheapest paid plan

Cons

• Scorecards and interview guides start on Growth ($273/month annually), not Startup
• HRIS integrations and offer management are on Business ($439/month annually)
• API access and advanced reporting need the quote-based Custom Pro plan

Who it's for

Very small businesses that hire occasionally and want to start free, and growing companies that want a flat bill no matter how many employees they add. Check which tier holds the features you need (scorecards, HRIS sync, offers) before comparing prices.

JazzHR review

JazzHR is built and marketed for small business hiring. It is owned by Employ Inc., which also owns Lever and Jobvite. It has the lowest published entry price of the paid tools here.

Key features

• Applicant tracking with custom workflow stages, job-specific hiring teams, roles and permissions, a searchable candidate database and resume parsing (all plans)
• Job posting to free job boards, with premium job listings available to buy, and a LinkedIn Recruiter integration
• AI-powered candidate matching (Plus and Pro)
• Structured interviews and assessments, interview guides, candidate evaluation templates, knockout questions and Google Calendar/Outlook sync (Plus and Pro)
• Reporting: source and timing reports on Plus, plus a custom reports builder and workflow reports on Pro

Pricing

• Hero includes job postings (starting at 3 per month), the ATS, email templates, LinkedIn Recruiter integration and premium job listings.
• Plus adds up to 200 active jobs, AI candidate matching, structured interviews and assessments, configurable task automation and standard reporting.
• Pro adds offers and e-signatures, advanced visual reporting, a custom reports builder, workflow reports and all-access support. On Plus, offers and e-signatures and advanced visual reporting are available as add-ons.
• JazzHR says paying yearly saves up to 24%.
• Eligibility: JazzHR states that standard pricing does not apply to staffing or recruiting agencies, HR service providers, franchises, multi-location businesses, organizations with over 250 employees, or certain other organizations at its discretion.
• 14-day free trial, no credit card required, unlimited users.

Pros

• Lowest published entry price in this comparison ($1,000 per year on Hero)
• Unlimited users, with no per-seat fees
• Plus delivers AI matching, structured interviews and automation for $3,480 per year
• Designed around small business hiring, so the feature set stays focused

Cons

• Hero is limited: job postings start at 3 per month, and calendar sync, interview guides, knockout questions and reports start on Plus
• Offers and e-signatures require Pro or an add-on
• Standard pricing excludes multi-location businesses, franchises and companies over 250 employees, which rules out some small businesses entirely

Who it's for

Single-location small businesses on a tight budget that want a real ATS rather than a shared inbox. Plus is the sensible starting point for most; Hero suits very occasional hiring.

Ashby review

Ashby is an all-in-one recruiting platform (ATS, CRM, sourcing, scheduling and analytics) that has become popular with venture-backed startups. Unlike most tools with this much depth, it publishes a price for small companies.

Key features

• Sourcing and CRM with automated multi-step email and LinkedIn sequences, a sourcing Chrome extension, AI candidate search and 200 included email lookups
• AI-assisted application review, fraudulent candidate detection, auto-reject rules and an AI candidate assistant
• Interview scheduling with direct booking, availability links, visual scheduling, debriefs and AI-generated interview summaries
• Offers and e-signature with unlimited offers (one offer template on Foundations)
• Reporting with job and core dashboards, a report template library, drilldowns and AI report interpretations

Pricing

• Foundations (up to 100 employees). Monthly billing prices by company size: 1-10 employees $300/month, 11-25 $400/month, 26-50 $500/month, 51-75 $700/month, 76-100 $900/month. Annual commitments get a 10% discount. Includes 1,500 AI credits per month and 1,000 outbound candidate texts per month (extra texts $90 per 1,000). SSO is $100/month on Foundations. The AI notetaker is a paid add-on.
• Plus (best for 101-1,000 employees): custom pricing based on company size, usage and commitment. Adds custom saved reports and dashboards, approval workflows, custom fields, confidential jobs, SCIM, a sandbox and more.
• Enterprise (1,000+ employees): custom pricing.
• Ashby says it does not charge for integrations and lists a 250+ integration marketplace and API access on every plan. Monthly plans require a credit card; annual plans can also be paid by bank transfer.
• We did not find a free trial or free plan on Ashby's pricing page.

Pros

• Unusually deep sourcing, scheduling and reporting for a plan priced from $300/month
• Clear published price for companies under 100 employees
• Integrations and API included on the entry plan
• One product covers ATS, CRM and scheduling, so fewer separate tools

Cons

• Foundations caps reporting: no custom saved reports, custom dashboards or approval workflows until Plus
• Above 100 employees, Plus is quote-only, so the price for a 120-person company is unknown until you ask
• The depth can be more than a business hiring a few roles a year will use

Who it's for

Startups and small tech companies that hire continuously, source passive candidates and care about recruiting data. If you hire three people a year, it is more tool than you need.

Tellent Recruitee review

Tellent Recruitee (formerly just Recruitee) is a collaborative ATS from Tellent, which also sells an HRIS called Tellent HR. It is strong on careers sites and multilingual hiring and is widely used by European companies. The product, website and login are still at recruitee.com.

Key features

• CareersHub, a no-code careers site (single page on Start, multi-page and multilingual with a branded URL on Advance)
• Multi-job-board posting and team collaboration on every plan
• AI Screening Assistant and AI Matching Assistant (limited on Advance, fuller on Optimize)
• Workflow automations, structured evaluation forms and offer letter generation (Advance and above)
• Optional add-ons: SSO, Texting, Journeys (pre-onboarding and onboarding), AgencyHub, WhatsApp Hiring and the Tellent HR HRIS

Pricing

Tellent Recruitee does not publish prices. Its pricing page says subscriptions are tiered by plan, number of employees at your organization and billing period. The plans:

• Start: 5 active job posts, single-page CareersHub, multi-job-board posting, collaboration, candidate management, AI email writing and standard reporting.
• Advance: unlimited job posts, multi-page CareersHub, employee referrals, AI Screening Assistant (100 credits/month), AI Matching Assistant (3 searches/month), workflow automations, structured evaluation forms, offer letters, up to 3 custom job fields and advanced reporting with custom reports and dashboards.
• Optimize: everything in Advance plus SSO, onboarding support, a dedicated customer success manager, full AI Screening, AI Matching (65 searches/month), requisition approvals, unlimited custom fields, a sandbox and BI integrations.
• Contracts have a minimum one-year commitment. You can pay monthly, but paying annually gives a 20% discount.
• 18-day free trial of the Advance plan. During the trial you cannot post to free job boards, send more than 50 emails or publish more than five jobs, and it does not convert to a paid plan automatically.

Pros

• Clear plan limits, so you know exactly what Start, Advance and Optimize include
• Strong careers site builder, including multilingual pages
• Useful add-ons such as WhatsApp Hiring and AgencyHub for specific hiring models
• Longer trial than most tools here

Cons

• No public prices, so you cannot compare cost without a sales conversation
• Start is capped at 5 active job posts
• Minimum one-year commitment even if you pay monthly

Who it's for

Small and mid-sized companies, especially in Europe or hiring in several languages, that want a collaborative ATS and do not mind requesting a quote.

Greenhouse review

Greenhouse is the reference point for structured hiring: interview kits, scorecards and consistent stages that make hiring decisions easier to compare and defend. It is built for companies with many hiring managers and a real recruiting function.

Key features

• Structured interview kits and scorecards on every plan
• Sourcing and CRM, scheduling, talent matching and reporting (Core)
• AI Notetaker that records and transcribes interviews and maps summaries to scorecard questions
• Real Talent fraud detection that flags misrepresentation and verifies candidates (enterprise-level Real Talent features on Pro)
• Hundreds of pre-built integrations and SSO on every plan

Pricing

Greenhouse does not publish prices. Its pricing page says cost depends on the plan, your hiring volume and organizational complexity, and the features you need.

• Core: sourcing and CRM, structured interview kits, AI Notetaker, scheduling, reporting, SSO and talent matching.
• Plus: everything in Core plus AI-powered report filters, a Business Intelligence connector, sourcing automation, texting, and fraud and spam detection.
• Pro: everything in Plus plus unlimited CRM events, enterprise-level data configuration and security, audit log, developer sandbox and sync, and enterprise-level Real Talent features.
• We found no small business tier, free plan or self-serve trial on the pricing page.

Pros

• Best-in-class structured hiring tools on the entry plan
• Large integration ecosystem for HRIS, background checks and assessments
• Scales cleanly as departments and hiring managers multiply
• Strong AI features, including the notetaker and fraud detection

Cons

• Quote-only pricing makes budgeting hard, and it is positioned above SMB-first tools
• Getting value from it takes process design and an owner who maintains it
• No self-serve trial, so evaluation runs through sales

Who it's for

Companies near the top of the small business range (150 to 200 employees and growing) with an HR or recruiting lead who will own the system, and that want structured hiring before they reach 300 or 500 employees. Below that, the simpler tools above will usually serve you better for the money.

Lever review

Lever combines an ATS with a candidate relationship manager (CRM), so you can track active applicants and nurture past and passive candidates in one place. It is now sold as Lever by Employ, under the same owner as JazzHR.

Key features

• Unified ATS and CRM for applicants and long-term talent pools
• AI-powered candidate screening with role-specific matching
• Unlimited AI interview transcripts and summaries
• AI fraud prevention signals
• Reporting dashboards and integrations with HRIS, sourcing, assessment, background check and productivity tools

Pricing

Lever does not publish prices. Its pricing page says pricing is available on request and depends on company size and hiring needs, and its homepage says quotes reflect company size, hiring volume, feature needs and implementation requirements.

• Core platform: ATS and CRM, reporting dashboards, AI screening, unlimited AI interview transcripts and summaries, and AI fraud prevention signals.
• Add-ons: Candidate Insights, AI Screening by VONQ, and Onboarding.
• We found no free plan or self-serve trial.

Pros

• ATS and CRM in one system, useful when you rehire for the same roles
• AI transcripts and summaries included in the core platform
• Fits teams that source and nurture rather than wait for applicants
• Lever says it serves small, mid-sized and enterprise organizations

Cons

• No public pricing, so you cannot sanity-check cost upfront
• The CRM side is wasted if you mostly hire from inbound applications
• Onboarding is an extra add-on rather than included

Who it's for

Small companies with at least one dedicated recruiter who sources candidates and maintains talent pools, typically in tech or other competitive hiring markets.

How to Choose: Decision Rules

Skip the feature checklists and answer these questions in order.

1. How many roles will you hire in the next 12 months?

• One role at a time: start on Breezy HR's free Bootstrap plan.
• Up to about 10 roles a year: JazzHR Plus ($3,480/year) or Breezy HR Startup ($157/month annually).
• 10 or more roles a year, or always hiring: Workable Standard, or Ashby Foundations if you source a lot.

2. Do you need to find candidates who did not apply?

• If yes, Workable (400M+ profiles on every plan) and Ashby (sequences and AI candidate search on Foundations) give you sourcing without a separate tool. Lever and Greenhouse also cover sourcing and CRM, at quote-based prices.
• If almost all your candidates come from job boards, do not pay for sourcing depth. Breezy HR or JazzHR is enough.

3. Is your headcount about to grow fast?

• Breezy HR and JazzHR charge flat prices that do not change with headcount (JazzHR up to 250 employees).
• Workable and Ashby price by company size, so your bill grows as you do. Ashby moves to a quote-based plan above 100 employees.

4. Who will own the system?

• No HR or recruiting owner: Workable, Breezy HR or JazzHR. All three are self-serve with free trials.
• An HR generalist or recruiter who will configure it: Ashby, Tellent Recruitee, Greenhouse or Lever become realistic.

5. Do you need structured interviews and scorecards?

• Included on all Workable plans, JazzHR Plus and up, Breezy HR Growth and up, Ashby Foundations and Greenhouse Core. If scorecards matter, compare those tiers, not the cheapest plan.

6. Are you a franchise, multi-location business, agency or over 250 employees?

• Rule out JazzHR's standard pricing (it does not apply to these organizations) and ask for a quote, or start with Workable or Breezy HR.

7. Are you in Europe or hiring in several languages?

• Shortlist Tellent Recruitee. Breezy HR also offers EU data centers for EU and UK customers and multi-language career pages.

Pricing Comparison: What Small Businesses Actually Pay

Here is the annual cost of the main published plans at four company sizes. Assumptions: prices are list prices from each vendor's pricing page on 17 October 2026, US dollars, before tax; no add-ons; "annual" means paying for a year upfront, "monthly" means 12 monthly payments. Workable and Ashby are priced by company size, so the column is your total employee count. Breezy HR and JazzHR are flat. Ashby's annual figure applies its stated 10% discount to the monthly price.

10-employee company

• Breezy HR Bootstrap: $0 (one active role at a time)
• JazzHR Hero: $1,000/year annual, or $110 x 12 = $1,320 monthly
• Breezy HR Startup: $157 x 12 = $1,884/year annual, or $189 x 12 = $2,268 monthly
• Ashby Foundations (1-10): $300 x 12 = $3,600 monthly, or $3,600 less 10% = $3,240 annual
• JazzHR Plus: $3,480/year annual, or $350 x 12 = $4,200 monthly
• Workable Standard (1-20): $299 x 12 = $3,588/year annual, or $360 x 12 = $4,320 monthly

25-employee company

• Breezy HR Startup / Growth: unchanged at $1,884 or $3,276 per year (annual)
• JazzHR Plus: unchanged at $3,480 per year (annual)
• Ashby Foundations (11-25): $400 x 12 = $4,800 monthly, or $4,320 annual
• Workable Standard (21-50): $419 x 12 = $5,028/year annual, or $500 x 12 = $6,000 monthly

60-employee company

• Breezy HR Growth: $273 x 12 = $3,276/year annual
• JazzHR Plus: $3,480/year annual
• Breezy HR Business: $439 x 12 = $5,268/year annual
• Ashby Foundations (51-75): $700 x 12 = $8,400 monthly, or $7,560 annual
• Workable Standard (51-100): $669 x 12 = $8,028/year annual

150-employee company

• Breezy HR Business: still $5,268/year annual
• JazzHR Pro: $5,508/year annual (under the 250-employee limit)
• Workable Standard (101-200): $949 x 12 = $11,388/year annual; Premier is $1,759 x 12 = $21,108/year
• Ashby: Plus plan, quote-based
• Greenhouse, Lever, Tellent Recruitee: quote-based at every size

What the numbers show

• Flat pricing wins as you grow. At 150 employees, Breezy HR Business costs less than half of Workable Standard. The trade-off is that Breezy puts scorecards on Growth and HRIS sync and offers on Business, so match tiers by feature, not by name.
• Add-ons change the Workable math. A 10-person company on Workable Standard adding texting ($89), video interviews ($109) and assessments ($59) pays $299 + $257 = $556/month on annual billing. At that point Premier ($599/month annually), which includes all three plus referrals, costs only $43/month more.
• Ashby is competitive under 50 employees. At 25 employees, Ashby Foundations on an annual plan ($4,320) costs less than Workable Standard ($5,028), with deeper scheduling and analytics. Above 100 employees the comparison needs a quote.
• Annual billing saves real money. Breezy HR's annual pricing equals about two months free, JazzHR says yearly saves up to 24%, Workable's annual Standard price is about 17% below its monthly price, and Ashby gives 10% off.

Common Mistakes and Hidden Costs

• Comparing plan names instead of features. "Startup" on Breezy HR does not include scorecards; Workable's Standard does. List your must-haves (scorecards, offers, HRIS sync, texting) and find the cheapest tier that includes all of them on each tool.
• Ignoring company-size bands. Workable and Ashby charge by total employees. If you are at 48 employees and plan to hire 10 people this year, budget for the next band.
• Forgetting add-ons and credits. Texting, video interviews, assessments, AI credits, onboarding modules and SSO are often extra. Ashby charges $100/month for SSO on Foundations; Workable charges per add-on on Standard; Breezy HR sells texting, Breezy Intelligence and Onboard separately; Lever sells Onboarding as an add-on.
• Missing eligibility fine print. JazzHR's standard prices do not apply to franchises, multi-location businesses, agencies, HR service providers or companies over 250 employees.
• Signing a long contract before a trial. Workable (15 days), Breezy HR (14 days), JazzHR (14 days) and Tellent Recruitee (18 days) all offer free trials. Use them with a real open role. Tellent Recruitee also requires a one-year minimum commitment.
• Buying enterprise depth too early. Greenhouse and Lever are strong products, but a 30-person company hiring six people a year rarely needs quote-based enterprise tooling.
• Not planning the exit. Ask how you can export candidates, resumes and notes before you sign. Moving years of candidate history later is the hardest part of switching.

Final Recommendation

For most small businesses, pick Workable. It publishes prices for every size band, includes unlimited jobs, sourcing and scorecards on its entry plan, and can be set up without an admin. Start the 15-day trial with a live role, and check whether add-ons push you toward Premier.

If budget is the priority, compare Breezy HR and JazzHR. Breezy HR is the better fit if you want to start free or expect headcount to grow quickly, because its flat price does not rise with employees. JazzHR Plus is the better fit if you want AI matching and structured interviews for $3,480 a year and you meet its eligibility rules.

If you are a startup that hires constantly, look hard at Ashby. At under 50 employees its Foundations plan is priced close to Workable and offers deeper sourcing, scheduling and reporting.

If you hire in Europe or in several languages, request a Tellent Recruitee quote and use its 18-day trial.

Shortlist Greenhouse or Lever only if you are approaching 200 employees, have a dedicated recruiting owner, and want structured hiring (Greenhouse) or proactive sourcing and talent pools (Lever) badly enough to go through a sales-led, quote-based purchase.

Whichever you choose, run the same test in each trial: post one real job, move five candidates through your stages, schedule two interviews, collect feedback from a hiring manager and send one offer. The tool that makes that loop easiest for your busiest manager is the right one.