7 Best Free Applicant Tracking Systems 2021

An applicant tracking system checker is a tool that allows users to search for and compare the best free applicant tracking systems. The list of the 7 best free applicant tracking systems includes those from companies like ATS, Freshsales, and Zoho Recruitment.

The ideal free applicant tracking system (ATS) should make job advertisements easier to understand, filter inbound resumes and applications, and enhance candidate-employer contact. To increase recruiting efforts, a competent ATS can save resumes for future reference, screen candidates, and organize and manage referral programs.

We reviewed ten free applicant tracking systems in this article and came up with our top seven recommendations:

• Freshteam is the best option (in general) for businesses with 50 or fewer workers.
• MightyRecruiter: For firms that need strong reporting tools for Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) compliance.
• SmartRecruiters; For fast-growing companies (with professional recruiters) aiming to update their talent acquisition capabilities.
• Indeed: Best for businesses who need a free applicant tracking system (ATS) that is also a free job board.
• Homebase: For restaurants and businesses that require applicant tracking, scheduling, and time tracking tools.
• JobScore: Recruiters and businesses that need multichannel job posting and referral programs.
• OpenCATS is the best open-source application tracking solution for IT organizations.

Comparing the 7 Best Free Applicant Tracking Systems

Freshteam

The Best Free ATS for Small Businesses Overall

PROS

• Career webpage that may be customized
• Multiple channels are used to advertise job openings.
• There is a mobile application available (iOS and Android)
• Candidate profile filling and fully automatic parsing

CONS

• Overwhelming features that are often difficult to manage
• Editing options are limited.
• Third-party integrations are limited.

Total Points 4.31 OUT OF 5

Freshteam is a cloud-based human resource management system designed for companies with 50 or fewer workers. Its free tier allows you to submit up to three job posts each month and administer a rudimentary career portal. Freshteam’s mobile app also allows you to build a robust applicant pool, engage with your recruiting team, accept job applications through email and referrals, and follow successful prospects using Kanban boards from anywhere.

Freshteam received a 4.31 out of 5 grade in our review because it includes strong applicant monitoring and reporting tools and is well-liked by users. It received a poor rating for cost since its premium tiers are relatively expensive when compared to those offered by other providers on our list. The majority of online evaluations are good, although some people argue that the first deployment should not have been so difficult.

You may contact applicants, obtain input from recruiting members, and move candidates through stages using Freshteam. (Image courtesy of Freshteam)

Pricing

• Free: You may submit up to three job posts every month for Free: For $0 for up to 50 employees, you can publish up to three job postings per month. You also get a recruitment team inbox, a basic career site, an employee directory, an organization chart, email integration, Kanban boards for applicant tracking, team collaboration tools, candidate application alerts via email, employee referral, mobile apps, and basic time off management functions. if you have up to 50 workers. A recruitment team inbox, a basic career site, an employee directory, an organization chart, email integration, Kanban boards for applicant tracking, team collaboration tools, email candidate application alerts, employee referral, mobile apps, and basic time off management functions are also included.
• In addition to everything in the Free plan, you can publish up to 20 job posts, design your career site, application forms, and interview scorecards, and manage recruiting pipelines for $1.20 per employee, each month, plus a monthly $71 platform charge. Vendor management, recruitment automation, interview scheduling with Google and Outlook calendars, job board connections, phone and email chat help, and HR report and analytics are among the features.
• Pro: For $2.40 per employee each month, plus a $119 monthly platform cost, you receive all of Growth’s capabilities, as well as up to 100 advertised positions, extensive career site customizations, social recruitment, offer management tools, and a talent pool. This package also includes E-sign software integration, multi-language compatibility, different onboarding, and offboarding checklists, pre-onboarding data collecting, and a welcome kit, among other features.
• Enterprise: For $4.80 per employee per month plus a monthly platform fee of $203, you get everything in Pro plus custom user roles, unlimited onboarding, and offboarding checklists, IP address-based access restrictions, custom URL and SSL Certificate, advanced leave reports, one-click data export, and a dedicated account manager.

Features

• Freshteam allows you to generate, manage, and publish job advertisements from your applicant tracking system across many channels in minutes. You’ll also have the option of publishing them where and how you wish. If you don’t have any job description templates, you may use Freshteam’s 100+ pre-built job description templates or create your own, similar to what MightyRecruiter provides.
• Freshteam’s recruiting team and archived resumes: Unlike the other alternatives, Freshteam allows you to pick and set up your hiring team. A representative will work directly with you to locate matches for your job posts and adjust your recruiting process to meet your needs. You may also readily access Freshteam’s database of passive prospects, which can be used to fill similar job openings in the future.
• Smart candidate sourcing: Unlike Homebase, Freshteam lets you brand your mobile recruitment site. Freshteam enables you to publish positions on free job sites like Adzuna, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, and Glassdoor, as well as share them on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, to reach a larger talent pool. To find prospects, you may even build a unique tab for your brand website.
• External recruiters: You may use Freshteam to enhance the number of applications by contacting your suppliers. Through the vendor portal, vendors have exclusive access to your applicant tracking software, allowing them to add prospects and monitor them without having to rely on you. All you have to do now is sync your professional email inbox with Freshteam and transform every email into an application.
• Freshteam parses the submitted resume quickly and automatically populates the applicant profile with it. Every applicant’s information, as well as their interaction history, comments, and interview scores, is included in the profile. You may also save them for future reference if the applicant doesn’t meet your requirements right now. Through comments and ratings, your chosen hiring team may make their voices heard.
• Freshteam is the only solution that enables pre-assessment test interfaces with HackerEarth, HackerRank, or Codility to screen a large number of candidates during technical rounds.
• Candidate engagement: Instead of waiting for input from your applications, you can use Freshteam to send emails to candidates from your applicant tracking system. Simultaneously, you may instantly notify all recruiting stakeholders of any changes by sending out alerts. You may also use tasks and reminders to manage workloads and assign assignments, as well as generate scripted replies, schedule emails, connect with candidates and your recruiting team in bulk, and use tasks and reminders to manage workloads.
• User-specific access control: You may define roles for various users and assign them role-specific rights.
• With its Google Calendar and Microsoft 365 connection, you can simply plan interviews. Freshteam also has scorecards that you may use to get feedback from the recruiting team. You can create and manage offers, customize offer fields, produce offer letters, and even track applicant choices after you’ve decided to employ someone.
• Freshteam features Android and iOS applications that allow you to stay on top of your recruitment funnel from anywhere. With just a few clicks, you may contact applicants, offer comments, gain full information on a candidate or the interview process, and move candidates through the recruiting phases.
• Freshteam integrates seamlessly with Skype and Google Hangouts. You can interact with your best leads more quickly thanks to these integrations.
• Freshteam, unlike the other providers on our list, offers free email 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as well as chat and phone assistance.

MightyRecruiter

PROS

• Easily accessible and user-friendly
• ATS at a Low Cost
• There are approximately 22 million applicant profiles in our resume database.

CONS

• Approval of job postings takes 24 to 48 hours.
• Customer service that is unresponsive
• There are a few free employment boards available.

Total Points 4.26 OUT OF 5

MightyRecruiter is a free end-to-end applicant tracking system (ATS) that can publish to 29 job boards and social media sites with a single click. Its reporting tools help you manage applicants and be Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) compliant. In a single platform, you can develop screening questions for applicants, evaluate and rate them, and interact with them using customizable email templates.

MightyRecruiter earned Total Points of 4.26 out of 5 in our evaluation for its strong Features for monitoring applicants, transparent pricing, and User-Friendliness. Access to a dedicated account manager also contributed to its high score. It, however, got low marks on Popularity because of its limited online reviews.

MightyRecruiter provides admin tools that may be customized. (Image courtesy of MightyRecruiter)

Pricing

All of MightyRecruiter’s services are provided for free. You’ll get access to an infinite number of available positions, resume searches, and user accounts with this solution.

Features

• Job posting and distribution: Unlike Freshteam and SmartRecruiters, MightyRecruiter allows you to submit job vacancies to many job boards and sites at the same time. It also works nicely with social network platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, allowing you to plan postings ahead of time and have MightyRecruiter publish your available positions for you.
• JobPromote: MightyRecruiter’s JobPromote can assist you in locating quality candidates in extremely competitive job marketplaces. It puts your job openings in front of the ideal applicants and fills them quickly—a feature that only MightyRecruiter can provide.
• Career webpage that may be customized: Similar to all solutions in this guide, MightyRecruiter lets you easily customize and let your company culture attract potential talent using a career page. You can place your company logo, advertise your company culture, use your own accent colors, and upload custom images and videos to get qualified candidates’ attention. If you have an existing career page, just copy and paste the widget code into your site where you would like it to appear, and the software will update it for you.
• MightyRecruiter provides a searchable resume database with over 21 million resumes to help you locate and recruit those unique, opted-in individuals.
• Pre-screening: During the application process, you can use screening questions from MightyRecruiter’s Question Library or create your own to weed out candidates who don’t fulfill certain criteria (like location or age requirements and certifications and essential skills).
• Reporting and analytics: In the event of an audit, you may produce reports for job posts, applicant sourcing, job advertising expenditures, and even data to comply with the EEO and OFCCP. (JobScore also provides this service)
• Customer service: Only MightyRecruiter provides all clients with a personal account manager. From Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time, you may contact MightyRecruiter’s support staff through chat, phone, or email for simple difficulties and quick queries.

SmartRecruiters

Ideal for Quick-Growing Businesses (With Professional Recruiters)

PROS

• Setup, use, and deploy in numerous places is simple.
• There is no restriction to the number of users or applicants who may apply.
• Site for job seekers that is mobile-friendly
• Management of the candidate database

CONS

• There is no transparency in pricing.
• The self-scheduling function is sometimes unreliable.
• The free version’s job posting clearance procedure takes longer than normal.

Total Points 4.06 OUT OF 5

SmartRecruiters is a scalable end-to-end talent acquisition platform that is perfect for rapidly expanding companies. It supports multi-board job postings, pre-integrated assessments, candidate management, applicant screening, interview scheduling, offer management, and onboarding. It also has a free version that supports multi-board job postings, pre-integrated assessments, candidate management, applicant screening, interview scheduling, offer management, and onboarding. Additionally, its SmartGlobal product, which includes multilingual customer service, allows you to recruit internationally and employ locally.

SmartRecruiters earned Total Points of 4.06 out of 5 because it has efficient applicant tracking and reporting features. Also, it has more than 400 online reviews with a lot of positive feedback; users commented that it is user-friendly and its free version supports it. There is no restriction to the number of users or applicants who may apply. However, it lost points on pricing because it lacks transparency; you need to contact its sales team for a quote if you need to upgrade.

SmartRecruiters’ workflow management includes customizable tasks and reminders to keep you on track throughout the hiring process. (Image courtesy of SmartRecruiters)

Pricing

If your firm has up to 250 workers and needs no more than 10 current job postings, SmartRecruiters provides their SmartStart ATS version for free. You’ll need to upgrade to its SmartRecruit service after you’ve outgrown its free plan (custom-priced).

If you wish to upgrade from SmartRecruit, there are numerous add-ons available:

• SmartMessage: Makes it easy to interact with applicants.
• SmartCRM solutions allow you to recruit quickly and effectively while also enhancing your employer brand.
• SmartGlobal: This allows you to customize its platform for deployments in several countries.
• SmartAssistant: Finds, screens, and scores applicants using artificial intelligence.
• SmartJob is a recruiting ad agency integrated with your applicant tracking system.
• SmartPal is a sophisticated conversational AI.
• SmartConnect: This allows you to effortlessly combine its platform with RESTful APIs, SSO, and HRIS connections.
• SmartDistribute: One-stop shop for centralized contract administration of job distributes to over 1,000 job boards.

Features of SmartRecruiters

• Job posting on several job sites: SmartRecruiters can post positions on more than 300 job boards with only one click. SmartDistribute’s monitoring reports and post-hire data may even tell you which job boards are assisting you in filling your talent pipeline, which is a feature only SmartRecruiters can provide.
• SmartRecruiters enables hiring managers and other stakeholders to connect, exchange resumes and comments, and cooperate in one platform, which speeds up the recruiting process. With SmartRecruiters’ template library and historical message monitoring, you can keep track of communications and develop a consistent messaging strategy.
• Only SmartRecruiters, Indeed, and Freshteam provide a mobile recruiting application, which allows you to keep in touch with your hiring team at any time. You may use your iOS or Android mobile to screen, evaluate, and approve prospects in addition to keeping up with recruiting activity.
• Workflow management: SmartRecruiters has one of the top workflow management systems on the market. With customized tasks and reminders, simple approvals, and real-time dashboards, this system minimizes process standstill. You may also use periodic check-ins to keep passive applicants informed, enhance candidate experience with timely feedback, and even create reminders to cut down on the amount of time you spend on each unfilled job post.
• Applicant screening: SmartRecruiters and JobScore both include customizable application forms that allow you to rapidly discover competent individuals. It also features completely integrated evaluations and skills tests to forecast if a candidate is a good match for the job and will remain with the organization for a long time, something Freshteam and Indeed can accomplish as well.
• Interview procedure and scheduling: You may arrange virtual interviews with several applicants and get immediate interview updates. Interviewers are given standardized scorecards to provide objective feedback.
• Hiring plans: During the recruiting process, you may create hiring objectives and track and improve the performance of the hiring team.
• SmartRecruiters is the only way to issue timely offers to candidates utilizing integrated and customizable offer letter templates and forms, as well as automatic approvals through any mobile device. With SmartRecruiters’ DocuSign connection, prospects can easily read, sign, and accept their offers from any device. It also offers an automated onboarding procedure for new employees, which includes background checks.

Indeed

Best for companies that need unlimited job postings over advanced ATS tools to support high turnover or increased hiring.

PROS

• Post as many jobs as you like for free.
• Indeed Assessments assess applicants’ abilities and traits on the job.
• 200 million resumes at your fingertips

CONS

• To get assistance, you must first file a ticket.
• Some tasks may not be sponsored on mobile if they are sponsored on the desktop.
• When posting a job, the software might be glitchy at times.

Total Points 3.95 OUT OF 5

Indeed is a free job portal with over three million monthly visitors. It’s ideal for any company that wants to expand its reach by advertising free job openings and keeping track of applicants. Indeed’s management features let you communicate with applicants at every step of the recruiting process, arrange interviews, and provide evaluations, all while having Indeed automatically update the candidate’s status. Meanwhile, its salary calculators give companies information on current pay rates by job title.

Indeed received Total Points of 3.95 out of 5 in our evaluation because it is easy to use and navigate. Even though it earned mixed reviews, it is popular with online reviewers. However, its reporting features and workflow options aren’t nearly as robust as those offered by Freshteam.

Indeed allows you and your recruiting team to send direct messages to prospects or book an interview straight from the site. (According to Indeed)

Pricing

Indeed allows you to post jobs and utilize their applicant tracking system (ATS) for free. It makes money by charging a $5 per day optional pay-per-click advertising charge if you wish to advertise your available job. By sponsoring a job, you can keep your available opportunities at the top of the search results for job seekers. You may quit sponsoring or modify your budget at any moment since there are no obligations.

Indeed also features a free resume database that may help you identify a lead with certain talents and invite them to apply for an available position. Membership costs $100 or $250 per month and allows you to email 30 or 100 prospects, depending.

Features

• Employer branding and a careers page: Your free Indeed business page tells job searchers what it’s like to work for you. Employees may submit feedback about your organization, and you can upload images. You do not need to upgrade to design your jobs page, unlike Freshteam.
• Indeed’s Sponsored Jobs is the only pay-per-click plan in this guide that will help you improve your job posts. You may post jobs for free on its website, but you can also sponsor jobs for a modest price (starting at $5/day). One approach to get the most out of your Indeed job posting is to sponsor it. You may post a position for free in the general search results or pay to promote if your organization already has a career site.
• Because Indeed job ads instantly accept applications through Indeed Apply, even on mobile, you may cast a broader net for qualified candidates, similar to Freshteam and SmartRecruiters. Indeed Apply is a function that enables job searchers to submit applications fast using either an Indeed Resume or a regular resume file.
• Applicant screening: You may add screening questions to the job application form, similar to MightyRecruiter and Homebase, for example, “How many years of experience do you have?” You may also invite job applicants to take online tests to validate their abilities, such as customer service, typing, or Excel.
• Indeed, like the other providers, allows you and members of your recruiting team to send messages to prospects or book interviews directly from their platform. It also saves all messages, enabling you to keep track of any application correspondence.
• You may design email templates for popular phrases like “Thank you for applying” or “We’ll contact you for an interview.” This allows you to communicate with job searchers using standardized messaging.
• ATS integrations: Applicant Pro, BreezyHR, Greenhouse, Hirebridge, JazzHR, TalentReef, Workable, and Zoho Recruit are just a few of the more than 200 third-party systems that interact flawlessly with Only Indeed.

Homebase

PROS

• Post a job for free on one of the most popular online job sites.
• Using the platform, send messages to candidates and set up interviews.
• Applicants may submit resumes more quickly by using QR codes and Text-to-Apply.

CONS

• Increasing the number of job postings is costly.
• Constantly falling behind
• The number of notifications received might be overwhelming.

Total Points 3.83 OUT OF 5

Homebase is a candidate tracking, staff scheduling, and time tracking system designed for restaurants and retail businesses with one or more locations and a large number of hourly employees. Applicants may utilize Homebase’s QR codes and Text-to-Apply to contact you quicker, in addition to submitting resumes via your career website. Homebase enables you to contact, filter, and interview prospects using the same platform nearly instantly once you accept applications. Because restaurants and stores have the greatest incidence of employee turnover, these recruitment methods are ideal.

In our evaluation, Homebase got Total Points of 3.83 out of 5 because of its Popularity. Although it has a strong set of Features for monitoring applicants, it lacks customizable reporting. Most online users find its interface straightforward. Some, however, say that it has a lot of features but is not well-integrated. There were even times that the software often lagged.

Dashboard for the Homebase application tracking system (Source: Homebase)

Pricing

Homebase’s Basic plan is free for users operating in a single location. It has three paid tiers—Essentials, Plus, and All-in-One—for businesses with more than one location. All subscriptions have scheduling, time, and attendance functions, including job postings and Features for monitoring applicants for unlimited employees.

Add-on services: You must pay extra to improve your job posts access to ZipRecruiter and Craigslist (fees start at $79 per post) and obtain access to “HR Pro” consultants and resources ($99 per month) unless you subscribe to its All-in-One plan.

Features

• Homebase is the only service that charges you monthly costs depending on the number of company locations you have. Other providers charge you monthly fees based on the number of employees you have. This is ideal for companies who want to expand their employees in a single place.
• Only Homebase provides a strong portfolio of free-to-use recruiting, scheduling, and time tracking options, compared to all of the applicant tracking software we tested. There’s also an integrated team messenger and a self-service site where staff may manage their own data.
• It includes an easy-to-use platform with straightforward controls that allow users to simply create and submit positions to several online job boards and social media sites, including Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, in the same way as Freshteam does. Applicants may also submit their resumes straight to the Homebase Hiring dashboard, which allows you to communicate, interview, and hire candidates all in one spot.
• Screening questions: You may utilize screening questions to make the vetting process simpler with Homebase, just as you can with Indeed and MightyRecruiter. You may ask up to three questions in response to a job posting. When filling out an application, applicants might reply to these questions.
• Premium boost: To get your job posting in front of more candidates, buy Homebase’s Premium Boost, which lasts 30 days and improves the number of applications you get.
• Applicant management: In addition to reaching out to candidates through job boards and other media channels, Homebase provides a variety of options for finding candidates:
  • Referrals: You may email certain members of your team a link to your job posting.
  • QR code: Applicants may download and scan a QR code with their phones.
  • Text-to-apply: You may send candidates a text message with a link to your job listing to collect walk-ins—a service available exclusively via Homebase.
  • Customize your career page and use it to explain your organization and promote your corporate culture. Applicants may also be sent a link to the career website.
  • Manually enter applications into Homebase using the Hiring page.
• Only Homebase uses many criteria to cut down the number of applicants: Status, Distance, Application Quality, Source, and Availability.
• New workers recruited via Homebase will get a welcome package in which they may e-sign direct deposit, W-4, W-9, and I-9 forms.

JobScore

PROS

• Easily accessible and user-friendly
• Career website and application forms that may be customized
• Employee referrals should be rewarded.

CONS

• Advanced features come at an additional fee.
• Customer care takes more than 48 hours to answer.
• Filters must be improved.

Total Points 3.58 OUT OF 5

JobScore is a one-stop-shop for recruiters and businesses looking for a multichannel job posting site with a robust referral program. Its free plan gives you access to an infinite number of prospects by allowing you to publish an unlimited number of job advertisements (both paid and unpaid). It also has employee and searches firm referral programs that help you receive more applications. When a successful recommendation applicant is recruited, you may be eligible for a bonus as an employee.

JobScore earned Total Points of 3.58 out of 5 in our evaluation and received high marks for its robust applicant tracking system. However, it did not do well in Popularity since it has a limited number of online reviews on third-party sites. In addition, you have to upgrade to its pricey enterprise version if you want premium features, like custom data exports, account analysis and insights, and a dedicated account manager.

Pricing

JobScore offers three premium plans: Start ($149 monthly), Plan ($449 monthly), and Enterprise ($499 monthly) (custom priced). JobScore didn’t earn a better grade since its free plan only allows for one job posting, despite the fact that it offers a lot of fantastic features. If you require an infinite number of job listings or are a professional recruiter, JobScore’s enterprise version may be contacted for a price.

Features

• Career website and application forms that may be customized: JobScore allows you to configure your career page using videos, pictures, and team profiles that showcase your company, environment, and products. Similar to SmartRecruiters, you can use pre-built or customizable short or long application forms to build a better candidate profile.
• Automated job posting: JobScore allows users to submit jobs to free job boards or pay for them to be listed on premium job boards at agreed prices. You may construct a custom tracking link and use it in your job ad if your specialty employment platform does not interact with JobScore. Your job listings are also kept track of by the solution.
• JobScore uses social media to market job openings. Instead of cross-posting available positions to social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, you’ll need to send a referral campaign email to your staff, asking them to share open openings on their social media networks.
• Overdue reports: You can only select the maximum time a candidate should spend in each workflow step using JobScore’s Scale and Enterprise Plans, otherwise their status will be “overdue.” The Overdue Report indicates how many individuals are overdue at each level and encourages you to act.
• Employee referral portal: Like Freshteam, JobScore allows your workers to participate in the recruiting process by referring candidates via their networks. Your staff will have access to an employee referral site where they can simply submit resumes and check the progress of their recommendations during the recruiting process.
• Reward successful referrals: To drive your staff, even more, provide incentives when they make a successful recommendation.
• New applicant alerts: As an administrator, you have control over who is alerted when a new candidate applies for a job. You may also request that hiring managers give referral applicants and search firm (vendor) submissions extra consideration.
• Employers and recruiting managers may sift resumes using application scoring to get an immediate response from candidates (1 to 10). The scores will assist you in determining who to call and who to refuse. You may create email templates, schedule when they’ll be delivered, and choose whether to react to prospects individually or in bulk.
• Management of search companies: With JobScore’s Enterprise Plan, you may contact search firms with precise submission guidelines and encourage them to submit applicants for available jobs. JobScore parses and provides resumes to the recruiting team when agencies submit applicants. Every correspondence between you and the applicants will be shared with the search companies.
• JobScore allows you to extract all relevant information from resumes into easy-to-scan profiles. You may quickly select and categorize suitable prospects by using score criteria and incoming questions. Subscribers to Scale and Enterprise may utilize a robust action menu to transfer applicants to any phase in the recruiting process, tag them for future opportunities, or reassign candidates to jobs that are a better fit—all with a single click.
• Interviews: Only JobScore’s Scale and Enterprise Plans, among the other suppliers, assist you in creating interview templates that you may use at each level of the recruiting process. Scheduled interviews are linked to these templates, ensuring that your staff is always ready.
• JobScore integrates with Google Calendar and Microsoft 365 for calendar synchronization. As a result, you can see your team’s and every conference room’s availability in real-time, and add calls or interviews straight to your teams’ calendars.
• JobScore takes care of reminders like confirmed interviews and appointments, as well as feedback gathering, so you can concentrate on what’s essential.
• Compliant with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP): With a disclaimer that allows candidates to volunteer their gender, race, handicap, and veteran status, JobScore, like MightyRecruiter, helps you remain in compliance with state laws and regulations. Its self-identification form similarly uses the typeface and style specified by the OFCCP. The reason for refused and withdrawn applicants may be revealed using JobScore’s adjustable “disposition codes.”

OpenCATS

PROS

• ATS that is open-source
• Career page that may be customized
• Reports that can be customized

CONS

• To develop and tweak features, users must be tech-savvy.
• There is no help desk; instead, there is a development community and a support forum where you may ask for help.
• There is no mobile application.

Total Points 3.00 OUT OF 5

OpenCATS is ideal for IT companies and people looking for a web-based, open-source ATS that they can download and configure. Resume imports, document conversions, search functionality, email connectivity, and the ability to transfer candidate data to and from the site are all available. OpenCATS also supports the Linux, WAMP, and XAMP operating systems, making it ideal for companies with skilled IT personnel.

Because it’s free forever and offers powerful reporting tools, OpenCATS received a 3 out of 5 rating in our review. Because of the minimal number of reviews on third-party sites, OpenCATS gets a score of 0 on popularity. Users also don’t receive customer care, so if you have a problem with the program, you’ll have to do some research or join an online group to obtain help.

The OpenCATS dashboard in action (Source: OpenCATS)

Pricing

OpenCATS is available for free as open-source software. The advantage of open-source software is that you have complete control over your data and integrations. The downloading program is completely functioning, albeit some tweaking is required for some functions. As a result, the only expense you’ll incur is the IT work necessary to implement it.

Features

• OpenCATS allows you to customize your dashboard in whichever manner makes the most sense for your company’s recruiting managers. On one screen, for example, you may see jobs, applicants, calls, events, and even basic report data. This is a functionality that only OpenCATS has.
• The code is accessible to your development team, so you can brand your site and label fields and tabs the way you want, just like the other providers, since it’s open-source.
• Job posting: You have the option of posting positions either internally via your company’s employee portal or publicly on your careers page. A built-in XML feed in OpenCATS allows you to distribute job posts to particular sites and job boards.
• Email feature allows you to send messages to applicants, create email templates, and notify the recruiting team when new applications are received. All correspondence, including applicant data, contact numbers, and other recruiting-related actions, will be tracked by OpenCATS.
• OpenCATS, a resume database, does an excellent job at organizing résumé data. To fill available jobs, you may conveniently search the database for existing applications.
• Customization and software integration: Only OpenCATS provides a large number of choices for data exports to third-party systems and reporting, out of all the solutions described in this guide. Third-party tools may also be used to enhance customization and language support. Furthermore, since it is open-source, its authors encourage client feedback—though they may have a lengthier development cycle than a for-profit company.

How We Picked the Best Applicant Tracking Software for Free

We compared each ATS we reviewed for pricing and User-Friendliness. Also, we looked for essential features like free job board postings, candidate management and tracking, team collaboration, referral programs, integration options, and a careers page. We excluded those that only offered a free trial and demo.

Based on our evaluation Freshteam is the best free applicant tracking system for small businesses with up to 50 employees. It earned Total Points of 4.31 out of 5, with high marks on Popularity, applicant tracking, and reporting features. It is also scalable, making it a great ATS with which your business can grow.

25% of Total Points

Features for monitoring applicants

25% of Total Points

We chose suppliers that provide both free and premium levels with clear pricing. If the program has no setup charge and its subscription plans are less than $30 per month, it gets bonus points. MightyRecruiter and OpenCATS, two of the nominated options, are both free forever and can handle an infinite number of users, job ads, and applicants.

25% of Total Points

We awarded more points to free applicant tracking solutions that allow you to post jobs on multiple job boards. Plus points are given if the provider has communication features for both applicants and hiring teams, a document management functionality for resumes and application attachments, and a Career page that may be customized where you can track the entire recruitment process. Out of the seven ATSes in this guide, Freshteam, SmartRecruiters, and MightyRecruiter have the most robust applicant tracking functionalities that many can utilize to their advantage.

25% of Total Points

Free solutions that actual users find intuitive and simple to learn and use received good marks. We also looked at live phone assistance, how-to tutorials, and several third-party integration possibilities as choices for a speedy response. If a user can export documents to a CSV file, they get bonus points. Despite the fact that several of the solutions we assessed received 4 or more points, only Indeed and MightyRecruiter received a perfect score since both are simple to use and feature tutorials and how-to instructions for novice users.

10% of Total Points

Users should be able to construct their own reports and examine information inside their recruiting system in addition to having access to standard reports. Freshteam and SmartRecruiters both feature a number of pre-built reports that may be used to precisely and effectively monitor the development of prospects. Meanwhile, OpenCATS enables you to design reports that are tailored to your specific requirements.

15% of Total Points

Solutions with an average score of 4+ stars from online user evaluations on sites like Capterra and G2 get excellent marks for this criterion. Plus points were awarded if the program had 200 or more third-party evaluations. In this category, Freshteam, Homebase, Indeed, and SmartRecruiters received good scores.

Conclusion

An applicant monitoring system not only helps you save time but also simplifies your recruiting process. All of the services on our list are free, streamline job listings, filter resumes, and applications, screen applicants, and facilitate communication between candidates and employers.

Freshteam is the finest choice among the suppliers in our guide. Freshteam is the ideal option if you require a job-specific recruiting team with whom you can interact to screen, monitor, and communicate with candidates using both a web and mobile app at no cost.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is MightyRecruiter really free?

Yes. MightyRecruiter is a totally free service for all platforms, including PC and Mac.

Can I run my resume through ATS?

Yes, you can create a resume through ATS.