Unbiased ApplicantStack Review—Features, Alternatives, and Pricing

The modern job market is about speed and efficiency—a protracted hiring process is costly, chaotic, and rarely yields the best results. Unfortunately, even the best HR reps often find it challenging to stay on top of various Excel spreadsheets, emails, docs, and handwritten notes. 

That’s where applicant tracking systems (ATSs) like ApplicantStack enter the fray to help expanding businesses streamline their hiring processes. Using such software is a worthwhile investment, provided you pick the right vendor. 

Is ApplicantStack up to the task of streamlining recruitment and onboarding, or do you need to look for an alternative candidate tracking system? We’ll answer those key questions and a couple more in our detailed review! 

ApplicantStack—Key Features

ApplicantStack is a popular applicant tracking system used by over 35,000 companies, whose features fall under two distinct plans: 

• Recruit—for candidate sourcing and tracking throughout the hiring process
• Onboard—for more efficient onboarding of new employees by HR staff

ApplicantStack Recruit

Most features offered by ApplicantStack Recruit aren’t that different from what you’d find in an average applicant tracking system on today’s market. Some of the most significant ones are:

1. One-click job posting—streamline your candidate sourcing by creating one job posting and automatically publishing it on all major job boards
2. Candidate keywords—select desirable keywords that the system will automatically detect in candidate resumes and cover letters
3. Custom questionnaires—there’s an interface for creating custom questions and rating candidate answers. You can use it to eliminate unqualified applicants before the interview, saving valuable time in the process

However, one specific recruiting feature helps ApplicantStack stand out from the crowd: SMS recruitment. 

The platform banks on the fact that around half of the world’s internet traffic is mobile—including most job applicants. And ApplicantStack allows you to send SMS messages to candidates directly from the platform. 

SMS response rates are much higher than email, but most ATS and candidate sourcing systems still use the latter. ApplicantStack gives you a decent competitive advantage by helping you harness the power of texting. 

If you opt for the higher-tier Bundle package, you also get access to premium texting options—including SMS templates and automated responses, which streamline the process even further. 

ApplicantStack Onboard

The other half of the ApplicantStack offer takes care of your HR needs once you’ve selected your ideal candidates. 

If you’ve also used the Recruit part of the ApplicantStack package, you can easily import all relevant data on new hires to Onboard. The latter also contains standard forms for new hires, such as I-9 and W-4.

You can also upload your form if you have a custom one. 

After that, you can give the new hires their first tasks and track their progress through Onboard. They also fill out all the documentation and deal with onboarding paperwork on the platform. Everything is centralized, making onboarding easier for both the new hires and the HR staff. 

Crucially, ApplicantStack Onboard supports e-signatures—making the onboarding of remote or hybrid workers a breeze because they don’t have to download, print, sign, and then rescan any files before signing them or show up in person. 

ApplicantStack Downsides

While ApplicantStack was clearly created by people with experience in HR, it still has several noticeable design issues.

According to many users, the platform doesn’t come with precise and clear documentation or online resources, making the platform complicated to set up and use. This has led many clients to contact customer support to learn how basic features work. 

However, perhaps more importantly, ApplicantStack is one of the few ATSs that don’t have universal candidate profiles. Sure, you can import some candidate data from Recruit to Onboard—but there’s no simple profile page you can view with all their information. So, if someone applies more than once by accident or they apply to a different position—they’ll get a new duplicate account with no historical data. 

ApplicantStack Integrations

The platform supports several 3rd-party integrations—mostly with online job boards and social networks. According to the ApplicantStack website, users can integrate it with:

• Indeed
• LinkedIn
• Careerjet
• Google For Jobs
• Monster
• CareerBuilder
• Glassdoor
• Dice
• ZipRecruiter
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• Corvirtus
• Trakstart Hire
• AxisCare

ApplicantStack Pricing

According to ApplicantStack’s pricing page, you’ve got three options:

• Recruit—for $99 per month
• Onboard—for $99 per month
• Bundle—for $144 per month

As you can see, the ApplicantStack pricing system is slightly different compared to most of the competition. Rather than locking advanced features behind gradually costlier tiers, the platform divides them into two packages—Recruit and Onboard—and you can choose the one you need. 

That’s great for companies that don’t need onboarding features, for instance, but need help with recruiting—and vice versa. And if you’re unsure what you need, there’s a 15-day free trial for both packages. 

Also, the Bundle package, which gives you the features of both the Recruit and Onboard plan, is quite cost-beneficial, considering that it’s 27% cheaper than buying the two separately.

Alternatives to ApplicantStack

ApplicantStack isn’t ideal for HR reps who aren’t particularly tech-savvy or accustomed to working with candidate relationship management (CRM) tools. But there are many alternatives, and we’ve made that easier for you by reviewing some of the biggest HR platforms you can find:

Workello vs. ApplicantStack

While ApplicantStack offers many features that make recruitment more manageable and won’t cost you a fortune, it still comes with a few quirks and issues. Primarily the fact that the UI isn’t beginner-friendly. 

The ApplicantStack devs have clearly assumed their users will have a certain experience with other ATSs, which is only sometimes the case, especially with startups and fledgling businesses. Also, the lack of universal candidate profiles makes the whole thing clunky; you only get some of the candidates’ information in a single place, resulting in a lot of shuffling between different windows.

Workello is the perfect example of an ATS platform that provides a streamlined, easy-to-use experience that doesn’t require any tech-savviness—while also giving you quick access to candidate info whenever you need it.

It’s more affordable than ApplicantStack, and it helps you with high-volume recruiting even if you don’t have any experience with HR software—its UX is optimized for total beginners, too. 

Plus, if you’re looking to grow your company quickly with high-quality hires, you’ll see that Workello’s candidate status pages give you the “lay of the land” view that’s missing from ApplicantStack due to the absence of candidate profiles. 

Workello centers the whole process around pre-hire skill assessments. You can actually see what your candidates are made of rather than relying on vague and impractical questionnaires about their previous experience. And just as importantly, you can save a ton of money by disqualifying applicants who don’t make the cut before they reach the interview stage. 

Speaking of money, Workello’s most advanced plan provides a hefty annual discount. The only difference from the introductory plan is the higher number of candidate assessments you can process. All Workello plans give you access to all the features, unlike ApplicantStack. 

ApplicantStack vs. Workello—Quick Overview

Here’s a comparison of their features and prices:

Bottom Line

ApplicantStack does a great job of compartmentalizing its recruiting and onboarding features and letting companies choose the ones they need. However, its UX leaves something to be desired, as does its approach to presenting candidate data.

Workello solves both problems while being more cost-effective and providing a host of additional automation features for your hiring funnel and a robust pre-hire assessment system.