Top 11 Free Recruitment Software Options for Hiring on a Budget

Recruiting can be pricey, and the fear of racking up costs often deters businesses from using high-volume recruitment software, despite its significant benefits like reducing time to hire and improving the overall quality of hires.

Luckily, you don’t have to spend a fortune to streamline recruiting—you can do it at zero cost!

We’ve sifted through the noise to bring you the 11 best free recruitment software options, ranging from open-source software to free plans of some major players. We’ve analyzed their ease of use and features to help you choose the right recruitment software for your needs without breaking the bank.

What To Look For in Free Recruitment Software

When exploring free recruiting software, it’s essential to understand that “free” may come with certain caveats and limitations. These could range from a lack of advanced or even basic features, like interview management and CRM capabilities, to restrictions on the number of active job posts or users.

That said, let’s see what you should aim for when hunting for free recruitment tools:

1. Applicant tracking options: You want a tool that can help you monitor candidates throughout the entire hiring process
2. Job description templates: Ideally, the platform should let you use JD templates to save time and reach the right candidates
3. Candidate assessments: The selected tool should allow you to check your candidates’ fitness for the role by testing their skills
4. Ease of use: Setting up and using the platform shouldn’t require training or too much involvement from the customer support team
5. Customization: You should be able to adjust the platform to your company’s requirements and personal preferences
6. Integrations: The platform should be able to connect to other apps to help you centralize your work

Why Is Workello the Best Choice For Hiring on a Budget?

Source: Workello

Workello is the best software for cost-effective recruitment, thanks to the comprehensive feature set available on the platform’s free forever plan. These features include customizable job description templates, unique application link generation for posting your job ad on online job boards, social networks, or elsewhere, and role-specific pre-hire assessments.

Workello’s exceptional functionality ensures that only qualified candidates are moved down the hiring funnel, thus saving resources and reducing hiring costs by 50% to 75%.

The platform’s built-in pre-hire assessments in the form of work sample tests help you speed up hiring by reducing the time spent on screening unqualified candidates. This means you’ll know a candidate has the necessary skills and experience before scheduling an interview. You can send unlimited assessments but can only review one test on the free plan.

Workello’s unified dashboard consolidates all candidate information, regardless of the platform they applied through, simplifying candidate tracking.

With a user-friendly interface and intuitive design, updating a candidate’s status in Workello is as simple as clicking a button. With a single click, you can automatically:

1. Send assessments
2. Reject candidates
3. Invite candidates to interviews
4. Extend job offers

Workello provides dedicated customer support, including sourcing advisors who can guide you on the best places to post your ads.

Sign up for Workello to experience efficient, cost-effective recruitment at your fingertips.

1. OpenCATS

Source: OpenCATS

OpenCATS is a unique, free, open-source ATS that can be installed through a web-based browser, a local network, or directly on your local computer.

The platform’s biggest perk is customizability. You can play around with its appearance and customize hiring pipelines to ensure they align with your company’s goals and requirements.

OpenCATS can handle hundreds of thousands of candidate applications and the accompanying information without lags, so it’s more than appropriate for businesses engaged in high-volume hiring. Use skills-based tagging to search and organize candidate profiles and ensure easy navigation.

This free online recruiting software supports collaborative hiring—customize user access levels and engage your team in the hiring process.

The built-in email functions let you seamlessly communicate with your coworkers and candidates and update them on the latest changes.

While OpenCATS comes with native features, customization requires some coding knowledge, and this is a potential deal breaker for many who don’t speak code.

OpenCATS Pros & Cons

2. SmartStart by SmartRecruiters

Source: SmartRecruiters

Known for its expertise in high-volume recruiting, SmartRecruiters caters to large and expanding organizations. In 2017, they launched a free version of their software called SmartStart, specifically designed for SMBs.

SmartStart’s strongest suit is its ability to accommodate unlimited users and candidates, enabling you to track, manage, and email applicants effortlessly.

With automated multiposting, you can post jobs in one click to Google, Indeed, Linkedin, and over 200 job boards.

You can also personalize your career website, where you’ll share open jobs, testimonials, videos, and other materials that could help you win over quality candidates.

An easy-to-use interface is another perk of this free recruitment tool. Candidates can apply for jobs with a single click, and recruiters can see the applications in a unified dashboard. Use various filtering options to zoom in on specific positions, locations, or statuses.

What’s the catch? For one, there are no HR software integrations, which limits the platform’s functionality. Another important consideration is the cap on job listings—you can hire for up to 10 roles simultaneously.

SmartStart Pros & Cons

3. Breezy

Source: Breezy

Breezy’s free Bootstrap plan is tailor-made for small and medium businesses (SMBs) with occasional hiring needs. Its simplicity, ease of setup, and user-friendly interface make it an efficient tool that allows you to focus more on hiring and less on navigating complex software.

With the Bootstrap plan, you can automatically distribute job ads on 50+ job boards. Up your hiring game by creating a mobile-friendly branded careers page with zero coding.

Breezy’s Bootstrap plan boasts impressive resume parsing features—extract information, organize resumes written in 20 languages, and use the platform’s search options to sail smoothly through hundreds of applications.

If you opt for this plan, you’ll get email and web support and access to an online knowledge base, video tutorials, and weekly webinars that help you make the most out of the platform.

Breezy Pros & Cons

4. Skillfuel

Source: Skillfuel

Combining ease of use and features for intelligent decision making, Skillfuel’s free plan can be the ace in your sleeve for streamlining your hiring processes.

With a single click, you can post your job ads on multiple boards. Take advantage of Facebook recruitment automation to automate social media posting and invite potential candidates to apply.

The party starts once the applications start pouring in—the platform’s ATS helps you track and manage hundreds of candidates without breaking a sweat. Centralize your candidates’ info and use filtering options for maximum organization. Automate hiring with bulk actions to save time and effort, nurture candidates, and keep your team in sync. You can send invites, schedule interviews, and notify candidates and coworkers about the latest updates.

Skillfuel features a clutter-free interface that allows easy navigation—you’ll have no trouble with it even if you haven’t used a recruitment tool before. The platform can integrate with various HR platforms, letting you centralize your work and improve productivity.

Skillfuel Pros & Cons

5. Loxo

Source: Loxo

If you’re interested in an easy-to-use ATS that won’t cost you a dime, Loxo and its free plan are an excellent solution.

This platform comes with a powerful ATS that lets you monitor and move your candidates through pipeline stages with a simple drag and drop. Loxo’s kanban-style master pipeline gives you a clear overview of your hiring process and ensures maximum organization.

Use the platform’s advanced search capabilities and drag-and-drop resume parser to sort and centralize info and find the desired data in no time.

The free plan gives you access to the hiring manager portal, where you and your team can set goals, check updates, and work together on hiring top talent.

Loxo provides email and chat support and access to the help center, knowledge base, video training, and learning management center, even if you don’t subscribe to a paid plan.
The free plan comes with certain limitations. You don’t get access to premium job boards, the platform’s talent pools, integrations, Loxo AI, or customizable dashboards, workflows, statuses, or roles unless you pay for add-ons.

Loxo Pros & Cons

6. Jobsoid

Source: Jobsoid

Jobsoid’s Beginner plan is an efficient yet free choice for startups and small businesses just stepping into the recruitment space. The plan, although limited to one user and one job posting, still packs a punch with a variety of features.

For one, you can enjoy automated multiposting and spread the word about a vacancy on various job boards. You can also create a branded careers portal to represent your company in the best light and attract candidates.

A customizable workflow is another perk you’ll get with the free plan. Adjust pipeline stages and automate tasks and actions whenever a candidate moves to another stage.

With advanced interview scheduling options, you can:

1. Send interview invitations via email
2. Get updates on interview confirmations
3. Send reminders on upcoming interviews

There are some limitations to keep an eye on. For example, custom integrations are available only for those who get a paid plan. The same goes for customer support—you get access to the platform’s help center, but there’s no email or phone support.

Jobsoid Pros & Cons

7. Zoho Recruit

Source: Zoho

Zoho Recruit’s free plan is a handy option for anyone looking to hire for a single position, as you’re limited to one active job opening.

Automated multiposting on 75+ paid and free job boards is one of the benefits you’ll get with the free plan.

The free plan gives you access to interview features—mark your availability and let candidates choose the time slot that works best for them. Take notes in-app to record your impressions and discuss them with your coworkers.

Zoho Recruit’s free plan lets you streamline candidate communication and save time with customizable email templates, but remember that you’re limited to five templates.

Use the platform’s tags to sort resumes, candidates, and other relevant info. The tags work like keywords. For example, you can tag candidates with the position they’re applying for to maximize organization. The free plan limits you to 50 tags.

In terms of integrations, the free plan offers only the Zapier integration. However, this could be enough for most users as Zapier lets you connect to thousands of third-party apps.

The free version’s biggest drawback is the lack of customization—you can enjoy it only if you get a paid plan.

Zoho Recruit Pros & Cons

8. MightyRecruiter

Source: MightyRecruiter

Initially a paid ATS, MightyRecruiter waived most of its fees in 2017, allowing you to enjoy a modern recruiting platform free of charge.

Kickstart your hiring process by posting your job ad on 29+ job boards. You can also tap into the platform’s resume database with 21+ million entries. MightyRecruiter’s AI engines analyze resumes and match them to jobs based on criteria like location, work experience, and education.

The platform’s pre-screening questions let you check whether your candidates have what it takes to succeed at the job. Customize the questions yourself or browse through the Question Library for inspiration.

Use the platform’s 10+ customizable statuses to move candidates through the pipeline. Rate them and leave notes for your coworkers to keep the info transparent.

Communication with your team and candidates is made easy with templates—use them to save time and reduce the risk of mistakes.

A potential drawback is that you can’t publish vacancies that aren’t U.S.-based.

MightyRecruiter Pros & Cons

Additional 3 Free Recruiting Tools

Here’s a quick glance at three more free online recruitment software options to enhance your hiring process:

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