Zoho Recruit’s staffing agency plans cost $30, $60 or $90 per user per month on monthly billing ($25, $50 or $75 if you pay annually), plus a free plan limited to one active job. Giig costs £14.99, £45 or £59 per user per month, with no contract, plus a free plan with unlimited candidates, jobs and clients for one user. Both are among the cheaper recruitment CRMs around. The real differences are what the free plan lets you do and where AI starts.
Full disclosure: I build Giig, so I’m obviously biased. I’ve tried to be fair to Zoho, because it’s a decent product and plenty of agencies use it happily. Zoho’s prices below were checked in October 2026 from public pricing write-ups, so check Zoho’s own pricing page before you buy.
Zoho Recruit’s staffing agency edition has four plans: Free, Standard, Professional and Enterprise, priced per user in US dollars.
| Zoho Recruit plan (staffing agency) | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Active jobs | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forever Free | $0 | $0 | 1 | No CV parsing, AI or integrations |
| Standard | $30/user/month | $25/user/month | 100 | No AI features |
| Professional | $60/user/month | $50/user/month | 250 | Where AI candidate matching starts |
| Enterprise | $90/user/month | $75/user/month | 750 | Client portal and the full feature set |
Prices are in US dollars, excluding VAT, from Pin (June 2026) and Atlas (August 2026). There’s also a 15-day free trial, and add-ons like a client portal and video interviews cost extra.
Zoho also has a Corporate HR edition for in-house teams. It’s priced similarly but has fewer active jobs and no Professional tier. If you’re a recruitment agency, the staffing agency edition is the one to look at.
Giig has four plans, priced per user per month in pounds, with no contract and no setup fee.
| Giig plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free Forever | £0 (1 user) | Unlimited candidates, CVs, jobs and clients, email integration, tagging, 3 pipelines, a careers page for 3 live jobs, 10 CV parse credits |
| Starter | £14.99/user/month | Team members, CSV import, mass CV parsing, 50 parse credits, your own domain, careers page for 10 jobs |
| Plus | £45/user/month | Chrome extension, reporting, CV formatting, custom fields and pipelines, tasks, bulk email, templates, API, 5,000 parse credits |
| Giig AI | £59/user/month | Everything in Plus, the Claude connector (MCP) and Giig’s built-in AI |
All prices are per user per month +VAT, no contract, cancel anytime. The full breakdown is on the pricing page.
Giig’s free plan is built to run a real desk; Zoho’s free plan is mostly a way to try the software.
If you’re a solo recruiter working three roles at once, Zoho’s free plan won’t stretch that far. Giig’s will, which is the whole reason we built it. Here’s more on Giig’s free recruitment CRM.
On monthly billing, a three-person agency would pay $90 a month for Zoho Standard, $180 for Professional, or £135 for Giig Plus and £177 for Giig AI.
So on price alone it’s close, and Zoho’s Standard plan is cheaper than Giig Plus. The question is which features you need at each level, which is the next bit.
Zoho Recruit’s AI starts on the Professional plan; Giig’s AI is on the Giig AI plan, at any team size.
Zoho’s Standard and Free plans don’t include AI. Professional adds AI candidate matching and assessments through Zia, Zoho’s assistant. Zoho has also launched a Zoho Recruit MCP that connects Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini to your data and can update records. Its page doesn’t say which plans include it, so ask Zoho before you count on it.
On Giig AI, you get a native read/write Claude connector. You can ask Claude to find candidates for a role, add them to a shortlist, log a call or set you a follow-up task, all inside your Giig account. Plus Giig’s built-in AI for matching, job descriptions and emails.
Zoho Recruit is the better fit if you already use other Zoho apps, or you want lots of customisation.
The catch: reviewers often say Zoho Recruit takes a while to learn, and the free plan is too limited to run a real desk.
Giig is the better fit if you’re a small UK agency that wants a simple CRM, a proper free plan and pricing in pounds.
Where Giig isn’t the best fit: if you need deep custom modules, or you’re already all-in on Zoho, Zoho Recruit will feel more at home. And if you need timesheets and payroll, neither is a back-office tool; look at Bullhorn or Vincere instead.
If you’re also looking at other options, here’s my list of the best CRM for small recruitment agencies and the Giig vs Recruit CRM comparison.
Zoho Recruit’s staffing agency plans cost $30, $60 or $90 per user per month on monthly billing, or $25, $50 or $75 per user per month billed annually. There’s also a free plan with one active job. Prices are in US dollars and exclude VAT, so check Zoho’s pricing page for your region before you buy.
Yes. Zoho Recruit’s Forever Free plan lets you have one active job at a time, with 256MB of storage. It doesn’t include CV parsing, AI, job board posting or integrations, so it’s best for trying the software rather than running a desk. Giig’s free plan includes unlimited candidates, jobs and clients for one user.
Sometimes. Zoho Recruit Standard at $30 per user per month is cheaper than Giig Plus at £45, but it doesn’t include AI. Giig Starter at £14.99 is cheaper than any paid Zoho plan, and Giig’s free plan does more than Zoho’s. Compare the plan that covers the features you need, not the cheapest one.
Professional. Zoho Recruit’s AI candidate matching and assessments start on the Professional plan, at $60 per user per month on monthly billing. Standard and Free don’t include AI. Zoho also offers an MCP connection for AI tools like Claude, but its page doesn’t say which plans include it.
Yes. Export your data from Zoho Recruit as CSV files and import them into Giig, which is free on any paid plan. If you want your full history, Giig can restore your database from an SQL or .bak backup file as a paid service. Email support@giighire.com for a quote.
It can be. Zoho Recruit is affordable and very customisable, and it suits agencies already using other Zoho apps. Reviewers say it takes time to learn, and its free plan is limited to one active job. Small agencies wanting something simpler with a fuller free plan often prefer Giig.
Zoho Recruit is a solid, affordable recruitment CRM, especially if you already live in Zoho. If you like tinkering with workflows and don’t mind a learning curve, it’s good value.
If you’re a small agency that wants a simple CRM, a free plan you can actually run a desk on, and Claude without a big jump in price, give Giig a go. Start on Giig for free. No credit card, no contract.
