Best Recruitment CRM Software – The Top 7 Free Platforms

If you clicked on this article, it probably means you’re looking for the best recruitment CRM software for your business. In this blog, we examine the top 7 free recruitment CRM platforms of 2023 giving you insight into what to look out for in a free recruitment CRM.

Key Topics:

• What is a Free recruitment CRM
• The key features you can expect in a Free Recruitment CRM
• The best recruitment CRM software that’s FREE to use

What is a Free Recruitment CRM?

In essence, a free recruitment CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a tool designed to help manage customer relations, whether that be candidates or clients. They are used by both recruiting agencies and in-house recruitment teams and tend to automate processes assisting you to stay in control of the recruitment process. A good free CRM helps recruiters build large pools of candidates and clients through nurture campaigns and frequent touch-points.

The key features you can expect in a Free Recruitment CRM

The main functions you can expect in a free recruitment CRM typically include the following:

1. Candidate Management: It helps track and organise candidate information, CVs, applications, and interactions throughout the recruitment process.
2. Client Relationship Management: It allows organisations to manage and maintain relationships with clients, including job orders, project details, and communication.
3. Communication and Collaboration: Free recruitment CRM platforms often include features for internal messaging and email integration, making it easier for recruiters to communicate with candidates and clients from within the platform.
4. Job Posting and Sourcing: Some CRMs may provide tools for posting job openings on various job boards and websites, as well as tools for sourcing and identifying potential candidates.
5. Pipeline Management: It helps keep track of candidates as they move through different stages of the recruitment process, such as application, interview, offer and onboarding etc.
6. Analytics and Reporting: Free recruitment CRM platforms may offer reporting and analytics features to help recruiters track key metrics, analyse their hiring processes, and make data-driven decisions to help improve and succeed.
7. Automation and Workflow: These systems often come with automation capabilities, allowing repetitive tasks, notifications, and reminders to be set up, which can save time and ensure consistency in the recruitment process.
8. Integration: Integration with other HR and recruitment tools, such as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), is common to facilitate a seamless recruitment workflow.

The best recruitment CRM software in 2023

In this section, we examine the pros and cons of the best free CRM platforms including free recruitment CRM platforms from:

• Giig Hire
• Manatal
• Zoho Recruit
• Recruiterflow
• OpenCATS
• Hubspot CRM
• Recruitee

Giig Hire

Giig Hire is a platform designed to support freelance recruiters and small agencies. The Giig Hire platform offers multiple free tools, one of which is the free recruitment CRM. The platform is effortless to use and it is extremely easy to add and track companies and contacts with no restrictions on the number of companies and contacts you can upload. The Free CRM is excellent for managing your candidate and client pipelines due to the visual, drag-and-drop Kanban-style boards. You also have the ability to link jobs to your free Giig recruitment website which is included in the Free CRM through the free recruitment website builder.

Alongside the free recruitment CRM, and the free recruitment website builder, the Giig Hire platform also includes a free recruitment ATS, and AI recruitment software.

Pros

• The free recruitment CRM within the free forever plan has minimal limitations.
• Free website builder with an integrated job board
• Advanced reporting and hiring analytics.
• Drag-and-drop pipelines and advanced search options to find quality candidates.
• Advanced searches & AI candidate matching.
• CV / Resume parsing.
• Easy to use.

Cons

• The software features limited third-party integrations.

Manatal

Manatal is a recruitment software, that is designed to simplify the recruitment process. Manatal’s recruitment CRM & ATS is known to simplify the recruitment process through job portal integrations, talent pipelines, and AI candidate matching.

With no Free Recruitment CRM on offer, the paid packages that Manatal offer comes with features such as Chrome extensions for LinkedIn making it quick and easy to parse information and add it to candidate profiles. Very much suited to recruitment teams, Manatal gives you a broad oversight of your team’s productivity. You can also grant clients access to a customisable external view of your Manatal system, making it easier to interact with them and keep them informed. With this in mind, Manatal is a great option for recruitment agencies.

Pros:

• Integrates with Office 365, Microsoft Outlook, LinkedIn, Mailchimp and Zapier.
• Drag-and-drop pipelines and advanced search options to find quality candidates.
• Employers can keep track of CVs and applicant profiles using customised views to easily access data.
• Customer relationship management and mass emailing are available.
• AI candidate matching.
• An advanced reporting suite helps employers analyse operations and get the most out of their recruitment efforts.

Cons:

• There is only a 14-day trial; no free recruitment CRM plan is offered.
• To make full use of the trial, you have to be a subscriber.

Zoho Recruit

Zoho Recruit is designed to be an all-in-one talent acquisition solution designed for staffing agencies and internal HR teams. The solution encompasses a CRM and an ATS amongst some other tools. There is currently no free recruitment CRM option or free forever plan for their CRM however they do offer a short 14-day free trial.

The Zoho Recruit CRM is a great option for recruitment agencies and hiring teams that are limited to a budget. Their CRM offers features such as automation, social recruiting, CV management, AI-powered candidate matching and advanced reporting and hiring analytics. These tools help teams save time and add structure and efficiency to their hiring process. Although there is no free plan, users do have access to a variety of packages tailored to staffing agencies, corporate HR teams, and businesses hiring temporary talent.

In addition, Zoho Recruit integrates with a variety of third-party apps including DocuSign, Google Suite, HireRight, HireSelect, Slack, Twilio and Zapier.

Pros:

• Social media platforms job posting integrations.
• Ability to post jobs to their own Zoho careers site.
• Candidate-tracking tools.
• AI candidate matching within the ATS.
• A large variety of integrations.
• Users gain access to robust candidate assessment tools, video interviewing, and collaborative hiring.
• The software supports a range of different languages that makes bilingual hiring a breeze.

Cons:

• No Free recruitment CRM plan is available within the packages on offer. Only 14-day free trials.
• The software features limited third-party integrations.

Recruiterflow

Recruiterflow is an applicant tracking & recruiting CRM software designed for recruiting & staffing firms. They offer some excellent automation that helps you manage your candidate and client pipeline with visual, drag-and-drop Kanban style boards, and have the ability to post jobs on different job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn.

The software’s main features include automation tools, branded career pages, collaboration, email sequences, HR templates, reporting, and live chat support. However, the platform does not offer built-in onboarding or background-checking tools.

Recruiterflow has several plans suited to staffing agencies and companies but unfortunately no longer offers a completely free recruitment CRM plan. They do, however, offer a 14-day free trial.

Recruiterflow’s platform is simple and easy to use, requiring almost no training. You can also review your recruiting strategy and performance at all times using their real-time reporting.

Pros:

• The platform can integrate with job boards and platforms such as Indeed, Glassdoor and Zapier.
• Companies can create a branded career page that’s mobile-friendly.
• The platform allows users to manage their talent pipeline with automation.
• Additional solutions include calendar and email syncing, collaboration tools, and social recruiting.
• Reporting and analytics are available.
• The software integrates with several third-party systems and apps, including LinkedIn and Google Calendar.

Cons:

• Recruiterflow does not offer a free recruitment CRM plan, only a free trial.
• The platform lacks a mobile app, built-in onboarding, and background-checking tools.
• More suited to larger agencies over freelance recruiters
• No AI candidates matching

OpenCATS

OpenCATS provides companies with user-friendly, open-source recruitment and applicant-tracking software with the main aim of simplifying and streamlining the hiring process. With a standard set of hiring and onboarding tools on offer, the software is an attractive choice for businesses on a tight budget. With a completely free recruitment CRM on offer, OpenCATS is certainly an option to consider.

Their Free recruitment CRM includes CV searching and parsing, job board integrations, applicant management, email templates, team collaboration, and onboarding. The Free CRM however, does not include interview scheduling, candidate assessments, or background-checking tools.

OpenCATS is a good option for experienced IT companies looking for a customisable free recruitment CRM or small to midsize businesses with limited recruitment budgets rather than freelance recruiters or recruitment agencies.

Pros:

• OpenCATS is completely free to download and use.
• The platform integrates with multiple job boards.
• Companies can search and parse CVs.
• The platform offers team collaboration tools making it easy to communicate internally, share feedback and assign tasks.
• Other tools include onboarding, email templates, reporting, and a self-service portal.

Cons:

• OpenCATS lacks interview scheduling and candidate assessment features.
• Requires strong technical knowledge and training
• Complicated and technical to setup
• No AI candidates matching

Hubspot CRM

Despite being a general CRM and not specific to recruitment, HubSpot is an excellent option. Their free CRM offers unlimited access to almost everything a business could need to organise, track, and maintain leads and customer relationships. There are better free CRM options that are specific to recruitment but if you are looking for a very well-established and solid free CRM that doesn’t have the recruitment specific feature such as AI candidate matching then Hubspot is a great option.

Pros:

• Easy to use and free.
• Contact and lead management.
• Tracking and storage of deals or opportunities.
• Tasks and activities management.
• Reporting and analytics dashboards.
• Meeting scheduling.
• Company insights.

Cons

• Lacks recruitment-specific features such as AI candidate matching and job board integrations.

Recruitee

Recruitee is a collaborative hiring software that is designed to help internal HR teams work with the rest of their organisation to hire better together. They offer an array of features, including recruitment pipeline automation, multiple job board integrations, and employee referral tool. Recruitee, unfortunately, does not offer a free recruitment CRM option in their packages and the platform is costlier than most competitors. Therefore Recruitee is best for medium to large businesses that are not constrained to a small budget.

Pros:

• The platform features employee referral tools and social sharing links to collaboratively source talent.
• Multiple job board integrations.
• Team scheduler that integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.
• Recruitee features a career site editor to promote your brand or company.
• There is an 18-day free trial of Recruitee’s CRM software.
• The platform also offers a mobile app.

Cons:

• Recruitee do not offer a free package and come in at a higher cost than their competitors.
• The reporting functionality is limited.
• Certain features are unavailable in certain countries.

Conclusion

In conclusion, selecting the right free recruitment CRM platform in 2023 is a critical decision for any recruiting agency or freelance recruiter and hopefully, this article has helped provide a comprehensive overview to support making this decision. It is important to add that in addition to the 7 CRMs highlighted in this article, there are still many more highly rated CRMs that we have not covered so be sure to do some of your own research. The platforms, we have examined in this article consist of Giig Hire, Manatal, Zoho Recruit, Recruiterflow, OpenCATS, HubSpot CRM and Recruitee, which offer various functionalities that cater to different needs and preferences.

When looking for a CRM be sure to look for features such as automation, reporting, AI candidate matching, job board integrations and integration capabilities, as these platforms aim to streamline the recruitment process, enhance communication, and ultimately help build and maintain fruitful relationships.

To summarise, the choice of a free recruitment CRM platform in 2023 depends on your unique needs, scale, and goals, as well as the willingness to compromise on certain features in favour of others. It’s recommended to thoroughly evaluate each platform’s offerings and limitations before making an informed decision to optimise the recruitment process and drive successful outcomes.