Affordable recruitment software is a recruitment CRM and ATS that costs less than the fees from one placement a year, bills you monthly, and doesn’t lock you into a 12-month contract. For a small agency, the cheapest option isn’t always the most affordable one. The one you can cancel is.
Traditionally recruitment software has been expensive, with most vendors wanting 12 months up front. That’s a big risk when you’re starting out or only have a handful of recruiters. The good news is there are now decent options that won’t eat your margin. Here are four worth a look, including ours (yes, we build Giig, so take our bit with that in mind).
Recruitment software is affordable when the total monthly cost is low, the contract is short and you’re not paying for things you don’t use. Look past the headline price and check these:
More on this: JobAdder alternatives.
| Software | Starting price | Contract | Free plan? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giig | Free, then £14.99 per user/month +VAT | None, cancel anytime | Yes, 1 user |
| Manatal | Check their pricing page | Check their terms | Free trial only |
| Zoho Recruit | Check their pricing page | Check their terms | Yes, 1 active job |
| Recruit CRM | Check their pricing page | Check their terms | Free trial |
Competitor prices change often and many are quoted on annual billing, so we’ve linked to their pages rather than quote numbers that’ll be wrong by next month.
Giig is an AI recruitment CRM and ATS for agencies of 1 to 20 people, with a free plan and three paid plans billed monthly with no contract. You get everything in one platform, so you’re not paying for a CRM, an ATS, a website builder and a careers page separately.
Pricing (per user/month +VAT, no contract, cancel anytime):
| Plan | Price | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Free Forever | £0 (1 user) | Solo recruiters getting started |
| Starter | £14.99 | New agencies adding their first team members |
| Plus | £45 | Small agencies that want the full toolkit |
| AI | £59 | Agencies that want Claude and AI built in |
What’s free, forever: unlimited candidates, CVs, jobs and clients, email integration, custom tagging, jobs, business development and interview pipelines, perm and temp workflows, a free website landing page and a careers page for up to 3 jobs. No trial period, no credit card.
What Starter adds: 50 CV parse credits per user a month, mass CV parsing, CSV import, file storage, a custom domain for your website with Giig branding removed, a careers page for 10 jobs, 50 AI summaries and the ability to add team members.
What Plus adds: the LinkedIn Chrome extension, advanced reporting, CV formatting, custom fields, custom pipelines, tasks, bulk email, email templates, candidate and contact lists, API access, 5,000 CV parse credits and 5,000 AI summaries per user a month.
What AI adds: Claude access through MCP and Giig’s built-in AI for candidate matching, job descriptions, email drafting and note search.
Getting your data in is easy too. Import from Excel or CSV, or bulk-parse a folder of CVs with the CV parsing tool, on Starter and above. Full details on the pricing page.
Manatal is an ATS with CRM features and AI candidate recommendations, aimed at HR teams, agencies and headhunters. One of its highlights is job distribution to a large number of free and premium job boards.
It’s priced to be friendly to small teams, but there’s no free plan, just a free trial. Check whether the price you’re looking at is billed annually.
Related reading: Manatal alternatives.
Zoho Recruit is an all-in-one talent platform for agencies and in-house teams, and it does have a free plan. The catch is that the free plan only lets you manage one active job at a time, and it’s light on storage, so most agencies outgrow it quickly.
It makes most sense if your business already runs on other Zoho products.
Related reading: Zoho Recruit pricing vs Giig.
Recruit CRM is focused on agencies rather than in-house teams, with dashboards, deal pipelines, email sequences, integrations and a resume parser that flags duplicates.
It’s one of the more feature-rich options here, and usually one of the more expensive. They offer a free trial so you can test it properly. We’ve done a full comparison in Giig vs Recruit CRM.
Worth a read next: best CRM for small recruitment agencies, and if you’re on Firefish and the bill keeps creeping up, Firefish alternatives for small agencies.
Yes, for most agencies of 1 to 20 people a low-cost CRM is plenty, as long as it’s built for recruitment. You don’t need a CRM with every bell, whistle and built-in espresso machine. You need one that helps you:
The big platforms are designed for large teams with layers of process and permissions. If that’s not you, you’ll pay for features you never touch and lose hours learning workflows that don’t suit how you work. That money’s better spent on marketing, sourcing tools, or a holiday after a three-placement month.
Start free, upgrade only when a feature saves you more than it costs, and avoid annual contracts until you know the system works for you.
Worth a read next: the free ATS options worth trying.
Free is hard to beat. Giig’s Free Forever plan costs £0 for one user and includes unlimited candidates, CVs, jobs and clients. When you need a team, Giig Starter is £14.99 per user/month +VAT, billed monthly with no contract.
Some is, some isn’t. Watch for “free” plans that are really time-limited trials, or that cap your candidates or jobs. Giig’s free plan has no trial period and no limit on candidates, jobs or clients. It’s for one user, and you need a paid plan to add team members.
No, not with every vendor. Plenty of recruitment software providers still ask for 12 months up front, but every paid Giig plan is month to month, so you can cancel anytime. There’s no setup fee and no exit fee.
As a rough guide, your CRM should cost far less than one placement fee a year. For a three-person agency on Giig Plus that’s £135 a month +VAT. If a system needs more than that before you’ve made a placement through it, ask what you’re getting for the difference.
Yes. On Giig Starter and above you can import candidates and contacts from Excel or CSV, and bulk-parse CVs straight into your database. If you’re moving from another CRM, we can also restore a full database backup as a paid service. Email support@giighire.com.
Affordable recruitment software isn’t about finding the cheapest logo. It’s about paying a fair monthly price for something your team actually uses, and being free to leave if it stops earning its keep.
If you want to try it without spending a penny, start on Giig for free. No credit card, no hard sell.
