Giig vs Recruit CRM: an honest comparison for small agencies

By Luke, founder of Giig · Updated October 2026 · Prices checked against public pricing pages

Recruit CRM is a popular ATS and CRM for recruitment agencies, especially small ones. It’s well reviewed (4.9 on Capterra from nearly 500 reviews), ships features quickly, and has a read/write Claude connector of its own.

Giig is a UK recruitment CRM and ATS built for independent recruiters and agencies of 1–20 people, with a free plan, published per-user pricing in pounds and no contracts.

These two are closer than most comparisons on this site, so we’ll be properly honest about it. The differences mostly come down to price, credits, and what you get at the entry level.

Giig vs Recruit CRM at a glance

Recruit CRM’s own page and third-party sites disagree on which of its prices are monthly vs annual, so check the live page. Prices exclude VAT/sales tax. Details as of October 2026.

Pricing: pounds vs dollars, and the credit question

Giig’s plans line up roughly against Recruit CRM’s, just in pounds and a fair bit cheaper: Starter at £12.50, Plus at £37.50 and Giig AI at £49.17 per user per month on annual billing (+VAT), with a free plan for solo recruiters underneath. What’s listed on a plan is what you get. CV parsing credits aside, there’s no shared credit pot to keep an eye on. See the pricing page for the full breakdown.

Recruit CRM publishes its prices, which we respect. Its plans are Pro, Business and Enterprise at around $95, $135 and $215 per user per month on annual billing (G2 and others list the monthly-billing prices as $109, $159 and $259). They’re in US dollars, and there’s a 30-day free trial rather than a free plan.

The bit to understand is credits. Each user gets a monthly allowance (100 on Pro, 200 on Business, 2,000 on Enterprise), shared across the account. Many features use them: AI sourcing, enrichment, the AI notetaker, multiposting, LinkedIn messages, WhatsApp, SMS and more. Some things are paid add-ons on top, like workflow automation, extra multiposting, LinkedIn messaging and advanced analytics. A few reviewers mention it can feel like paying extra for features they expected to be included.

For a three-person agency that wants the Claude connector:

• Recruit CRM Business (where MCP starts): 3 × $135 = $405 a month on annual billing, plus any add-ons.
• Giig AI: 3 × £49.17 = £147.51 a month on annual billing, no credits to manage for day-to-day CRM work.

Where Recruit CRM wins

We’ll be straight: Recruit CRM is a good product, and its reviews show it.

• Feature breadth. Multichannel sequences (email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp), an AI meeting notetaker, a hiring manager portal, job-change alerts, executive search reports and more. Giig has fewer features, on purpose, but fewer all the same.
• Wider MCP support. Its connector works with Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Grok, and it’s listed in Claude’s connector directory.
• Contract staffing tools. Bill & Pay covers timesheets and invoicing. Giig doesn’t have back-office features.
• Mobile apps. iOS and Android.
• 24/7 live chat support.

Where Giig wins

• Cheaper AI. You get the Claude connector on Giig AI at £49.17 per user (annual). On Recruit CRM it starts on Business at $135 per user.
• Free to start. A free plan for one user with unlimited candidates, jobs and clients, not a 30-day countdown.
• Fewer moving parts. No credit balances to watch for everyday CRM work, no stack of add-ons.
• The basics on the mid plan. Custom fields, custom pipelines, CV formatting, API access and the Chrome extension are all on Giig Plus. On Recruit CRM, Pro is limited to one pipeline and 15 custom fields, and the API and CV formatting need Business.
• Built in the UK. Pricing in pounds and UK multi-posting through idibu.

AI and Claude: both read/write, different price points

Both Giig and Recruit CRM have read/write MCP connectors with role-based permissions, which puts both of us ahead of most of the market. Recruit CRM supports more AI clients. Giig gets you there for a lot less per seat.

Since both connectors can write as well as read, the practical difference is the entry price and the setup. On Giig, any Giig AI user can have MCP access switched on from the Team page, add Giig as a custom connector in Claude and start asking things like “create a contact for the hiring manager I met at Acme and set me a task to follow up next week”. Permissions are set per category and per role. The MCP page walks through it.

Moving your data from Recruit CRM to Giig

A free CSV import on any paid plan gets most small agencies up and running the same day. If you want your full Recruit CRM history, we can restore your whole database from an SQL or .bak backup file – that’s a paid job, so contact the team for a quote.

The verdict

If you want the most features you can get in a small-agency CRM – sequences, WhatsApp, a notetaker, portals, mobile apps – and you’re happy managing credits and paying in dollars, Recruit CRM is a strong choice.

If you want something simpler, cheaper, priced in pounds, with Claude connected without jumping to a premium tier, Giig is the better fit. Start on the free plan and see which one you’d rather open every morning.

FAQs