Giig vs Vincere: an honest comparison for small UK agencies

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

Vincere is one of the best-known recruitment CRMs in the UK and Australia. It was bought by The Access Group in 2022 and in 2026 it’s been rebranded as Access Vincere Evo, with a new pricing model to match.

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 and no contracts.

Vincere has just made a proper move into small-agency territory, so this comparison is more interesting than it was a year ago. Here’s how they stack up.

Giig vs Vincere at a glance

Prices exclude VAT/sales tax. Competitor details come from their public websites and review sites as of October 2026. Things change, so check before you sign anything.

Pricing: Vincere’s new model vs Giig

Both companies now price in pounds, so this one’s easy to compare like for like. Giig is £0 for one user on the free plan, then £12.50, £37.50 or £49.17 per user per month on annual billing (+VAT) for Starter, Plus and Giig AI. There’s no setup fee to get started – the only one-off cost is if you want us to do a full database restoration, which we cover further down. It’s all on the pricing page.

Vincere has changed its pricing, and most articles online haven’t caught up. The old model was a CRM licence from around £69 per user per month, plus AI “Smart Packs” charged per agency on top, usually on a 12-month contract. That’s what you’ll still see quoted on a lot of review and comparison sites.

According to Vincere’s own pricing page (October 2026), it’s now:

• Startup: £150 a month flat for one user, self-serve, go live the same day, 30-day rolling contract.
• Core: £95 per user per month for 2–7 users, guided implementation, 30-day rolling contract.
• Pro: from £85 per user per month for 7+ users, “priced to your agency”.
• Plus a one-off setup fee based on how much migration and training you need. The amounts aren’t published.

Fair play to them – dropping long lock-ins is a good move for small agencies. Here’s how it compares:

• Solo recruiter: Vincere Startup is £150 a month. Giig is free, or £49.17 a month on annual billing for the full AI plan with the Claude connector.
• Three-person agency: Vincere Core is 3 × £95 = £285 a month plus setup. Giig Plus is £112.50 and Giig AI is £147.51 a month, billed annually, with no setup fee.

If you’re an existing Vincere customer, check whether you’re still on the old contract terms – reviewers have mentioned auto-renewals with a three-month notice period and fees to get their data back. The new rolling plans seem to be for new customers; it’s worth asking Vincere directly.

Where Vincere wins

• Temp and contract. Timesheets, expenses, invoicing and leave are built in. If you run temp desks, that’s a real advantage – Giig doesn’t do back office.
• Portals. No-code candidate and client portals, plus shareable shortlists for clients.
• Reporting depth. Vincere claims 50+ real-time dashboards.
• Breadth of AI. Meeting Assistant, AI matching and formatted presentations are all built into the platform.

Where Giig wins

• Cost for small teams. Free for one user, and roughly half the price of Vincere Core per head even on our top plan.
• No setup fee. Sign up, import your CSV for free, crack on. If you want your full Vincere history, we can restore it from an SQL or .bak backup as a paid job – ask the team for a price.
• Simplicity. Reviewers regularly mention that Vincere’s interface can feel complex. Giig is deliberately simple – drag-and-drop pipelines and not much else in your way.
• Claude. Giig plugs straight into Claude with a read/write connector. Vincere’s AI lives inside Vincere.
• Who you’re dealing with. Vincere is now part of The Access Group, one of the UK’s biggest software companies, and some reviewers feel the roadmap and support have changed as a result. Giig is a small independent team. You’ll talk to the people who build it.

AI and Claude

Vincere has put a lot into AI, and the Meeting Assistant and AI-formatted presentations look useful. But it’s AI inside Vincere’s walls.

If you already pay for Claude, Giig turns it into a recruiting assistant that knows your database. Prepping for a client meeting? Ask Claude for the account history, open roles and the last few conversations. Just finished a call? Tell it to write up the note and move the candidate to interview. The connector is read/write across candidates, jobs, contacts, companies, notes and tasks, and it comes with the Giig AI plan.

As of October 2026 we couldn’t find an MCP or Claude connector for Vincere. If you already pay for Claude, Giig gets you more out of that subscription.

Moving your data from Vincere 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 Vincere 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 run temp or contract desks and want timesheets and invoicing in the same system, Vincere is a strong option, and its new 30-day rolling plans make it easier to try than it used to be.

If you’re a perm-focused independent recruiter or small agency who wants something simple, much cheaper, with no setup fee and with proper Claude integration, Giig is the better fit.

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