There are many different options available to suit different budgets and organizations, however, it isn’t as simple as deciding on the cheapest solution. There are many considerations when looking at your proposed staffing technology or ATS prices. To help you make the best decision for your organization, we’ve created this guide to staffing technology pricing.  

ATS pricing models

The majority of ATS software will charge a monthly fee based on the expected amount of use that the technology is likely to have. This is usually determined in different ways, for example, pay-per-job opening, pay-per-applicant, pay-per-recruiter, or pay-per-employee.  

Pay-per-job

For the pay-per-job method, most vendors charge between $5 and $20 (USD) per job opening or applicant. It typically suits companies that have relatively consistent hiring needs. This method usually accepts unlimited applications for each job and ATS vendors who use this tactic are more likely to focus on posting openings across job boards and will have fewer features for screening candidates.  

Pay-per-recruiter

Meanwhile, the pay-per-recruiter model usually charges $60-$100 per recruiter per month (plus a one-time fee for setting up the staffing software). This model is most suited to organizations with a consistent number of recruiters or hiring managers in the team. Although it’s worth noting that recruiters and hiring managers may be priced differently by vendors. Recruiters are generally seen as the standard users within this ATS pricing model.

Pay-per-employee

The pay-per-employee pricing model typically charges $4 to $7 per employee for small and medium-sized organizations but will fall to less than a dollar for large enterprise-level companies.  

Modules and tiers

Another option you may come across in more unified HR and staffing solutions is pay-per-module and is often offered by vendors who also provide solutions for onboarding, training, and talent management.  

Some vendors may use a tiered system that provides different features and access depending on tier level. Add-on features like background checks, onboarding, or advanced support can help organizations prioritize the features that they’ll need and not pay for the ones they don’t. Additionally, vendors may charge for implementation (particularly if it includes software customization, data migration, or training).  

Popular ATS pricing

Below, we’ve outlined the different pricing models for common ATS and staffing systems. Not all of them publicize their pricing details but where possible, we’ve included this.  

Bullhorn ATS pricing

Bullhorn staffing offers an ATS and CRM (customer relationship management) solution for start-ups, medium-sized organizations, and large enterprises. Its pricing begins at $99 per user per month and it offers four tiers: team, corporate, enterprise, and enterprise plus.  

DaXtra pricing

DaXtra is an integrated suite of modules that finds the best candidates and enhances the recruitment workflow. Some of its options include automatic data capture, multilingual resume parsing, and job parsing. Its modules are called Capture, Search, Parser, Magnet, Apply & Match, and Components. There’s no publicly available information on pricing.  

Kronos Workforce Ready pricing

Kronos Workforce Ready is a platform for companies with between 100 and 2,500 employees. It uses a per-employee model that begins at $6 per employee, per month. Kronos pricing depends on the level of service package, number of employees, and apps used.  

Textkernel pricing

Textkernel offers different modules to search resumes, job boards, and social networking sites, helping recruiters find the right candidates. It can be installed on-site or as software-as-a-service. Pricing is not available publicly.  

Measuring your returns

Understanding your return on investment (ROI) is a key part of your pricing and budgeting process. It will help you make the case for your investment into a staffing solution in the first place. Success will differ across organizations but some common ROI metrics include:

1. Time savings - how many hours will the staffing solution save? How much can it automate manual work to free up time for value-added tasks like relationship building? Look at the time taken to complete a task currently, to assess how much time you can save.  

2. Product adoption - if your team is slow to adopt your staffing technology then it’ll hinder results. Pick an intuitive, easy-to-use platform to encourage people to adopt it. Measure the effectiveness of product adoption by combining employee surveys with core performance metrics.  

3. Visibility - does your team have the insights they need to fill positions effectively? Data is one of the most valuable assets a staffing firm can collect. Ideally, your chosen staffing solution will help you understand and visualize this data.

4. Fill rate - this will measure a staffing firm’s efficiency. A low fill rate acts as a warning sign that something isn’t working in your team or pipeline.  

5. Competitiveness - assess your firm’s performance against others by comparing time-to-hire, talent pool growth, client satisfaction, and more. The best staffing solutions will give your firm a competitive edge, helping you fill positions more quickly with the best candidates.

Combining these different metrics can provide a clear picture of your staffing technology ROI.  

An important decision

Pricing will strongly influence your staffing technology decision and any returns that you can expect. Choosing the right vendor, with the features and pricing model best-aligned to your organization’s goals and needs, will set you on the path to success.  

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