How to Compare Recruiting and ATS Pricing for Small Teams

Applicant tracking systems are the clearest example in small business software of four vendors charging for four unrelated things. One bills on the staff you already have. One bills on job postings. One bills per recruiter seat. One bills a flat monthly fee.

The result is a ten-to-one spread on identical work. This note reads four pricing pages on October 23, 2026, and prices the same hiring round on each.

Work out which number the vendor is counting

Workable charges by company headcount. Its plan cards carry an employee selector with bands at 1 to 20, 21 to 50, 51 to 100 and upward, and the price changes with the band rather than with hiring activity.

JazzHR charges a flat annual fee and meters job postings. Hero states job postings starting at 3 a month and Plus states up to 200 active jobs.

Manatal charges per user and meters jobs per account: up to 15 jobs and up to 10,000 candidates on Professional, unlimited on the two tiers above, with unlimited hiring managers on all three.

Breezy HR charges a flat monthly fee per plan, with its free tier limited to one active position or candidate pool at a time.

Picking the wrong unit is how a small quote arrives large, the same way it does in what per-agent pricing means when agents are part-time.

Price three open roles and two recruiters for a year

Editorial calculation. A 15-person company, three open roles, two people who need logins, list prices as of October 23, 2026, annual billing where the page prints it:

• Manatal Professional: $15 per user per month billed annually x 2 x 12 = $360 a year, up to 15 jobs
• JazzHR Hero: $1,000 a year billed annually, job postings starting at 3 a month
• Breezy Startup: $1,884 a year at the monthly figure of $157, or $2,268 at the annual figure of $189
• JazzHR Plus: $3,480 a year billed annually, up to 200 active jobs
• Workable Standard, 1 to 20 employees: $3,588 a year, or $299 a month

Manatal is just under a tenth of Workable for this workload, and nothing in the comparison is a discount. The vendors are pricing different assumptions about who the buyer is.

Workable bills on headcount you already have

At the 1 to 20 employee band, Workable printed $299 a month and $3,588 a year on Standard, $599 and $7,188 on Premier, and $719 and $8,628 on Enterprise.

All three plans state unlimited active jobs, qualified as subject to fair usage limits. Hiring is not what moves the price; growing past 20 staff is.

One detail is worth noting. The card carried a toggle labelled annually, save 20 percent, yet $299 across twelve months is exactly the $3,588 printed beside it. The saving is not visible in those two figures.

We did not read a separate monthly-only rate, so we are not printing one. Confirm which figure applies to which billing cycle in checkout.

Workable also offers a 15-day free trial with no credit card, and states the trial does not include its AI agent.

Breezy prints a higher annual price than monthly

Breezy HR's plan cards showed $157 a month on Startup under monthly billing and $189 a month under annual billing, alongside the claim that annual pricing includes two months free.

Growth showed $273 and $329 on the same basis, and Business $439 and $529. In each pair the annual figure is the larger one, which contradicts the two-months-free claim beside it.

Two separate reads of the page on October 23, 2026 returned the same figures, and a direct page dump was refused by the site's content delivery network, so a third check was not possible.

We are printing both numbers rather than picking one. Where a page disagrees with itself, the checkout screen is the only authority, as in how to read a help desk pricing page.

Breezy's free Bootstrap plan is unusual in allowing unlimited users. It allows one active position at a time and states unlimited access to candidates added within the last 30 days.

That 30-day window is a data retention limit wearing a feature label. Export rules matter as much as price, the way they do in how to compare cloud storage pricing for a small team.

JazzHR publishes only its yearly rates

JazzHR printed $1,000 a year on Hero, $3,480 on Plus and $5,508 on Pro, each marked billed annually, with a note that paying yearly saves up to 24 percent.

A monthly toggle exists on the page, but no monthly figures rendered on either of our reads, so the monthly equivalents are unknown to us.

Hero's limit is the one to read twice: job postings starting at 3 a month, with an asterisk. Plus lifts it to up to 200 active jobs and adds AI-powered candidate matching.

JazzHR also lists offers and eSignatures as an add-on rather than a feature on Hero and Plus. Signature tooling is priced separately across business software, as in how to compare e-signature pricing for a small team.

Manatal is the only per-seat page here

Manatal printed $15 per user per month on Professional billed annually and $19 billed monthly, $35 and $39 on Enterprise, and $55 and $59 on Enterprise Plus, all in USD.

The annual discount is small: $4 a user a month on Professional, or $48 a user a year.

Professional caps jobs at 15 per account and candidates at 10,000, with unlimited hiring managers. Enterprise removes both caps and adds workflow automation.

Unlimited hiring managers alongside paid recruiter seats is the pricing decision that makes Manatal cheap for small teams. Only the people who run the pipeline are billed.

Manatal lists a 14-day free trial with no card required. Seat-based pricing needs a seat count before you can compare it, as in how to compare crm pricing for a small sales team.

AI credits are a separate budget line at Workable

Workable states that every account starts with 3,000 free AI credits and sells more in packs: 5,000 credits at $0.12 each for $600, 10,000 at $0.10 for $1,000, and 50,000 at $0.095 for $4,750.

A $600 pack is about 17 percent of the $3,588 Standard annual price, by editorial calculation. The page adds that credits expire one year from purchase and are non-refundable.

Expiring, non-refundable credits are a usage currency rather than a feature. Budget them the way you would the add-ons in what AI add-ons cost in small business tools.

Bottom line

Count your recruiters, your open roles and your headcount, then check which of those three a vendor charges for. That single question explains the whole price spread on this page.

For a small team hiring occasionally, Manatal Professional at $15 per user per month billed annually is the cheapest structure here, provided 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates is enough.

Then verify two things in writing: which Breezy figure applies to which billing cycle, and how many users a JazzHR plan includes. Neither was readable on October 23, 2026.

And keep hiring software separate from paying people, because the overlap is smaller than vendors imply. Payroll pricing is covered in how to compare payroll software pricing for a small team.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Workable cost for a small company?

At the 1 to 20 employee band on October 23, 2026, the cards printed $299 a month and $3,588 a year on Standard, $599 and $7,188 on Premier, and $719 and $8,628 on Enterprise. The price rises with employee count, not with hiring volume.

What is the cheapest applicant tracking system here?

Manatal Professional at $15 per user per month billed annually, which is $360 a year for two recruiters. It caps jobs at 15 per account and candidates at 10,000, and includes unlimited hiring managers.

Why does Breezy HR show two different prices?

Its cards printed $157 a month under monthly billing and $189 under annual billing on Startup, while claiming annual includes two months free. The annual figure being larger contradicts that claim. Confirm the rate at checkout.

Does JazzHR limit how many jobs you can post?

Hero states job postings starting at 3 a month and Plus states up to 200 active jobs, both with an asterisk. Hero is $1,000 a year billed annually and Plus is $3,480, as of October 23, 2026.

Is there a free applicant tracking system?

Breezy HR's Bootstrap plan is free forever with unlimited users, one active position or candidate pool at a time, and unlimited access to candidates added within the last 30 days. That 30-day window is a retention limit.

How much do Workable AI credits cost?

Accounts start with 3,000 free credits. Packs are priced at $0.12 a credit for 5,000, totalling $600, $0.10 for 10,000 at $1,000, and $0.095 for 50,000 at $4,750. Credits expire one year from purchase and are non-refundable.