Best CRM for Recruiters and Recruitment Agencies: Prices for 3, 10 and 25 Seats

You are picking software for a staffing agency, every list you find was written by a vendor, and few show dated prices or what ten recruiters would pay. This page lists the tools by what they do for an agency, prices every one from a vendor page (or the data file a vendor’s page loads) read on October 21, 2026, and does the seat arithmetic for 3, 10 and 25 recruiters.

What is the best CRM for recruiters and recruitment agencies?

The best CRM for a staffing agency depends on which side of the business is slowing you down: winning client accounts or moving candidates through submissions and placements. For client business development and job orders, a general CRM (Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, HubSpot) is enough for most agencies under about 25 recruiters. For a candidate database, resume parsing, job boards and placements, an ATS-CRM (Bullhorn, Zoho Recruit, Recruit CRM, Manatal) does what a general CRM needs custom setup to do. The table gives our read by agency size and by temp versus permanent work.

Agency	Permanent placement and executive search	Temp and contract staffing
1 to 3 recruiters	Pipedrive Lite or Growth, or the free HubSpot and Zoho CRM tiers while you test	Manatal Professional or Zoho Recruit Standard, since candidate volume arrives early
4 to 10 recruiters	Zoho CRM Professional with custom modules, or Pipedrive Growth	Zoho Recruit Professional, Manatal Enterprise or Recruit CRM, checking which plan has billing
11 to 25 recruiters	HubSpot Professional or Salesforce Pro Suite for clients, an ATS beside it for candidates	Bullhorn Starter or Core, or Zoho Recruit Enterprise for the client portal
25 or more	Salesforce plus an ATS, quoted	Bullhorn Pro or Max, quoted
Verdict	Pipedrive or Zoho CRM until candidate volume forces an ATS	An ATS-CRM from the start; none of the general CRMs we read lists timesheets or billing for temps

This is our read of the vendors’ public pages, not a test of the products. aibrevo implements general-purpose CRMs (see our staffing industry page) and does not implement Bullhorn, Recruit CRM or Manatal, so treat our notes on those three as a summary of what their pages say.

What is the difference between a staffing CRM and an ATS?

A CRM tracks the companies that hire you, an ATS tracks the people you place with them, and an ATS-CRM tries to hold both in one database. The CRM side holds accounts, contacts, deals and job orders. The ATS side holds candidate profiles, parsed resumes, submissions, interviews and placements. Staffing CRM versus ATS stops being a choice once one tool does both, which several vendors claim: Recruit CRM calls itself “The AI-first ATS + CRM”, and Manatal lists a CRM in every paid plan.

The claim needs a close read of the price page. Bullhorn’s pricing page, checked October 21, 2026, lists applicant tracking, resume parsing, client management and job posting under Starter ($99 per user a month), and “Recruitment CRM (sales pipeline)” only under Pro, which shows no price. The cheap tier is an ATS with client records, and the sales pipeline sits higher.

One tool is usually enough when each recruiter works both sides of a desk, the way a small agency does. Two tools make sense when business development is a separate job from recruiting, when client deals are large enough to need forecasting, or when you already run marketing to win clients. In that case the general CRM owns the client side and the ATS owns the candidate side, joined by an integration.

What does a staffing agency need from its CRM or ATS?

Six things, and the table shows what to ask a vendor about each one. Most general CRMs have no job order or placement record out of the box, so the first four rows come down to whether the tool lets you add custom objects, modules or boards on the plan you can afford.

Need	What it means	What we found on the vendor pages
Job orders	A client’s open role, with rate, location and status	HubSpot custom objects need an Enterprise plan. Zoho CRM allows 10 custom modules on Standard and 25 on Professional. monday allows 5 columns per board on Basic and 15 on Standard
Candidate pipeline	Sourced, screened, submitted, interviewing, placed	HubSpot caps total pipelines at 15 on Starter and 100 on Professional. Zoho Recruit’s pricing page lists a hiring pipeline from Standard, and Bullhorn Starter lists applicant tracking
Client accounts	Companies, contacts, contracts, account expansion	Every tool on this page handles accounts and contacts. Pipedrive and HubSpot are built around this side
Placements	A candidate placed on an order, with start date and bill rate	Zoho Recruit lists placement history under client management. Recruit CRM advertises a Bill & Pay tool for contract staffing
Vendor management portals	Clients that make you submit through their own portal, or sub-vendors you share orders with	No CRM replaces a client’s portal. Zoho Recruit sells a Vendor Portal add-on for working with external recruiters, with no price on the page we read
Texting consent	A record of who agreed to be texted, when and how, plus a working STOP	Needs a custom field or a built-in consent log in whatever you buy. See the section on texting below

Source, checked Oct 21, 2026: HubSpot custom objects, HubSpot Sales Hub pricing, Zoho CRM custom modules, monday CRM pricing, Zoho Recruit pricing, Recruit CRM, Bullhorn pricing.

Salesforce’s pricing page does not mention custom objects for Starter Suite or Pro Suite, and Pipedrive’s lists required and pipeline-specific fields on Premium. We could not confirm job order modeling for either from those pages, so ask for a demo that builds a job order before you sign.

What do staffing CRMs and ATS-CRMs cost?

List prices run from $14 to $195 per user a month for general CRMs and from $15 to $165 for ATS-CRMs with a published price, and several vendors publish less than you would expect. Every figure below is per user a month unless stated, with the billing term noted where the vendor states one.

Tool	Type	Free tier or trial	First paid tiers	Notes
HubSpot Sales Hub	General CRM	Free for up to 2 users	Starter shows $7 and $20 per seat, unlabeled; Professional shows $90 and $100, unlabeled	Professional needs a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee; Enterprise $150 with $3,500
Pipedrive	General CRM	14-day trial	Lite $14, Growth $39, billed yearly	Growth is from our October 6 check of Pipedrive’s pricing page, and third-party price trackers list the same $39. Premium and Ultimate prices differ between sources, so confirm them on Pipedrive’s page. Monthly billing costs more
Zoho CRM	General CRM	Free for 3 users	Standard $14, Professional $23, Enterprise $40, billed yearly (monthly: $20, $35, $50)	No custom fields on the free edition
monday CRM	General CRM	14-day trial	Basic $12, Standard $17, Pro $28, billed yearly	At least 3 seats
Salesforce Sales	General CRM	Free Suite listed at $0	Starter Suite $25, Pro Suite $100, Core $195	Pro and Core billed annually; Free Suite limits not stated on the page
GoHighLevel	General CRM and outreach	14-day trial	$97, $297, $497 per account a month	Unlimited users on every plan; telecom usage fees may apply
Zoho Recruit (staffing edition)	ATS-CRM	Free plan	Standard $30, Professional $60, Enterprise $90 per recruiter, billed monthly; $25, $50, $75 billed yearly	Client portal on Enterprise
Bullhorn	ATS-CRM	None stated	Starter $99, Core $165; Pro and Max “Talk to us”	Billing term and minimum users not stated
Recruit CRM	ATS-CRM	30-day trial	Pro $95, Business $135, Enterprise $215, monthly figures	Annual prices not shown; “Save up to 17%” claimed
Manatal	ATS-CRM	14-day trial, no card	Professional $15, Enterprise $35, Enterprise Plus $55, billed yearly (monthly: $19, $39, $59)	Professional caps 15 jobs per account and 10,000 candidates
Verdict			Manatal is the cheapest per seat with a CRM included; Bullhorn Starter and Salesforce Pro Suite cost about seven times as much

Source, checked Oct 21, 2026: HubSpot, Pipedrive, monday, Salesforce, GoHighLevel, Zoho Recruit staffing edition plans, Zoho Recruit for staffing agencies, Bullhorn, Recruit CRM, Manatal. Zoho renders its prices with JavaScript, so the Zoho CRM figures and the yearly Zoho Recruit figures come from the pricing data file its pricing pages load (zohowebstatic.com, sites/zweb/json/pricing). The monthly Zoho Recruit figures match the help center article. HubSpot’s page shows two prices per paid plan without saying which is annual. Prices exclude tax.

Our CRM pricing comparison tracks the general CRMs, and the Zoho CRM pricing calculator prices your own headcount.

How much does a staffing CRM cost for 3, 10 and 25 recruiters?

For ten recruiters the monthly list cost runs from about $150 to $2,500 depending on the tool, and the gap widens at 25. The table multiplies the per-seat prices above by the headcount. It uses yearly billing where a vendor publishes one, monthly figures where only those exist (Recruit CRM, Bullhorn), and leaves out one-time fees, add-ons and usage.

Option (per seat a month)	3 recruiters	10 recruiters	25 recruiters
Manatal Professional ($15)	$45	$150	$375
Manatal Enterprise ($35)	$105	$350	$875
monday CRM Standard ($17)	$51	$170	$425
Zoho CRM Professional ($23)	$69	$230	$575
Zoho Recruit Standard, yearly ($25)	$75	$250	$625
Pipedrive Growth ($39)	$117	$390	$975
Zoho Recruit Enterprise, yearly ($75)	$225	$750	$1,875
HubSpot Sales Hub Professional (lower figure, $90)	$270	$900	$2,250
Recruit CRM Pro ($95, monthly)	$285	$950	$2,375
Bullhorn Starter ($99)	$297	$990	$2,475
Salesforce Pro Suite ($100)	$300	$1,000	$2,500
Bullhorn Core ($165)	$495	$1,650	$4,125
GoHighLevel Unlimited ($297 per account)	$297	$297	$297
Verdict	Manatal, monday or Zoho CRM	Zoho CRM, Pipedrive or Zoho Recruit	GoHighLevel on price; Zoho or Manatal per seat

Source: aibrevo arithmetic from the vendor prices above, checked Oct 21, 2026. HubSpot Professional adds a required $1,500 one-time onboarding fee, and HubSpot Enterprise at $150 per seat adds $3,500. Pipedrive, Zoho CRM and Manatal figures are billed yearly.

Break-even against GoHighLevel’s $297 account price, ignoring usage fees: Salesforce Pro Suite costs more from 3 seats, HubSpot Professional from 4, monday Standard from 18, and Pipedrive Growth from 8, and Zoho CRM Professional from 13. GoHighLevel wins on price only because it charges per account, and it does not include an ATS. Our GoHighLevel pricing guide covers what drives its bill up.

How do HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, monday and Salesforce compare for staffing?

For client-side work, Pipedrive is the cheapest pipeline-first tool, Zoho CRM is the cheapest one with room for custom modules, and HubSpot and Salesforce cost more per seat for marketing and enterprise control. None of the five is an ATS, so each needs custom setup or a companion tool for candidates.

Pipedrive’s Growth plan at $39 a seat adds email sync and automations to the $14 Lite plan. It suits an agency whose recruiters mostly sell to hiring managers, because a deal pipeline maps cleanly to client business development. Candidates fit less well. You can store them as contacts or as deals with fields, which holds up at low candidate volume. Read HubSpot vs Pipedrive and Zoho vs Pipedrive before you choose.

Zoho CRM at $23 for Professional includes 25 custom modules, enough for a job order module and a placement module alongside accounts. That makes it the practical general CRM for an agency that wants to model both sides itself, at the cost of configuration time. Our Zoho implementation service covers the setup.

HubSpot’s strength for an agency is marketing: forms, email and sequences to win clients. Its weakness is the price of the data model. Professional lists at $90 or $100 a seat with a $1,500 onboarding fee, and custom objects for job orders are an Enterprise feature. We would pick HubSpot only if client marketing is a real part of how you win business, and keep candidates in an ATS. See our HubSpot service.

monday CRM at $17 on Standard is the cheapest mid tier of the five, with a 3-seat minimum and 15 columns per board, which is tight for a candidate record. It works as a visual board for job orders and placements and less well as a candidate database.

Salesforce Pro Suite is $100 a seat and Core is $195, both billed annually. It is the choice at 25 or more recruiters when you need custom objects, reporting and an admin, and the pricing page lists no staffing features, so it would sit beside an ATS.

Where does GoHighLevel fit for a staffing agency?

GoHighLevel fits the outreach layer: client and candidate pipelines, texting, interview booking and reactivating old candidates. Its pricing page, checked October 21, 2026, lists $97, $297 and $497 per account a month with unlimited users and contacts on every plan, so headcount does not raise the bill. It is not an applicant tracking system, so job-board posting, resume parsing and payroll still live elsewhere. Our page on GoHighLevel for recruiting and staffing agencies covers the two-pipeline design and where its limits start.

Which ATS-CRM fits: Bullhorn, Zoho Recruit, Recruit CRM or Manatal?

Manatal is the cheapest ATS with a CRM included, Zoho Recruit is the closest match to the client-portal and placement needs at mid price, Recruit CRM is the one that advertises billing for contract staffing, and Bullhorn is the largest-agency option with the most expensive entry.

Manatal’s Professional plan is $15 per user a month billed yearly, with a cap of 15 jobs per account and 10,000 candidates. Workflow automation starts on Enterprise at $35. Recruit CRM’s Pro plan is $95 per user a month with one hiring pipeline, and Business at $135 lists 100 hiring pipelines. Recruit CRM lists unlimited jobs, candidates and contacts on all three plans.

Zoho Recruit’s staffing edition runs $30, $60 and $90 per recruiter a month billed monthly, and a client portal sits on Enterprise, where clients can post job openings and track hiring progress. If you already use Zoho CRM, compare the two on price and record model: CRM Professional at $23 against Recruit Standard at $25 buys different things, and Recruit Standard spares you building candidate modules.

Bullhorn’s published Starter and Core prices are $99 and $165 per user a month, with free implementation listed. Pro and Max add AI features and the sales pipeline, and show no price. We did not verify minimum seats, contract length or billing term, and the page offers a quote form for those.

Is there a free CRM for recruiters?

A few exist, and every one has a limit that matters to a recruiter. HubSpot Sales Hub is free for up to 2 users, per its pricing page. Zoho CRM is free for 3 users, but its help center says custom fields are not available on the free edition, so you cannot add a candidate source or consent field. Zoho Recruit has a free plan listing basic candidate management, job posting on your website and resume parsing, with limited customization and no published numeric limits on the help page we read. Salesforce lists a Free Suite at $0 without stating limits.

The rest offer trials only: Pipedrive and Manatal 14 days, GoHighLevel 14 days, monday CRM 14 days and Recruit CRM 30 days. If you start on a free tier, check the user cap first, and run a small export-and-import test while you can still leave.

Do you need consent to text candidates?

Texting candidates falls under the federal rules at 47 CFR 64.1200, and your tool needs to record consent and honor STOP. The rule text says an autodialed call that includes or introduces an advertisement or constitutes telemarketing needs the called party’s prior express written consent. It defines that consent as a signed agreement that clearly authorizes the messages and names the number. A person may revoke consent “by using any reasonable method”, words such as “stop”, “quit”, “end”, “revoke”, “opt out”, “cancel” or “unsubscribe” in a reply count as a reasonable method, and a revocation must be honored within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days.

Whether a given job alert is an advertisement or telemarketing is a legal question we do not answer here, so ask your counsel. The practical step does not depend on the answer: store the date, the source and the exact wording of each candidate’s agreement, and confirm the tool can suppress a number the moment someone replies STOP. That is also why the free Zoho CRM edition is a poor fit, since it has no custom fields to hold a consent record. See the federal rule text, our GoHighLevel TCPA setup and the texting laws by state.

How do you choose in an afternoon?

Count recruiters and decide which side hurts, then price two options, and test one with real records. The steps below fit a first decision.

1. Write down how many people will use the tool in 12 months, and whether they sell to clients, place candidates or both.
2. Decide if the pain is clients (pipeline, job orders, account growth) or candidates (database, resume parsing, submissions, billing). Use the table near the top.
3. Pick two tools, one general CRM and one ATS-CRM if you are unsure, and price them with the seat table above.
4. Load 200 real candidate records and 20 client records into each trial. Our CRM import file checker catches column and format problems before you upload.
5. Build one job order and one placement by hand. If it takes more than an hour, the tool is not set up for staffing.
6. Check consent: add the field, send yourself a test text and reply STOP.
7. Choose, then plan the move using the CRM migration guide and the questions in how to choose a CRM.

If you want a second opinion on the data model, contact us with your recruiter count and whether you run temp, permanent or both.

Founder’s note, Alpit Patel. Staffing agencies often shop for one tool to do everything. I’d split the problem first: the client side is a CRM job, the candidate side is an ATS job, and one product doing both is the exception. I founded aibrevo in San Francisco in 2021, and through autoesta I have overseen 320+ GoHighLevel implementation projects across med spas, real estate, healthcare, dental, home services, SaaS and professional-services clients in the US, UK and UAE. About Alpit

Sources: HubSpot, Pipedrive, monday.com, Salesforce, GoHighLevel, Bullhorn, Recruit CRM, Manatal and Zoho pricing and help pages, and the eCFR text of 47 CFR 64.1200, all fetched October 21, 2026. Pipedrive’s pricing page blocks automated fetches, so its Growth and Lite prices come from our October 6 check of the page and agree with third-party price trackers. Vendor prices change without notice, so confirm on the vendor page before you buy.