Best Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) Companies in 2025

Applicant tracking Systems (ATS) companies provide other businesses with the right tools to find, nurture, train, and develop the right talents for job posts. Like products, not all companies are the same. Each has its core competencies and unique offerings. Also, each has relative weaknesses compared to others. These can be in different areas, from product features to customer service. Hence, choosing the best fit among applicant tracking systems (ATS) companies for you is arguably as consequential as selecting the right product. So, knowing about the companies that provide the software can be as important as knowing what is applicant tracking software and what it does.  Here, you will get to know which ones are the best around.

The best applicant tracking systems (ATS) companies usually offer free trial versions of their products. So, to find out who provides the best product that fits your needs, you can always make use of these free trial offers. You can easily sign up and test the solutions firsthand. Moreover, if not free trials, top applicant tracking system software companies also provide free demos. Either there is a public free demo portal available or you can schedule an appointment with them. With this, you can compare the products and also the software providers behind them. To get started, you can check out the free demos of the highest-rated applicant tracking tools: BambooHR, Greenhouse, Submittable, Sage HR, and Rippling.

Small businesses. Having between 1-50 employees, small businesses usually don’t have a dedicated hiring department. So, by outsourcing critical workflows, and services to applicant tracking software solutions, they can be able to streamline their employee lifecycle management.

Midsize businesses. These organizations usually have between 51-500 employees. And, if they are growing, then a dedicated recruitment and talent management team is needed. An applicant tracking software company can help alleviate talent management difficulties by providing easy-to-use software tools.

Large enterprises. With more than 500 employees, these organizations typically have a dedicated IT unit and recruitment teams that cater to different departments. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) companies help these businesses streamline their processes by organizing workflows under one single digital command center.

• BambooHR: A provider of an intuitive HR software solution popular among small- and medium-sized companies, the company is known for its robust ATS and human resources information system (HRIS) modules. Moreover, its platform allows organizations to track key metrics like employee retention and turnover. And, like any other good SaaS platform, it has many role-based access admin options.
• Greenhouse: Provides organizations of all sizes across different industries with a comprehensive ATS software solution. The company does not only provide tools to streamline the hiring process but also those that can help enhance employee experiences. It offers end-to-end solutions, from hiring to onboarding and from development to performance monitoring.
• Submittable: The company offers a web-based submission management platform, used by different kinds of organizations for collecting and reviewing applications or any type of submissions. The platform has many use cases. So, you can find it widely used across different types of organizations, including foundations and non-profits. Key features include auto-scoring, conditional logic, and its easy-to-use all-in-one review portal.
• Sage: This popular software company offers a cloud-based HR solution with integrated human capital management modules filled with comprehensive features. Its modules include Recruitment Management, Performance Management, Timesheets Management, Shift Scheduling Management, Leave Management, and Expenses Management.
• Rippling: This company provides a unique solution integrating all-in-one HR and IT features under one single roof. Its platform has the usual HR features such as ATS and talent management. But, unlike others, it connects its HR tools with IT-related productivity measures such as app usage and the like. Hence, employee productivity is directly linked with quantifiable financial metrics for more detailed performance monitoring.

Today, not all applicant tracking solutions have the same functions. Sometimes they come with more comprehensive HR suites as a module; sometimes as a loose set of tools or features. And, of course, there are standalone apps and service platforms. Below are the software types that have ATS features or have closely-related functions with ATS:

• HR apps. These tools are used by employees to track HR processes for hiring, onboarding, and talent development. Moreover, there are platforms that provide mobile apps to help monitor productivity and cover processes such as clocking in/out of work. Typical functions include one-click payroll runs, expense tracking, and time tracking.
• Talent management software. Usually, these platforms offer end-to-end solutions for applicant tracking, performance management, and compensation management. Also, they provide HR managers with the necessary tools to manage the entire employee lifecycle.
• Onboarding software. With this, you can track applicants and new hires during the hiring and onboarding process. These platforms provide automation tools to streamline workflows such as training task assignments and performance monitoring. Other features include digital signature tools and onboarding form management features.
• Staffing agency software. This type of ATS software is widely used among staffing and recruitment agencies. Common features include back office management, time tracking, and expense tracking. Also, they usually integrate with popular email and calendar solutions.
• Recruiting software. This supplements the applicant tracking process by providing tools for performing background checks and improving the brand experience.

• Applicant scoring and ranking: These features help you quantify the quality of candidates using custom criteria. Of course, there are templates based on industry standards and best practices. Criteria can include skills, experience, and even personality. After generating individual scores, the ATS program then provides you with a ranking that is best suited to your needs. Of course, you are also allowed to do it manually as well.
• Job posting: This feature provides HR departments with ways to create and post job listings on different platforms. These, of course, include your website, job boards, and social media sites. Also, typically, solutions allow you to purchase job board ad placements from vendors and partners. By doing so, companies can optimize their postings to make them more visible on search engines. Key features should also include scheduled multichannel job postings.
• Candidate profiles: ATS solutions allow you to build and maintain full candidate profiles with attached resumes, contact information, evaluation scores, interview notes, and feedback, among many others. Moreover, you should be able to organize your database using tags, categories, and filters. With these, you can easily search for candidates using custom criteria such as age, experience, location, etc.
• Applicant tracking: This provides you with information on what phase of the hiring process an applicant is in such as the first interview or contract signing. The system automatically provides you with an overview of the whole process, including who gets to the next stage and those who didn’t make it. 
• Reporting dashboards: With this, users will be able to make better data-driven decisions to optimize their operations. Usually, ATS platforms help users track KPIs such as the average cost of hiring, retention rates, turnover rates, and time to hire, among many others.

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) companies provide their clients with tools and services that can produce major benefits to their hiring and talent development processes. Our detailed ATS platform comparisons show that the best solutions provide the following benefits:

• Streamlined hiring process: Applicant tracking tools can facilitate faster candidate review as it consolidates all applicant data in one place. Moreover, as it automates repetitive administrative responsibilities, these tools can help hiring teams focus more on attention-demanding tasks, such as assessing candidates and improving interview processes.
• Reporting and analytics: You can get answers to questions, such as which website sends you the best candidates, where most candidates fail in the recruiting process, etc. The analytics tools also help you to identify areas where your company can improve. With the reporting feature, you can generate reports to keep stakeholders updated and also use them to meet compliance needs.
• Applicant scoring and ranking: Hiring managers, recruiters, and others can collaborate to evaluate applicants. They can use the same criteria for all candidates. In top systems, you simply need to input data on the most valuable criteria you are looking for and they will automatically rank candidates for you.
• Candidate data management: ATS platforms help you pool and manage droves of applications and resumes from different sources. They save you time by automatically importing and storing these important data in a secure database. Moreover, with this, users can create and manage profiles in one place and easily search for candidates using criteria, such as experience, skills, location, etc.
• Customized recruiting workflows: Every organization has its own criteria and processes for hiring employees. And, this gets complex, too, especially because every department and position has different prerequisites and ranking criteria. ATS solutions help companies configure the hiring processes for each role and customize or standardize them when need be. Also, it offers productivity and management tools such as shared calendars, task lists, collaboration tools, and automated notifications.

Investing in employee diversity 

Having diversity in your company is not just for show. Studies show that diversity may provide companies with benefits. In fact, one Gallup report showed that organizations with close to an equal number of males and females in their workforce have bigger profits. Also, a Glassdoor study found that around 66% of job applicants consider diversity as a very important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. ATS platforms make it easy for companies to avoid having a culturally homogenous workforce that is more likely to have limited perspectives and skills on offer.

Mobile job applications 

A Pew Research Center study found that 28% of American job candidates used their smartphones to look for jobs. For candidates, aged between 18 to 29, the number is 53%. Moreover, they don’t just stop at browsing for job openings, they even apply for them using their mobile devices. So, if you are planning to choose the right ATS solution provider for you, make sure that the company provides you and your prospective candidates with a mobile medium to conduct application transactions.

You can potentially pass on great candidates

While ATS systems help you impose your criteria, they might not recognize that the parameters could be too rigid. For instance, AI won’t recognize whether a certain candidate’s personality and outlook would fit your company culture or not. And, it could also pass up stellar candidates that are just switching careers. ATS solutions could potentially go overboard in narrowing down your options. So, it is best to put some good old human touch to it.

Digital breakdowns and limitations can cause inaccuracy

There are times when ATS solutions will overlook or outright reject resumes just because they can’t be scanned or categorized appropriately because of formatting and technical issues. So, businesses, as well as job applicants, can miss out on a chance to work together.

Choosing the right one among many applicant tracking software companies can be very difficult. This is especially when products of top brands, more or less, have the same features and capabilities. But, what can really break the tie is how the companies do when it comes to the intangibles. These are things that go beyond mere features.  Here are some points of comparison that you can consider.

• Does the company have reputable clients? Are its success stories convincing?
• Is the software company offering added value? Does it provide free updates, tutorials, and customer support? If not, find out if it charges reasonable fees for them.
• What do current users think of the product and their interaction with company representatives?
• Why did former users stop using the product? Did they not need it anymore or did they switch brands? Was there a conflict with the software provider?
• Does the software provider have integrations between its product and other third-party software? If not, is it willing to?
• What are the pricing plans? Are they flexible? If not, can they be made flexible to fit your budget and your revenue cycle?
• What is your prospective software provider’s company culture like? Is it a winning formula? Would you go into a partnership with it?
• Is the quality of customer support great? How does it compare with competitors? Does the company provide omnichannel support? Is it available 24/7?
• Is your prospective software provider doing financially well? How does it fare against the competition in markets similar to yours?

It might be cliche to say that your employees are your most valuable resource. But, this is true on many levels. When you think about it, your actual organizational skills, knowledge, and core competencies mostly reside within your workforce. Sure, you may have manuals or shared knowledge bases but arguably these are just mere reference tools for learning or remembering. Actual knowledge or skillful know-how is really distributed across the workforce.

Also, other key factors of business success such as organizational culture and the relationships that make workflows possible and efficient are also emergent from the collective behavioral interactions of employees. So, it is difficult to argue against the value of human talent. And, if this is to some degree true, then ensuring a capable workforce is always available to help you navigate your organization through ever-changing market dynamics.

One such tool to help you to tilt the odds in your favor is an ATS solution from an upstanding applicant tracking software company. The best ones give you access to hiring, onboarding, and talent development tools that can help streamline your processes via automation. Also, these products help you narrow down your options for candidates by letting the software sift through a long list of applicants using your set parameters. In this way, HR teams can save time on manual reviews. Furthermore, depending on the software provider, an ATS platform can also connect users to job posting sites, talent marketplaces, and other useful services to improve their reach and chances of landing stellar employees.

But, of course, having the best software tools from the best applicant tracking software companies won’t really do you much good when they are not used well.  This is because most of the time, there will be adoption issues and this is where organizational culture and outlook come in. The best way, we believe, for those that are still beginning in the digital transformation journey to increase the chance for, speed, and effectiveness of adoption is to distribute the ownership of software choice. What we mean by this is for leaders to let end-users (HR teams) take part in product research, trial, and pilots. In this way, they will have a deeper sense of ownership of the platform and the entire initiative.

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand what applicant tracking system companies offer, the benefits of their products, and how you can choose the best product for you.