How to choose the best applicant tracking software for your startup, scale-up or SME

So, you know your company needs applicant tracking software. Up next is choosing the best ATS tool for your startup, scale-up or SME.

Many hiring teams start by comparing the features of applicant tracking software. That's short-sighted and often causes teams to overbuy enterprise-sized software.

Instead, start by listing the hiring issues you want to solve with an ATS. Next, focus on translating your specific issues into concrete ATS requirements.

These steps are essential. They will enable you to evaluate your entire hiring process, but also make you aware of which features you actually need. If you bypass these steps, every vendor will have an easier time making you feel that every single feature is essential.

Once you've done that, you should further assess whether the system is light enough to implement, easy enough to adopt and strong enough to handle rising hiring volumes. It's equally important to ensure that the ATS improves your team's hiring process without being too heavy and adding unnecessary complexity. This balance is what we call the right-weight fit.

This guide and our checklist will guide you through these steps and help you choose the best ATS for your startup, scale-up or SME. Not by looking at popularity, but by looking at fit.

Quick answer

Start by analysing and listing your hiring bottlenecks, then turn them into clear ATS requirements. Don't choose based on feature lists alone, and don't ask for features during the demo; instead, present realistic scenarios and have the vendor demonstrate how the ATS would handle them.

Step 1: Define your needs before comparing applicant tracking software

This step seems obvious, but it is often skipped by hiring teams. Rather than comparing tools, start by diagnosing and listing whatever you're trying to fix with an ATS. Are you losing track of candidates? Are hiring managers late with feedback? Are you struggling to handle high volumes of data manually?

Without knowing what your specific issues are, every vendor can dazzle you with features that feel useful and important, but you ultimately don't need. Taking the time to define your needs helps you choose an applicant tracking system that genuinely meets your needs.

Step 2: Turn your hiring process issues into requirements

Once you've listed your issues, you can turn them into concrete requirements. For example, "we lose track of candidates" becomes a requirement for clear hiring stages, searchable candidate records and status ownership. "Hiring managers do not give feedback" becomes a requirement for task assignment, structured scorecards and overdue feedback reminders. "Leadership needs visibility" becomes a requirement for reliable reports on open roles, pipeline stages, source quality and time-to-hire.

Here's an overview of common hiring bottlenecks and the features needed to solve them. Use this to connect your bottlenecks to specific ATS features you need.

Step 3: Right-weight fit: ensure the ATS isn't too light or too heavy 

Right-weight fit means choosing an ATS that is strong enough to solve your hiring issues, but light enough to implement, use and maintain. The right ATS doesn't break when hiring complexity rises and doesn't add unwanted complexity.

Unfortunately, many teams miss that balance. They either overshoot and end up with a system that is tough to implement and use, or go for lightweight applicant tracking software that doesn't quite solve their issues and breaks when hiring volumes rise.

The right-weight fit framework helps you avoid both mistakes. The framework helps you assess five dimensions of fit: hiring volume, process complexity, hiring manager adoption, reporting needs and implementation burden.

Hiring volume

Your hiring volume matters. If you hire occasionally, you don't need a complex system. A lightweight ATS that centralises candidates, manages hiring stages and documents feedback will likely be enough.

But when hiring volume increases, manual coordination breaks down. More open roles, more candidates, and more hiring managers lead to more handoffs, follow-ups and reporting needs.

This calls for pipeline management, filtering, automation, reporting, and collaboration features. These features will help your team save time that would otherwise be wasted on manual management.

To properly assess if an ATS fits your hiring volume, ask yourself these four questions.

• How many roles are we hiring for at the same time?

• How many candidates apply per role?

• How fast is our hiring volume increasing?

• Will this ATS still work if hiring volume doubles or triples?

The right-weight ATS is the one that supports you at your current hiring volume, and when hiring increases.

Hiring process complexity

The complexity of your hiring process determines how flexible and configurable your ATS needs to be. If most of your open roles have the same hiring stages, you don't need adjustable workflows in your system. In that case, you can confidently choose a lightweight ATS that doesn't offer advanced levels of customisation.

But the more complex your hiring process, the more important workflow design becomes. If so, choose an ATS that supports process variation without becoming too hard to manage. To assess the complexity of your process and the need for flexibility, ask yourself:

• Do all roles follow the same hiring stages?

• Which parts of the process need to be standardised?

• Which roles genuinely need different workflows?

• Are approvals slowing hiring down?

• Will custom workflows make hiring easier or more complex?

No matter the complexity, you should make your hiring process as simple and mistake-free as possible. The ATS tool you choose won't fix a broken process; it will automate it with all its strengths and flaws. So, simplify, clarify and fix your process before configuring it in an ATS.

Hiring manager adoption

This is one of the most important signs of whether an ATS tool is too heavy. Many ATS platforms impress in a demo, but aren't used consistently by hiring managers. They often find applicant tracking software too complex and continue to provide feedback, notes, and decisions via email, Slack, or meetings.

To prevent that from happening, keep the manager-facing parts of the ATS tool simple. Especially for hiring managers who don't recruit often. For them, keep features to clear tasks, simple feedback flows and reminders.

More experienced hiring teams could use structured scorecards, role dashboards and more detailed collaboration workflows. To gauge future hiring manager adoption, ask:

• Which managers need to use the ATS tool besides recruiters?

• How often are they involved in hiring?

• How much training will they need?

The right-weight ATS will actually be used by hiring managers.

Reporting needs

On top of tracking candidates, an ATS tool should provide you with insights. You might want to have visibility into:

• the number and type of open roles;

• the number of candidates by stage;

• the average time-to-hire;

• source performance;

• hiring manager response times;

• offer acceptance rate;

• candidate drop-off.

Be careful, though: these features can make applicant tracking software heavier and thus harder to use. This is a conundrum because these features are useless if your team and colleagues don't use the system consistently. If recruiters and hiring managers don't properly add data to the ATS, your dashboards will appear useful but generate inaccurate information.

So, balance your reporting needs with hiring manager and recruiter adoption by being selective. To finetune the type of features you want, ask yourself:

• What does leadership need to see?

• Which hiring metrics will we actually use?

• Who keeps pipeline data clean?

• Can reports be trusted without manual spreadsheet work?

The right-weight ATS gives you enough reporting features to manage hiring, without forcing your team into a level of data discipline they cannot maintain.

Implementation and governance

Someone will need to implement the ATS. Assess how much time your team will need to configure stages in the applicant tracking software, migrate data, set permissions, create templates, train users, and maintain the system after launch. In general, lighter systems are easier to implement.

But only if they support the integrations and controls you need. How much effort implementation requires is also determined by how easily the tool integrates with your existing tool stack. From day one, your ATS should easily connect with your:

• email system

• calendar

• job boards

• onboarding tools

• e-signature software

• communication tools such as Slack or Teams

Because you'll store data in the ATS, you should also be mindful of data governance and data controls. Especially if you operate in Europe. Your ATS should offer permissions and data retention settings, deletion or anonymisation workflows, consent management and audit trails.

In short, the right-weight ATS should be light enough to set up, integrate, and maintain.

Step 4: Use your company stage as a shortlist filter, not as the final decision

Which ATS you choose shouldn't be determined by whether your company is a startup, scale-up, or SME. The right-weight fit is the framework that helps you decide.

Many companies look for "ATS for startups" or "ATS for SMEs", but that doesn't tell you how heavy your ATS tool should be. A startup hiring for 20 roles might need more features than an SME with low hiring volume. That same SME with strict compliance might need stronger governance than a scale-up.

But your company stage isn't irrelevant either. You can still use it as a filter when building an initial shortlist. Then, choose applicant tracking software based on your hiring volume, process complexity, hiring manager adoption, reporting needs and implementation capacity, i.e., the right-weight fit framework.

Applicant tracking software for startups

Startups that hire occasionally and are building their first repeatable hiring process benefit from lightweight applicant tracking software that centralises candidate records, provides clear pipeline visibility, and helps everyone involved in recruiting see what needs to happen next. Additionally, it should provide:

• Basic feedback collection

• Calendar and email integration

• Simple reporting on open roles and candidates by stage

Here are some ATS vendors you might want to consider for a startup:

• Breezy HR

• JazzHR

• Recruitee

• Teamtailor

• Homerun

• Workable, but only if hiring volume is already high

Use this list as a starting point for your shortlist; you might want to add other ATS tools. Assess each tool on your list against hiring volume, workflow complexity, hiring manager adoption and implementation capacity.

Some tools may not be the right fit for an early-stage startup.

• Greenhouse may be too heavy for startups that only need basic candidate tracking, simple feedback and occasional hiring.

• Lever comes with great CRM capabilities, talent nurturing, and more advanced candidate relationship management features. But early-stage startups most likely don't need these capabilities yet.

• Ashby offers all-in-one recruiting workflows across ATS, sourcing, scheduling and analytics. But that might be too much for a startup.

These are excellent tools, but they add too much weight to a simple and low-volume hiring process.

Applicant tracking software for scale-ups

Scale-ups need repeatability. They're often dealing with a complex hiring process, and high hiring volume involving multiple managers across teams. These types of scale-ups need a system that keeps the recruitment process running, without making recruiters chase everyone manually. Look for these features in your ATS tool:

• Configurable hiring stages

• Task ownership and reminders

• Structured feedback and scorecards

• Reporting by role, stage and source

• Automation for repetitive workflows

• Integrations with HRIS, calendars, job boards and communication tools

The ATS should be strong enough to support your growth. A lightweight ATS might seem good enough at first, but if hiring volumes rise and reporting needs increase, you may outgrow the system quickly. Here are some ATS tools you might want to consider:

• Ashby

• Recruitee

• Teamtailor

• Workable

These tools might not be the right fit:

• Breezy HR and JazzHR may be too light for a scale-up that needs advanced reporting, structured workflows, multi-team collaboration and stronger automation.

• Greenhouse and Lever might be suitable, but can be too heavy if you're only recruiting for a few roles and when you don't need high-volume structured hiring, CRM workflows or advanced reporting.

Applicant tracking software for SMEs

Hiring teams at SMEs tend to be small. But they still need applicant tracking software that reduces admin, organises candidate data and helps standardise hiring processes.

On top of that, the ATS should be user-friendly, easy to maintain and strong enough to support compliance and reporting needs. Here are some features you might want to prioritise:

• usability for recruiters and hiring managers

• task and candidate ownership

• data controls

• permissions and retention settings

• basic reporting

• integrations with existing HR and onboarding tools

• implementation support

Ease of use should be one of the key selection criteria. So, avoid ATS tools that require too much configuration or training. The ATS you choose should make hiring easier, not add complexity. Here are some examples of tools you could consider:

• Workable

• Recruitee

• Teamtailor

• Pinpoint ATS

These tools support practical hiring workflows, usability, integrations and candidate-data controls.

Tools such as Greenhouse, Lever or Ashby might be too heavy if you have limited recruiting capacity and only need basic candidate tracking, manager collaboration and straightforward reporting capabilities.

If you need stronger governance, permissions, compliance workflows, multi-location hiring and advanced reporting, Breezy HR and JazzHR might be too light.

These are excellent tools, but they might not match the amount of process, governance and maintenance you need, or your team can handle.

Choose an ATS that reduces admin and improves control without adding complexity.

Step 5: Evaluate ATS vendors with scenarios

You could ask vendors if they offer a certain set of features. But that will lead to them running a pretty generic demo during which they show their product at its best.

Instead, also ask each ATS vendor how their tool handles various scenarios. By using the same scenarios for each vendor, you can compare tools based on fit rather than presentation quality.

Ask the vendor to show how a new candidate moves into your hiring process. Let them demonstrate:

• how a candidate is added, imported or sourced

• how the candidate is assigned to a role

• how the hiring stage is updated

• who owns the next action

• what recruiters see

• what hiring managers see

• how notes, documents and communication history are stored

This scenario helps you test whether the ATS can create a clear source of truth from the moment a candidate enters the pipeline.

Scenario 2: A hiring manager is late with feedback

Ask the vendor to show what happens when a hiring manager doesn't give feedback on time. This should lead to them demonstrating:

• how feedback tasks are assigned

• what reminder the hiring manager receives

• whether overdue feedback is visible to recruiters

• how structured feedback or scorecards work

• whether recruiters can move the process forward without manually chasing

• how feedback is stored in the candidate record

This is how you test hiring manager adoption. An ATS may have feedback features, but if they're too difficult for managers to use, they'll still provide feedback in meetings or by email.

Scenario 3: We're having difficulties scheduling interviews

Ask the vendor to demonstrate how the ATS handles scheduling interviews. You should see:

• how interview availability is collected

• how calendar integration works

• whether candidates can self-schedule

• how interview confirmations are sent

• how rescheduling works

• whether recruiters can see upcoming interviews by role or candidate

• how interviewers are notified

This scenario helps you test whether the ATS removes coordination work or simply moves it into another tool.

Scenario 4: Leadership wants to see where hiring goes wrong

Ask the vendor how the applicant tracking software gives visibility into hiring performance. They should be able to demonstrate:

• open roles by stage

• candidates by pipeline stage

• time-to-hire

• time-in-stage

• source performance

• candidate drop-off

• offer acceptance

• reports that work without manual spreadsheet cleanup

This scenario will help you assess the tool's reporting quality. It helps you go beyond dashboards and check whether the data behind them can be trusted and whether your team can easily keep that data clean.

Scenario 5: A candidate needs an update after an interview

Ask the vendor to show what happens when a candidate is waiting for an update after completing an interview. They should demonstrate:

• email templates

• candidate status updates

• scheduling messages

• rejection workflows

• offer communication

• communication history by candidate

• whether messages can be personalised without becoming manual work

This will show you whether the ATS improves candidate communication in an actual hiring moment. Your takeaway should be that candidates would automatically receive clear, timely and consistent updates.

Scenario 6: A candidate wants their data deleted from our records

Let the vendor show what happens when a candidate requests that. They should be able to demonstrate:

• how the data is found

• who can delete or anonymise the candidate's data

• whether deletion and anonymisation are separate options

• how data retention rules are configured

• whether the system automatically deletes data after a set retention period

• how candidate consent is stored

• whether actions are saved in an audit trail

• what happens to interview notes, attachments, emails and scorecards linked to the candidate

• whether the candidate can be excluded from future communication or talent pools

• how deletion affects reporting data

This scenario enables you to see whether the ATS can support data governance. It's not enough for a vendor to claim the system is GDPR-ready. You need to see how permissions, retention, consent, deletion, anonymisation and audit trails actually work inside the product.

Scenario 7: We're changing our hiring process after 6 months

Ask the vendor to show how easy it is to change the system after implementation. They should be able to show you:

• how you can change hiring stages

• who can edit workflows

• whether different roles can use different workflows

• how you can add or remove approvals

• whether changes affect existing candidates

• how difficult it is to add a new team, role or location

• whether changes require vendor support or can be handled internally

This helps you assess maintainability. An ATS may look easy to maintain during a regular demo or implementation, but can become heavy if every process change requires admin work, vendor support or complex configuration. A vendor that cannot clearly show these scenarios may still have the right features on paper, but not be the right-weight fit in practice.

Step 6: Compare ATS vendors with this scorecard

Use the same criteria to score every ATS. Not for its features, but for whether the features work for your hiring process, your users, and your implementation capacity. You'll find a scorecard here. It will help you score the ATS based on whether it can support your real hiring process at the right weight. Click the image below to download the scorecard. 

Conclusion: choose fit over popularity

Choosing the best applicant tracking system is not about finding the tool with the most features or the strongest demo. It is about understanding your hiring process, defining what the ATS needs to solve and choosing a system that is the right weight for your company.

Start with your bottlenecks. Turn them into requirements. Then evaluate each ATS across hiring volume, process complexity, hiring manager adoption, reporting needs and implementation and governance.

The right ATS should be strong enough to support your next stage of hiring, but light enough for your team to implement, adopt and maintain. Do not choose an ATS because it is popular. Choose the one that fits.

Check the FAQs to learn more about selecting applicant tracking software.