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Review Updated
Karen McCandless
By: Karen McCandless

Our Small Business Expert

Many or all of the products here are from our partners that compensate us. It’s how we make money. But our editorial integrity ensures our experts’ opinions aren’t influenced by compensation. Terms may apply to offers listed on this page.

If you're a startup or a small business with limited time and budget, you need an easy-to-use solution that you can get up and running quickly with minimal training and downtime. Find out if ApplicantStack fits the bill.

ApplicantStack
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3.60/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: ApplicantStack is a basic applicant tracking system that lacks advanced features, but it’s easy to use and quick to get up and running.
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    4.50/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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    Pricing
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    3.00/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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    Features
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    3.00/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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    • Customizable workflows
    • In-app tips and support
    • Simple user interface
    • No phone or live chat support
    • Needs graphical reporting functionality
    • No basic sourcing capabilities

When you set out on your quest to find a new applicant tracking system (ATS), it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking the more features a solution offers, the better. But that's not always the case.

If you don't have a dedicated recruiter and handle all of the hiring processes yourself, or changes in your workforce plans mean you need to hire quickly, a simple and easy-to-learn solution is often the best option.

Think about the downtime you'll experience with complex implementations and days of training, or the effect on the candidate experience if you don't know how to use your system properly.

Hiring the right way makes it much easier to find the best candidates and get better results with performance and talent management.

ApplicantStack falls into the category of easy to use and implement, but it's light on features. Find out if that's what your business needs right now.

Who is ApplicantStack for?

ApplicantStack is job and applicant tracking software for recruiters who only need basic functionality to help them hire candidates quickly. It's a straightforward solution with no bells and whistles, which makes it a good option for new and inexperienced recruiters.

You can customize the workflow and all associated tasks, such as when to schedule interviews -- both for internal users such as the hiring manager and for candidates -- for each open position. That's why it's suitable for recruiters who hire candidates for a wide variety of job roles and industries.

ApplicantStack's features

ApplicantStack has a limited feature set that includes job ad creation, basic sourcing, pipeline and applicant management, and reporting.

Creating a job ad

To create a job ad, click on the Jobs option on the right-hand menu, then start from scratch or use a template. If you start from scratch, ApplicantStack provides tips to help you understand how to fill out the fields and to include or exclude information that will attract the best candidates. All fields are fully customizable.

For example, one tip advises you to leave out jargon and omit location if you're posting to third-party job boards. The application form is customizable, which means you can add the fields you need, but it's not optimized for mobile devices.

ApplicantStack's job information screen with fields for job ID, job title, location, category and more

ApplicantStack provides in-app tips to help you create your job application form. Image source: Author

Once you've created the job details, you can add additional information such as screening questions (from your library or created from scratch) and set up a scorecard that determines whether your candidates will advance to the next stage.

For example, if a candidate doesn't have the right to work in the U.S., you can automatically exclude them from the process.

Then it's one click to publish the position to your jobs board, third-party recruitment sites such as Indeed and Monster, and social media accounts. ApplicantStack provides its own public job board where you can publish all your website's open positions to attract candidates.

Its sourcing and talent acquisition capabilities are more basic than other applicant tracking and candidate management software such as Workable and Bullhorn. For example, you can't search third-party job boards for candidates or create targeted social media campaigns to attract applicants.

Pipeline and candidate management

You can view the status and pipeline stage of all candidates from your homepage at any time and sort by criteria such as their scorecard score. To find out more about each candidate, click on their name, where you can view all the applicant's details -- such as resume, cover letter, and notes -- in different tabs.

ApplicantStack's jobs dashboard showing job applicant questions for Accounting Manager

Information about candidates is centralized in one place and accessible through different tabs. Image source: Author

You can quickly move a candidate along the pipeline by changing their application stage. When doing this, you can email a candidate to schedule an interview, reject the candidate via an automated email, and notify other users of the change in status.

All stages are fully customizable to suit your hiring process. For example, you can have a skills test stage, a phone interview stage, and an in-person interview.

All workflows are customizable in terms of the recruiter process and the workflow the candidate follows for each stage. You can add automated tasks and specify who to notify when you take action or complete these tasks.

For example, you can add an option to automatically email the candidate when you reach the interview stage.

ApplicantStack's Edit Workflow Stage screen with settings for task, user, and events

All of ApplicantStack's recruiting workflows are fully customizable. Image source: Author

Reporting

ApplicantStack includes several built-in reports to help you monitor recruiting and track hiring metrics. These include:

  • The number of applicants and hires from each source
  • Time in stage for active candidates
  • Applicants per day
  • Candidate activity summary
  • Jobs created per month
  • Time in each stage for hired candidates

The reports are in text form, rather than visual graphs, and are downloadable as a CSV file.

ApplicantStack's Candidate Workflow Summary screen showing list of pre-built reports

ApplicantStack provides pre-built reports to help you track recruiting metrics. Image source: Author

Onboarding

ApplicantStack has an add-on to help you onboard new hires smoothly and efficiently, which can contribute to employee retention rates. The onboarding workflow is also customizable, and you can create new hire checklists and assign tasks to different members of the team.

The employee portal lets new hires fill out their details and add necessary documents to complete the onboarding process, along with e-sign capabilities that ensure all tasks can be completed within the system.

You can track progress and monitor the performance of the process through ApplicantStack's workflow reports.

ApplicantStack's ease of use

ApplicantStack's getting started video guides you through the different steps to set up the software to meet your business needs. You can also access a live demo and read the setup guide.

When you start using the solution, the Getting Started wizard suggests tasks to complete and the order to complete them, to get the best results from the software. It's a helpful way for new recruiters and people who haven't used an ATS before to get up to speed and ensure they're taking full advantage of the software.

ApplicantStack's getting started wizard screen showing list of recommended tasks

The Getting Started wizard recommends tasks to complete for best results. Image source: Author

ApplicantStack is straightforward, but that's partly due to its limited feature set. It takes you seconds to create a job listing and post it to job boards and social media. Managing candidates is easy, again because you don't have many options besides reviewing their data, adding notes, and moving them to the next stage.

Even if you've never used recruiting software before, configuring workflows and adding tasks is simple. The right-hand menu and top menu split out all the functionality, so you can quickly navigate your way around the software and find the option you need.

ApplicantStack's pricing

ApplicantStack offers a 15-day free trial of its entire feature set. It offers three paid pricing plans:

  • Recruit
  • Bundle
  • Onboard

Recruit includes all the main ATS features for $95 per month, while the Onboard plan only includes onboarding features (not ATS functionality) and payroll tools.

The Bundle plan, which costs $135 per month, includes all the functionality in Recruit and Onboard plus the ability to customize your entire hiring process. All plans are for one admin user and up to five other users.

Considering ApplicantStack's limited feature set compared to other ATS such as Workable, it's a pricy solution, and out of range for startups and small businesses.

ApplicantStack's three tier pricing plans: recruit, bundle and onboard.

ApplicantStack has three pricing plans. Image source: Author

ApplicantStack's support

You can access ApplicantStack's Help Center from the sticky orange question mark in the top right-hand corner. This brings up a searchable knowledge base plus the option to fill in a form to contact ApplicantStack's customer service agents or discover new features and updates.

Agents answer questions from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

ApplicantStack's Help Center screen showing three button options: lost, recruit and onboard

You can access ApplicantStack's Help Center by clicking the orange question mark at the top of the screen. Image source: Author

ApplicantStack doesn't provide phone support or live chat help, so its support options are limited compared to other ATS solutions.

Benefits of ApplicantStack

ApplicantStack is an easy-to-use HR applicant tracking system that helps you manage the entire recruitment cycle, and it takes minutes to get up and running. You don't need a training manual since most of it is self explanatory, or you can use ApplicantStack's in-app tips and guides to learn the features.

As you can customize every aspect of the workflow for every position, it's ideal for recruiters who have to hire candidates in a variety of industries and with different requirements and skill sets.

Basic but straightforward

ApplicantStack doesn't have as many features as other applicant tracking tools; its functionality is limited. But because of that, it's easy to learn to use, and you don't need an implementation team, or days of training, to get up and running. You can start recruiting within minutes of signing up.

How ApplicantStack Compares

Product Careers portal Custom pipelines Advanced analytics Candidate search
ApplicantStack Yes Yes
Workable Yes Yes Yes Yes
Breezy HR Yes Yes Yes Yes
ApplicantPro Yes Yes Yes
Bullhorn ATS Yes Yes Yes Yes

FAQs

  • Yes, ApplicantStack offers a 15-day free trial of its entire feature set. It then offers three pricing plans: Recruit, Bundle, and Onboard, which cost $95, $135, and $95 per month, respectively.

    The Recruit plan only includes ATS functionality, while the Onboard plan only includes onboarding and payroll features. The Bundle plan includes both feature sets.

  • ApplicantStack provides strategic HR functionality such as onboarding, employee engagement, and payroll. Its Onboard plan, which includes all this functionality, is available for $95 per month. This includes one admin user and up to five other users and doesn't include any ATS functionality.

    If you want both ATS and onboarding functionality, you can choose the Bundle plan, which costs $135 per month for one admin user and up to five other users.

  • Yes, ApplicantStack is a good option for small businesses and startups as it's easy to use, and you can quickly learn how to use all the features and get up and running within minutes.

    That's ideal for businesses with a small recruiting department that can't afford downtime while implementing a new solution.

Our Small Business Expert