2020 Editor’s NOTE — We have the updated version for 2020 here:

Top Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS Software) in 2020

Enjoy! — Rob

—————

Our Ongig team talks to 100’s of people a year about which applicant tracking system they use because the ATS is often directly related to candidate experience and employer branding (things we care deeply about). We’re by no means experts on the best ATS’s, but we’ve learned a bunch on the subject and wanted to share what we know.

Towards that end, below is a list of the top applicant tracking systems used by customers and prospects of Ongig, along with some trends we’ve observed.

Disclaimer: Ongig is not a formal research house. The data in the below pie chart is based on 1,548 ATS customers (prospects and clients of Ongig) and the 55 ATS’s we found they were using; the trends are based on anecdotal conversations with ATS users. 

 

Applicant Tracking System Market Share

Ok, so first here’s the pie chart of the 55 applicant tracking systems used by Ongig’s 1,548 prospects and customers. Since this data is centered on Ongig’s community (enterprises typically hiring at least 50 positions a year), you may find that some ATS’s have inflated market shares while others have deflated ones. For example, some ATS’s below with less than 1% market share have hundreds or even thousands of customers.

applicant tracking systems, applicant tracking software, taleo, iCims, Brassring, Jobvite

The complete list of the top 55 applicant tracking systems couldn’t fit in the pie chart so below is the full list. To find the best applicant tracking system for you, this is a decent place to start.

  1. Taleo 54.0%
  2. Kenexa-Brassring 12.9%
  3. Jobvite 9.6%
  4. iCims 7.3%
  5. SAP-SuccessFactors 3.9%
  6. Peoplefluent (formerly Peopleclick) 3.7%
  7. ADP 2.3%
  8. Silkroad 1.7%
  9. iRecruitment 1.0%
  10. Greenhouse 0.8%
  11. Newton Software 0.8%
  12. Ultipro 0.8%
  13. Jobscore 0.6%
  14. Lumesse 0.6%
  15. HRDepartment.com 0.4%
  16. Hrsmart 0.3%
  17. TheResumator 0.3%
  18. Ceridian 0.3%
  19. HRMDirect.com 0.3%
  20. Link 0.3%
  21. MyStaffingPro 0.3%
  22. Resumeware 0.3%
  23. Bullhorn 0.2%
  24. ContactHR 0.2%
  25. Force.com 0.2%
  26. HealthCareResource 0.2%
  27. Jobscience 0.2%
  28. Lever 0.2%
  29. PeopleAnswers (Infor) 0.2%
  30. Vitae 0.2%
  31. ApplicantStack 0.1%
  32. Hirebridge 0.1%
  33. Hyrell 0.1%
  34. Luceo 0.1%
  35. PCRecruiter 0.1%
  36. PeopleAdmin 0.1%
  37. Pereless 0.1%
  38. SmartRecruiters 0.1%
  39. Tribepad 0.1%
  40. ApplicantPro (JobMatch) 0.1%
  41. ATS OnDemand 0.1%
  42. CATS ATS 0.1%
  43. eRecruiting 0.1%
  44. TrueBlue 0.1%
  45. HireRabbit 0.1%
  46. iApplicants 0.1%
  47. iRecruit 0.1%
  48. JJ Keller 0.1%
  49. netMedia 0.1%
  50. NovaHire 0.1%
  51. PracticeMatch 0.1%
  52. Recruiting.com 0.1%
  53. SmartSearch 0.1%
  54. Snaphire 0.1%
  55. TeamWorkOnline 0.1%

If you want to dive deeper, there are services out there who do applicant tracking system comparisons for a living, such as SoftwareAdvice.com (you can find their list of the top 10 ATS’s with ratings and reviews at 2014 Top Applicant Tracking Software Comparison), and Capterra (they have a list of 224 ATS’s at Top Applicant Tracking Software Products; on the higher-end there are consulting firms like Bersin by Deloitte who track applicant tracking systems and other HR/recruiting software.

You might also want to check out this List of Application Tracking Systems and Recruitment CRM that has 50+ ATS’s with pricing, number of customers and mentions of free trials.

Applicant Tracking System Trends

[2016 Editor’s NOTE — Check out the Ongig update on this post at The Top 70 Applicant Tracking Systems (2016)

Applicant Tracking Systems for Compliance

If you need to be compliant with the OFCCP, EEOC and other regulatory groups, you will likely be using compliance-oriented ATS’s to allow you to most easily pull the types of reports necessary for compliance. The top ATS by far in this (and all categories) is Taleo (now owned by Oracle), followed by Brassring (owned by IBM), iCims and SAP/SuccessFactors.

Some larger companies use multiple compliance-type ATS’s for their teams such as Amazon (using Taleo for their hourly workers and iCims for their corporate positions) and Best Buy (Taleo for hourly and Brassring for corporate). The reasons for using multiple ATS’s include the fact that it’s hard to roll out an entire enterprise onto one ATS (so some businesses do it by brand or business unit) and also some ATS’s help with compliance on hourly positions (like Taleo) while others provide better social and candidate experience (like iCims).

ATS’s for SMB’s & Tech Try New Things

[2016 Editor’s Note Update: Check out the Ongig update at The Top 70 Applicant Tracking Systems (2016)

Many small businesses, and certain verticals like tech, don’t have to be as concerned with compliance issues and the applicant tracking software for those companies are usually more creative in allowing you new features such as engaging people through social media (Jobvite), focusing more on interviewing (Greenhouse) and getting the hiring manager involved (Lever). We’ve noticed Greenhouse winning away a handful of Jobvite customers (including Marin Software) and Lever competing directly with Greenhouse with Box as their marquis client.

Here’s a great separate breakdown of top ATS’s used by the Wealthfront 100 startups, courtesy of HireNurture.

Top Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for Startups

Free Applicant Tracking Systems

While most of the above applicant tracking systems cost 5 or 6 figures per year (some are part of recruiting software suites costing 7 figures per year!), there are free applicant tracking systems you can try at low volume — they include Jobscore, SmartRecruiters, RecruiterBox and ZOHO Recruit.

The free ATS’s typically start charging you once you reach a threshold of job descriptions or # of users. Some customers stick with these free ATS’s long after they pass the threshold (e.g. Jobscore is used by both IAC (owner of Match.com) and TubeMogul (which recently IPO’d).

For more on Free ATS’s, check out The Top 8 Free Applicant Tracking Systems including one open-source ATS (OpenCats).

The Homegrown ATS

Some companies who are large enough, or have the technical know-how, have developed their own applicant tracking software — they include Apple, UPS, Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. While we didn’t include this group in the ATS Market Share pie chart above, there were 105 of these companies using a homegrown ATS which would account for about 6.4% market share if we had counted it.

Ping us (or our customers) for an opinion on your ATS

Our clients share applicant tracking system comparisons with us on a regular basis and we also know many of the top ATS vendors themselves (Ongig’s talent attraction recruiting software integrates with the top ATS’s). If you want to chat about the best applicant tracking system for your needs, click here and we can have a confidential discussion (a demo of Ongig is not required — we’re just happy to help and get to know you better).

We’re also happy to connect you with a customer of an ATS that you’re considering — we do that all the time.

We know our list of ATS solutions is missing many great vendors — if you want to add one you believe in, please share a comment below. And if you want the full data from the pie chart above, just email me at rob@ongig.com.

And here’s a great resource on ATS Pricing: Applicant Tracking System Pricing — ATS: How Much do they Cost?

***Update on the 2016 Top 70 Applicant Tracking Systems

[2016 Editor’s NOTE — Check out the Ongig update at The Top 70 Applicant Tracking Systems (2016)

It includes additional and updated resources based on more than double the employers (3,302 of them), including ATS trends we we see for the near-term future.

__________________________________________________________________

About the Author — Rob is the Co-founder & CEO of Ongig, the first-ever Employer Branding SaaS that allows employers to attract the best talent in the world faster (including by letting candidates and employers make comments to each other in an open dialogue!). Yelp, Autodesk, GoDaddy, Auction.com and BMC Software are among the early customers of the Ongig SaaS.

Other Popular Posts by Rob Kelly

The Top 70 Applicant Tracking Systems (2016)

Improve Your Recruiting with Video Job Descriptions

7 Steps to Writing the Best Job Descriptions

20 of the Best Company Career Sites (and Why!)

The Ultimate List of Company Career Site Ideas (35+ Features)

by in Recruiting Software