Applicant tracking system pricing is designed to be opaque. Most vendors publish a base price on their website, then hide the real cost structure (per-seat fees, implementation, add-ons, renewal increases) inside sales conversations and multi-year contracts. This report collects the verified numbers in one place.
Every figure below comes from a published pricing page, an independent review (SelectSoftwareReviews, ITQlick, Vendr, G2), or a standard sales quote. Nothing is estimated or rounded for narrative purposes.
The 2026 headline table
| Platform | Base | Per-seat | Setup fee | Setup time | AI type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse | $12,000/yr | $240/seat | $3,000-$5,000 | 2-4 weeks | Keyword matching |
| Lever | ~$6,000+/yr (sales-gated) | Add-on inflation 40-60% | Variable | ~3 weeks | Keyword-based |
| Ashby | $6,000/yr | $120/seat | Minimal | 1-2 weeks | Basic filters |
| Workable | $4,800/yr | $99/seat | $0 | 3-5 days | Keyword + rules |
| JazzHR | $49-$499/mo | Included | $0 | ~1 week | Basic filters |
| Zoho Recruit | $30-$75/user/mo | Per-user | $0 | ~1 week | Basic |
| Manatal | $15/user/mo | Per-seat | $0 | ~1 week | Rule-based |
| CurriculoATS | $0 Free / $100 Pro (early bird $50) | $0 | $0 | 15 minutes | Outcome-based with written reasoning |
Vendor-by-vendor breakdown
Greenhouse
Pricing model: Tiered (Essential, Advanced, Expert) with per-seat add-ons and annual renewal increases.
Published base: $12,000/yr for Essential. Advanced and Expert run $20,000-$50,000+/yr.
Hidden costs:
- Per-seat $240/seat/yr
- Implementation $3,000-$5,000 one-time with a dedicated 2-4 week onboarding
- CRM not included in Essential (requires Advanced or Expert tier at $12K-$50K+/yr)
- Sourcing add-on ~$5,000+/yr for 10 seats
- Annual renewal 8-15% compounding. A $25,000 Year 1 bill becomes $27,000+ Year 2, $29,700+ Year 3.
Year 1 TCO, 50-person team: ~$33,000. Year 3 cumulative: $105,000+
Lever
Pricing model: Completely sales-gated. No public rates. Pricing depends on which add-ons a sales rep can attach to your base quote.
Estimated base: ~$6,000+/yr for Lever LTS (the ATS tier).
Hidden costs:
- Add-on inflation 40-60% over base quote
- LinkedIn Recruiter dependency: $8,000-$10,000/seat/yr
- Custom reporting locked behind Enterprise tier
- No native mobile app (web-only)
- No onboarding module
Corporate risk: Owned by Employ Inc., which also owns JazzHR and Jobvite. PE rollup.
Year 1 TCO, 25-person team: $12,000-$18,000+ (base + add-ons, excluding LinkedIn Recruiter)
Workable
Pricing model: Tiered (Starter, Standard, Premier) with headcount-based pricing jumps.
Published base: $4,800/yr Standard. Starter is $149/mo but capped at 2 active jobs.
67% price jump when growing from 20 to 21 employees. Headcount-based tiers trigger automatically as your team grows, with no warning at renewal.
Hidden costs:
- Per-seat $99/seat/yr
- Add-on creep: +$99/mo video interviews, +$79/mo SMS (59% increase over base)
- 2.8/10 pricing satisfaction in industry reviews
- 8-9% automatic annual renewal increases
Year 1 TCO, 25-person team with full add-ons: ~$11,886
Ashby
Pricing model: Base + per-seat with a strong analytics dashboard as the product differentiator.
Published base: $6,000/yr + $120/seat
Year 1 TCO, 50-person team: $12,000/yr ($6,000 base + $6,000 seats)
Strengths: Genuinely strong analytics. This is Ashby’s real advantage.
Weaknesses: AI scoring is basic filters, not outcome-based reasoning. Targets Series A+ startups.
CurriculoATS
Pricing model: Three tiers. Starter is free forever. Pro is flat $100/month (currently $50/month during early bird). Enterprise is custom.
What’s NOT in the cost:
- No per-seat fees on any plan (unlimited team members on Free, Pro, Enterprise)
- No implementation fees (setup is 15 minutes, self-serve)
- No add-on inflation (video scheduling, SMS via email, Slack, analytics, SSO, email apply all included)
- No renewal increases (the price you start at is the price you stay at)
- No contracts (cancel anytime with prorated billing)
Year 1 TCO, any team size: $0 (Free) or $1,200 (Pro) or $600 (Pro early bird)
AI: Outcome-based scoring with full written reasoning paragraph per candidate.
3-year TCO for a 50-person startup
| Platform | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse | $33,000 | $35,600 | $38,500 | $107,100 |
| Lever (est.) | $15,000 | $16,200 | $17,500 | $48,700 |
| Ashby | $12,000 | $12,000 | $12,000 | $36,000 |
| Workable | $14,300 | $15,580 | $16,990 | $46,870 |
| CurriculoATS Pro (regular) | $1,200 | $1,200 | $1,200 | $3,600 |
| CurriculoATS Pro (early bird) | $600 | $600 | $600 | $1,800 |
What the numbers mean
At 50 employees, CurriculoATS Pro is 10x cheaper than the cheapest legacy alternative (Ashby) at regular price and 20x cheaper during early bird. Compared to Greenhouse, it’s 30 to 60x cheaper over three years.
This math doesn’t account for quality differences. Curriculo’s outcome-based AI with written reasoning is substantively better than legacy keyword matching for most hiring scenarios. So the real comparison is: (a) pay 30 to 60x more for an inferior product, or (b) pay 0.02x the cost for a better product.
The SaaS creep playbook vendors rely on
- Base-price anchoring. Publish a low base price on the website to drive comparison shopping.
- Sales-gated upgrades. Real quotes happen in sales calls. Features turn out to be Enterprise-tier.
- Multi-year contract lock-in. Discounts for annual prepay. Cancellation penalties.
- Renewal compounding. 8 to 15% annual increases nobody notices until year three.
- Per-seat scaling. Your bill grows automatically with team size.
- Feature gating. Every 12 months, a new “must-have” feature gated behind a higher plan.
CurriculoATS is deliberately built as the anti-playbook. Transparent pricing on the website. Flat rate with no per-seat fees. No contracts. No renewal increases. No add-on inflation. Every feature on the free plan with a 1-job limit.