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ATS for small business

Applicant tracking system for small business

If hiring at your company means a spreadsheet, a shared inbox and a few text messages, this page is for you. It explains what an applicant tracking system actually is, whether you need one yet, what a fair price looks like, and how to be running by the end of the day without involving IT.

What an ATS isDo you need oneWhat it should costNo developer neededRemote interviewsFAQ
Cost
Free, or from $19 / month
Users
Unlimited free, 15+ on paid
Setup fee
None
Training
Six stages, one screen
Technical work
Optional
Data stored
Name and email only
Short answer

An applicant tracking system is one shared place holding every open job and every applicant, showing what stage each person is at. A small business needs one when two or more people are involved in hiring, when several roles are open at once, or when applicants start going unanswered.

It should not be expensive. The InterviewWatch built-in ATS is free with unlimited users for two active jobs, then $19 per month for five active jobs and fifteen users, or $39 per month for fifteen active jobs and one hundred users. Applicants are unlimited on every plan, with no setup fee and no technical work required to start.

What an ATS is

How the candidate pipeline works

Strip away the vocabulary and an applicant tracking system does three things: it lists your open jobs, it holds everyone who applied to them, and it shows what stage each person has reached.

BEFORE A hiring spreadsheet who has the latest copy? A shared inbox replies buried under everything Notes in three heads nothing written down AFTER One board everyone opens every role, every applicant, one place Applied · 4 people · oldest 4 days Phone screen · 2 people · oldest 3 days Onsite · 2 people · oldest 5 days Offer · 1 person · sent yesterday

One board replaces the three places a candidate can currently go missing.

Six stages: applied, phone screen, interview, offer, hired, not hired. That is the whole mental model.

What it replaces

The hiring spreadsheet, the inbox folder of applications, the sticky note with three phone numbers on it, and the weekly conversation that starts with "where did we get to with...".

What it does not do

It does not decide who to hire, write your job adverts, or judge candidates for you. Software that claims to rank applicants automatically is a different product, and a riskier one.

Words you will see

Pipeline is the board. A stage is a column. A candidate is a person, an application is that person for one specific job. A requisition or req is just an open job.

Do you need one

Do you need an ATS yet?

If none of these are true, keep your spreadsheet and spend the money elsewhere. We would rather say that than sell you something you will not open.

Is more than one person involved in hiring?An owner and a manager, or a manager and whoever does the interviews. The moment two people need the same facts, a private spreadsheet stops working.
Get one
Do you have more than one role open at a time?Two roles double the tracking and introduce the same-person-applied-to-both problem, which spreadsheets handle badly.
Get one
Has an applicant gone unanswered for over a week?Not because you decided against them, but because nobody realised a reply was owed. This is the expensive one: it costs you the candidates who had options.
Get one now
Who this typically fits.

Agencies and studios, clinics and practices, trades and field-service businesses, shops and hospitality groups, and any small company hiring remotely. The common thread is a few roles at a time and no full-time recruiter.

What it should cost

What a small business ATS should cost

Most applicant tracking is priced per user per month, which is why a five-person business ends up quoted more than it spends on its accounting software.

Free
$0

Unlimited users. Two active roles, which fits most one-person hiring desks.

  • Unlimited users and applicants
  • 2 active jobs at a time
  • Import your existing spreadsheet
  • Schedule interviews from a card
  • Your first 5 interviews, verified free
  • No card, no expiry date
ATS Starter
$19 / month

Up to 15 users and 5 active roles, so managers cost nothing extra to add.

  • 15 users included
  • 5 active jobs at a time
  • Unlimited applicants
  • Verification add-on, $5 / interview
  • Cancel any time
  • No setup or onboarding fee

Applicants and stage changes are never charged for on any plan. Interview verification is a separate $5-per-interview add-on you switch on when you want it, not a recurring fee. Growing past 5 roles or 15 users? ATS Growth is $39 per month for 15 roles and 100 users. How ATS pricing works, and what to ask a vendor.

No developer needed

Setting it up without technical help

There is exactly one optional step that involves a developer, and it is clearly marked below.

  1. Create the account and add your jobsA job is a team and a role, for example "Front of house" and "Assistant Manager". No technical skill, no card required.
  2. Move your spreadsheet acrossSave it as a CSV with a name column and an email column, then import it. Up to 500 rows at a time, and the import tells you exactly which rows had a problem.
  3. Add new applicants as they come inType them in from your inbox in a few seconds each. Plenty of businesses run this way permanently and never touch anything technical.
  4. Optional, needs your web person: connect your website formSo applicants land on the board automatically instead of in an inbox. It is one request added to your existing application form, usually under an hour of work. Send them this guide.
  5. Interview from the boardPick the candidate, pick the time, pick who is interviewing. The candidate gets a link, and the result comes back to the same card.
Why we do not host your careers page. Some systems put your job listings on their own website and send your applicants there. That gives you someone else's branding, someone else's web addresses, and a problem to unwind if you ever leave. Your careers page stays yours here; we just accept the applicants.
Remote interviews

If you interview over video

Remote interviews created a problem that small businesses feel most, because there is nobody in the room and no second interviewer to compare notes with.

What changed

Candidates can now run an AI assistant on a second screen, or an overlay that a screen share cannot see, and read answers from it during your interview. Tools built specifically for this are funded businesses with real marketing budgets, not a hobbyist trick.

One published analysis of 19,368 technical interviews flagged 38.5% of candidates for AI-assisted cheating. Source

What you can do about it

Interviews scheduled from a candidate card can run with consent-based integrity monitoring. The candidate agrees first, a lightweight app runs only during the session, and you get a plain-language report and a score on the card afterwards.

Nothing is recorded: no screen, no audio, no video, no typing. It reports whether known assistance tools were active, not what anyone typed or said. A person reviews the finding and decides. How it works

FAQ

Small business ATS: frequently asked questions

What is an applicant tracking system, in plain English?
One shared place that holds your open jobs and everyone who applied, showing what stage each person is at: applied, phone screen, interview, offer, hired or not hired. It replaces the spreadsheet, the inbox folder and the "where did we get to with them?" conversation.
Does a small business need one?
Not for one role once a year. Yes when two or more people are involved in hiring, when several roles are open at once, or when applicants have started going unanswered because replies sit in one person's inbox.
How much should we pay?
Much less than a per-user quote. Free with unlimited users for two active jobs, or $19 per month for five active jobs and fifteen users, with unlimited applicants on every plan, no setup fee and no annual contract.
Can we use it without any technical help?
Yes. Adding jobs, adding applicants, importing a spreadsheet, scheduling interviews and reading results need no technical skills. Only connecting your website's application form involves a developer, and that is optional.
Do we have to upload resumes?
There is nowhere to upload them. A candidate here is a name and an email address, which means far less personal data held about applicants and a much shorter conversation with anyone reviewing your data protection.
Will it help us avoid a bad hire?
Tracking will not judge candidates, but it stops you losing good ones and gives everyone the same facts. The verified-interview feature adds real evidence about whether a remote interview's answers were the candidate's own, which is the part that is genuinely hard to judge by eye.
What if we grow and need something bigger?
Export your list and move. There are no stored resumes to migrate and no job web addresses to redirect, so leaving is cheap by design.

Move your hiring off the spreadsheet

Free with unlimited users, or $19 a month once you outgrow two open roles. Import what you have and start from there.

Start free Coming from a spreadsheet?
Keep reading
Simple ATSWhat breaks in a hiring spreadsheet Cheapest ATSReal cost per year Verified interviewsEvidence, not opinions Built-in ATS overviewEverything it does and does not do