Hiring is still considered the most tedious and time-consuming job by the business owners, hiring managers, and recruiters struggling to shortlist perfect candidates for the vacancies in their organization. But, at the same time hiring the right people is essential for the success of a company. So, this job, no matter how challenging it is, should be done with high-end accuracy. Appointing talented people with a professional background can be done quickly by using Applicant Tracking Software.
In an academic context, several colleges and universities are still struggling to manage the admissions and recruitment of students to the programs offered by them. Engaging the best talent with institutes and universities through enrolment is the key to successful admissions, and this can be achieved by executing software.
What is an Applicant Tracking Software?
ATS can help businesses, to manage and systematically process job applications. It is also used by universities and colleges to manage applications for admission to their different courses. It helps the recruiters, hiring managers of the companies, and admissions department of any educational organization to scrutinize the applications and communicate with the candidates in an automated manner.
Applicant tracking systems are designed to sort the applications as per the eligibility or admission criteria, the way a recruiter or an admission manager would do. It automates the entire process of selection, reducing human efforts to a great extent. When a recruiter or admission manager receives a huge number of applications, it is just impossible to read each one thoroughly. The software makes the selection process easier, saves time, and eliminates the chances of human errors.
Who is Using Applicant Tracking Software?
![Applicant Tracking Software Users]()
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Why is Applicant Tracking Software Required?
Several applications are received by the companies every day, and the number of human resources required to review those applications and shortlist them would be exorbitant. Also, the companies need to ensure compliance with their local Government rules & regulations. So, ensuring that each application is properly scrutinized before it is rejected or selected becomes mandatory.
Gone are the days when the software was considered by the companies having a huge budget reserved for the recruitment process. Using ATS is no more a luxury now; it has become a necessity for all enterprises. As per a recent study, a company with even 8 employees can save $10,000 using an ATS.
There are many free applicant tracking solutions available in the market. Thus, it becomes easy for businesses to save time on their recruitment processes without investing a huge amount.
Here, we have shortlisted the top 9 free and open source applicant tracking software, which you can consider to make your recruitment process quick and simple. But, before we look into the details of each one of them; let's have a brief about exactly how ATS works, its benefits, and the features to look for, which can help you in selecting the best one for your business.
How Does an ATS system Work?
Benefits of Using Applicant Tracking Software
The usage and popularity of software are gradually growing. But why? The below-mentioned benefits can answer this question.
Saves Time
The software automates many tasks which were done manually previously like screening applications, eliminating unqualified applications, scheduling interviews, etc. Moreover, storing a database of resumes for different job profiles doesn't require paperwork and maintaining huge physical files anymore. The entire recruitment process is managed seamlessly with the help of application tracking software, saving a lot of time.
Saves Money
Using the software, you are automating the recruitment process, which can save the time of the recruiters and admission managers. Also, you know where your candidates are coming from, which helps you in controlling the expenses done on recruitment ads and admission strategies that are not going to work. The software helps you in building talent pools so that you have candidates ready even before a new job or admission course opening.
Streamlined Hiring Process
Hiring and admission to a course can also be done using various tools like Excel Spreadsheets, Email, Calendars, Social Media, Job Boards, etc. But, all these methods are prone to errors, and you need to shift between these different tools to get things done. The software can integrate various tools and help you in completing the entire process using a single platform.
Improves Candidate Experience
The system helps recruiters continuously communicate with the candidates by sending automated emails and messages. Keeping in touch with the candidates and notifying them about the status of their application, helps in providing impeccable candidate experience. This can enhance the reputation of your company and make your hiring or admission process easier.
Ensures Legal Compliance
The system can scrutinize the applications based on the rules governed by EEOC (The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). This helps companies to eliminate biased behavior toward specific candidates and human errors, ensuring legal compliance throughout the hiring process.
Provides Access to Insights and Reports
The software can provide information like which channels brought the best candidates, what was the cost per hire or admission, which post of yours attracted maximum candidates, the status of the applications, and many other important things helping in improving the entire hiring or admission process.
Ideal Features of an Applicant Tracking Software
Now you know the benefits of using the software, but at the same time, the competition in the job market is becoming fiercer day by day. Companies need to think out of the box to attract qualified candidates to apply for the jobs and organize the applications accurately once they have applied. This is where the features of the software play a major role. So, what are the key features that you should look for in your software to ensure that the right people are being recruited for your organization? Let us see this in detail -
Career Page
The system helps you with career page templates that can be customized. You can add your company logo, photos, job description, social sharing buttons, instructions on how to apply, and even the application form through which the candidate can apply. The career page is something that forms the first impression of your company in the minds of the candidates. Thus, you need to ensure that your software facilitates you to design one, which represents your business in the right manner.
Job Posting
Posting your job requirements to maximum platforms is necessary as that can expand your reach and accelerate the opportunities of finding the right candidates. The software is linked to multiple job portals & social media platforms. This can help you in posting a single job requirement for different job portals & social media platforms with a few clicks, which can save your time and money.
Storing and Sorting Applications
After the candidates apply, or the recruiters enter the applications into the software, the system stores all the applications in a centralized database. The system also sorts the applications as per the job requirements set by the recruiters. Every applicant tracking system has a specific method of sorting applications. Some of the software can even eliminate the applications not fitting into the company’s job search criteria.
Sharing Applications
Using the software, you can easily collaborate with your team members and share resumes with them to work together throughout the entire hiring process. You can even assign different roles to the software users with access permissions and help team members to participate in selecting the right candidate.
Scheduling Interviews
After sorting the applications, you would require to schedule interviews for the selected candidates. ATS system can help you with this job too. Whether it is scheduling interviews, or conducting online tests, communicating with the candidates becomes quite easy with software.
Onboarding Process
Once the hiring process is over, welcoming selected candidates onboard in a professional manner is also required. The tasks of sending a welcome email and other important information about the company, and introducing them to your company by adding resources pages are possible with the help of application tracking software.
Reports and Analytics
Your hiring process is complete. But, do you know from which platform did you receive the maximum applications or how much was the cost per hire? These questions can be answered using the software. The reports generated from the software can help you in making informed decisions while hiring for future job requirements in the company.
Before exploring the list of best free and open source applicant tracking systems, let’s get familiar with BrightHR, a leading and popular HR software having the best of Applicant Tracking functionalities.
BrightHR is a top-rated HR tool offering various core, flexible, and premium features of the applicant tracking system. The company has developed this ATS and HR solution to cater to the needs of small business enterprises, explicitly intending to streamline and simplify their daily HR operations. With 24/7 support, the software vendor offers other vital and handy tools, such as BrightSafe, BrightAdvice, BrightWellBeing, People Navigator, and more.
Source: BrightHR
Features:
- Manage and view employee holidays efficiently
- View who’s sick and who’s late in one view
- Records the additional working hours of the employees with ease
- Schedule the best team for each shift using a rota planner
- Stores all your important HR documents in the digital cloud-based document management system
- Offers instant expert legal advice for your small business
- Provides a healthier, happier, and more productive workplace for employees
- Provides a free and up-to-date mobile app for clocking
Below is the list of the top 9 free and open source ATS software that can help you in adapting the best one for your business.
The Top 9 Free and Open Source Applicant Tracking Software
#1 OpenCATS
OpenCATS is a free and open-source system with versatile features. It is completely customizable and can be used by small to enterprise-level businesses for their recruitment processes. Being self-hosted by the owners, this software can provide high-end control over data security and critical information. The community of developers is there to support in case of any problem relating to customization or change in functionality is required.
Key Features
- Extremely easy to use
- Allows internal and external recruiting
- Enables skill-based tagging
- Can manage candidates and clients both
- Facilitates company branding
- Can be used web-based or local
- Helps in storing resumes in a systematic manner
If you have already used OpenCATS, please feel free to share your reviews here.
#2 Recruity
Recruity is an open-source applicant tracking system developed in The Netherlands. This software is the outcome of daily practice and was developed based solely on open-source concept. It is customizable as per your requirements relating to recruitment and hiring. You can keep all the data secure as you can run this software on your network.
(Key Features
- Applications tracking & management
- Recruiting management
- Acquiring talent & background screening
- Managing candidates
- Job posting
- Onboarding formalities
If you have already used Recruity, please feel free to share your reviews here.
#3 instaTalent
instaTalent is an open-source ATS software specially designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It is considered to be advanced yet simple software that can enhance your recruitment process. The recruiters can track job postings and applications for the vacancies using this software. From collecting candidates’ responses to their acceptance, this software can handle everything relating to recruitment seamlessly.
(- Allows resume extraction and parsing
- Helps in analyzing the culture of the prospective candidates
- Allows automated correspondence
- Displays candidate progress flow graphical analysis
- Provides an overview of career background analysis
- Helps in analyzing costs relating to recruitment
If you have already used instaTalent, please feel free to share your reviews here.
#4 TalentHire
TalentHire is a robust applicant tracking software presented by CEIPAL. It helps in improving the hiring process, starting from posting vacancies to hiring candidates. It is built on an open-source architecture providing high-end scalability to businesses of all sizes. It helps companies in executing quick hiring, onboarding, and workforce management process. This software is used by small to medium-sized companies in different sectors like IT, healthcare, education, etc.
Key Features
- Manages job requisitions
- Publishes jobs on integrated platforms with a single click
- It can integrate with 30+ job boards
- Facilitates searching, screening, & selecting candidates easily
- Enhanced data security with the two-way verification
- Manages all information in a streamlined manner
- Includes CRM features
- Follows the electronic process to make the onboarding process easier
If you have already used TalentHire, please feel free to share your reviews here.
#5 Appliview
Appliview is a versatile ATS software that can take the recruitment process of your organization to the next level. The staffing & employment agencies, hiring managers, and recruitment professionals can rely on this software for quick and superior workflow maximizing revenue and improving productivity.
Key Features
- Helps in resume assessment
- Facilitates screening background
- Manages candidate information
- Schedules interviews
- Includes collaboration tools
- Automates onboarding process
If you have already used Appliview, please feel free to share your reviews here.
#6 Ejobsitesoftware
EjobsiteSoftware is open-source software that helps companies to deploy a well-featured job board or job site with a custom homepage quickly and easily. It helps employers in searching for the right candidates and at the same time helps job seekers to look for the right job opportunities matching their skills. It provides versatile customization options helping its users to meet their requirements seamlessly.
(Key Features
- Helps employers in viewing the applicants’ profiles
- Facilitates tracking, qualifying, rating, and viewing the hiring status of the candidates
- Can edit the applicant's current status
- Helps in scheduling interviews
- Enables selecting candidate
If you have already used Ejobsitesoftware, please feel free to share your reviews here.
#7 Winrecruit
Winrecruit is an open-source applicant tracking solution that helps companies in streamlining their recruitment process. It facilitates companies to build and customize their careers page attracting candidates to apply for the job positions. It also helps in creating job requisitions, inviting applications, conducting interviews, and sharing resumes with the entire team, making the whole recruitment process quick and intuitive.
Key Features
- It helps in searching for resumes based on location, skills, experience, qualifications, etc.
- It can integrate with social platforms and post job requisitions
- It can manage job requisitions which include adding, editing, and deleting on all the job boards
- It provides separate login for job seekers, employers, employees, corporate, etc. with different access rights
- It provides real-time reports and insights helping to make smart decisions for the future
If you have already used Winrecruit, please feel free to share your reviews here.
#8 SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruit provides an ATS system known as SmartStrart meant for enterprises requiring streamlining the entire hiring process. Starting from tracking, screening, and evaluating candidates to collaborating with hiring teams, SmartRecruit helps at each level to automate jobs and make them easier.
Key Features
- Helps in gaining insights over a huge number of applications
- Accelerates the hiring decisions as it enables team members to collaborate effectively
- Helps in standardizing the candidate evaluation criteria, keeping hiring decisions transparent, resulting in improvement of quality of hire
- Extends offer letters to the selected candidates
- Ensures compliance in terms of hiring and documentation
- Leverages the best recruitment technology providing the best candidate experience
If you have already used SmartRecruiters, please feel free to share your reviews here.
#9 TalentRecruit
TalentRecruit is an applicant tracking system driven by AI & machine learning, helping you to improve your recruitment process. It works on three main basic principles – Automation, Intelligence, & Analytics. It is an end-to-end solution that has helped several companies to increase their recruitment efficiency to a great extent.
Key Features
- Analyzes each job according to the selection criteria and suggest the best-matched candidates
- Empowers recruiters to perform a centralized search for candidates across different job portals
- Helps in extracting details of the candidates from multiple sources like job boards, social media platforms, MS Outlook, etc., and builds a huge talent pool
- Provides detailed reports including metrics of each recruitment stage of your business to streamline recruitment and perform quick hiring activities
- Manages the onboarding process of the selected employees and manages their time and expense sheets seamlessly
If you have already used TalentRecruit, please feel free to share your reviews here.
We hope that the above list of software has helped you in selecting the one suiting for your business. If you are still in a dilemma about which one to select, just go through the below chart helping you to compare the features of each software at a glance.
Comparison Chart of The Top 9 Free and Open Source Applicant Tracking System
Conclusion
Recruitment into a company or getting a good amount of admissions in the education sector is considered one of the most challenging tasks. An efficient application tracking software can help in overcoming this challenge. Having talented and qualified candidates on board is highly significant for all organizations. The software can help in sorting out relevant applications and selecting the best candidates.
The automation of monotonous tasks associated with hiring people and admissions facilitates recruiters and admission managers to spend their time on many productive tasks benefiting the organizations.
We hope that this list of free and open-source software has helped you in selecting the software suiting for your requirements. But, if you require advanced features which these free software don’t leverage, you can go through the below list of paid software.
- Recruit CRM
- Zenefits
- BambooHR
- Nerd Geek Lab
- iCIMS Recruit
- iSmartRecruit
- Bullhorn
- Oorwin
- ZohoRecruit
- ClearCompany
- Workable
- Greenhouse
- UltiPro
- Sage People
- Recruiterflow
- Mitrefinch
- Tmetric
- Plutio
- Jobvite
- Leysha
- Breezy HR
- BirdDogHR
Also, you can go through the complete list of applicant tracking software, which can help you to make a wise decision.
Have you used any of the software? Just don’t forget to leave your valuable review here.
If you are looking for software in other categories as well, browse all software categories here. Also, stay tuned for updates as we keep on adding the latest software in all the categories regularly.
