How to Choose an Applicant Tracking System
The right ATS depends less on which product is "best" and more on how your organization hires. This guide walks through the decisions in the order that usually makes them easier.
Start with your own hiring
Before you look at products, write down how much hiring you do and who does it: how many jobs you post a year, how many applications and hires you handle, how many people run recruiting, and what slows them down today. These numbers decide how much you need from a system and how much you should expect to pay.
Loudoun County, Virginia, described itself this way when it went looking for a new ATS: about 6,000 employees, more than 29,000 applications and about 800 hires in 2021, about 450 recruitments a year, and a recruiting team of about 7 people.
Source: Loudoun County RFP: Applicant Tracking System, RFQ 534782
Decide what kind of purchase this is
There are three common situations, and each changes what you should be asking:
- Your first ATS. You're moving off email, spreadsheets or paper. Focus on how well it fits the way your team works now, and how much setup help you get.
- Replacing an ATS. You know what's wrong with the current one. Write that down — it becomes your most important requirement. Ask early how your old data will be moved.
- Keeping the one you have. Renewing can be the right call. It's still worth checking what you'd gain or lose by switching before you sign another multi-year term.
The Coal Authority in the UK used the hiring module built into its HR system, iTrent. It bought a separate ATS and explained why in its tender:
- "We currently have a recruitment module within iTrent (provided by MHR) which has limited functionality and reporting which will be replaced with the selected ATS."
- "This will support our commitment to improving the diversity of candidates applying to the Coal Authority and an ATS will give us more data on which to base our recruitment decisions, including which job boards we should use for advertising our roles"
Source: Contracts Finder award notice: Provision of Applicant Tracking System (The Coal Authority)
Know what has to connect
An ATS rarely works alone. List the systems it must pass information to or from: usually your HR or payroll system, how staff sign in, and services like background checks. A system that fits well on its own but can't hand a new hire to your HR system will create manual work every week.
See the requirements guide for examples of how buyers wrote these down.
Write requirements before you watch demos
Demos show what a vendor wants you to see. A short written list of what you need — and what would rule a product out — keeps every demo answering the same questions. Mark which items are must-haves and which are nice to have.
Use the requirements checklist as a starting point.
Score the options the same way
Many buyers use a simple scorecard: a few areas, each given a share of the total. Agreeing on the weights before you see any proposals makes the decision easier to explain later.
City of Pasadena, California, 2026:
- Proposed Solution: 30%
- Experience and References: 30%
- Cost Proposal: 30%
- Local Pasadena Business: 5%
- Small or Micro-Business: 5%
Loudoun County, Virginia, 2022 (points out of 100; demos only for shortlisted vendors):
- Ability to meet or exceed System requirements (Appendix A): 30
- Experience and Qualifications of firm and key personnel: 25
- Cost of services: 20
- Compliance and Terms, Proposal Quality: 10
- System Demonstrations (shortlisted firms only): 15
Source: Loudoun County RFP: Applicant Tracking System, RFQ 534782
Hertfordshire County Council, UK, 2025, scored in two stages. First, written bids: price 40%, quality 60%. Quality covered system features, setup, contract management, new ideas, reporting and readiness for local government reorganisation. Then the top three were to give a user demonstration (20%) and provide a test site (10%).
Source: HCC - 05/25 - The Provision of an Applicant Tracking System — tender notice (UK4)
Buyers weighted price very differently: 20 points out of 100 at Loudoun, 30% at Pasadena and 40% at Hertfordshire. West Midlands Employers weighted quality 60% and price 40%, while the Regulator of Social Housing in the UK decided on price alone. No weighting is right for everyone. Agree yours before proposals arrive.
Before comparing prices, make sure the quotes cover the same things over the same period: modules, users, setup and contract length.
Cleveland Public Library in Ohio set three ATS quotes side by side as two-year prices in 2023. One required a three-year contract, one included the setup fee and one reflected a year-end discount. The totals looked comparable but weren't. More on reading ATS prices.
What a real evaluation looks like
Pasadena received 8 proposals for an applicant tracking and onboarding system. This is how its evaluation scored them. It's one city's view against its own needs, not a ranking of the products.
| Vendor | Score |
|---|---|
| GovernmentJobs.com, Inc. (dba NEOGOV) | 75.58 |
| Cadient Talent | 65.67 |
| Infinite Talent | 62.47 |
| PeopleScout | 58.53 |
| Concourse Tech Inc. | 57.83 |
| Avature Limited | 51.57 |
| MangoApps | 26.98 |
| Eightfold.ai | 25.38 |
The evaluation is documented in a city staff report. We have not confirmed the final contract award.
Compare the whole decision, not just the demo
When you narrow it down to two or three, compare them on:
- Fit. How many of your must-haves it meets without workarounds.
- Connections. Whether it works with your HR, payroll and sign-in systems today, not "on the roadmap."
- Setup and moving data. Who does the work, how long it takes, and what happens to your old records.
- Price over the whole contract. Not just year one — renewals, yearly increases and extra modules.
- Support. Who you call when something breaks, and how fast they answer.
- Day-to-day use. Ask recruiters and a few hiring managers to try the main tasks themselves.