Bullhorn alternatives for small agencies in 2026

Short answer. Bullhorn’s public small-agency page prints Starter $99/user/mo and Core $165 (2026-08-28), with quote CTAs. A small desk that needs checkout this week: Recruiterflow Platform $119/user/mo yearly. Skip Bullhorn if you will not sit through a quote.

Bullhorn is still a quote-first staffing operating system: the live pricing page shows Starter at $99 per user per month and Core at $165 with Get a quote buttons, while Pro and Max say Talk to us. A small agency that needs a published checkout this week should start with Recruiterflow Platform ($119/user/mo yearly), Zoho Recruit Staffing ($25 / $50 / $75 per recruiter per month billed annually), or Recruit CRM’s USD page-loaded Pro rate — not a demo-only enterprise OS.

Prices opened 2026-08-28. Hirelane is a review publication, not an ATS vendor. We do not invent a Bullhorn checkout price. Agency-wide context: ATS for recruiting agencies. One-desk math: recruiting CRM for solo recruiters. In-house teams do not belong here: best ATS for small business.

Some links may be affiliate links. Ranking is not for sale; we still only list dollars we can see on the vendor’s own site. Affiliate disclosure.

What Bullhorn is (and is not) for a small shop

Bullhorn (bullhorn.com/pricing, 2026-08-28). Meta description on that page: “Bullhorn offers recruitment software solutions tailored to staffing agencies of all sizes. Pricing is custom to your firm’s needs. Request a quote.” The on-page cards we fetched:

Starter — “All the essentials to get up and running.” $99/user/month. Get a quote. Applicant tracking, resume parsing, client management, job posting with career portal, expert support. Footnote: free implementation.
Core — “The flexible foundation for growing teams.” $165/user/month. Get a quote. Everything in Starter, plus app marketplace (300+ partners), custom fields and workflows, LinkedIn integrations (RSC and Apply Connect), Bullhorn email sidebar.
Pro — “Everything a small agency needs, in one simple platform, powered by Amplify AI.” Talk to us. Get a quote. Adds recruitment CRM (sales pipeline), AI search and match, Amplify Chat (“our staffing LLM”), AI data enrichment, process automation, AI resume formatting, AI call transcription, real-time analytics, dedicated account manager.
Max — “The AI recruitment platform with Amplify Digital Workers…” Talk to us. Get a quote. Adds omni-channel candidate engagement, agentic screening, agentic AI matching, agentic data enrichment, multi-step AI outreach, website chatbot, interview scheduling, consultant services.

We will quote $99 and $165 as figures printed next to Get a quote. We will not put Pro/Max in a cost table. We will not pretend Starter is a self-serve cart the way Manatal’s 14-day trial is. A 1–3 desk shop that wanted to checkout on a Thursday should not start a Bullhorn implementation to find out the real invoice.

Limitation: even the printed $99 line is a quote CTA. Implementation, marketplace apps, and Amplify live above Starter. This is a staffing OS, not a $15 in-house ATS.

Skip Bullhorn if you have one to three desks, you need a public price you can pay without a call, you hire only in-house, or you came for Amplify on Pro/Max and expected a number. Stay in the conversation if the section at the bottom applies.

Published-price alternatives (1 desk)

Annual (or yearly rate) where they print both. Recruit CRM is footnoted. Recruitee is omitted (no dollars). Bullhorn Starter/Core are shown as on-page quote figures, not as a cart.

Product	1 desk / month (rate we captured)	What you actually get	Skip if
Recruiterflow Platform	$119 yearly / $149 monthly	ATS + CRM, sequences, automation, Chrome sourcing, reports, API	You need AIRA (Let’s chat)
Zoho Recruit Staffing Standard	$25 annual / $30 monthly	Per-recruiter staffing edition. Forever Free = 1 job	You refuse per-recruiter billing
Zoho Staffing Professional / Enterprise	$50/$60 · $75/$90	Higher staffing tiers, same JSON file	You wanted Recruiterflow’s sequence/API card
Top Echelon TE Recruit Standard	$75 billed annually / $89 monthly	ATS + CRM for agencies. Professional $89/$110 adds Smart-TE AI	You needed Bullhorn’s marketplace/RSC
Recruit CRM Pro (USD the page loads)	$95 annual / $109 monthly	Deal pipelines, invoicing, calling, AI parser. HTML has no $	You will not buy a product whose HTML prints no dollars
Bullhorn Starter / Core (on-page, quote CTA)	$99 / $165 per user/month	Printed next to Get a quote. Not a cart	You needed self-serve checkout
Manatal Professional (wrong default)	$15 annual / $19 monthly	In-house ATS, 15 jobs, Copilot. Not a staffing OS	You invoice clients

Three desks: Recruiterflow yearly $357/mo (3 × $119). Zoho Staffing Standard $75/mo (3 × $25). Top Echelon Standard stays a per-user line at 3 × $75 = $225/mo annual. Bullhorn Starter, if the $99 held, would be $297/mo before the quote moved. Agency vs in-house: ATS pricing.

Recruiterflow — printed ATS + CRM

Recruiterflow (recruiterflow.com/pricing, 2026-08-28). Platform $149 monthly / $119 yearly per user. Card: ATS and CRM, multichannel sequences, recruitment and sales automation, client and team access control, bulk sourcing via Chrome extension, reports, API. AIRA is “Let’s chat / custom pricing” (Notetaker, Matchmaker, Job Change Alerts, Field Updates, Submission, Task, omnichannel sync, custom BI). FAQ: no add-ons on the plan you buy — AIRA is still a different plan. Product: Recruiterflow.

Limitation: per-user, and the named AI agents are not on Platform. This is not Bullhorn’s marketplace or back office.

Skip Recruiterflow if you hire in-house only, you need AIRA at a public price, or you needed Zoho-cheap seats more than sequences. One-desk writeup: solo recruiter CRM.

Zoho Recruit Staffing — cheapest printed staffing license

Zoho Recruit (zoho.com/recruit/pricing.html, USD from recruit-pricing-val.json, 2026-08-28). Staffing: Standard $25/$30, Professional $50/$60, Enterprise $75/$90 (annual/monthly) per recruiter. Forever Free $0, one active job. 15-day trial; 45-day money-back; no forced contracts, per that page. Corporate (in-house) is a separate pair of cards: Standard $25/$30, Enterprise $50/$60 with an “Includes AI” badge and AI Candidate Matching. Hiring-manager/employee licenses in packs of 10.

Limitation: per-recruiter. Zoho-shaped. Not a Bullhorn replacement for firms that live on the marketplace, RSC, and a staffing back office. AI matching is not the Standard gift.

Skip Zoho Staffing if you refuse per-recruiter billing, you need deals/invoices as first-class marketing-card objects, or you wanted Recruiterflow’s API-and-sequences Platform card as the headline.

Recruit CRM — agency CRM, dollars in the JS

Recruit CRM (recruitcrm.io/pricing, 2026-08-28). Pro / Business / Enterprise, monthly vs annual, “Save up to 20%,” Start free. HTML and schema Offer: no dollar amounts. USD the page loads (same caveat as Manatal vs Recruit CRM): Pro $95 annual / $109 monthly; Business $135/$159; Enterprise $215/$259. Currency follows location. Pro card in the HTML includes AI Resume Parser, deal pipelines, unlimited open jobs. Product: Recruit CRM.

Limitation: you cannot cite an HTML price. Add-ons (LinkedIn, analytics, enrichment, automation, multiposting) sit on top of Pro/Business in our same-day compare. Every provisioned user is a seat.

Skip Recruit CRM if you hire in-house, you require a dollar in the HTML before you will sign, or you wanted free interviewer seats.

Top Echelon — printed, not Bullhorn

Top Echelon (topechelon.com/pricing, 2026-08-28). TE Recruit Standard $75 monthly billed annually ($89 when billed monthly): resume parsing, pipeline, enrichment*, custom fields, hotlists, email/calendar, texting/SMS*, careers page, browser extension, job board integrations, GDPR/CCPA tools, 5K emails/mo, 10 GB. Professional $89 annual / $110 monthly adds Smart-TE AI, automations, sequences, inbound email sync, natural language search, [BETA] AI People Search, custom application forms, custom careers domain, API, 10K emails, 100 GB. Asterisks: additional subscription may apply. TE Network (split placements): $135/mo yearly or $150/mo monthly per agency; $350 one-time startup fee on monthly (waived on yearly). Copy: no contracts.

Limitation: this is TE Recruit + an optional split network, not a Bullhorn OS. Starred SMS/enrichment/job-board lines may be extra. We will not invent those add-on dollars.

Skip Top Echelon if you needed Bullhorn’s marketplace and RSC, you wanted a staffing back office, or Network’s $350 fee (monthly) is how you found the page.

Recruitee — no dollars

Recruitee (recruitee.com/pricing, 2026-08-28). Start / Advance / Optimize. Price nodes in the HTML were empty. CTA: Get a demo. We will not invent a number. If your only requirement is “not Bullhorn, but still a sales call,” this is that — and it is not a small-agency default on this site.

Skip Recruitee (on this page) if you needed a published price. That is the whole note.

Manatal is not a Bullhorn alternative

Manatal Professional is $15/user/mo annual with Copilot and a 15-job cap — the right in-house AI seat, the wrong staffing OS. Agencies that buy it because it is cheaper than $99 will miss deals, invoices, and client objects. See Manatal vs Recruit CRM. Trial: Manatal only if you are actually in-house.

When a shop SHOULD still talk to Bullhorn

Skip the roundup energy. Take the quote if one of these is true:

A client, MSP, or VMS already requires Bullhorn (or a Bullhorn-connected workflow). Switching the ATS does not remove that requirement.
You already run Bullhorn-shaped ops — marketplace apps, LinkedIn RSC / Apply Connect, a back office that assumes Bullhorn objects. Core prints RSC. Replacing that at three desks is a project, not a $119 subscription.
You need Amplify on Pro/Max (staffing LLM, agentic screening/matching, digital workers) and you will fund a sales cycle. Those cards are Talk to us. We will not invent the number.
You are past a handful of producing desks and the cost of staying in the ecosystem is lower than the cost of migrating data, automations, and integrations. That is an enterprise decision. It is not a 1-desk default.
You compared Starter $99 to Recruiterflow $119 and thought you were done. $99 is a quote CTA. Ask for the invoice with implementation, user count, and which apps you actually need. Then compare that number — not the card — to 3 × Recruiterflow or 3 × Zoho.

If none of those apply, you wanted an alternative. Recruiterflow Platform, Zoho Staffing, or Recruit CRM (with the HTML-dollar caveat) are the published-price set. Top Echelon is the extra printed desk. Recruitee is not, until it prints a number.

Who should skip which alternative

Skip Recruiterflow if you need AIRA priced, or you only hire in-house.
Skip Zoho Staffing if you need a deal/invoice CRM as the headline, or you refuse per-recruiter seats.
Skip Recruit CRM if HTML-without-dollars is a deal-breaker, or you hire in-house.
Skip Top Echelon if you needed Bullhorn’s OS, not TE Recruit.
Skip Recruitee if you needed a price.
Skip Manatal if you invoice clients.
Skip Bullhorn if you are 1–3 desks and wanted Thursday checkout — unless the “still talk to Bullhorn” list hit.

FAQs

What is the best Bullhorn alternative for a small agency in 2026?

If you need a published price this week: Recruiterflow Platform at $119 per user per month yearly ($149 monthly), or Zoho Recruit Staffing at $25 / $50 / $75 per recruiter per month billed annually. Recruit CRM is the closest “agency CRM” shape; its HTML printed no dollars on 2026-08-28 (USD the page loads: Pro $95/$109). Bullhorn itself now shows Starter $99/user/month and Core $165 with Get a quote CTAs; Pro and Max are Talk to us.

How much does Bullhorn cost?

We do not invent a checkout price. bullhorn.com/pricing, opened 2026-08-28, prints Bullhorn Starter $99/user/month and Bullhorn Core $165/user/month, both with Get a quote buttons. Pro and Max say Talk to us. Page meta: “Pricing is custom to your firm’s needs. Request a quote.” Treat $99/$165 as on-page starting figures, not a self-serve cart. Pro/Max stay out of cost tables.

When should a small agency still talk to Bullhorn?

When you already have Bullhorn-shaped operations (back-office, marketplace, LinkedIn RSC) or a client/MSP that requires it, when you need Amplify AI on Pro/Max and will take a sales call, or when you are past a handful of desks and the quote is the cost of staying in the ecosystem. A 1–3 desk shop that wanted checkout this week should not start there.

Is Recruitee a Bullhorn alternative with a price?

Not on 2026-08-28. recruitee.com/pricing listed Start / Advance / Optimize with empty price nodes. Quote-only for this page.

Does Top Echelon print a price?

Yes. topechelon.com/pricing, 2026-08-28: TE Recruit Standard $75/month billed annually ($89 monthly); Professional $89 billed annually ($110 monthly) with Smart-TE AI. TE Network is a split-fee network ($135 yearly / $150 monthly per agency, plus a $350 startup fee on monthly). That is agency software, not Bullhorn’s staffing OS.

Recruit CRM vs Recruiterflow vs Zoho Staffing — which replaces Bullhorn?

None of them is a plug-in replacement for a Bullhorn back office. Recruiterflow Platform is the printed ATS+CRM desk. Zoho Staffing is the cheap per-recruiter license if you already live in Zoho. Recruit CRM is the deal/invoice/calling card, with JS-loaded USD. Pick by object model and by whether you can see a dollar without a quote.

Should a small agency buy Manatal instead of Bullhorn?

Only if you just discovered you hire for your own company. Manatal Professional is $15/user/mo annual with a 15-job cap — an in-house ATS, not a staffing OS. Details: Manatal vs Recruit CRM and the solo-recruiter CRM page.

Close

Do not buy a staffing OS to feel enterprise. Recruiterflow Platform ($119 yearly) if you want a printed desk CRM. Zoho Staffing ($25) if you already live in Zoho. Recruit CRM if you need deals and invoices and will accept JS-loaded USD. Top Echelon if that ATS+network is actually the job. Talk to Bullhorn only when RSC, a VMS, Amplify, or an existing back office makes the quote cheaper than a migration. Recruitee still has no dollars.

Next: agency ATS, solo recruiter CRM, Manatal vs Recruit CRM, ATS pricing.