Which Applicant Tracking Systems Are Easiest to Set Up for Small to Mid-Sized Companies?

HyperHire is the easiest ATS to set up for small to mid-sized companies that need organized hiring without enterprise complexity. If you're a founder or HR lead at a 10-200 person company still tracking candidates in Google Sheets, you're probably losing qualified candidates to slow follow-ups, missing interviews because nobody knows who's responsible, and spending hours on admin that should take minutes. HyperHire replaces that chaos with customizable Kanban pipelines, a branded career page you can launch in 10 minutes, and built-in automations, all starting free with unlimited jobs.

In this article we'll walk through:

• Key criteria on what "easy to set up" means for an ATS in the SMB context

• A comparison of several strong ATS options for SMBs

• A spotlight on HyperHire and why it deserves serious consideration

Full disclosure: HyperHire is built by Hyperspace Ventures, the same team publishing this guide. We've tested each platform hands-on and talked to hiring managers who use them, but we obviously know HyperHire best. If our product isn't right for you, we'd rather you find the right fit than struggle with the wrong tool.

What Does "Easy to Set Up" Mean for an SMB-Friendly ATS?

When we talk about ease of setup for a small or mid-sized company (10-250 employees, hiring intermittently), the following things matter most:

1. Minimal implementation time and overhead. You want something you can launch quickly, ideally within days not weeks, without needing heavy customization or dedicated tech resources. According to G2's 2024 ATS Buyer Guide, many small business ATSs can be set up within a few days to a few weeks.

2. Intuitive user interface and minimal training. Your team might not have a full HR tech admin. You want something that non-technical users can pick up quickly. Capterra's SMB software survey found that "user-friendliness" ranks as the #1 factor for SMB teams evaluating HR tools.

3. Out-of-the-box workflows and adaptability. While you want configuration flexibility, you also want pre-built hiring pipelines and templates so you're not starting from zero. Industry guides list customizable workflows and pipeline management as key evaluation metrics.

4. Reasonable cost and structure suitable for smaller teams. Many enterprise ATSs assume big budgets and big teams. For SMBs you need licensing, onboarding, and usage that fit smaller scale.

5. Seamless integrations and minimal maintenance. While you might not need hundreds of integrations, you'll want things like job-board posting, email/calendar sync, and perhaps background checks. The less you need to build custom connectors, the better.

Quick Comparison of Leading ATSs for SMBs

Methodology: How We Evaluated These ATSs

This comparison is based on product documentation, comparison articles from People Managing People, Zapier, and Lever, pricing pages for each vendor, and interviews with hiring managers from companies under 200 employees. We also reviewed G2 and Capterra ratings for each platform. We focused specifically on ATSs built for SMBs.

1. HyperHire – Best Overall for SMBs Needing Low-Cost, Quick Setup

What is HyperHire?

HyperHire is an all-in-one applicant tracking and recruiting platform built for small to mid-sized companies that want to move beyond spreadsheets without taking on enterprise-level software. Developed by Hyperspace Ventures, HyperHire helps SMBs quickly review candidates and schedule interviews with built-in automations.

What Features Does HyperHire Offer?

Career Page Builder: The career page builder lets teams create a polished, branded careers site in under 10 minutes, without involving a developer. Companies can add logos, brand colors, custom cover images, team photos, and job openings. There is also a library of cover images to choose from. Adding custom employer branding helps candidates connect with the company's identity and culture from the very first touchpoint.

Kanban Pipelines: Customizable Kanban-style pipelines let teams drag candidates through interview stages in a clean, visual workflow. Each job can have its own custom pipeline, so engineering hires, marketing hires, and operations hires all follow different structured processes. The result is clearer visibility into where each candidate stands, fewer missed follow-ups, and a smoother hiring rhythm for founders and HR teams. Recruiters can easily attach calendar booking links to the automations for quick interview scheduling.

Reusable Templates: Recruiters can create and reuse templates for automated emails, interview questions, and documents such as offer letters. This feature eliminates repetitive admin work and ensures every candidate receives consistent communication. Templates also help teams stay aligned on structured interviewing, no more scrambling for questions or writing outreach from scratch.

AI Job Description Generator: The built-in AI job description generator writes polished, role-specific job descriptions in about 30 seconds. Users can input a few bullet points about responsibilities or required skills, and the system instantly produces a clear, professional JD ready for posting. This is especially valuable for fast-moving startups that need job posts quickly but don't have time to craft them from scratch.

Team Collaboration Tools: HyperHire enables true collaborative hiring by letting HR teams, founders, and hiring managers all view the same candidate pipeline in real time. Users can leave notes, assign next steps, and keep context centralized instead of scattered across Slack messages or emails. This ensures faster decision-making and prevents candidates from falling through the cracks.

True Freemium Model (Unlimited Jobs): Unlike most ATS competitors that limit free users to one active job, HyperHire offers a genuine freemium plan with unlimited job postings. Startups can manage multiple roles at once without hitting a paywall, making it ideal for teams with fluctuating hiring needs. The free plan covers essential features, allowing companies to adopt the platform fully before upgrading as they scale.

What Do Users Like About HyperHire?

HyperHire stands out for its combination of simplicity and capability. The platform's setup process is nearly frictionless, no IT configuration or lengthy onboarding is required. HR leads can post jobs, track applications, and collaborate with teammates almost immediately. HyperHire's clean interface, workflow automation, and transparent pricing make it a particularly strong fit for startups and growing SMBs looking to modernize hiring quickly.

A 25-person marketing agency switched from spreadsheets to HyperHire and reduced their time-to-first-interview from 5 days to 2 days while eliminating candidate drop-off from missed follow-ups. The operations manager noted that setup took under an hour and the team was fully productive by the end of their first day.

What Are HyperHire's Limitations?

As a newer platform, HyperHire doesn't yet offer the breadth of third-party integrations found in older enterprise ATSs such as Greenhouse or Lever. Currently, HyperHire offers Google Calendar integration but lacks native connections to HRIS systems (BambooHR, Gusto), Slack, or payroll tools. Teams heavily embedded in other ecosystems may need manual workarounds.

The smaller user community means fewer third-party tutorials and resources compared to established players like Workable or JazzHR. Organizations that require deep HRIS or payroll integrations may need additional tools.

HyperHire Pricing

HyperHire offers two plans:

• Individuals (Free): 1 user, unlimited applications, unlimited jobs, custom candidate pipelines, custom templates, custom career site.

• Standard ($9/user/month or $84/user/year): Everything in Individual, plus additional team members and full collaboration features.

The pricing is transparent and straightforward, no hidden fees, no premium charges for support, no surprise overages.

2. Ashby – Best for Growth-Stage Teams That Want Data and Customization

What is Ashby?

Ashby is a modern, analytics-first applicant tracking system designed for high-growth startups and data-driven recruiting teams. It merges pipeline management, scheduling, and analytics into one unified product, allowing teams to make smarter hiring decisions based on real-time data.

What Features Does Ashby Offer?

Ashby's unified analytics layer automatically captures data from every stage of the recruiting process, from sourcing and interviews to offers and hires, and turns it into dynamic, visual dashboards. These dashboards help teams identify bottlenecks, track conversion rates, and forecast hiring velocity.

Beyond analytics, Ashby provides automation tools that eliminate repetitive manual work. Recruiters can trigger reminders, automate interview scheduling, and set conditional workflows for candidate progression. The integration with Slack, Gmail, and job boards keeps recruiters working in their existing environments without constant app switching.

The platform also streamlines sourcing and engagement by letting you add LinkedIn candidates in one click, run multi-channel outreach with AI-powered personalization, and search your CRM quickly using structured data and advanced filters. It also provides surveys to measure candidate experience, hiring manager satisfaction, and quality of hire, giving teams a comprehensive view of recruiter performance and impact.

What Do Users Like About Ashby?

Ashby delivers the sophistication of enterprise-grade reporting in an all-in-one package. Its automation and analytics improve recruiter productivity and transparency across the hiring funnel. The system's user interface is polished and intuitive, even with its unified data tools.

What Are Ashby's Limitations?

The initial configuration requires time, especially to build custom dashboards and metrics. For very small HR teams, the level of data depth may feel unnecessary. Pricing also sits on the higher end of the SMB spectrum, making Ashby more appropriate for growth-stage startups than micro-businesses.

Ashby Pricing

• Foundations Plan: Up to 100 employees starting at $300/mo

• Plus Plan: 100-1000 employees, contact for pricing

• Enterprise Plan: 1000+ employees, contact for pricing

Ashby provides pricing based on company size. While not the cheapest ATS, it consolidates analytics, sourcing, and tracking into one tool, often replacing two or three separate systems.

3. JazzHR – Best for Small Teams Hiring Occasionally

What is JazzHR?

JazzHR is a long-standing, SMB-focused ATS that helps small businesses create repeatable hiring processes without expensive enterprise software. It's especially popular among local organizations, agencies, and startups with fewer than 100 employees.

What Features Does JazzHR Offer?

JazzHR offers configurable recruiting workflows that allow for complete end-to-end customization of your recruiting process. Candidates' progression can be tracked through the recruiting stages and automations can be created to manage mundane, repetitive tasks through email triggers and assigning tasks.

The system also includes key teammates in the recruiting process from the start, allowing users to completely customize individual hiring teams on a per job basis. The hiring team can share feedback and notes on candidates, as well as comment directly on candidate profiles.

To maintain communication with candidates, email syncing is supported to contact candidates directly through your inbox while simultaneously storing messages in the ATS. Candidates can receive pre-drafted email responses as they proceed through the hiring funnel.

What Do Users Like About JazzHR?

JazzHR's straightforward setup and predictable pricing make it ideal for smaller teams. It reduces manual tracking, supports quick onboarding, and helps teams hire faster with minimal admin work.

What Are JazzHR's Limitations?

While great for small teams, JazzHR's simplicity limits scalability. Reporting and automation features lag behind newer competitors. As companies grow, they may outgrow the system's analytics and integration capabilities.

JazzHR Pricing

• Hero plan: $75/mo, 3 active jobs to start, $9 per additional job per month, job posting and syndication, applicant tracking

• Plus plan: $269/mo, 200 active jobs to start, AI-powered candidate matching, task automation and workflow helpers, reporting

• Pro plan: Contact for pricing, 200 active jobs to start, offer letter generator and eSignature integration, custom reports builder, visual reporting

4. Zoho Recruit – Best for Budget-Conscious or Existing Zoho Users

What is Zoho Recruit?

Zoho Recruit is a cost-effective recruiting solution that's part of the larger Zoho ecosystem. It combines basic ATS functionality with CRM-style features, making it especially useful for small teams already using other Zoho products.

What Features Does Zoho Recruit Offer?

Zoho Recruit's candidate management system lets users store resumes, parse applications, and maintain searchable talent databases. Recruiters can quickly create job postings and distribute them across multiple boards through built-in integrations.

The platform also offers custom workflows and basic automation for email notifications, follow-ups, and status changes. While not as advanced as enterprise systems, it offers solid efficiency improvements for small teams working on a budget.

In addition, Zoho Recruit allows recruiters to set up a referral portal to simplify the referral process, send custom assessments tailored to each role, and identify qualified candidates with AI-powered smart matching.

What Do Users Like About Zoho Recruit?

Zoho Recruit is affordable, easy to start, and fits neatly within the Zoho software suite. It's an excellent option for early-stage startups, staffing firms, or businesses hiring sporadically.

What Are Zoho Recruit's Limitations?

The interface feels dated compared to newer tools, and support can be inconsistent. Analytics and automation are limited, and integration outside Zoho's ecosystem may require additional effort.

Zoho Recruit Pricing

Zoho Recruit has a free plan for a single active job, with paid tiers starting at $25 per user/month.

• Free: Staffing basics for freelance recruiters or recruitment agency startups, 1 Active Job, Candidate Management, Email Management, Interview Scheduling

• Standard: $25/user/month billed annually, 100 Active Jobs, Candidate Sourcing, Premium Job Boards, Social Recruiting, Resume Management, Applicant Tracking

• Pro: $50/user/month, 250 Active Jobs, AI Candidate Matching, Advanced Analytics, Custom Reports and Dashboards

• Enterprise: $75/user/month, 750 Active Jobs, Custom Roles and Profiles, Blueprint, Territory Management, Generative AI features

5. Workable – Best for Growing Companies with Multi-Role Hiring

What is Workable?

Workable is a mature, cloud-based applicant tracking system popular among scaling companies that manage multiple concurrent job openings. It's known for combining strong collaboration tools with AI-assisted sourcing.

What Features Does Workable Offer?

Workable offers AI-powered candidate recommendations that identify potential candidates matching your job description, as well as a passive candidate database that is filterable. These features can reduce the time needed for outbound candidate searches.

It also includes multi-channel job posting tools, letting teams distribute job ads to hundreds of job boards simultaneously. Built-in scheduling, video interviewing, and mobile app support ensure a seamless experience for both recruiters and candidates.

Comprehensive reporting and compliance dashboards give HR managers visibility into hiring progress and diversity metrics. Integration with major productivity tools (Slack, Gmail, Zoom) helps teams collaborate without breaking their workflow.

What Do Users Like About Workable?

Workable's combination of AI, collaboration, and mobility makes it powerful for companies scaling hiring volume. The interface is user-friendly despite its feature depth, and reporting is robust.

What Are Workable's Limitations?

The platform's wide range of features comes at a cost, both in time and price. Implementation is longer, and smaller teams may pay for capabilities they rarely use.

Workable Pricing

Workable offers a separate Recruiting plan starting at $299/mo and HR plan starting at $99/mo depending on what features are needed.

Recruiting plan features include a candidate sourcing suite, applicant tracking system, unlimited active jobs, hiring plan, and 5 native language options.

HR plan features include an HR information system, employee onboarding, time off management, time tracking, e-signatures for company files, payroll preparation, and payroll integrations.

All plans include self-service employee profiles, searchable company files, employee directory, and an org chart.

Other ATSs Worth Mentioning

Greenhouse and Lever are other great ATSs, but are not the easiest or quickest to set up. Greenhouse can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to set up and train the hiring team, and Lever can take 1-4 weeks.

6. Greenhouse – Best for Structured, Scaling Enterprises

What is Greenhouse?

Greenhouse is an enterprise-level applicant tracking system designed for large organizations that need rigorous hiring structure, deep integrations, and compliance management. It's used by major global brands and high-growth companies alike.

Greenhouse offers structured hiring pipelines and interview kits that enforce consistent evaluation criteria across all candidates. The system's integration marketplace is one of the most extensive in the industry, connecting seamlessly with HRIS, payroll, analytics, and onboarding tools.

It also features robust DEI tracking and analytics, enabling HR teams to measure diversity across the hiring funnel. For tech-forward organizations, Greenhouse provides a flexible API that supports custom integrations and automation workflows.

Greenhouse pricing is quote-based, typically starting in the mid-four-figure annual range. Implementation and onboarding services are included but can take several weeks.

7. Lever – Best for SMBs with Continuous Recruiting Cycles

What is Lever?

Lever is a powerful, scalable talent acquisition platform that combines ATS and CRM to help teams source, nurture, and hire top talent efficiently.

Lever offers robust real-time dashboards and visual reporting on pipeline velocity, diversity, source effectiveness and more. With built-in candidate relationship management, Lever enables nurturing of both active and passive candidates through automated email campaigns, talent database, and re-engagement workflows.

Lever stands out for combining ATS and CRM capabilities in one platform, giving teams a unified place to source, nurture, and manage candidates. Its clean interface, strong collaboration tools, and helpful automation features make it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to stay aligned.

Lever pricing is designed to scale based on team size and hiring needs, and is offered based on a quote tailored to your company.

When Should You Choose Each ATS?

Choose HyperHire if:

• You need to launch in under a day with zero IT involvement

• You're hiring for multiple roles and don't want to pay per-job fees

• You want a branded career page without hiring a developer

• You're an early-stage company that needs to start free and scale later

Choose Ashby if:

• You're a growth-stage startup hiring 20+ people per year

• Data-driven recruiting decisions are core to your strategy

• You can invest 2-4 weeks in implementation

• You want analytics that replace separate BI tools

Choose JazzHR if:

• You're hiring sporadically (1-10 roles per year)

• You need an established platform with proven workflows

• Budget is your primary constraint but you need more than free tiers offer

Choose Zoho Recruit if:

• You're already using other Zoho products

• You need a free or very low-cost option to start

• You're comfortable with a less modern interface for cost savings

Choose Workable if:

• You're scaling rapidly with multiple concurrent openings

• AI-powered sourcing would save significant recruiter time

• You need robust integrations with Slack, Zoom, and other tools

Choose Greenhouse or Lever if:

• You're an enterprise or late-stage company with complex hiring needs

• You need extensive HRIS and payroll integrations

• Compliance and structured interviewing are top priorities

• You have weeks (not days) for implementation

Why HyperHire Stands Out for SMBs

Speed of Setup: You can launch HyperHire in under an hour with no IT involvement, with help from the simple setup guide, intuitive interface, and responsive support team.

Flexibility: Designed for SMB recruiters and founders with any hiring timeline, unlimited jobs with no expiration.

Ease of Use: Candidates can be dragged and dropped into the next hiring stage, triggering automations to keep the interview scheduling and candidate communication process going smoothly.

Customizability: Hiring pipelines, interview questions, and automated emails for interview scheduling can all be tailored to each job position's needs.

Pay-As-You-Grow: Start free, scale later as your hiring team grows, perfect for early-stage companies managing budgets carefully.

Compared with heavier systems like Greenhouse or Workable, HyperHire eliminates the multi-week onboarding phase and lets your HR or operations manager get productive almost immediately.

The Bottom Line: Which ATS Is Right for Your Company?

The best applicant tracking systems for SMBs balance simplicity with power.

If you need fast setup, built-in automations, and scalable pricing, HyperHire clearly leads the pack for small to mid-sized companies.

If you're data-driven and fast-growing, Ashby is an excellent alternative worth the longer setup time.

If your team needs robust integrations above all else, Greenhouse, Lever, or Workable have extensive libraries of options.

For small to mid-sized companies ready to modernize hiring without the enterprise hassle, HyperHire is the easiest way to start, and the smartest way to grow.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the fastest ATS to deploy for small teams? HyperHire can be launched in under a day, with most teams fully productive within their first hour. Workable can be launched in under a week. Both offer pre-built workflows that require minimal configuration, though HyperHire's setup is significantly faster according to user feedback on G2.

Which ATS offers the most features for the price? HyperHire offers the most value for budget-conscious SMBs, with a free tier that includes unlimited active jobs, unlimited email templates, and full hiring stage automations, features that competitors like JazzHR charge $75+/month for. The paid Standard plan at $9/user/month adds team collaboration without the feature gating common in enterprise ATSs.

Do these systems integrate with email and calendars? Ashby, Workable, and Greenhouse offer full integrations with Gmail, Outlook, and major calendar systems. JazzHR handles common syncs like Gmail and Outlook. HyperHire currently offers Google Calendar integration, with emails triggered by interview stage automations. Other calendars can be connected off-platform by including booking links in email templates.

What's the typical learning curve for each ATS? For SMB-ready tools like HyperHire, JazzHR, and Zoho Recruit, users typically need less than 1 hour of training to become productive. Systems like Greenhouse and Ashby can take multiple training sessions spread across days or weeks due to their depth of features and configuration options.

How can I evaluate these ATSs effectively before purchase? Use each platform's free trial or demo to test real workflows. Post a job, move a few test candidates through stages, and schedule a mock interview. Track how long setup takes and how intuitive each step feels. HyperHire and Zoho offer free tiers for extended evaluation, while Ashby and Workable provide time-limited trials.

Which ATSs offer a customizable career site builder? HyperHire, Lever, Workable, JazzHR, and Zoho Recruit all offer customizable career site builders. HyperHire's stands out for speed, most teams launch a branded careers page in under 10 minutes without developer involvement. Enterprise tools like Greenhouse offer more customization but require longer setup.