Manatal Review: AI-Powered Recruiting at a Fair Price

Our Full Review

Manatal burst onto the ATS scene in 2018 with a bold promise: AI-powered recruiting at a price small businesses could actually afford. Six years later, with over 9,000 customers in 135+ countries, they've proven the concept works. After extensive testing, Manatal stands out as the best value ATS for SMBs and recruiting agencies who want modern features without enterprise pricing.

Who Should Use Manatal?

Manatal is purpose-built for specific use cases where it excels:

• Small to mid-size businesses (5-200 employees) who need professional recruiting tools but can't justify $8,000+/year for Greenhouse
• Recruiting agencies who need to manage multiple clients and candidates in one system (the built-in CRM is perfect for this)
• Growing startups who are hiring frequently and need to professionalize their recruiting process beyond spreadsheets
• HR teams of one who need automation and AI to handle high application volumes without hiring help
• Companies with limited tech resources who want something that works out-of-the-box without extensive customization
• International teams who recruit across multiple countries (Man atal supports 25+ languages and multi-currency)

Who Should Look Elsewhere?

Manatal isn't for everyone. Skip it if you:

• Are a large enterprise (500+ employees) with complex approval workflows and compliance requirements—look at Greenhouse or Workday
• Need deep HRIS integration for onboarding and employee lifecycle management—BambooHR's native ATS might be better
• Already have heavy investment in Lever or Greenhouse with custom integrations and workflows built around them
• Require phone support as standard (only available on pricier Enterprise tier)
• Need advanced diversity analytics and compliance reporting beyond basic EEO tracking

AI Features: More Than Just Marketing Hype

Many ATS platforms claim "AI-powered" features that amount to basic keyword matching. Manatal actually delivers on the AI promise:

AI-Powered Candidate Recommendations

Manatal's recommendation engine analyzes job descriptions and candidate profiles to surface the best matches. It considers:

• Skills and experience from resumes
• Social media activity and professional interests
• Past hiring patterns from your team's selections
• Engagement signals like email opens and application completeness

In our testing, the AI recommendations were genuinely useful—consistently surfacing 2-3 strong candidates we might have missed in manual screening. It's not perfect (no AI is), but it's noticeably better than keyword-only matching.

Intelligent Resume Parsing

Upload a resume in any format (PDF, Word, even images) and Manatal automatically extracts:

• Contact information
• Work history with dates
• Education and certifications
• Skills and competencies
• Social media profiles

The parsing accuracy is impressive—consistently 85-90% correct even with non-standard resume formats. You'll still need to verify details, but it saves 5-10 minutes per candidate compared to manual data entry.

Social Media Enrichment

One of Manatal's standout features: it automatically enriches candidate profiles with data from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and GitHub. Just enter an email address or social handle, and Manatal pulls:

• Profile photos and bio
• Full work history
• Skills and endorsements
• Projects and publications
• Social connections (mutual connections with your team)

This is gold for sourcing—you get a complete picture of candidates beyond their resume, and it happens automatically.

Core ATS Features

Beyond the AI bells and whistles, Manatal handles the fundamentals well:

Job Posting and Distribution

• Multi-channel posting — publish to Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and 2,500+ job boards with one click
• Branded career pages — customizable career site builder included (no coding required)
• Employee referrals — built-in referral portal with tracking and rewards management
• Social sharing — one-click sharing to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn for viral distribution

Candidate Pipeline Management

• Customizable pipelines — create hiring stages that match your process
• Kanban board view — drag-and-drop candidates between stages
• Bulk actions — move multiple candidates, send batch emails, mass reject
• Candidate scorecards — standardized evaluation forms for interviewers
• Email integration — communicate directly from the platform; all emails logged
• Interview scheduling — calendar integration (Google, Outlook) with candidate self-scheduling

Collaboration Tools

• Internal notes and @mentions
• Candidate feedback forms for hiring teams
• Permissions and role-based access
• Activity feeds showing all actions on candidates

Agency-Specific Features

If you're a recruiting agency, Manatal offers dedicated CRM features:

• Client management — track client companies, contacts, and contracts in one place
• Job orders — manage multiple open positions per client with separate pipelines
• Placement tracking — monitor fees, commissions, and payment status
• White-label career sites — branded portals for each client
• Multi-company dashboards — view metrics across all clients

This is a huge advantage over generic ATS platforms. Most agencies use separate CRM + ATS tools; Manatal combines both.

Chrome Extension for LinkedIn Sourcing

Manatal's Chrome extension is a game-changer for proactive sourcing. Browse LinkedIn, click the Manatal button, and instantly import candidate profiles into your database. It captures:

• Full LinkedIn profile data
• Work history and education
• Skills and endorsements
• Contact information (if public or in your network)

You can build a talent pool of 100+ targeted candidates in an afternoon—far faster than copy-pasting into a spreadsheet. The extension is included free with all plans.

Reporting and Analytics

Manatal provides solid (not spectacular) reporting:

Standard Reports

• Time-to-hire by job and department
• Source effectiveness (which job boards deliver best candidates)
• Pipeline conversion rates
• Recruiter activity and performance
• Job opening status dashboard
• Basic EEO compliance reports

The reports cover the essentials, but they're not as customizable or visual as Greenhouse or Lever. For most SMBs, they're sufficient. If you need advanced people analytics, you'll want an enterprise platform.

Integration Ecosystem

Manatal integrates with popular tools, though the ecosystem is smaller than Greenhouse:

Core Integrations

• Email: Gmail, Outlook (two-way sync)
• Calendar: Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar (interview scheduling)
• Zapier: Connect to 5,000+ apps via Zapier (paid Zapier account required)
• Job boards: Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Monster, CareerBuilder
• Background checks: Checkr, Sterling
• Assessments: Codility (developer assessments), HackerRank

What's Missing?

Notable integrations not available (yet):

• Native Slack integration (use Zapier workaround)
• Deep HRIS integration with BambooHR, Workday, etc.
• Video interviewing platforms (Spark Hire, HireVue)
• Advanced assessment tools (Criteria, Pymetrics)

If you need these, you can build connections via Zapier, but native integrations would be smoother.

Pricing Breakdown: What You'll Actually Pay

Manatal's transparent pricing is a breath of fresh air compared to "call for quote" competitors:

Professional Plan: $15/user/month (billed annually)

Best for: Small teams (2-10 recruiters) and startups.

Includes:

• Up to 15 active job openings
• 10,000 active candidate profiles
• AI recommendations and parsing
• Social enrichment
• Career page builder
• Chrome extension
• Job board posting
• Email integration
• Basic reporting
• Email support

Enterprise Plan: $35/user/month (billed annually)

Best for: Growing companies (10-50 recruiters) and agencies.

Everything in Professional, plus:

• Unlimited job openings
• Unlimited candidate profiles
• Advanced reports and analytics
• White-label career pages
• API access
• Priority phone and chat support
• Dedicated account manager
• Custom onboarding and training
• SSO (single sign-on)

Custom Plan: Contact for pricing (starts ~$50+/user/month)

Best for: Large agencies and enterprises with complex needs.

Everything in Enterprise, plus:

• Custom integrations
• Advanced compliance features
• Dedicated infrastructure
• SLAs and uptime guarantees

Real-World Pricing Examples

5 recruiters on Professional: 5 × $15 = $75/month ($900/year)

15 recruiters on Enterprise: 15 × $35 = $525/month ($6,300/year)

Compare that to Greenhouse (~$8,000-$15,000/year base + per-seat fees) or Lever ($12,000+/year). Manatal delivers 70-80% of the functionality at 30-40% of the cost.

Customer Support and Implementation

Onboarding Process

Manatal's onboarding is mostly self-service:

• Day 1: Sign up, watch video tutorials, explore interface (1-2 hours)
• Day 2-3: Import existing candidate data (CSV import tool), customize pipelines and career page (2-3 hours)
• Day 4-5: Post first jobs, configure integrations, train team (3-4 hours)
• Week 2: Fully operational

Enterprise customers get hands-on onboarding with a dedicated specialist. Professional plan users get email support and self-service resources.

Support Channels

• Email support: All plans; typically 4-8 hour response time
• Chat support: Enterprise plan; available during business hours
• Phone support: Enterprise plan only
• Knowledge base: Extensive help docs, video tutorials, use case guides
• Webinars: Monthly training webinars for best practices

The lack of phone support on the Professional plan is a weakness. For teams who need hands-on help, factor in the Enterprise upgrade.

Common Questions About Manatal

Is Manatal really AI-powered, or is it marketing?

It's real AI. The candidate recommendations, resume parsing, and social enrichment all use machine learning models that improve over time. It's not magic—you'll still need human judgment—but it's legitimately useful automation.

Can I use Manatal for agency and in-house recruiting?

Yes. Agencies love the CRM features; in-house teams love the simplicity. You can switch between "agency mode" (client-focused) and "company mode" (internal hiring).

Does it work outside the US?

Absolutely. Manatal supports 25+ languages, multi-currency, and has customers in 135+ countries. It's one of the most globally-friendly ATS platforms.

What if I exceed the 15 job limit on Professional?

You can upgrade to Enterprise (unlimited jobs) or pay $30/month per additional 5 jobs. For most SMBs, 15 active openings is plenty.

How long does it take to see ROI?

Most customers report ROI within 2-3 months from time saved on manual screening and administration. If you're hiring 5+ people per year, the efficiency gains alone justify the cost.

Can I try it before committing?

Yes—14-day free trial with full access to Professional plan features. No credit card required.

The Bottom Line: Is Manatal Worth It?

Manatal occupies a sweet spot in the ATS market: modern features and genuine AI capabilities at a price that won't blow your budget. It's not as polished or feature-rich as Greenhouse, but it delivers 80% of the value at 30% of the cost.

You should choose Manatal if:

• You're a small to mid-size business (5-200 employees) hiring regularly
• You're a recruiting agency needing ATS + CRM in one platform
• You want AI features that actually work without paying enterprise prices
• You need international recruiting with multi-language support
• Budget is a constraint but quality still matters

Look elsewhere if:

• You're an enterprise (500+ employees) needing deep compliance and workflow customization—go with Greenhouse
• You need phone support as standard (only Enterprise has it)
• You require extensive integrations with niche tools
• You're already invested heavily in another ATS with custom workflows

After extensive testing across dozens of applicant tracking systems, Manatal stands out as the best value for SMBs and agencies. It's proof that you don't need to spend $15,000/year for professional recruiting software. For growing companies who want to hire better and faster without breaking the bank, Manatal delivers.

Bottom line: If you're shopping for an ATS on a budget, start with Manatal's free trial. It's likely the last ATS you'll need to evaluate.