Last Updated on January 27, 2025 by Ewen Finser
Ninja Gig is solid, user-friendly recruitment software best suited for SMBs (Small—to medium-sized businesses), recruitment agencies, and organizations. It’s ideal for organizations looking to simplify and automate the recruitment process without the complexity or cost of enterprise-level solutions.
I’ve worked on both sides of the recruitment software world and used multiple platforms. I can tell you — not all ATSs are created equal.
In one of my first formal jobs, I was a consultant at a recruitment agency. I was introduced to recruitment processes and learned how to use the platforms to screen multiple applications and track candidates for our clients (A candidate CRM, if you will). I found most of these tools clunky and basic, and they haven’t changed much over the last ten years.
Later, I worked in a more technical role at an established SaaS startup. This company had built a comprehensive cloud recruitment software platform that helped our clients automate their recruitment processes.
My hands-on role involved client liaison with all users, software testing, configuration, and implementation, which taught me the inner workings of highly customizable, enterprise-level software ATSs like this one!
Armed with this knowledge, I scrutinize every recruitment platform I encounter for its ease of use, feature sets, and other considerations. Let me take you through Ninja Gig’s ATS!
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs): What Are They, and Who Should Use Them?
Who should use an ATS?
Every employer or organization should use an ATS. There’s no better way to put prospective candidates off your organization than to have no careers page and no way to navigate to open vacancies or upload their resumes easily.
Why HR & recruitment teams need one:
- Without a dedicated ATS/entry point, recruitment becomes an administration nightmare for recruitment and HR professionals who get bombarded on LinkedIn or via email instead due to the lack of an entry point for candidates.
- Some organizations lack the skills, time, or funds to create multiple job postings and turn to recruitment agencies that charge excessive fees to headhunt candidates.
- Using an ATS can help to reduce significant overheads and time spent on operational workloads.
Main functions of an ATS:
- A great ATS will help you collect, sort, organize, and screen hundreds of resumes before landing on your desk.
- An ATS should also help automate many recruitment processes and workflows, allowing in-app messaging and centralized systems to track candidates.
- Innovative organizations use an ATS to build a database of potential candidates for future roles—even when there are no vacancies—provided that the ATS has the means to do this.
Okay, so let’s see how Ninja Gig delivers, how to use it, and what to consider when utilizing its ATS!
Ninja Gig Software Overview
Ninja Gig, headquartered in Utah, has thoughtfully crafted a comprehensive applicant tracking system to help organizations manage their job applications and recruitment on one platform.
Free trial and onboarding:
- Ninja Gig offers a fourteen-day free trial, which I encourage new users to take advantage of. It’s easy to sign up, and you can cancel any time and change your payment methods within the app.
- Onboarding is quick and easy, and you can start creating job postings and managing applications.
- My first impression right from the outset is that it showcases a sleek and simple design with an intuitive navigation panel.
- Many ATSs are built by developers and are slightly overengineered without considering the end users. Ninja Gig has gotten this right. Even with minimal experience, most users can create a job posting and add application questions without extensive training within a few hours, which I liked.
New user guidance
As you progress from creating a job to creating and posting a job, receiving an applicant, etc., you’ll be prompted via email to enhance your profile by utilizing features such as “application tags.” They make this straightforward outline highlighting the purpose of the features.
User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX):
Customization is essential when creating a professional and attractive careers page. Ninja Gig allows you to create a home page (your website) to view your vacancies and see what the potential candidates will see.
The domain name can also be customized to include your company name. This will be the display name of your portal and the URL where your applications are hosted, which makes it look more professional and can provide candidates with peace of mind when applying.
You can customize the page to include your company logo and amend the banner color. You can also add details about your organization and hyperlinks to your website.
Making these amendments is simple and user-friendly, and changes take effect immediately, which brings me to my next point.
Performance and Speed
After working on multiple platforms over the years, my expectations for speed and lag were slightly low. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the responsiveness of Ninja Gig’s interface and functions on the desktop. So much so that I almost expected the mobile experience to be lacking, which it is not.
The mobile site allows you to easily view your applications and manage all the same features you do on a desktop. There are some minor resolution quirks when it comes to justification on mobile screens, but not enough to affect the whole experience negatively.
Ninja Gig’s Standout Features
Ninja Gig’s primary functions meet expectations for what it’s built for. Recruitment, application management, general applicant tracking, and email notifications work well. However, they’ve put extra effort into additional noteworthy features.
Here are just some of the ones I loved:
Global Custom Questions (Application question library)
You can create a complete list of application questions to import for multiple jobs. This can save time when using generic questions for each job posting.
Application questions are critical for screening high-volume roles and ensuring that you review only resumes that are a good fit for your vacancy.
Application tags
You can create an “application tag” library for candidate applications. I love this feature. When candidates are flagged (for positive or negative reasons), recruiters can easily see important information from a bird’s-eye view.
Color coding makes the tag visibility clear to see at a glance when viewing your applications on one screen:
Pre-created custom flyer with QR code
I liked the pre-created flyer that the Ninja Gig team thoughtfully included in the preset feature list, which you can share on multiple platforms or your website.
Pricing and Plans
Ninja Gig is one of the most affordable ATSs, which makes it an excellent option for small and medium-sized businesses or recruitment companies.
They offer a free fourteen-day trial and, thereafter, cost $49 per month. This includes unlimited job postings, user accounts, and integrations with various job boards, including major ones such as Indeed, Monster, Google Jobs, and more.
I compared Ninja Gig to similar ATS service offerings, which are generally priced between $60 and $300 monthly!
Pros and Cons of Ninja Gig
Pros | Cons |
Unlimited job postings | No job advert template library for similar jobs to be duplicated |
Easy to log in as a recruiter/user | Security concerns around having no multi-factor authentication. No automatic timed log-out |
Global Application questions | Before adding Global Questions, previewing how this will look on a job advert is impossible. Could be easier ways to add multiple tick box options |
Managing candidate applications is easy, and emails can be sent in-app Offers paperwork bundles with pre-filled candidate information for faster document completion. | There is no option to bulk manage applications (bulk communications like declines or a role going on hold). These need to be done one at a time. There is no option to send selected list of applicants through a workflow in a bulk action. |
Creating a candidate profile is easy and can be simple depending on the organization’s requirements | There is nowhere to create a user profile to allow multiple applications, so each application needs to be done manually. You can create duplicate job applications for the same role as the same person. CV parsing* would add a lot of value to the application process. |
User accounts are unlimited. | All user accounts (profiles) are the same, and there is no permission-level view for different user roles. |
Basic reporting is in place to track application stats and sources (like job boards, websites, etc). EEO** Reporting functionality is a great value add. The reporting suite offers an export to Excel or CSV option and an XML Data Feed URL. | The reporting suite might be too basic for organizations that need advanced reporting on statistics such as recruitment cycle time, (i.e.“time to hire.”) |
*CV or Resume parsing means that candidates can upload their existing CVs. Specific software or algorithms will automatically extract key information, such as work experience, skills, or educational background, and input it into the recruitment platform.
**EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity)
Conclusion and My Personal Recommendation
Overall, I enjoyed using Ninja Gig.
It’s straightforward and has a short learning curve. At this price point, it’s an excellent recruitment platform for smaller businesses or growing organizations.
Ninja Gig delivers on its promises and is an excellent option for organizations needing unlimited job postings and easy integration with job boards. Its roadmap has some great feature releases that will take this platform to the next level! Watch this space.