Last Updated on June 29, 2025 by Ewen Finser
As your business grows, there comes a point when tracking job applicants in a simple spreadsheet just doesn’t work anymore. For me, the longer our applicant spreadsheet got, the more cumbersome it became. Sharing it with team members was even worse, which often led to reformatting issues, corrupted files, or sometimes it wouldn’t open at all.
That’s when it makes sense to consider an Applicant Tracking System, or ATS. These tools are built to make hiring way easier by handling everything in one place. This could be from drawing in candidates and gathering applications, to sorting through resumes and making those final hiring decisions. Having all these steps organized in a single system really streamlines the process and helps you find the right people much more efficiently as your team expands.
There are too many ATS systems out there to list out, so instead, we will focus on two of my favorites in this article – Ninja Gig and Zoho Recruit.
Ninja Gig – a seamless, affordable solution for companies wanting to make their recruiting simpler.
Ninja Gig is built to meet the needs of any business, but it really shines for small to medium-sized businesses. The layout is clear and straightforward, and setting up job postings and tracking applicants is quick and stress-free. The ease of use has been helpful for us as an employer. It has also been super easy for professionals to apply to our jobs.
Since switching to Ninja Gig, our entire recruitment process has become far more efficient. Instead of spending hours juggling email threads and updating spreadsheets, we now manage everything in one place in just a fraction of the time. It’s made a noticeable difference in how smooth and hassle-free our hiring process has become.
The Pros
What I really love about Ninja Gig is how it takes care of job board postings for us. As soon as we set up a job listing, Ninja Gig automatically sends it out to different job boards, so we don’t have to mess with formatting or uploading it in a bunch of different places. It makes getting our jobs out there so much simpler and faster.
All the applications come straight into one dashboard, which is convenient for keeping everything organized. I especially like the tagging feature, which lets us label candidates by skills, role, or anything else we find important. That way, it’s easy to search for the right people later on or reach out to someone who might be a good fit down the road.
And when it comes to tracking how we’re doing, Ninja Gig gives us all the info we actually need. We can easily see things like how many people are checking out our job postings, how many applied, what percentage actually clicked “apply,” and even Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) stats. It’s just enough detail to help us understand what’s working, but simple enough not to bog us down. These features have saved us a lot of time and make our hiring process run way more smoothly.
The Cons
While Ninja Gig lets you have as many users as you want, there aren’t any options for things like admin or viewer roles, so it’s harder to control who can see or change different parts of the platform.
Additionally, as our company continues to grow and our hiring needs become more complex, we find ourselves wishing for more in-depth analytics within the platform. For example, it would be really helpful to track metrics like how long it takes us to hire a candidate from start to finish, as well as to get insights into the overall quality of the applicants we’re attracting. Unfortunately, Ninja Gig doesn’t currently offer these kinds of advanced analytics, so we’re missing out on some valuable data that could help us further optimize our hiring process.
Ninja Gig also does not provide any human resources features, such as onboarding, offboarding, time off requests, training management, or employee engagement tools. Its primary focus is on recruiting, so it is best suited for companies that only need a straightforward platform for hiring.
If your organization is seeking an all-in-one HR solution that combines multiple human resources functions within a single system, Ninja Gig will not meet those needs. You would need to look for a more comprehensive HR tool to support your company’s broader HR requirements.
The Price
Ninja Gig stands out as a highly cost-effective applicant tracking system thanks to its straightforward, low monthly flat-fee pricing structure. This approach ensures that we get full access to the platform’s core features without worrying about unexpected costs or complex pricing tiers. One of the biggest advantages is that Ninja Gig allows us to post an unlimited number of job openings, so we never have to worry about additional charges as our hiring needs grow.
On top of that, Ninja Gig provides free syndication of our job listings to all the major job boards, which significantly amplifies the visibility of our openings. This ensures that our job posts are seen by a large and diverse pool of candidates, helping us attract top talent. Best of all, all these benefits are included in the regular subscription cost, enabling small businesses and organizations to maximize their recruitment efforts without overspending or going beyond their budget.
ZohoRecruit – a comprehensive platform with a wide range of features for efficient job board hiring.
Zoho Recruit is a well-known applicant tracking system (ATS) that takes the stress and hassle out of hiring by streamlining the entire process for companies of any size or industry. With Zoho Recruit, we’re able to handle every step in one convenient place—from posting job openings and sourcing candidates to scheduling interviews and sending out job offers.
By bringing all these tasks together and automating many of the routine steps, Zoho Recruit makes it significantly easier and much faster for us to connect with strong candidates and quickly fill open positions. The platform has a user-friendly interface and a wide range of helpful features. Overall, it’s an excellent option for companies looking to make their hiring process more organized, effective, and efficient.
The Pros
By tackling issues such as scattered applicant details, poor communication, and limited transparency, Zoho Recruit significantly improves hiring efficiency. The features I really like are the ability to post to multiple job boards, the candidate sourcing tools, comprehensive applicant tracking, interview scheduling, customizable workflows, collaborative team features, and insightful analytics.
ZohoRecruit offers extensive integration with a variety of job boards, giving us plenty of flexibility in how and where we promote our job openings. We have the option to select from a list of free job boards, which can be helpful for reaching candidates without adding extra costs, although these boards might have more limited reach or visibility.
Alternatively, we can choose to post our positions on paid job boards, which typically attract a broader audience and can lead to more qualified applicants. There are also options for premium or sponsored placements, allowing our job postings to appear at the top of search results or be highlighted for even greater exposure.
The Cons
It’s important to note, however, that ZohoRecruit doesn’t automatically distribute our job postings. We need to select the job boards that align best with our hiring goals and manually publish listings to those specific sites. This hands-on approach means we have full control over our recruitment strategy, but it also requires a bit more effort to ensure our jobs are reaching the right audience in the right places.
Zoho Recruit isn’t exactly the easiest software to set up. It comes with a pretty steep learning curve and has a lot of complex workflows that can take some time to figure out. Getting everything up and running smoothly might require one person to really dedicate themselves to the setup process, especially if you want to make the most of all the features. So, if you’re looking for something that’s quick and simple to get started with, Zoho Recruit might feel a bit overwhelming.
Pricing
Zoho Recruit has several pricing tiers to fit different needs. There’s a Forever Free plan with basic features like one active job posting, candidate and email management, interview scheduling, and weekday support. The Standard plan costs $25 per user per month and includes up to 100 active jobs, access to premium job boards, social recruiting, and lots of integrations. For $50 per user per month, the Professional plan adds features like AI candidate matching, advanced analytics, custom reports, and enhanced security. The top-tier Enterprise plan is $75 per user per month and comes with more advanced tools for large organizations, such as client and staffing portals, and custom functions.
One thing to watch out for with Zoho Recruit is how their pricing can add up. At first glance, it might seem pretty affordable, but as you start adding extra features or modules that you actually need, the total cost can climb quickly, especially since some important tools aren’t included in the basic plans.
Plus, since we pay per user, it can get pricey with a bigger team. And with all the different features packed in, it can take some time to get comfortable with the system, especially if you’re new to this kind of software.
A quick summary comparison of Ninja Gig versus ZohoRecruit
Ninja Gig | ZohoRecuirt | |
Key Features | Single dashboard, tagging functionality | Candidate sourcing tools, interview scheduling |
Target Business | Small to medium-sized businesses | Small, medium, and large businesses |
Pros | One-click job board posting, simple setup | Comprehensive hiring platform |
Cons | Focused only on recruiting, lacks detailed analytics | More complex setup, doesn’t automatically post to job boards |
Pricing | Flat rate pricing at $49/month, all features included | Forever free for one active job, then $25-$75/month based on features, and is per user |
Which ATS to choose?
As your business grows, the old way of managing job applicants through spreadsheets quickly becomes unwieldy and inefficient, especially when it comes to collaborating with our team. That’s why we moved to an ATS, and it was a real game changer and it helped us organize and automate the entire recruitment process, from posting job openings to managing candidates and making final decisions. This shift saved us countless hours, prevented data headaches, and helped ensure nothing slips through the cracks as our hiring needs expanded.
Ultimately, both Ninja Gig and Zoho Recruit have a lot to offer, but each caters to a slightly different set of needs. Ninja Gig is an affordable, straightforward option, perfect for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a simple and effective way to streamline recruiting.
Meanwhile, Zoho Recruit is a more robust and feature-rich solution, well-suited for larger teams or organizations needing advanced tools and customizability, but it does come with a steeper learning curve and potentially higher cost. By choosing the right ATS for your team, you set yourself up for a smoother, more efficient hiring experience. No more battling cumbersome spreadsheets or juggling scattered applicant details!