Lever vs Ashby 2026: CRM-First or Analytics-First ATS?

For a growing team of up to 100 employees, Ashby is the easier pick: it prints its price, $300 to $900 a month by company size, and one plan covers ATS, sourcing, CRM, scheduling and analytics. Lever fits a team that wants AI interview transcripts and a candidate CRM in the core quote, or that already buys from Lever's sister products JazzHR and Jobvite. Above 100 employees, both are quote-only.

Prices and plan contents were read on the vendors' own pages on 19 October 2026: Ashby pricing and Lever pricing. Lever publishes no price at any size, so every Lever figure below is a feature, not a dollar amount.

Toolradar data: Lever is listed as an alternative to 47 other tools and Ashby to 26, second and seventh among the 39 applicant tracking systems on Toolradar, as of October 2026, per the Lever and Ashby profiles. Toolradar is the software directory we run. Lever is the more cross-shopped of the two, and Ashby's own site carries an Ashby vs. Lever page, so the pairing is one both vendors expect.

Lever vs Ashby at a glance

The table shows the core difference. Ashby sells one bundle at a printed price and gates depth by plan, while Lever sells a core platform plus named add-ons, each priced in the quote.

How much does Ashby cost?

Ashby's All-in-One Foundations plan covers companies up to 100 employees, and the pricing calculator sets the monthly price by company size:

The yearly columns are our arithmetic from the calculator's monthly figures and the 10% annual discount Ashby prints. Ashby's FAQ says startup pricing follows the size of the whole organization at purchase, not the number of recruiters, and is reassessed every year.

That headcount rule cuts both ways. A 90-person company with one recruiter pays the same top band as one with a full talent team, so Ashby is cheapest for companies that hire heavily relative to their size. Past 100 employees the price moves to Plus, which Ashby quotes on company size, usage and commitment.

The extras are small but real. SSO is $100 a month on Foundations, and texting beyond the 1,000 outbound messages Foundations includes each month costs $90 per 1,000. The AI Notetaker and the Advanced Scheduling package are paid add-ons with no printed price. Ashby's FAQ says it does not charge for integrations and includes baseline onboarding for every customer.

How much does Lever cost?

Lever publishes no price. Its FAQ says pricing "is 'available upon request'" and scales with the organization's size and hiring needs, and the pricing page is a quote form. There is no free plan or self-serve tier.

What the page does print is the scope of the core quote: ATS and CRM in one platform, out-of-the-box and customizable reporting, AI-powered screening, unlimited AI interview transcripts and summaries, and AI fraud signals on applications. Three add-ons sit outside it: Candidate Insights, AI Screening by VONQ and Onboarding.

For budgeting, that means two things. First, a Lever quote should be compared with Ashby's band for your headcount plus the Notetaker add-on, since Lever puts interview transcripts in its core. Second, ask for each add-on as a separate line, because a quote that bundles Onboarding can look expensive next to an ATS-only price.

What a 40-person company would budget

Take a 40-person company hiring a dozen people this year with one recruiter and a few hiring managers. On Ashby, it falls in the 26 to 50 band at $500 a month. Over a year that is $6,000 on monthly billing or $5,400 with the annual discount, and adding SSO at $100 a month brings the annual-term total to $6,600, by our arithmetic. Recording interviews with the AI Notetaker would add an amount Ashby does not print.

On Lever, the same company gets a quote, and the useful move is to ask for it in the same shape. Request the core platform as one line, then each add-on separately, and ask whether the price changes at 50 or 100 employees. With that, the two offers can be compared like for like: Ashby's band plus the Notetaker against Lever's core, which already includes transcripts.

The comparison often turns on growth. A company that expects to pass 100 employees within the contract term will be moved to a quoted Ashby Plus plan at renewal, so it should ask Ashby for that price up front as well.

Where Lever wins

Interview intelligence in the base price. Unlimited AI transcripts and summaries are part of Lever's core platform. On Ashby, the AI Notetaker that records and summarizes interviews is a paid add-on on every plan, so a team that records most interviews should price it before comparing.

Onboarding from the same vendor. Lever sells an Onboarding add-on with automated workflows, tasks and document collection. Ashby's pricing page lists offers and e-signature, but no onboarding module, so an Ashby customer hands new hires to an HRIS.

A family of products. Lever's site lists JazzHR for foundational hiring and Jobvite for more complex hiring alongside Lever. A company that may outgrow one tier, or that runs high-volume hiring in one unit, can stay with one vendor. Lever also says its AI features are built with IBM's watsonx.governance and that it holds SOC 2 Type II certification, which helps with a security review.

Where Ashby wins

A price before the demo. For a company of up to 100 people, the calculator gives the figure a finance team needs, and the annual discount is printed. Lever requires a sales conversation for the same answer.

Analytics depth as you grow. Foundations includes job dashboards, core dashboards and a report template library. Plus adds custom saved reports, unlimited custom dashboards, scheduled dashboard delivery, calculated fields and custom alerts. Ashby also sells Ashby Analytics on top of Lever or Greenhouse, which says something about where it sees its edge.

Sourcing built for outbound. Every Ashby plan includes multi-step sequences across email and LinkedIn, a sourcing Chrome extension, AI candidate search and 200 email lookups a month. A team that sources most of its hires gets that without a separate tool.

Scheduling and AI credits included. Direct booking, availability links, interviewer limits and debriefs are on Foundations, with 1,500 AI credits a month for AI-assisted application review and fraud detection. AI talent rediscovery and approval workflows start on Plus.

Which should you choose?

If the shortlist is still open, our best applicant tracking systems guide ranks the field, and the ATS buying guide covers the questions to ask in each demo. For each tool alone, read the Lever review and the Ashby pricing breakdown. The same choice against the market leader is covered in Greenhouse vs Ashby and Greenhouse vs Lever.

Smaller teams with a tighter budget should also look at the best ATS for small business, the JazzHR review for Lever's lower-priced sibling, and Workable pricing. Teams that mainly need outbound sourcing can compare the best recruiting CRM tools, and Toolradar has its own Ashby vs Lever comparison.

How we compared

Louis Corneloup, founder of Dupple and Toolradar, prepared this comparison for HR and talent teams choosing an ATS. We read Ashby's calculator, plan comparison table, add-ons and FAQ on its pricing page and Lever's core platform, add-ons and FAQ on its pricing page, both on 19 October 2026. Yearly totals are our arithmetic from Ashby's monthly prices and its printed annual discount, before taxes and add-ons. Lever's prices are not published, so no Lever total appears on this page.

FAQ

Lever or Ashby: which ATS should a growing team choose in 2026?

For a company of up to 100 employees, Ashby is usually the easier choice: its Foundations plan costs $300 to $900 a month by company size and includes ATS, sourcing, CRM, scheduling and analytics. Choose Lever if you want unlimited AI interview transcripts in the core quote or an onboarding module from the same vendor.

How much does Ashby cost in 2026?

Ashby Foundations costs $300 a month for 1 to 10 employees, $400 for 11 to 25, $500 for 26 to 50, $700 for 51 to 75 and $900 for 76 to 100, with 10% off for an annual commitment. SSO adds $100 a month. Above 100 employees, Ashby quotes its Plus and Enterprise plans.

How much does Lever cost?

Lever does not publish a price. Its pricing page is a quote form, and its FAQ says pricing scales with company size and hiring needs. The core quote covers ATS, CRM, reporting, AI screening and unlimited AI interview transcripts; Candidate Insights, AI Screening by VONQ and Onboarding are add-ons.

Does Ashby charge per recruiter seat?

No. Ashby's startup pricing follows the size of the whole organization at purchase, not the number of recruiters or users, and is reassessed every year. A company with one recruiter and one with five pay the same band at the same headcount.

Can I use Ashby's analytics with Lever?

Yes. Ashby sells Ashby Analytics as a separate product for companies of 100 or more employees that keep their existing ATS, and its FAQ names Lever and Greenhouse as supported. Pricing is based on usage and is quoted.

Cite this: HRpresso, "Lever vs Ashby 2026: CRM-First or Analytics-First ATS?", November 2026.

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