Ashby Review

Ashby is the recruiting suite to open when a people lead wants the monthly number before anyone books a demo. That number covers the whole company, not the recruiting desk, so a lean talent team cannot shop for a small-team rate inside a larger company.

An 80-person startup with one recruiter lands in the same band as an 80-person company with a full talent team. If finance models the bill from recruiter seats, the invoice will come in higher than that model.

Toolradar data: Toolradar tracks 32 ATS tools as of October 16, 2026, on its ATS ranking. Greenhouse drew 280 side-by-side comparisons there in the 90 days to October 2026, and Lever drew 209, so both stay on an Ashby shortlist even with no public rate.

Ashby's directory page sits in that same set, which means a budget that drops those two quotes is ignoring the tools buyers placed beside Ashby most often in that window.

How we compared, with prices checked on October 16, 2026: whether a dollar is printed before a call, whether that dollar follows headcount, and which lines sit outside it. This is a read of vendor pages, not a product trial, and the method is on how we rate.

An applicant tracking system is the software that holds jobs, candidates, interviews, and the hire decision. Ashby sells that job as one suite, ATS, CRM and sourcing, scheduling, and analytics, with AI credits attached to review, fraud checks, and rediscovery, so a buyer who wanted only a pipeline still pays for the CRM and the charts.

The homepage splits the same product by stage. The startup stage is the public calculator, growth is the stage after that menu, and enterprise is the stage after growth. Foundations, the plan on the calculator, is the only one with a price you can read before a call, so a company already in growth or enterprise should expect a quote.

A fourth product, Analytics, sits on top of an ATS you already run once the company has reached that same growth threshold, and Ashby says the price follows usage. It suits a team that will not migrate, and it does not give you a platform rate to approve from the page.

The comparison lists a 250-plus integration marketplace, unlimited offer e-sign, and a single offer template. One template is enough when every hire gets the same letter, and a second letter is a reason to leave Foundations.

Custom dashboards, saved custom reports, and the recruiting planner are not included until Plus, and newsletters are included only on Enterprise, so a board that wants its own charts, or a team that sends newsletters, is already off the calculator.

You read a Foundations price without a demo, from two menus on the card: company size, and monthly or yearly. The size menu defaults to the open band, 11 to 25 employees, and the term defaults to monthly, so the first number on screen is not the smallest company.

Yearly shows the discounted platform total still as a per-month figure, which means the card is already the rate to copy into a budget.

Day to day, recruiters post to the Ashby job board and to the boards the comparison names, LinkedIn, Indeed, and Google Jobs, then move people through stages and book from calendar availability. Those boards are part of the suite, so you are not buying a separate distribution contract for them.

Screening tools beyond that pool are in the AI recruiting guide.

Interview summaries are included, while the AI Notetaker that records and transcribes is a paid add-on on every plan, and Ashby publishes no price for it. A team that needs the recording cannot treat the summary as a transcript, and it cannot cost the add-on until a quote arrives.

Texting is the sharp limit. Foundations includes 1,000 outbound messages a month, to candidates in the US and Canada, from a shared company number, so a hiring plan that texts other countries cannot assume this line covers them.

Past that batch, every plan lists $90 per 1,000, which means a busy texting month is a second line rather than a surprise inside the platform rate.

Passing the last public band changes the contract, not only the rate. Ashby's seat-billing article says Foundations is the five workforce tiers, and other accounts pay for provisioned seats. Extra seats on those accounts are invoiced at quarter end and prorated by the day, so a hire in the last week of a quarter still creates a charge.

The article illustrates proration with a sample rate, which is not a list price, and you should not paste it into next year's model. Read it on Ashby's seat-billing guide before you model year two.

Foundations is a company-size menu, checked on Ashby's pricing page on October 16, 2026. The bands are $300 a month for 1 to 10 employees, the open band for 11 to 25, $500 a month for 26 to 50, $700 a month for 51 to 75, and $900 a month for 76 to 100, and the card opens on 11 to 25.

Crossing a band edge reprices the whole company, not the recruiting desk, so one hire can move the platform rate.

A yearly commitment discounts the platform rate. A company of 8 people, inside the smallest band, pays $3,240 for the year on that term, which is the figure to approve if you will stay in that band. A company of 20 people sits in the open band, so the yearly term is $4,320 for the year, and that is the number to set beside a flat ATS bill.

A company of 50 people is in the 26 to 50 band, which is $5,400 for the year on that same term, so growth inside the year is already priced if you will reach that band. At the top public band the yearly term is $9,720, which is what finance should hold if the company might finish the contract near the cap.

SSO on Foundations is $100 a month, $1,200 across a year, and the yearly platform discount does not apply to it. A 20-person company that needs SSO on the yearly term pays $5,520 for the year before any texting overage, so identity login is the line that breaks a platform-only budget.

Extra SMS is $90 per 1,000 messages on every plan, so a busy texting month costs the same on Foundations as on a quote. Email lookups include 200 a month on every plan, and further lookups are a paid add-on with no published rate.

The card also says emerging-market pricing is available and does not publish that rate, so a company hiring in those markets cannot assume the printed bands are the bill.

Workable charges $299 a month for Standard recruiting at 1 to 20 employees on yearly billing, with HR switched off, which is $3,588 for the year, and that is the banded bill to set beside Ashby when the employee file can wait.

Ashby's yearly platform total at 20 people is $732 higher, and it does not include an HR file, so the gap is the price of the recruiting suite without payroll, time off, or an employee record.

JazzHR Plus is $3,480 a year, a flat annual price with up to 200 active jobs, which is $840 under Ashby's 20-person year.

At 50 people that gap against Plus widens to $1,920, because JazzHR does not step up with headcount, which is why a company that will hire through the year should compare the job cap rather than today's band.

Greenhouse lists Core, Plus, and Pro and publishes no dollar, and Lever says the rate is available on request, so neither can enter a budget from the site.

SmartRecruiters prints an Essential floor of $14,995 and does not say whether that figure is per year, so confirm the term before you treat it as a year of Ashby.

Catalog pages: Workable, JazzHR, Greenhouse, Lever, and SmartRecruiters.

Ashby fits a company that can name its headcount and expects to stay on the public calculator for the whole contract. The talent lead has to accept one offer template, basic report filters, and 1,500 AI credits a month, which is a light screening pool rather than a credit for every applicant.

It is a weak fit when the company is already past the menu, or will cross that line during the contract, because the public price ends and the next contract is a quote.

It is also a weak fit when the real need is custom dashboards or a second offer template, both absent from Foundations, because either one moves you onto Plus before the recruiting workflow has started.

Skip it when hiring depends on texting outside the US and Canada, because the included texts do not cover those candidates. Skip it when finance needs an HR file, payroll, or time off on the same invoice, because Ashby does not sell that file and the recruiting price will not become an HR suite later.

There is no free plan and no trial on the pricing page. A team that must post one job before procurement signs should start on the free applicant tracking list.

Read the Workable review when you want a banded recruiting price and a 15-day trial before you sign. Read the Greenhouse review when kits and scorecards matter more than a number you can read today.

Read the Lever review when ATS and CRM should arrive as one quote and you can wait on the modules.

If the blocker is leaving Greenhouse specifically, the Greenhouse alternatives guide is the price-first list for that switch. For the employee file, use the startup HR guide.

The posting still starts with the job description.