AkkenCloud vs. CATS Applicant Tracking System

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AkkenCloud
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
AkkenCloud is a cloud-based ATS developed by Akken Inc in New Hampshire. This product offers the full suite of features typical of applicant tracking systems: A user-friendly interface and mobile device integration Batch or mass communication with potential candidates via multiple channels such as email or by leveraging its integration with social networking sites (e.g. LinkedIn) Instantaneous posting to multiple job boards Job alerts and category sorted…N/A
CATS ATS
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
CATS is a web-based recruiting software. Users can manage the entire recruiting process including custom job applications, posting jobs, resume parsing, custom recruitment workflows, and generating customized reports. Pricing is tiered per user, per month.
$69
per month
Pricing
AkkenCloudCATS Applicant Tracking System
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Annual Pro Plan
$69
per user, per month
Monthly Pro Plan
$99
per user, per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AkkenCloudCATS ATS
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details—Please visit the CATS pricing page to compare plans and features
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AkkenCloudCATS Applicant Tracking System
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
AkkenCloudCATS Applicant Tracking System
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
AkkenCloud
7.7
8 Ratings
4% below category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
8.2
19 Ratings
3% above category average
Job Requisition Management6.28 Ratings9.517 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.67 Ratings9.517 Ratings
Publish to Social Media8.65 Ratings8.617 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting8.75 Ratings10.017 Ratings
Resume Management9.37 Ratings8.119 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention9.28 Ratings4.618 Ratings
Candidate Search4.28 Ratings6.219 Ratings
Applicant Tracking7.68 Ratings7.619 Ratings
Collaboration5.08 Ratings8.612 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation8.27 Ratings8.615 Ratings
Email Templates8.05 Ratings9.519 Ratings
User Permissions9.05 Ratings8.517 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts7.05 Ratings9.517 Ratings
Reporting8.06 Ratings4.718 Ratings
Customized Application Form00 Ratings9.518 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AkkenCloudCATS Applicant Tracking System
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Score 9.5 out of 10
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Score 9.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
AkkenCloudCATS Applicant Tracking System
Likelihood to Recommend
6.1
(13 ratings)
8.1
(28 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.6
(5 ratings)
8.4
(10 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
2.7
(1 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Performance
6.0
(1 ratings)
5.9
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
2.0
(3 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AkkenCloudCATS Applicant Tracking System
Likelihood to Recommend
AkkenCloud
I don't know many other scenarios, as I have been with this company for 13 years and in this industry for roughly 25 years. It is a tool that is well suited for our company and this industry in general. As a staffing company, you can accomplish nearly everything imaginable with this tool. The only area I have seen that might not be ideal is if you wanted to run all kinds of metrics. You can run a variety of reports in Akken, the data fields are limited sometimes and one would think that wouldn't need to be the case. You should be able to put whatever data you want in any field to create the report you need.
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CATS Software
It has a great parsing feature and the extension is very helpful. Many ATS systems do not support parsing within LinkedIn...this one does. I was sad to see this option go when we finally transitioned. I would almost keep CATS just for the LinkedIn parsing if I knew I could easily get the information OUT of the system once it was there. A good API/webhook would be great, but sadly the API connections don't work well. Our firm also works with companies with multiple sites all across the US. There was never a way to "nest" a location with a parent company. Because of this, being able to research or report on a true client relationship was not possible. It was a very manual process.
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Pros
AkkenCloud
  • Automatically keeps a record of activities such as email conversations related to a candidate.
  • Time and date stamp on events logged to a candidate and customer is a great resource.
  • Completing full company profiles with all contacts is very helpful for later efficiency.
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CATS Software
  • Simple to implement, SaaS based tool that needs no in-house IT support or resources
  • Customizable reports, labels, fields, applications
  • Affordable
  • No long term contract, month-to-month with ability to cancel anytime
  • Data backups are simple
  • Email directly from the candidate record with response coming into Outlook is easy to configure and creates record and updates status automatically
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Cons
AkkenCloud
  • This is the worst ATS I've ever used. It's hard to find what you need. It's not set up in a coherent manner and things are all over the place.
  • I have to download a resume just to view it.
  • The parse function only works in Internet Explorer and it works poorly then. Makes it impossible to tell if its actually a duplicate because it flags everything.
  • No section for meaningful notes. Notes are all just reports of action.
  • No way to make it efficient for direct hires. All geared towards staffing so it makes you fill out non-sense information that will be inaccurate and irrelevant just to satisfy field requirements.
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CATS Software
  • I would like to see either an integration with a robust reporting tool that would allow me to design my own custom reports with a data export or more built-in reporting options.
  • Mobile app is currently mostly just a look-up tool. I would like it to have the ability to do more - add tasks, update pipelines, etc.
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Likelihood to Renew
AkkenCloud
There is no reason for us to make a switch. Everybody in the office is familiar with it and it allows us to get our work done faster. There are no pressing issues that would warrant a change at this point
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CATS Software
Our company has been using it and enjoying the benefits for a few years now. Its a perfect system for our end goal of finding the best candidate effectively and being able to track and write reports on our progress.
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Usability
AkkenCloud
Akken is quite easy to use however there are a few more complex functions or multi steps to go through to run reports and find historic information.
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CATS Software
not recruiter friendly. workflow is not good
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Performance
AkkenCloud
It's an average tool. The calendar function isn't great, email is slow, and there always seem to be day-to-day issues. The functionality is mostly there for a staffing firm, but there are plenty of areas of improvement still needed
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CATS Software
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
AkkenCloud
The best support we have received has been from sales. Customer success is pretty much a joke. We have been yelled at by customer success reps; been told to take a screenshot of something we are not seeing; been told there are no issues on there in when Akken hadn't been working for hours, only to have it magically fixed shortly after we reported the problem; and been told engineering was working on a problem for weeks without resolution. If you are going to be working with IT Staffing companies, you have to understand that we have a modicum of knowledge in IT, and you can't BS us. Honesty will get you a lot farther than stringing us along with BS.
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CATS Software
I've had mixed results with asking for support. Sometimes they gave a quick answer and sometimes my emails were never responded to. Some responses were a single word.
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Implementation Rating
AkkenCloud
Encourage your team to watch the training videos available.
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CATS Software
This is an incredibly easy system to implement. There is no hardware or software required, it's entirely SaaS based. Compared to other systems I've implemented, it's breathtaking. Customization can all be done directly in the tool, there is no need for any involvement of consultants and most of the information you cannot figure out intuitively is covered in the knowledge base
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Alternatives Considered
AkkenCloud
We preferred the ability to go with Mac computers. That was the number one selling point for us. Besides that we liked the ease of the product. The email interface looked exactly like Outlook. The calendar the same. The price was also a big selling point. It came in slightly cheaper than Bullhorn and other systems and in our opinion a better product.
Read full review
CATS Software
We used to use Sendouts (prior to it being acquired by Bullhorn) - and it wasn't browser based like CATS so instead of being able to access it from a home computer, laptop, mobile phone, etc. you could only use it on the computer with the software uploaded - which is a hindrance. It also wasn't as customizable as CATS. We picked CATS because it the price was right, it was browser-based, had email-integration, and integrates with social media and job posting services to share your jobs
with the public.
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Return on Investment
AkkenCloud
  • Sometimes the system is slow and the process of hiring someone is lengthy so it takes a long time to complete it so it takes away from other things I could be working on
  • It’s easy and quick to manage candidates to show what process they’re in
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CATS Software
  • We went from Excel spreadsheets to using CATS so honestly anything would be an improvement. But CATS has saved tremendous time on an on-going basis in terms of managing the career portal automatically.
  • Being able to log email conversations with the click of a button from Outlook right into CATS has been a time-saver and also has helped numerous times in providing better follow-through to candidates and providing better tracking of candidate interactions and what they have previously said (or not).
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ScreenShots

CATS ATS Screenshots

Screenshot of Easily view candidates, without leaving the job order, using the candidate preview. Even quickly communicate with candidate via SMS without leaving your current screen.Screenshot of Candidate ProfileScreenshot of Add filters to quickly search and narrow down your candidate database.Screenshot of