What users are saying about
49 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 6.8 out of 100
Based on 49 reviews and ratings
Top Rated
206 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.4 out of 100
Based on 206 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
- CATS Applicant Tracking System ranks higher in 1 feature set: Recruiting / ATS
Recruiting / ATS

8.1
CATS ATS
81%

7.8
SmartRecruiters
78%
CATS Applicant Tracking System ranks higher in 10/15 features
CATS Applicant Tracking System ranks higher in 10/15 features
Job Requisition Management

9.5
95%
17 Ratings

8.6
86%
98 Ratings
Company Website Posting

9.5
95%
17 Ratings

8.4
84%
102 Ratings
Publish to Social Media

8.5
85%
17 Ratings

7.6
76%
102 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting

10.0
100%
17 Ratings

7.6
76%
106 Ratings
Customized Application Form

9.5
95%
18 Ratings

8.2
82%
94 Ratings
Resume Management

8.0
80%
19 Ratings

8.0
80%
107 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention

4.5
45%
18 Ratings

5.7
57%
101 Ratings
Candidate Search

6.0
60%
19 Ratings

7.3
73%
110 Ratings
Applicant Tracking

7.5
75%
19 Ratings

8.7
87%
113 Ratings
Collaboration

8.5
85%
12 Ratings

9.1
91%
104 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation

8.5
85%
15 Ratings

7.7
77%
89 Ratings
Email Templates

9.5
95%
19 Ratings

8.0
80%
101 Ratings
User Permissions

8.5
85%
17 Ratings

8.0
80%
96 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts

9.5
95%
17 Ratings

7.9
79%
108 Ratings
Reporting

4.5
45%
18 Ratings

6.5
65%
94 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- CATS Applicant Tracking System is rated higher in 1 area: Availability
- SmartRecruiters is rated higher in 5 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Likelihood to Renew, Usability, Performance, Support Rating
- CATS Applicant Tracking System and SmartRecruiters are tied in 1 area: Implementation Rating
Likelihood to Recommend

8.0
CATS ATS
80%
28 Ratings

8.6
SmartRecruiters
86%
116 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew

8.4
CATS ATS
84%
10 Ratings

10.0
SmartRecruiters
100%
14 Ratings
Usability

2.7
CATS ATS
27%
1 Rating

9.0
SmartRecruiters
90%
13 Ratings
Availability

9.1
CATS ATS
91%
4 Ratings

9.0
SmartRecruiters
90%
2 Ratings
Performance

5.9
CATS ATS
59%
4 Ratings

10.0
SmartRecruiters
100%
2 Ratings
Support Rating

4.5
CATS ATS
45%
2 Ratings

8.7
SmartRecruiters
87%
13 Ratings
Implementation Rating

9.1
CATS ATS
91%
2 Ratings

9.1
SmartRecruiters
91%
3 Ratings
Product Scalability

CATS ATS
N/A
0 Ratings

9.0
SmartRecruiters
90%
1 Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
CATS ATS
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.

Verified User
Partner in Other
Staffing & Recruiting Company, 1-10 employeesSmartRecruiters
I highly recommend SmartRecruiters for all organizations to make job searches and applications smoother and easier. This application is currently well suited for this. I find it easy to search and review the job posting, job description, and criteria. It even shows the direct hiring manager and hiring recruiter. This allows me to send a separate email to either one if I had questions that were not answered directly on the posting.

Verified User
Employee in Sales
Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employeesPros
CATS ATS
- 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
Talent Management Lead
Market TrackMarket Research, 501-1000 employees
SmartRecruiters
- Organization - SmartRecruiters is not so busy that I cannot easily tell what I am looking at. Everything is easy to navigate and follow intuitively.
- Workflow - SmartRecruiters allows me to set up logical connections to automate subsequent fields in job creation. This aids in accuracy of job creation to match our payroll system, plus makes the process of creating a new requisition/ad faster.
- Approvals - Approvals of job requisitions and offers could not be simpler.
- Customization - There is very little that cannot be customized and/or branded to fit my organization's needs, including connecting to my other business platforms.

Verified User
Analyst in Human Resources
Paper & Forest Products Company, 1001-5000 employeesCons
CATS ATS
- 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.

Verified User
Executive in Other
Staffing and Recruiting Company, 1-10 employeesSmartRecruiters
- Not having feature of referral data, who has referred
- Another problem is that in [the] emails section it shows 'company name' field will show as Smartrecruiters vs. the name of our agency that will make confuse to [candidates]
- Major problem of this is that it does not support api in the free version

Verified User
Manager in Human Resources
Information Technology & Services Company, 51-200 employeesPricing Details
CATS ATS
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
$69 per month
CATS ATS Editions & Modules
Edition
Monthly Pro Plan | $991 |
---|---|
Annual Pro Plan | $691 |
- per user, per month
Additional Pricing Details
Please visit the CATS pricing page to compare plans and featuresSmartRecruiters
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
Required
$1,000
Starting Price
$0 per month
SmartRecruiters Editions & Modules
Edition
Corporate | Varies, per FTE1 |
---|---|
Global | Varies, per FTE1 |
SmartStart | Free2 |
- Billed annually
- up to 10 active job postings
Additional Pricing Details
The software subscription is determined by the number of full time employees in your company. A one time cost to set up software, including customizations, integrations, data migration and training.Likelihood to Renew
CATS ATS
CATS ATS 8.4
Based on 10 answers
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.
RPO Specialist
TriStarr StaffingStaffing and Recruiting, 11-50 employees
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters 10.0
Based on 14 answers
Our team is currently on a free tier as we only hire a handful of people per year. With that said, I would not switch if the low usage tier was paid. We have several years of data and candidates in the system and they have continued to make the product better. I discovered SR years ago from their community management and customer services efforts, which were outstanding. They care about their users, and they're passionate about making them successful. They've definitely evolved to become more enterprise focused, but the free SmartStart versions still blows away competitors. Plus, they've got some kickass t-shirts
Co-Founder | CEO
SculptMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees
Usability
CATS ATS
CATS ATS 2.7
Based on 1 answer
not recruiter friendly. workflow is not good

Verified User
Employee in Human Resources
Human Resources Company, 1-10 employeesSmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters 9.0
Based on 13 answers
SmartRecruiters is an intuitive tool that our HR recruiters can use without a lot of prior training. It is easy to post jobs to targeted audiences; create advertisements to attract attention; and then keep track of candidates for follow-ups, etc. Overall I would saw SmartRecruiters is very easy to use.
Senior Network Administrator
University HealthSystem ConsortiumHospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees
Reliability and Availability
CATS ATS
CATS ATS 9.1
Based on 4 answers
No answer on this topic is available.
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters 9.0
Based on 2 answers
Rarely is there an issue and if the product is down, it typically is restored quickly.
Human Resource Specialist
Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington CountiesNon-Profit Organization Management, 201-500 employees
Performance
CATS ATS
CATS ATS 5.9
Based on 4 answers
No answer on this topic is available.
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters 10.0
Based on 2 answers
I have no complaints about performance. The system works virtually flawless.
Human Resource Specialist
Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington CountiesNon-Profit Organization Management, 201-500 employees
Support Rating
CATS ATS
CATS ATS 4.5
Based on 2 answers
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.
Managing Director
The Six Second ResumeDefense & Space, 51-200 employees
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters 8.7
Based on 13 answers
I would give this rating as it is the best platform for HR to solve their recruitment problems along with their team. As it has got multiple features to exposure. It has made my communication with hiring managers much easier, I don't need to write emails, neither they do. They like it very much. The rating card of the candidates after the Interview is the very best feature of it. Would love to use it again in Future

Verified User
Manager in Human Resources
Information Technology & Services Company, 51-200 employeesIn-Person Training
CATS ATS
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
Quick and easy to learn.
Franchise Owner
Christian Brothers AutomotiveAutomotive, 1-10 employees
Implementation Rating
CATS ATS
CATS ATS 9.1
Based on 2 answers
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
Talent Management Lead
Market TrackMarket Research, 501-1000 employees
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters 9.1
Based on 3 answers
It really was a painless and easy process to switch to SmartRecruiters.
Human Resource Specialist
Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington CountiesNon-Profit Organization Management, 201-500 employees
Alternatives Considered
CATS ATS
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.
with the public.
Recruiter
automationtechiesStaffing and Recruiting, 11-50 employees
SmartRecruiters
I've really enjoyed using SmartRecruiters, but these other ATSs that we've checked out offer better reporting features and price points. Over time, we may be transitioning off of SmartRecruiters to one of these ATSs because the price is a set price where SmartRecruiters has employee-based pricing model. Also, these other software products offer better reporting features that would eliminate some of our manual tracking process that we're currently doing.
Recruiting Manager
Total Spectrum, LLCHospital & Health Care, 201-500 employees
Scalability
CATS ATS
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters 9.0
Based on 1 answer
No explanation really, just a great product.
Human Resource Specialist
Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington CountiesNon-Profit Organization Management, 201-500 employees
Return on Investment
CATS ATS
- 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).
Staffing Manager
KBACE TechnologiesInformation Technology and Services, 201-500 employees
SmartRecruiters
- In terms of ROI, SR helped our business greatly in returning precious time to my productivity in business management, as well as my team's, so that we could get back to the main work we were hired for. The SR process did most of the heavy lifting.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Retail Company, 51-200 employees