CATS Applicant Tracking System vs. SmartRecruiters

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
SmartRecruiters
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
SmartRecruiters’ Talent Acquisition Suite is a cloud-based recruitment marketing and collaborative hiring platform. It features an open marketplace for third party recruitment services. SmartRecruiters also offers talent sourcing and screening as add-on features.
$0
per month
Pricing
CATS Applicant Tracking SystemSmartRecruiters
Editions & Modules
Annual Pro Plan
$69
per user, per month
Monthly Pro Plan
$99
per user, per month
Corporate
Varies, per FTE
Billed annually
Global
Varies, per FTE
Billed annually
SmartStart
Free
up to 10 active job postings
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CATS ATSSmartRecruiters
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$1,000
Additional DetailsPlease visit the CATS pricing page to compare plans and featuresThe 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.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CATS Applicant Tracking SystemSmartRecruiters
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
CATS Applicant Tracking SystemSmartRecruiters
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
CATS Applicant Tracking System
8.2
19 Ratings
3% above category average
SmartRecruiters
8.3
127 Ratings
4% above category average
Job Requisition Management9.517 Ratings9.2109 Ratings
Company Website Posting9.517 Ratings9.7114 Ratings
Publish to Social Media8.617 Ratings7.6112 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting10.017 Ratings8.1116 Ratings
Customized Application Form9.518 Ratings8.6104 Ratings
Resume Management8.119 Ratings7.8119 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention4.618 Ratings7.9114 Ratings
Candidate Search6.219 Ratings8.4122 Ratings
Applicant Tracking7.619 Ratings9.3126 Ratings
Collaboration8.612 Ratings8.2117 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation8.615 Ratings9.197 Ratings
Email Templates9.519 Ratings8.5114 Ratings
User Permissions8.517 Ratings8.8109 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts9.517 Ratings9.3119 Ratings
Reporting4.718 Ratings4.6105 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CATS Applicant Tracking SystemSmartRecruiters
Small Businesses
Recruit CRM
Recruit CRM
Score 9.5 out of 10
Recruit CRM
Recruit CRM
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Vibe HCM
Vibe HCM
Score 4.4 out of 10
Vibe HCM
Vibe HCM
Score 4.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CATS Applicant Tracking SystemSmartRecruiters
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(28 ratings)
7.8
(129 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(10 ratings)
6.0
(15 ratings)
Usability
2.7
(1 ratings)
9.1
(12 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
5.9
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
4.5
(1 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.1
(12 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
CATS Applicant Tracking SystemSmartRecruiters
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters has allowed us to enable our hiring managers to self-service their requirements for recruitment, simplifying our internal processes. We have visibility of recruitment requirements and significantly improved our approvals process using the software. We have been able to configure our hiring processes relevant to different areas of the business. Collaboration for our hiring teams (managers and business partners) is simple and effective. Candidate experience is enhanced and engaging. The platform has brought many benefits to our Resourcing business partners and hiring managers. We have visibility and insightful data which has integrity, allowing us to make informed business decisions. Our offer process has seen significant improvements and provides an engaging candidate experience, previously this was a labour-intensive process that is now streamlined and automated. The recently launched Community for collaboration amongst customers is very helpful and insigtful for how other people are using the software and exploring ideas with each other
Read full review
Pros
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
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
  • Job Referrals - can easily refer others to a job posting and view the status
  • Job Postings - can easily search for job openings and read job description and criteria
  • Application online - Can easily apply for the job directly and see who the hiring manager and hiring recruiter is
Read full review
Cons
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.
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
  • Settings page can be difficult to navigate & find what you're looking for
  • Job approval chains would be better with additional qualifying fields so that we can segregate different areas of the business better
  • The ability to edit an existing offer template in-system would improve the experience, rather than having to edit offline and upload a whole new version.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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.
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
I thoroughly enjoy using SmartRecruiters and have shared this feedback with those responsible, however I am not a decision maker in the process. I understand that at the moment there are lots of factors affecting the economy and business outcomes, so I cannot comment with certainty on the renewal of SmartRecruiters at this time, not involved in the confirmation of renewal.
Read full review
Usability
CATS Software
not recruiter friendly. workflow is not good
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
I would give this rating as overall it a great combo of all your problems. With just one click you can get away with all your problems such as recruitment, candidate update, Interview scheduling, updating candidates, reports of a job perspective, and recruiters perspective. Usability is worth of SmartRecruiters. The dashboard is also very attractive and once you open you will love working on this platform again and again. I would say it is the best platform to use once for smooth work in your organization.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
Rarely is there an issue and if the product is down, it typically is restored quickly.
Read full review
Performance
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
I have no complaints about performance. The system works virtually flawless.
Read full review
Support Rating
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.
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
Response is normally very fast. There are times, however, when the response is not useful. It is difficult to work with the reporting and the offer letter templates, and the front line support agents usually are not very knowledgeable. Second, if there are any issues with integrations, the regular support agents will not be able to help you. You'll have to create that ticket and ask them to escalate it to an integration specialist.
Read full review
In-Person Training
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
Quick and easy to learn.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
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
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
It really was a painless and easy process to switch to SmartRecruiters.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Scalability
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
No explanation really, just a great product.
Read full review
Return on Investment
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).
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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

SmartRecruiters Screenshots

Screenshot of A candidate experience to  reach, engage, and connect with talent wherever they are.Screenshot of Engaged hiring managers empowered by collaboration tools and applicant tracking to drive better hiring decisions.Screenshot of Digital offer management, onboarding, and reporting deliver a seamless journey for new hires and recruiters.Screenshot of SmartRecruiters eases the burden of juggling multiple open roles and hiring large volumes.Screenshot of Frees up hiring teams to focus on making great hires and delivering a better candidate experience by automating routine tasks.Screenshot of Find and discover qualified talent while getting the most from the advertising budget.