Hiring used to be pretty straightforward. “Receptionist wanted: typing skills essential.” That was enough to attract a probably really great candidate. Recruitment back then didn’t involve job postings across multiple channels, DEI initiatives, or any data collection.
Fast-forward to today and the roles and responsibilities of the average recruiter have increased tenfold. Sourcing, screening, testing, background checks, interviews, and more require substantial time and investment. Especially when you’re juggling multiple positions and candidates, having the right hiring tool by your side can make a huge difference.
Which recruitment software can help you with all of the above? We’ve compared two standout tools: Toggl Hire, originally a skills assessment platform that evolved into a full-cycle recruiting software, and SmartRecruiters, a talent acquisition hiring app.
You’re probably thinking, “Great. But which one is right for my hiring needs? Which offers the best candidate experience?” Keep scrolling to learn about each software’s unique strengths and features to help you make your decision.
Toggl Hire wins over SmartRecruiters because only Toggl Hire:
- Has a generous free plan to test out the tool before purchasing
- Has three pricing plans to accommodate businesses of all sizes
- Is made for the entire hiring funnel, with features ranging from sourcing to pipeline management
- Focuses on the candidate experience
- Is fully customizable according to your HR team’s needs and preferences
What is Toggl Hire?
Toggl Hire is a full-cycle recruitment platform that allows you to hire from initial job posting to extending an offer.
While it has many features, which we will explore below, it stands out for two main reasons compared to other recruitment platforms:
First, the software’s expert-created skills tests allow companies to hire based on real-life skills and performance, not fancy resumes or cover letters.
Second, it provides candidates with quick and timely feedback, which helps promote a transparent hiring process and creates an overall great candidate experience.
Expert-crafted skills assessments
Our skills tests feature one of the most robust question libraries available, created by subject matter experts and curated by seasoned professionals. This guarantees the highest quality and accuracy, ensuring that candidates are evaluated with precision.
Async video interviews for flexibility
Toggl Hire’s video interview functionality lets you assess multiple candidates simultaneously and on your own schedule. This flexibility reduces the hassle of coordinating interviews, allowing you to focus on selecting the best candidate for the job.
Candidate-focused features
With features such as automatic feedback, integrated email communications, and quick communication filters, Toggl Hire ensures candidates are always well-informed. This superior candidate experience is why the majority of candidates love using Toggl Hire, boosting your employer brand significantly.
Customizable talent pipeline management
Easily drag and drop candidates throughout your pipeline and combine different stages like qualifying questions and video interviews. This level of customization allows you to create a talent pipeline that meets your specific needs for optimal efficiency.
Simple candidate management system
Toggl Hire’s centralized database keeps all your candidate information organized and easily accessible. With our candidate management system, you can effortlessly add, update, or remove candidate details, making your recruitment process smoother and more efficient.
Collaborative tools for team hiring
Effective hiring often involves multiple stakeholders. Toggl Hire makes this easy by providing dynamic hiring feeds and built-in notifications that connect hiring managers, recruiters, and other team members. Keep everyone aligned and focused on meeting your hiring objectives.
What is SmartRecruiters?
SmartRecruiters is talent acquisition software that covers the entire hiring process, from job posting and applicant tracking to onboarding.
It also has some next-level functionality, like optimizing your careers site and AI recruiting. Given these advanced features, SmartRecruiters is primarily aimed at enterprise-level and hyper-growth organizations with high-volume recruiting needs.
Toggl Hire is best for…
Toggl Hire supports companies of all shapes and sizes with a diverse feature set that any HR team will find useful. That said, Toggl Hire works best for companies that:
- Want to try out an HR tool before committing to a paid plan
- Favor real-life skills over resumes and cover letters
- Struggle with screening a large number of initial applicants
- Need help to objectively identify the most qualified candidates
- Want to build a talent pool for future hiring needs
- Want to reduce their time to hire by narrowing down top applicants more quickly
- Need to build or redesign their hiring process with actionable steps that both the HR team and candidates will love
In short, Toggl Hire is best for HR teams with many applicants that want to quickly whittle it down to the very best handful of potential hires.
SmartRecruiters is best for…
SmartRecruiters specializes in advanced features to meet even the most demanding hiring needs of medium to large organizations. SmartRecruiters works best for companies and HR teams that:
- Have an extensive budget for HR tools
- Already know how to navigate enterprise HR software
- Don’t mind the complex user experience
- Need to cover all stages of the hiring funnel
- Want analytics and reporting features
Overall, SmartRecruiters has an impressive feature set. At the same time, it’s missing some of the basics that are offered in much more affordable hiring tools.
You deserve more from your recruitment software
Businesses that choose SmartRecruiters have big budgets—as even the most basic plan will run you almost $1,000 monthly. Toggl Hire, on the other hand, is a more wallet-friendly choice, with plans starting from as little as $20 per month.
To be a customer of SmartRecruiters, you’ll also need previous HR experience, as the software comes with a steep learning curve to master the full range of complex features. By comparison, anyone can use Toggl Hire, even those with no HR experience at all.
If it helps, think of this comparison as Canva vs. Photoshop.
Like Canva, Toggl Hire is super-intuitive and easy for anyone to use. Above all, Toggle Hire values the candidate experience, and that’s why we’ve got personalization and customization built-in.
With Toggl Hire, it’s easy to choose and change test questions and feedback messages at every step of the hiring process.
Like Photoshop, SmartRecruiters is not that easy to customize and adjust without some software know-how. And, as we’ll see in the next section on pricing, it’s a lot more expensive—and, in general, built with professionals in mind.
Toggl Hire vs. SmartRecruiters pricing
Although SmartRecruiters does not publish its pricing, public reviews place the solution in the range of $850 per month, rising upwards from $10,000 a year depending on company size and hiring volume—making it one of the pricier options in the market.
For companies that want to try before they buy, Toggl Hire offers a free plan that lets you play with all the features for up to three candidates. That includes unlimited tests with unlimited users, offering all the information you need before committing to a paid plan.
Payment packages are transparent and split into three:
- Basic: $20/month, up to 20 candidates
- Premium: $75/month, up to 45 candidates
- Business: $469/month, unlimited candidates
Each plan offers unlimited jobs and tests and the ability to tap into our rich library of test templates and questions. For customers with more advanced hiring needs, the Premium plan also covers anti-cheating measures, advanced questions, APIs and integrations, and more.
Lastly, the Business plan is built for a fully immersive, custom candidate experience. It comes with your own email template library, a custom URL for applicants, and bulk actions for candidate pipeline management.
The verdict: What makes Toggl Hire the best SmartRecruiters alternative to manage full-cycle hiring
Ultimately, the choice is yours alone to make. Like any other software decision, you’ll need to weigh not only pricing and ease of use but also look at individual features your team really needs to hire the best talent (efficiently…and under budget).
If you’ve got a rockstar HR budget and some serious HR heavyweights on your team, it’s worth getting a price quote from SmartRecruiters. They’ve got all the right features, but your team will need to learn how to make the most of them.
For everybody else, consider Toggl Hire.
Toggl Hire works for any business, small or large, young or old since our platform is designed to adapt to the needs of your company and applicants. It’s easy to use, fully customizable, and built for the entire recruiting funnel. Scale up or down when it suits you with our transparent pricing plans.
Try Toggl Hire for free
Sign up for a free Toggl Hire account today and experience hiring so smooth it’s almost…fun.
Mile is a B2B content marketer specializing in HR, martech and data analytics. Ask him about thoughts on reducing hiring bias, the role of AI in modern recruitment, or how to immediately spot red flags in a job ad.