7 best Bullhorn alternatives for recruitment agencies in 2026

The seven Bullhorn alternatives, in one line each

• Kepler — perm and contingency agencies that want the AI in one published seat price.
• Tracker — staffing firms that need timesheets, invoicing and payroll sync in the ATS.
• Vincere — mid-size UK and APAC agencies with a temp desk and a module list.
• JobAdder — agencies that advertise on paid job boards and want a big marketplace.
• Crelate — boutique US agencies with light contractor volume and an optional back office.
• Loxo — agencies buying reach: a sourcing graph and outreach in one platform.
• Spott — AI-native agencies that want more modules than Kepler inside one tool.

Why do agencies look for a Bullhorn alternative?

The reasons are structural, and every one of them is on a Bullhorn page rather than a review site.

• Fifteen plans and add-ons, two of them priced. Bullhorn’s pricing page names Starter, Core, Pro and Max for small agencies, three Front Office and Bullhorn One editions above them, and eight add-ons alongside. Starter is USD 99 and Core is USD 165 per user per month; the other thirteen say “Talk to us”. Prices exclude VAT and the billing basis is not stated (checked 13 Sep 2026).
• The AI tier is quote-only and the AI skills are sold separately. Bullhorn Pro, the small-agency tier with AI search and match, Amplify Chat and AI call transcription, has no published price. Bullhorn’s knowledge base lists AI Assistant Premium, Bullhorn Search and Match and every Amplify skill as separate purchases requiring the Amplify edition on top of a Growth, Enterprise or Industry package, with the standard AI Assistant offered on a bring-your-own-LLM basis.
• Ordinary features sit behind editions. Bullhorn’s own platform editions matrix puts custom fields and unlimited data storage on the Bullhorn ATS edition rather than the entry edition, and custom REST API integrations on Front Office Growth. Shift Scheduling is marked “NA only” and the Credentialing and Compliance Manager “NA/UKI only”.
• The product is built around pay and bill. Bullhorn One is described on Bullhorn’s site as running a recruiting business “from intake to payroll”, with time and expense capture, an invoicing engine and payroll. A permanent-placement agency that bills fees rather than hours is buying a platform designed around ground it never uses.

None of that makes Bullhorn a bad product. For a staffing firm that pays contractors and needs a VMS feed, nothing here matches Bullhorn One, the 300+ partner Marketplace or twenty-five years of enterprise references. This list is for agencies that do not need those things and are paying for them anyway.

Bullhorn alternatives compared at a glance

The price column is the tier that carries each vendor’s AI, on an annual basis where one is published; every figure was read on the vendor’s own pricing page on 13 Sep 2026.

How we evaluated these alternatives

Every claim about a vendor comes from that vendor’s own site, pricing page or help centre, read on the date given in the sources at the foot of this post. The price shown is the matched plan — the tier that carries the AI a buyer would compare — never the cheapest tier, and where a vendor publishes no figure the table says so rather than estimating. Kepler publishes this post and appears first; each entry states where the alternative is ahead of Kepler, and no entry is scored against another. The order is closest substitute for Bullhorn first.

The seven alternatives in detail

1. Kepler

Kepler is a recruitment CRM built around one assistant and one searchable database, sold in a single edition. The assistant sits in a sidebar on every page, reads the whole workspace — candidates, CVs, notes, emails and call transcripts — and can create and update records once a person approves the change. Search is hybrid semantic and keyword across all of that text; matching returns a pass or gap verdict with the evidence for every requirement; a notetaker files call transcripts against the right record; and emails, calls and messages become proposed field updates a human accepts or rejects. Around it sit pipelines, Gmail and Outlook sync, a WhatsApp and LinkedIn inbox, CV parsing and formatting, a careers site on your own domain, a client portal, a consent ledger, email campaigns, automations and a public REST API. It suits a permanent, contingency or retained agency whose real asset is years of records nobody can search.

Kepler is USD 99 per user per month billed annually (USD 1,188 per seat per year), or USD 129 monthly. One edition with every feature included, unlimited records and storage, a monthly AI allowance with additional capacity on request, and a migration Kepler runs for you free on every plan — extraction, mapping, de-duplication and validation, fifty of your own records to review before the full load, done in days. Full workspace export at any time, no exit fee.

Where Kepler falls short of Bullhorn and of several tools here: no timesheets, invoicing or payroll; no multiposting; no sourcing database or enrichment; no SMS inbox or campaigns; no opportunities pipeline; no mobile app; no SOC 2 or ISO 27001. It has no paying customers yet; its CV parsing is ported from RemakeCV, Kepler’s own product, which 300+ recruitment agencies use.

See Kepler pricing and what Kepler does.

2. Tracker

Tracker (TrackerRMS) puts the ATS, the CRM and the back office in one system for staffing and recruiting firms in the UK and US. It is the closest substitute for Bullhorn here because it answers the same brief: timesheets, expenses, invoicing, payroll integrations with QuickBooks, Xero and Sage, candidate compliance and a shift planner, in the same product as the pipeline. It suits a temp, contract or shift desk that wants Bullhorn’s shape at a smaller scale.

The matched plan is Professional — the first of Tracker’s four plans with the Sequencer, AutoAction, Watchdogs, the REST API and timesheets — priced “Contact Sales”; TrackerAI access “varies by tier”. Core is USD 99 and Launch is USD 79 per user billed monthly, with no annual figure published; Launch covers up to five recruiters and is sold through LogicMelon. Six-month minimum commitment, job board subscriptions bought separately, no migration fee published (checked 13 Sep 2026).

Where Tracker is ahead of Kepler: the whole back office, which Kepler does not have at all; candidate compliance that can block a candidate from progressing without documents; shift and workforce management; a dedicated two-way SMS number with text as a Sequencer step; multiposting to more than a thousand job boards through LogicMelon and DaXtra; video interviewing; a mobile app; and around twenty years of operating history.

Kepler vs Tracker, side by side · Tracker review

3. Vincere

Vincere, sold today as Access Vincere Evo, is a recruitment operating system for mid-size UK and APAC agencies: a core CRM and ATS surrounded by modules — TimeTemp for timesheets and pay and bill, Engage and Portals for candidate-facing sites, Vinneo for video — with The Access Group’s payroll and onboarding products alongside. It suits an agency with a temp or contract book that wants one vendor across front office, back office and payroll.

The Access Group’s UK pricing page publishes the CRM and ATS “from £69 per user per month” and four AI Smart Packs per agency per month: Base from GBP 25, Present from GBP 139, Automate from GBP 235 and Elite from GBP 349. The matched plan is the licence plus the Base pack, which carries Copilot, candidate scoring and the content optimiser; both are “from” prices billed monthly and the actual figure is a tailored quote. The licence alone has no AI, the enrichment agent and CRM automation need Automate, and the Australian page publishes no figures (checked 13 Sep 2026).

Where Vincere is ahead of Kepler: pay and bill, timesheets, shift scheduling and invoicing through TimeTemp; job multiposting through Broadbean and idibu; SMS as a channel; native iOS and Android apps; video interviewing through Vinneo and Jobma; candidate-facing portals as well as a client LiveList; and the rest of The Access Group behind it, with a base put at 22,000+ recruiters.

Kepler vs Vincere, side by side · Vincere review

4. JobAdder

JobAdder is a long-established ATS and CRM sold to agencies and in-house teams, weighted towards Australia and New Zealand with a substantial UK business. Its feature list is distribution-heavy: posting to more than 200 job boards, a marketplace of more than 100 integrations, four portals, an opportunity pipeline, SMS and iOS and Android apps. It is the other large, established platform here, for an agency that still wants a big marketplace and heavy job-board reach.

JobAdder publishes no price for any plan. The matched plan is Recruiter Essential, the tier whose card lists Adder Intelligence (Smart Summaries, Smart Sync, Smart Job Descriptions, Smart Floats); the pricing page offers a tailored proposal after a demo. Recruiter Lite is cheaper, also unpriced, and drops Adder Intelligence, standard automations and analytics, and API access. Six paid add-ons sit outside every plan, and the migration cost is not published (checked 13 Sep 2026).

Where JobAdder is ahead of Kepler: one-click posting to more than 200 job boards with source tracking, where Kepler has no multiposting; a marketplace of more than 100 integrations including payroll and billing partners such as Astute Payroll, APositive and Bilflo; native iOS and Android apps; SMS as a platform feature; four portals against Kepler’s one; an opportunity pipeline; LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect and SEEK Talent Search Connect; ISO 27001:2022 certification; and years of published case studies.

Kepler vs JobAdder, side by side · JobAdder review

5. Crelate

Crelate is a recruiting CRM for boutique and mid-size agencies, US-weighted, with a strong pipeline interface and an optional back office. Crelate Deliver runs assignments, timekeeping, invoicing and payroll export inside the same platform the recruiters use, aimed at firms with lighter contractor volume, with named partners for firms that outgrow it. It suits a smaller agency that wants some of what Bullhorn One does without an enterprise platform.

The matched plan is Business Plus — the tier with the Advanced AI Assistant, automation and sequences, business-development workflows and the full API — priced “Custom”, quote only. Business is USD 119 per user per month billed annually or USD 149 monthly, with the AI Assistant and client portals but not the rest; Essentials is USD 85 paid annually for up to two users and 20,000 contacts, with no AI Assistant. Texting, email campaigns, eSignature and enrichment cost extra on every tier, and migration is a separate package scoped by sales (checked 13 Sep 2026).

Where Crelate is ahead of Kepler: the Deliver back office; a Discovery Agent that searches an external pool Crelate describes as up to a billion people and twenty million companies, where Kepler sells no candidate database; business-development workflows on Business Plus, where Kepler has no deals object; native texting synced between the web app and the Crelate Connector mobile app; and an ISO/SOC 2 compliance option on its Platform tier, where Kepler holds no certification.

Kepler vs Crelate, side by side · Crelate review

6. Loxo

Loxo is a talent intelligence platform: an ATS and CRM for contingency and retained agencies, US-weighted, sold with a sourcing graph Loxo publishes as 850 million-plus professionals, with contact information delivered alongside shortlists. Around it sit Loxo Outreach for email and SMS sequences, Loxo AI Chat and a set of agents. It suits an agency that needs to find people who are not in its database yet and wants sourcing and outreach in one tool.

The matched plan is Professional at USD 199 per user per month billed annually, the tier carrying Loxo Source, the agents with their AI Notetaker, Loxo AI Chat and API access, with 2,500 credits per seat per month pooled. Core is USD 149 billed annually with no monthly price published and drops Loxo Source, the agents, AI Chat, contact information and API access. Annual plans are paid up front, both priced tiers are labelled a limited-time offer, and migration is free for Core teams of three or more seats while Professional and Enterprise migrations are scoped fixed packages (checked 13 Sep 2026).

Where Loxo is ahead of Kepler: the sourcing graph, which Kepler has nothing comparable to; email and SMS sequences with A/B testing, where Kepler’s campaigns send email only; job multiposting to Indeed, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, Seek, Reed, CV Library and others; a sales CRM with deals; data-quality agents that de-duplicate records against Loxo’s own company graph; recruitment AI built since 2012 with 125,000+ recruiters stated on its site; and SSO and SAML on its Enterprise tier.

Kepler vs Loxo, side by side · Loxo review

7. Spott

Spott describes itself as an AI-native ATS and CRM for recruitment agencies, EU-weighted, and it is the closest thing to a direct competitor to Kepler here: the same category, the same bet. It ships many discrete AI features — CV diffing, enrichment, matching, inbound triage, call mining, scorecards — each with its own toggle, and pushes cross-record AI work out to ChatGPT or Claude through an MCP server. It suits an agency leaving Bullhorn because of how the AI is packaged that wants more of the workflow in one modern tool than Kepler covers.

The matched plan is Pro at USD 199 per user per month billed annually, or USD 249 monthly — the tier that adds automations, multi-channel sequences, a marketing suite and data enrichment to the notetaker, search and matching in Core. Core is USD 139 annual or USD 169 monthly and drops those four. AI token spend is included in every plan; enrichment credits cost extra; migration is done by Spott, typically four weeks, with no fee published (checked 13 Sep 2026).

Where Spott is ahead of Kepler: an opportunities pipeline with weighted value; interview scorecard templates with per-application scores; telephony depth — seven VoIP providers including Aircall, live inbound call cards and SMS threads in the inbox; job multiposting through Broadbean and idibu and contact enrichment through a waterfall of data providers; a mobile app; company hierarchies; and ISO 27001 certification with EU hosting.

Kepler vs Spott, side by side · Spott review

Which Bullhorn alternative should you choose?

You pay contractors and need pay and bill inside the ATS. Choose Tracker or Vincere: both run timesheets, invoicing and payroll sync in the same system as the placements, the ground Bullhorn One occupies. Crelate Deliver does the same at lighter volume. Kepler, Loxo and Spott have no back office and should not be on this shortlist.

You fill roles from paid job boards. Choose JobAdder. One-click posting to more than 200 boards with source tracking is the daily saving that matters. Tracker, Vincere, Loxo and Spott multipost too; Kepler does not.

You need to find people who are not in your database. Choose Loxo. The 850M+ graph with contact details delivered alongside a shortlist is a capability Kepler does not have in any form.

You bill placements and your database is the asset. Choose Kepler if you want one assistant that reads every CV, note, email and call transcript you own, matching with the evidence behind every requirement, a migration done for you, and one published price with nothing behind a tier. Choose Spott if you want the same AI-native category with a BD pipeline, scorecards, deeper telephony, a mobile app and ISO 27001.