The seven Ezekia alternatives in one line each
- Kepler — search firms whose real asset is an unsearchable database, at one price.
- Invenias by Bullhorn — boutique retained search that works inside Outlook on Windows.
- Clockwork — boutique retained firms whose client relationship runs through a portal.
- Loxo — retained and contingency desks that need to buy reach.
- Crelate — boutique US firms that want an optional back office.
- Recruiterflow — search firms whose revenue comes from four-channel outbound sequences.
- Spott — AI-native, EU-weighted agencies that want module breadth and ISO 27001.
Why do agencies look for an Ezekia alternative?
Every reason below is structural and on Ezekia’s own site. One fact cuts the other way: Ezekia bills monthly with no lock-in, a better commercial position than most of the seven below offer.
- One tier, no published price. Ezekia’s pricing page shows a single paid tier, Enterprise, priced CUSTOM — “Per user. Monthly. No annual commitment” — and states that all plans are scoped and quoted individually. It is the tier carrying “AI-powered workflows & search”, so the AI has no public price either. Checked 13 Sep 2026.
- Microsoft throughout, Google nowhere. Ezekia’s integration and Microsoft 365 pages describe Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, Power BI and Copilot. Google Workspace is not named anywhere in its published material as of 6 Sep 2026. A firm on Gmail has to ask.
- The notetaker is a second vendor. Ezekia integrates third-party AI notetakers — Metaview, Carv, CoRecruit and HireLogic are on its integrations page — rather than shipping one of its own. That is a second vendor and a second place for the transcript to live.
- Migration is scoped in the quote. Onboarding and training are free; migration services are part of the individually scoped agreement rather than a published term.
- Segment fit. Ezekia has focused exclusively on executive search for more than eleven years and models Lists, Opportunities and Assignments as its core objects. A firm whose desk is mixed — retained work beside contingency, interim or in-house hiring — is paying for an assignment model it uses part of the week.
Comparison at a glance
The price column is the tier carrying that vendor’s AI, on an annual-billing basis, never the cheapest tier. All figures were read on the vendor’s own pricing page on 13 Sep 2026.
| Tool | Best for | Matched plan, per user / month, annual | AI included in that plan | Publishes pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kepler | Search firms whose asset is the database; mixed desks | One edition, USD 99 | Yes, with a monthly allowance | Yes |
| Invenias by Bullhorn | Boutique retained search inside Outlook | Executive Edition, not published | Optional add-on, on your own OpenAI credentials | No |
| Clockwork | Boutique retained firms run through a client portal | One plan, USD 149 | Yes; chat-app subscription for MCP separate | Yes |
| Loxo | Desks that need to buy reach | Professional, USD 199 | Yes, on Professional only | Yes |
| Crelate | Boutique US firms wanting an optional back office | Business Plus, not published | Partly; Advanced AI only on Business Plus | Two of three tiers |
| Recruiterflow | Outbound-led search firms | AIRA Plan, not published | AIRA Plan only | Platform Plan only |
| Spott | AI-native, EU-weighted agencies | Pro, USD 199 | Yes; enrichment credits extra | Yes |
How we evaluated these alternatives
Every claim about a vendor comes from that vendor’s own public material — pricing page, product pages, help centre or published roadmap — read on the date given in the sources, and each entry links the longer review where those sources are listed in full. Pricing follows one rule: the figure shown is the plan carrying the AI being compared, on an annual-billing basis, and where it has no public price the post says “not published” rather than estimating. Kepler is the publisher of this post and its claims are held to the same standard.
The 7 best Ezekia alternatives in 2026
1. Kepler
Kepler is a recruitment CRM built around one assistant and a searchable database, and it is not built specifically for executive search. Its search is hybrid semantic and keyword retrieval across candidates, CVs, notes, email threads and call transcripts, so a plain-English question surfaces a person because of a line in a 2019 candidate report or something said on a recorded call. The assistant sits in a sidebar on every page, reads the whole workspace, and writes nothing until you approve it. Matching returns a verdict and a source for every requirement rather than a score; Kepler’s own notetaker files the summary, next steps and transcript of a call against the record; emails and calls become proposed field updates a person accepts or rejects. A job-scoped client portal lets a hiring manager rate a shortlist 1–5, comment and request interviews, and a consent ledger carries a lawful basis and an expiry per candidate. Kepler syncs two-way with Gmail as well as Outlook, and suits a search firm whose bottleneck is the records underneath the process.
Pricing: USD 99 per user per month billed annually, or USD 129 monthly, in one edition with every feature included, unlimited records and storage, and every AI feature inside the seat price with a monthly allowance. Migration is done for you, free, on every plan; full export at any time with no exit fee.
Where Kepler falls short of Ezekia, plainly: no off-limits object; no organisation charts; no opportunities pipeline; no retainer billing or invoicing; a consent ledger that flags but has no erasure or data-access-request workflow; no sourcing pool; a client portal on Kepler’s domain that carries a shortlist but not a search report; and no ISO 27001 or SOC 2. Its published price is annual where Ezekia’s is monthly.
See Kepler’s pricing and the feature pages.
2. Invenias by Bullhorn
Invenias by Bullhorn is the closest like-for-like substitute for Ezekia in this list: executive search software Bullhorn describes as a leading boutique executive search platform with eighteen years in market, organised around the assignment. It covers longlist building, off-limits policies that a company passes down to everyone working there, merge-tag documents that produce a branded candidate report in Word, bulk GDPR consent requests, relationship intelligence, a BD pipeline and the Invenias Client portal. Its full product is a Windows 11 desktop application inside Outlook; Bullhorn’s own FAQ says the Essentials web app is not an alternative to it.
Pricing: Bullhorn does not publish a price for any Invenias edition. The like-for-like plan is the Executive Edition, the premium bundle carrying Invenias Client, quoted through an Account Manager; Essentials and Professional are also quote-only. The AI Assistant is optional and runs on OpenAI or Azure OpenAI credentials the firm supplies. Bullhorn’s published USD 99 and USD 165 seats are its staffing plans, not Invenias. Migration terms are not published. Checked 13 Sep 2026.
Where Invenias is ahead of Kepler: off-limits policies that warn or block a consultant; a document editor and merge-tag assignment report; relationship intelligence; a business-development pipeline; native iOS and Android apps; filing email from inside Outlook; and a path into Bullhorn’s wider ecosystem and back office. Bullhorn’s AI roadmap of 16 June 2026 places AI that reads call transcripts and updates records in stage two, coming next.
Side by side: Kepler vs Invenias · the Invenias review.
3. Clockwork
Clockwork is executive search software for boutique retained firms, in-house executive recruiting teams and institutional investors, organised around the client’s view of the search. Its client collaboration portal lets the client vote and comment on candidates, work a shared longlist, read automated status and research-coverage reports and see diversity metrics. Around that sit a recruiting CRM, Cai — Clockwork’s generative AI, which drafts five weighted research criteria and rates candidates inside a project fifty at a time — and business-development tools covering deals, contracts, forecasting and cashflow. It suits a firm that keeps retained mandates by showing the client progress continuously.
Pricing: one plan at USD 149 per user per month billed annually, or USD 179 monthly, under the heading “One plan. All the features.” Cai, the portal, automations and the MCP connector are in it and there is no cheaper tier. Outside the seat price sit data migration, a professional service priced by volume and scope, and the ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot subscription its MCP connector is used with. Read 13 Sep 2026.
Where Clockwork is ahead of Kepler: the client collaboration portal with coverage reports, target company lists, compensation data and a client mobile app; interview scorecards against benchmark competencies; diversity reporting as a client deliverable; a BD CRM with contracts, forecasting and cashflow; native iOS and Android apps; and SOC 2 Type II, stated as maintained since 2022, with SSO. Its candidate search is name and keyword matching with filters, and cross-record AI work goes through the MCP connector into the firm’s own chat app.
Side by side: Kepler vs Clockwork · the Clockwork review.
4. Loxo
Loxo is a talent intelligence platform for contingency and retained agencies, US-weighted: an ATS and CRM wrapped around a proprietary graph of 850M+ professionals and agents that source, rank and reach out. Loxo Source returns people the firm does not yet hold, with contact information alongside the shortlist. It suits a search desk whose problem is coverage of a market it has no records in.
Pricing: Loxo Professional, from USD 199 per user per month billed annually and paid up front, is the like-for-like plan; it carries Loxo Source, the agents with their AI Notetaker, Loxo AI Chat and API access, with 2,500 credits per seat per month. Loxo Core, from USD 149, drops all of those. Both priced tiers are labelled a new-customer limited-time offer; Enterprise is quote-only. Migration is free for Core teams of three or more seats and a scoped fixed package otherwise. Read 13 Sep 2026.
Where Loxo is ahead of Kepler: the 850M+ sourcing graph, which Kepler has nothing comparable to; SMS and voice inside sequences; job multiposting to Indeed, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, Seek, Reed and others; a sales CRM with deals; data-hygiene and deduplication agents; SSO and SAML on Enterprise; and maturity — Loxo states 125,000+ recruiters, where Kepler has no paying customers yet.
Side by side: Kepler vs Loxo · the Loxo review.
5. Crelate
Crelate is a broad US recruiting platform for boutique and mid-size agencies, with a strong pipeline UI and an optional back office. Its Discovery Agent sources from an external pool Crelate describes as up to a billion people, and Crelate Deliver adds assignments, timekeeping, invoicing and payroll export inside the same platform. It suits a boutique firm that places contractors as well as running search.
Pricing: the like-for-like plan is Business Plus — the tier with the Advanced AI Assistant, automation and sequences and the full API — listed as “Custom”, per user, paid annually, so there is no public figure. Business is USD 119 per user per month billed annually or USD 149 monthly, with the basic AI Assistant and client portals but not sequences, the Advanced AI Assistant or the full API; Essentials is USD 85 billed annually, capped at two users and 20,000 contacts. Texting, email campaigns, eSignature and enrichment cost extra on every tier; migration is a separate package scoped by sales. Read 13 Sep 2026.
Where Crelate is ahead of Kepler: the back office in Crelate Deliver, the largest single gap in Kepler’s product; the external sourcing pool; business-development workflows on Business Plus; native texting with a synced inbox and the Crelate Connector mobile app; and ISO and SOC 2 compliance among the enterprise options on its Platform tier.
Side by side: Kepler vs Crelate · the Crelate review.
6. Recruiterflow
Recruiterflow is an ATS and CRM for boutique and mid-size agencies built around outbound sequences, and it states that 2,100+ search firms use it. Its sequences send email, calls, SMS and LinkedIn natively with branching logic; AIRA, its agent layer, adds a notetaker, a matchmaker, a field-updates agent and a sourcing agent over 850M+ profiles. It suits a search firm whose revenue is made by sequenced outbound.
Pricing: the AIRA Plan — the tier carrying AIRA Notetaker, AIRA Matchmaker and the Field Updates Agent — is priced “Let’s chat custom pricing”, so there is no public figure. The cheaper Platform Plan is USD 119 per user per month billed annually or USD 149 monthly and has none of the AIRA agents. Self-serve CSV import is free; white-glove migration is paid, priced by data volume, over six to eight weeks. Read 13 Sep 2026.
Where Recruiterflow is ahead of Kepler: multichannel sequencing across email, calls, SMS and LinkedIn with branching, where Kepler’s sequences send email only; SMS as a native channel; sourcing over 850M+ profiles; job distribution to LinkedIn, Indeed and Glassdoor; deals with a probability to close per stage; interview scorecards on pipeline stages; custom BI dashboards; and a dozen named customer case studies where Kepler has none.
Side by side: Kepler vs Recruiterflow · the Recruiterflow review.
7. Spott
Spott is an AI-native ATS and CRM for recruitment agencies, EU-weighted, and the product here closest to Kepler in ambition while differing in shape: roughly twenty discrete AI features, each with its own switch, and an Ask AI panel scoped to one record, with cross-record work pushed to ChatGPT or Claude through an MCP server. It suits an agency that wants breadth of modules, EU hosting and a certification.
Pricing: Spott Pro is the like-for-like plan at USD 199 per user per month billed annually, or USD 249 monthly; it adds automations, multi-channel sequences, a marketing suite and enrichment to the notetaker, search and matching in Core. Core is USD 139 billed annually or USD 169 monthly and drops those four. AI token spend is included; enrichment credits cost extra. Spott runs the migration, typically four weeks, and publishes no migration fee. Read 13 Sep 2026.
Where Spott is ahead of Kepler: an opportunities pipeline with weighted value; interview scorecards; seven VoIP integrations, live call cards and SMS threads in the inbox; job multiposting through Broadbean and idibu; contact enrichment; native iOS and Android apps; company hierarchies; and ISO 27001 with EU hosting.
Side by side: Kepler vs Spott · the Spott review.
Which Ezekia alternative should you choose?
A retained executive-search firm that needs the assignment workflow — off-limits, a branded assignment report, relationship mapping, a BD pipeline — should shortlist Invenias by Bullhorn and Clockwork, the only two here built for that buyer. Invenias models the search most completely and works inside Outlook on Windows, at a quoted price like Ezekia’s. Clockwork publishes USD 149 per user per month billed annually, holds SOC 2 Type II, and prices migration separately by volume.
A firm whose real asset is the database it cannot search — years of CVs, researcher notes, email threads and call recordings that a Query Builder does not reach — and whose desk is mixed rather than purely retained, should shortlist Kepler. It publishes USD 99 per user per month billed annually with the assistant, the matching and its own notetaker in the price, and does the migration for you. It has no off-limits object, no retainer billing, no erasure workflow and no certification, so a firm that needs those should not pick it.
A firm for whom the monthly contract is the point should weigh that before leaving. Ezekia bills monthly with no annual commitment; Kepler’s published USD 99 price is annual (USD 129 monthly), Loxo is paid up front, and Crelate’s Business Plus is paid annually. Clockwork and Spott publish a monthly option too.
A desk that needs to buy reach, or runs on outbound should look at Loxo for the sourcing graph and Recruiterflow for four-channel sequences; a firm placing contractors should look at Crelate for the back office; and Spott is the choice for an EU agency that wants the broadest module list with ISO 27001.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kepler a good Ezekia alternative?
For a search firm whose problem is the database underneath the process, yes: Kepler searches CVs, notes, email threads and call transcripts together in plain English, ships its own notetaker rather than integrating a third party’s, includes its assistant and matching in a USD 99 per user per month seat billed annually, syncs Gmail as well as Outlook, and does the migration for you on every plan. For a firm buying the retained executive-search workflow itself, no: Kepler is not built for executive search, has no off-limits object, no organisation charts, no opportunities pipeline, no retainer billing, no erasure workflow and no ISO 27001. Invenias and Clockwork are the better Ezekia alternatives for that buyer.
How much does Ezekia cost?
Ezekia’s pricing page, checked 13 Sep 2026, shows one paid tier, Enterprise, priced CUSTOM — per user, billed monthly, with no annual commitment — and it is the tier that carries the AI-powered workflows and search, so there is no public figure. Ezekia has no cheaper paid tier; its only other option is a 30-day free trial. Ezekia states no fixed plans, no per-search or placement fees and no hidden charges, and includes tailored onboarding and a customer success team in the quote.
Which Ezekia alternatives publish their pricing?
Four of the seven. Kepler publishes USD 99 per user per month billed annually for its one edition; Clockwork publishes USD 149 per user per month billed annually for its one plan; Loxo publishes USD 199 for Professional, the tier with its AI and sourcing graph; and Spott publishes USD 199 for Pro. Invenias’ Executive Edition, Crelate’s Business Plus and Recruiterflow’s AIRA Plan — the tiers carrying those vendors’ AI — are quote-only, though Crelate and Recruiterflow publish a price for a cheaper tier without it.
Which Ezekia alternative is best for retained executive search?
Invenias by Bullhorn, for a firm that wants the assignment modelled end to end with off-limits policies, a merge-tag assignment report, relationship intelligence and a BD pipeline, and whose partners work inside Outlook on Windows. Clockwork, for a firm whose client experience is a collaboration portal with coverage and diversity reporting and a client mobile app, backed by SOC 2 Type II and a published price. Neither Kepler nor the other four are built for retained search specifically.
Can you migrate from Ezekia to Kepler?
Yes, and Kepler runs the migration for you, free, on every plan. You send an export from Ezekia plus any loose CVs, spreadsheets and shared-inbox archives; Kepler handles extraction, mapping, de-duplication and validation, rebuilds your custom fields as real fields rather than notes, and shows you fifty of your own records fully parsed before the full load. Activity, stages and history come across. The only timing claim Kepler makes is that it happens in days. Anything held in Ezekia’s off-limits flags, org charts, opportunities or invoices has no equivalent field in Kepler to land in; consent records do, through Kepler’s consent ledger.
Do Ezekia alternatives work with Google Workspace?
Ezekia’s published material describes Microsoft 365 throughout and does not name Google Workspace. Kepler syncs two-way with both Gmail and Outlook, with threads linked to the right record. Clockwork connects Gmail and Outlook and reads the email tab through its Microsoft 365 or Google integration. Loxo, Crelate, Recruiterflow and Spott are covered in their own reviews; a firm on Google should confirm the point with each vendor rather than assume.
Is Ezekia’s monthly contract a reason to stay?
It can be. Ezekia bills per user, monthly, with no annual commitment or lock-in, which is a genuinely better commercial position for a firm that wants to test a platform without committing a year. Kepler’s published USD 99 price is billed annually, with USD 129 per user per month on the monthly option; Loxo’s priced tiers are annual and paid up front; Crelate’s Business Plus and Essentials are paid annually. Clockwork publishes USD 179 monthly beside USD 149 annual, and Spott publishes USD 249 monthly beside USD 199 annual.
Sources
Every claim about another vendor on this page comes from that vendor's own public material. Where a vendor does not publish something — pricing is the usual one — this post says so rather than estimating.
- Ezekia — pricing One paid tier, Enterprise, shown as CUSTOM — “Per user. Monthly. No annual commitment” — carrying “AI-powered workflows & search”; a 30-day free trial; “All plans are scoped and quoted individually.” No cheaper paid tier.
- Ezekia — full functionality list Lists, Opportunities and Assignments; off-limits flags; organisation charts; billing with fee splits; GDPR data access requests; the 95k “Not Actively Looking” pool; ISO 27001:2022; free onboarding and training.
- Ezekia — Microsoft 365 integration Microsoft throughout; Google Workspace not named.
- Ezekia — integrations Metaview, Carv, CoRecruit and HireLogic as notetaker integrations.
- Ezekia — why Ezekia Monthly contracts, no lock-in; 11+ years focused exclusively on executive search.
- Bullhorn — Invenias Executive Search Platform No Invenias price published; positioning as “Invenias by Bullhorn”; longlist building, branded deliverables, GDPR consent requests, BD pipeline.
- Invenias knowledge base — Executive Edition Self Service Implementation of Premium Products Executive Edition as the premium bundle with Invenias Client, Analytics, Proximity and Premium Data Privacy; no price.
- Invenias knowledge base — Enabling Invenias AI Assistant Optional feature; OpenAI or Azure OpenAI credentials supplied by the firm.
- Invenias knowledge base — Web Application FAQ “Essentials is not an alternative to the Professional Desktop Application.”
- Invenias knowledge base — Off Limits Off-limits policies on companies and people; warn or block.
- Bullhorn — What’s next for Invenias: AI, reporting, and the road ahead Published 16 Jun 2026; stage two listed as coming next; document editor and assignment report available now.
- Bullhorn acquires Invenias (press release) Dated 24 Jul 2018.
- Clockwork — Platform Pricing One plan at USD 149 per user per month paying annually, USD 179 monthly; “One plan. All the features.”
- Clockwork — Onboarding and Setup Services “Data Migration - Priced By Volume”; Premium Support USD 3,500 per year.
- Clockwork — Features Client portal, status reports, DEI reporting, mobile app, BD CRM with deals and contracts, SSO.
- Clockwork — Security SOC 2 Type II stated as maintained since 2022.
- Clockwork Knowledge Base — Cai: AI Rating and Notes Fifty candidates at a time; the email tab via the Microsoft 365 or Google integration.
- Loxo — Pricing Professional from USD 199 per user per month billed annually, paid up front; Core from USD 149; 2,500 credits per seat; limited-time offer labels; migration free for Core teams of 3+.
- Loxo Source The 850M+ professional graph with contact information.
- Loxo Help Center — Loxo & Job Boards Job board integrations.
- Crelate — pricing Business Plus “Custom”, paid annually; Business USD 119 annual / USD 149 monthly; Essentials USD 85 annual, 2 users, 20,000 contacts; texting, campaigns, eSignature and enrichment extra on every tier.
- Crelate — Deliver back office Assignments, timekeeping, invoicing and payroll export.
- Crelate — ATS data migration Standard and Advanced migration packages, scoped by sales.
- Recruiterflow — pricing AIRA Plan “Let’s chat custom pricing”; Platform Plan USD 119 annual / USD 149 monthly; white-glove migration priced by data volume, 6–8 weeks.
- Recruiterflow — multichannel sequences Email, calls, SMS and LinkedIn steps with branching logic.
- Recruiterflow home page 2,100+ search firms stated; AIRA Source over 850M+ profiles.
- Spott pricing Pro USD 199 annual / USD 249 monthly; Core USD 139 annual / USD 169 monthly; token spend included, enrichment credits extra; migration by Spott, typically four weeks, no fee published.
- Spott product documentation Opportunities, scorecards, VoIP providers, multiposting, enrichment, mobile app, company hierarchies, Ask AI scope and the MCP server.
- Kepler pricing USD 99 per user per month billed annually (USD 1,188 per seat per year), USD 129 monthly, one edition with every feature included, unlimited records and storage, free done-for-you migration on every plan, full export with no exit fee.
Kepler is a recruitment CRM and this post is published by Kepler, so read it as an interested party's account. We have tried to describe Ezekia as its own team would recognise it, and every factual claim is sourced above. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.