What is the best recruitment software for a small agency in the UK?
For a small UK agency, Kepler is a recruitment CRM and ATS on one plan, built around AI Chat. You type a question such as "who have we spoken to about senior finance roles in Leeds this year" and AI Chat searches your CVs, notes, email threads and call transcripts and gives you back a list you can save.
Kepler includes the parts a small desk uses every day:
- jobs, pipelines, tasks and an activity timeline on every record
- Gmail and Outlook two-way sync, with each thread linked to the right candidate or contact, plus calendar and booking links
- a notetaker for Teams, Zoom and Google Meet calls
- CV parsing, branded CV formatting and a careers site on your own domain
- a client portal and reports on billings from real placements
To see Kepler next to other systems on the same rows, compare Kepler with other recruitment CRMs.
Which recruitment CRM should a 5-person UK agency use?
A five-person agency usually has no administrator, so Kepler keeps records up to date as the team works. It reads emails and calls and turns them into proposed record updates and follow-up tasks. A consultant approves or rejects each one, and every field keeps its history with undo.
When a role comes in, Kepler’s AI candidate matching gives every candidate a score from 0 to 100 against the job. It builds the criteria from the job description, you can edit them, and each one points to the line in the CV, call or email that supports it.
Kepler’s AI notetaker for recruiters joins the call and files the summary, next steps and full transcript against the candidate or client. Hiring managers review shortlists in a client portal by magic link, with blind CVs if you choose, and can rate candidates, comment and request interviews.
On a LinkedIn profile, Kepler shows whether the person is already in your database and what has changed since you last spoke, and adds them if they are not. On request, Kepler can also be connected to Claude and ChatGPT.
What is a good first recruitment CRM to move to from spreadsheets and Outlook?
Kepler is built to be a first CRM. The migration is free and done for you: you send the spreadsheets, Outlook folders and folders of CVs, and Kepler handles extraction, mapping, de-duplication and validation. You review a sample of 50 of your own records before the full load, and the migration is done in days.
Mailboxes are connected and email history is backfilled, so past conversations sit on the right records from the first day. Old CVs go through CV parsing and bulk import and become searchable profiles. When you send a candidate to a client, Kepler formats the CV onto your agency’s own template as DOCX or PDF (see CV formatting for recruitment agencies).
The steps are laid out in how to switch recruitment CRM. On a demo, Kepler loads a slice of your own data so you can search it yourself before you commit.
How much does recruitment software cost for a small UK agency?
Kepler is £79 per user per month billed annually (£948 per seat per year), or £99 per user per month billed monthly. Every feature is on that one plan, and each seat comes with a monthly AI allowance. AI Chat is included on every plan, monthly and annual, with no add-on or upgrade needed.
| Seats | Annual plan, per month | Monthly plan, per month |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | £79 | £99 |
| 3 | £237 | £297 |
| 5 | £395 | £495 |
| 10 | £790 | £990 |
The Kepler pricing page lists no setup fee, no seat minimum and free migration, and you can cancel any time before your subscription renewal. You can export the whole workspace whenever you want, with no exit fee.
What records does a UK recruitment agency have to keep?
The gov.uk guide for employment agencies says you must keep records on the work-seekers and hirers you deal with. For candidates, that includes the terms agreed, their experience and qualifications, and details of enquiries about them and the role, with copies of documents and the dates they were sent or received. For hirers, it includes the positions, the requirements and the dates of fee requests with copies of invoices.
Records of applications are kept for at least a year from when you last provided services. A Fair Work Agency inspector can ask for them, and they must be provided by the end of the second business day. Electronic records are fine if they can be read easily.
In Kepler, synced emails sit on the candidate, contact and job they relate to, with dates. Call notes and transcripts are filed on the record, and each placement records its fee and invoice status. The full workspace can be exported at any time.
Which recruitment CRM is UK GDPR compliant and does not train AI on candidate data?
Kepler’s privacy policy says Kepler complies with the UK and EU GDPR where they apply, as well as Singapore’s PDPA, and that customer data is not used to train AI models. The policy adds that Kepler’s agreements with AI providers prohibit them from using customer data to train theirs. It lists each subprocessor and where it is based, with the application hosted in Germany and the database in Ireland.
Kepler keeps a consent record for each candidate and contact under the UK GDPR framework. It holds the purposes you define, the lawful basis (consent, legitimate interest, contract or legal obligation), the source and evidence, and the given and valid-until dates. Withdrawals are logged and expiring consent is flagged.
Two more UK points for a small agency:
- The ICO data protection fee. Organisations that use personal information pay a fee unless exempt. Tier 1 covers organisations with turnover up to £632,000 or no more than 10 staff, and the fee is £52, with £5 off by direct debit.
- The ICO’s questions on AI in recruitment. In November 2024 the ICO asked recruiters to complete a DPIA before buying an AI tool and to tell candidates how the tool uses their data and the logic behind it. Kepler’s matching shows each criterion and the line of evidence behind it, which makes a ranking easier to explain.
Which UK agencies is Kepler built for?
Kepler is built for small UK agencies that want one recruitment system with the AI included and one published price in pounds. It suits a founder-led desk moving off spreadsheets and Outlook, and a team of consultants who would rather ask AI Chat than build searches.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best CRM for a small recruitment agency in the UK?
Kepler is a recruitment CRM and ATS for small UK agencies on one plan from £79 per user per month. Ask AI Chat a question in plain English and it searches your CVs, notes, emails and call transcripts. Every candidate gets a 0 to 100 match score against the job with the evidence behind each criterion, and moving from your current system is free.
How much does Kepler cost in the UK?
Kepler costs £79 per user per month billed annually, or £99 per user per month billed monthly. Five users cost £395 a month on the annual plan.
Does Kepler have a seat minimum or a setup fee?
Kepler has no seat minimum and no setup fee, monthly billing is available, and you can cancel any time before your subscription renewal. You can also export the whole workspace, with no exit fee.
Does Kepler use our candidate data to train AI?
Kepler’s privacy policy says it does not use customer data to train AI models, and that its agreements with AI providers prohibit them from training their own models on it.
Can Kepler import our spreadsheets and Outlook email?
Yes. Kepler migrates spreadsheets, folders of CVs and exports from other systems for free, and connects your Outlook or Gmail mailboxes and backfills the email history. You review 50 of your own records before the full load, and the migration is done in days.
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.
- GOV.UK — Record keeping for employment agencies and businesses: records about work-seekers Name, address, terms, training, experience and qualifications, engagements, and enquiries with copies of documents and dates.
- GOV.UK — Record keeping: records about hirers Positions, requirements, enquiries with documents and dates, fee requests with copies of invoices.
- GOV.UK — Record keeping: storing and accessing records Records of applications kept at least 1 year from last service; provided to a Fair Work Agency inspector by the end of the second business day; electronic form allowed if readable.
- ICO — Guide to the data protection fee Tier 1: turnover up to £632,000 or no more than 10 staff, fee £52; £5 direct debit discount.
- ICO — Data protection fee Organisations, including sole traders, that use personal information pay a fee unless exempt.
- ICO — Thinking of using AI to assist recruitment? Our key data protection considerations Published 6 Nov 2024: DPIA, lawful basis, clear privacy information on how the tool processes data and its logic.
- Kepler pricing £79 per user per month billed annually, £99 monthly; no setup fee, no seat minimum, free migration, cancel any time.
- Kepler privacy policy UK and EU GDPR where they apply, and the PDPA; no training on customer data; subprocessors and locations.
Kepler publishes this guide. It describes Kepler as of 3 Oct 2026. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.