✓ Founders of new US recruitment or staffing agencies with one to ten recruiters
✓ Freelance recruiters replacing spreadsheets with an ATS and CRM
✓ Desks that want candidates, clients, deals and invoices in one system
✓ Teams comfortable watching a pooled monthly credit allowance
— Teams that want one flat price with no metered features
— Buyers who need a free plan rather than a trial
— Employers who only post a few jobs and collect applicants
— Large staffing firms that need quote-based enterprise governance tiers
Recruit CRM vs Bullhorn: the main difference
Both tools hold candidates, clients and jobs for recruitment agencies. The difference is packaging. Recruit CRM lists three plans with amounts and puts the deal pipeline and AI agents inside them, but meters many features with credits. Bullhorn lists two small-agency plans with amounts, sells the higher two by quote and places its sales CRM and its AI on those higher tiers.
Readers also search the pair as Bullhorn vs Recruit CRM. The comparison is the same. Both vendors' pages were read on October 27, 2026, and amounts are left to those pages.
Side by side: what each vendor's pages state
- Plans for small agencies: Recruit CRM lists Pro, Business and Enterprise. Bullhorn lists Starter and Core with a per-user amount, and Pro and Max by quote.
- Team size: Bullhorn says its small-agency plans cover teams of 1 to 10. Recruit CRM's home page has a team-size setting that starts at boutique desks of 1 to 5 recruiters, and its pricing page states no seat cap.
- Sales CRM: Recruit CRM lists companies, contacts and deal pipelines on every plan. Bullhorn lists its recruitment CRM sales pipeline from Bullhorn Pro, which is quote only.
- AI: Recruit CRM includes submission, pitching and custom field agents in Recruit CRM Pro, with resume formatting from Business and credits for sourcing and enrichment. Bullhorn lists AI search and match, chat, enrichment and resume formatting from Bullhorn Pro and agentic digital workers on Max.
- Customization: Bullhorn lists custom fields and workflows from Core. Recruit CRM lists 15 custom fields on Pro and 100 on Business.
- Integrations: Bullhorn lists a marketplace of 300+ partners from Core. Recruit CRM lists Zapier on every plan and an open API from Business, and describes more than 5,000 integrations, which is a vendor claim.
- Trial and demo: Recruit CRM lists a 30-day trial on Pro and Business and a demo for Enterprise. Bullhorn's pricing page offers a demo and a quote and does not mention a free trial.
- Setup and support: Bullhorn lists free implementation on Starter, Core and Pro. Recruit CRM lists a free CSV import tool, paid assisted migration and 24/7 live chat on every plan.
Where the sources disagree or go quiet
Recruit CRM publishes a page comparing itself with Bullhorn. It is the vendor's argument, and it states that Bullhorn's Pro and Max have no free trial, which Bullhorn's pricing page neither confirms nor denies. Its opinions that Bullhorn has a denser interface and legacy screens are a rival's view, not a finding.
The same page says Business allows up to 150 custom fields per entity, while the pricing page table lists 100, so the table is used here. Bullhorn's figure for its customer base and Recruit CRM's figure for its agencies are each the vendor's claim.
Seat cost at three and at eight recruiters
At three recruiters, Recruit CRM counts three seats on any plan, and Bullhorn Starter or Core counts three users. Bullhorn Pro and Max need a quote. At eight recruiters you are still inside Bullhorn's stated range of 1 to 10, so the question is which tier you need, not whether you qualify.
Compare like with like. If you need a sales CRM and AI search, price Recruit CRM Pro or Business against Bullhorn Pro, and treat Starter and Core as the ATS-only entry. Multiply each listed per-user amount by your seats on the live pages, then ask for the quote.
Which to choose, by team and need
- Choose Recruit CRM if you want amounts listed for every plan, a deal pipeline from day one and a trial before you talk to sales, and you can live with a credit pool.
- Choose Bullhorn if you want a long-established suite, a marketplace of integrations, free implementation or a front-to-back option with timesheets and billing, and you are happy to ask for a quote.
- Consider Manatal if you want a 14-day trial without a card. See the best CRM for recruitment agencies guide for five more tools.
Questions to ask both vendors
- Which plan holds the sales pipeline, AI search and custom fields for my team size?
- What happens to my data and charges if I leave before the term ends?
- What does migration cost and how long does it take for my record count?
- For the detail on one side, read the Recruit CRM pricing guide.
What this comparison can—and cannot—settle
This guide draws on Recruit CRM pricing page, Recruit CRM comparison page, Recruit CRM vs Bullhorn, Bullhorn pricing page, Bullhorn ATS and CRM page. Merchant-controlled records describe the provider’s own capabilities, terms or standards; they do not independently validate those claims. Other cited records provide additional context. A different publisher or a research, regulatory or certification label does not by itself establish independence, relevance or product validation.
Sources used for this page
These records support the facts and comparisons above. Merchant-controlled records are labelled so you can separate product claims from independent evidence.
- Recruit CRM pricing page — Merchant documentation · recruitcrm.io · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-10-27
- Recruit CRM comparison page, Recruit CRM vs Bullhorn — Merchant documentation · recruitcrm.io · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-10-27
- Bullhorn pricing page — Alternative provider · bullhorn.com · Publisher independence not verified · checked 2026-10-27
- Bullhorn ATS and CRM page — Alternative provider · bullhorn.com · Publisher independence not verified · checked 2026-10-27
- Recruit CRM home page — Merchant documentation · recruitcrm.io · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-10-27