Recruitment agency tools list: the software a new desk needs

The ATS and CRM at the center of the stack

A recruitment agency's tools list starts with an applicant tracking system (ATS) and recruitment CRM, then adds sourcing, outreach, job posting, timesheets and invoicing around it. Every other tool feeds the candidates, jobs, companies and contacts that live there, so the ATS and CRM comes first.

As read on October 27, 2026, Recruit CRM's Pro plan holds the ATS, the client CRM, the Chrome sourcing extension and invoicing, at $109 per user per month billed monthly or $95 billed annually. Recruitment agency software cost counts the yearly bill. Pro also lists Kanban pipelines, hotlists, mailbox and bulk email with two-way email sync, and a meeting scheduler with two-way calendar sync.

A freelance recruiter working alone on permanent tech placements has no contractors to bill, so the timesheet row of this list does not apply. The ATS and CRM, the sourcing extension and sequences do.

Sourcing and outreach tools

Credits are a shared balance that pays for metered features. Each Pro seat adds 100 credits a month to one account pool, and included credits expire at the end of the billing cycle.

• Chrome sourcing extension: on every plan, for LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Outlook, ZoomInfo and Xing among other sites. Recruit CRM Chrome extension has the full list.
• AI sourcing and data enrichment: AI sourcing and matching costs 3 credits per 100 profiles. Enrichment costs 1 to 4 credits per record, with no charge if nothing is found.
• Sequences and mailboxes: Pro includes 1 sequence and 1 mailbox connection per user. Business and Enterprise print 1,000 in the sequences row and allow 2 mailbox connections.
• LinkedIn and WhatsApp messaging: 150 and 100 credits per user per month.

Job posting and career pages

Job multiposting publishes one job to every board you use from one screen, at 25 credits per unique job. Recruit Craft is a separate builder for branded recruitment websites and a candidate portal. It is priced separately on Pro and Business and included on Enterprise. Recruit CRM's pricing page shows no amount for it, and Recruit Craft's own site says its price is based on the number of active job openings published.

Timesheets, invoicing and accounting

Invoicing is on every plan. Timesheets are listed on every plan too, and they cost credits: 100 per active contractor a month for the first 15 contractors, falling by tier to 50 above 500. Contractor and client portals come with timesheets. Recruit CRM is not a payroll system: it calculates contractor pay and bills clients.

For accounting, the Bill & Pay page shows integrations as coming soon and its FAQ names QuickBooks and Xero, so ask which link works today. A desk that places contractors needs this row, and a permanent-only desk can skip it.

AI tools for a recruitment agency

Pro includes three AI agents: Custom Field Parsing, Candidate Submission and Candidate Pitching. The Resume Formatting Agent starts on Business and spends credits. AI sourcing and matching, the AI meeting notetaker and job change alerts also spend credits.

The MCP connector lets AI assistants such as Claude read and act on your account's data, and it is on all paid plans. Recruit CRM integrations covers it with Zapier and the open API.

Before you add other tools, try Recruit CRM: the pricing FAQ promises a 30-day free trial, which the help center ends sooner if a usage cap is reached. The trial shows how much of this list one system covers.