Hireo vs Manatal: which ATS fits your recruitment team?

Manatal is one of the best-known low-cost applicant tracking systems for small agencies and in-house teams. Hireo is the one we build. This page compares them on the things that usually decide the purchase: price, job posting, CV handling, sharing candidates with clients, and integrations.

Transparency note: Hireo is built by BetterQA, so we are not neutral. Every Manatal figure below comes from Manatal's own pricing and features pages, read in October 2026, and we say plainly where Manatal is the better pick. Check its site before you buy, because prices change.

The short version

Manatal is cheaper per seat, posts jobs to job boards for you, has a built-in recruitment CRM, and connects to thousands of apps through Zapier. If you need those, it is a strong choice and a lot less expensive than Hireo.

Hireo is built around the work that happens after the CVs arrive: parsing a CV into a structured profile in about 30 seconds, scoring candidates against a job, generating branded CVs, and sharing a shortlist with a client over a secure review link. If screening volume and client presentation are your bottleneck, that is where Hireo earns its price.

Pricing

Manatal publishes per-user pricing in US dollars. As of October 2026, on its pricing page:

Hireo prices per seat in euros, as of October 2026: €250 per month for the admin seat, which includes 500 active candidates, plus €150 per month for each extra seat. Every extra seat raises the candidate cap by 500, and further blocks of 500 candidates cost €50. Enterprise is custom. Hireo uses a bring-your-own-key model for AI: you connect your own OpenAI, OpenRouter or Anthropic key and pay the provider's rate directly, so there are no per-CV processing fees from us, but the AI usage is a separate bill from the provider. New signups get a 14-day free trial.

A worked example for a team of five recruiters:

The gap is large, and we will not pretend otherwise. If your needs fit what Manatal includes, it costs a fraction of Hireo. The question is whether the parts Hireo does better are worth the difference to you.

Where Manatal is the better pick

You post jobs to many boards

Manatal lists job posting to free and premium channels, plus social media posting, on every plan. Hireo publishes jobs to its own public job board at hireo.ro/jobs and to pages you embed on your own site. We do not offer one-click posting to external job boards. If multiposting is how you attract applicants, Manatal fits better.

You want a recruitment CRM

Manatal describes itself as combining an ATS and a recruitment CRM, with lead and client tracking. If you manage a pipeline of client companies as well as candidates, that is built in.

You want a wide integration catalogue

Manatal's features page says you can connect it to more than 3,000 apps via Zapier and n8n, and it syncs with Outlook, Office 365 and Google calendar and email. On its pricing page, Zapier and n8n access, the Open API and an MCP server are listed for the Enterprise Plus plan only. Hireo offers a REST API, webhooks and an MCP server for partners, who use a partner token, but it has no catalogue of ready-made connectors.

You hire in many scripts and languages

Manatal states full support for right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, and for non-Latin scripts including Chinese, Thai and Japanese. If your candidates write CVs in those scripts, test Hireo's parsing on them before committing; Manatal is the safer starting assumption.

Budget is the deciding factor

On price alone Manatal wins for small teams, and it has a free trial that asks for no card.

Where Hireo is the better pick

Screening volume is the bottleneck

Hireo parses a CV into a structured profile with skills, experience and contact details in about 30 seconds, and flags anything it is unsure of for review. You can process CVs in bulk, and it detects duplicate candidates so you can merge them.

Manatal also parses CVs, scores candidates with AI, recommends candidates for a job and has a duplicate management system, so this is a difference of workflow rather than a missing feature. Run both on a batch of your real CVs and compare.

You present candidates to clients

Hireo generates branded candidate CVs for client submissions and lets you share a shortlist over a secure link where the client can approve, reject and leave feedback, with their activity tracked back to you. Manatal also lets you brand resumes with your logo and a watermark, so branded output alone is not a differentiator. The client review link, with feedback captured in the same system, is the part to compare.

You tailor CVs per job

Hireo can rewrite a candidate's CV to fit a specific job description before you submit it.

Candidates should do some of the work

Hireo gives candidates secure links to update their own profile, answer follow-up questions about skill gaps, and track their application.

Outreach and consent in one place

Hireo runs email campaigns with open and click tracking, sends LinkedIn messages from inside the product, and tracks candidate consent and unsubscribe requests for GDPR.

Side by side

Questions worth asking before you decide

Is Manatal or Hireo better for a small recruitment agency?

If budget and job board posting matter most, Manatal. If you send a lot of candidates to clients and spend most of your day screening CVs, Hireo is worth pricing out. Many small agencies will find Manatal's lower price decisive, and that is a reasonable choice.

How does Hireo's pricing compare with Manatal's?

Manatal lists $15 to $55 per user per month on annual billing. Hireo starts at €250 per month for the admin seat and adds €150 per extra seat, plus your own AI usage through your own key. Manatal is considerably cheaper per seat.

Does Hireo post to external job boards like Manatal?

No. Hireo publishes to its own job board at hireo.ro/jobs and to application widgets you embed on your own site. Manatal lists posting to free and premium job channels as part of its plans.

Does Hireo have a CRM?

Hireo tracks candidates, pipelines and outreach, but it is not positioned as a client CRM. Manatal describes a built-in recruitment CRM.

Choosing between them

Pick Manatal if you want low per-seat cost, job board posting, a built-in CRM and a large connector catalogue. Pick Hireo if CV screening volume and polished client presentation are what slow you down, and the higher price is justified by the hours it saves.

Whichever you lean toward, run a pilot on your own CVs and your own open roles. See Hireo's pricing and start a trial and put it next to Manatal's 14-day trial.

Manatal sources, read on 12 October 2026: manatal.com/pricing (plans, prices, trial, Zapier/n8n and Open API on Enterprise Plus, job posting, CRM) and manatal.com/features (3,000+ apps, calendar sync, branded resumes, RTL and non-Latin scripts). Hireo is built by BetterQA, a software quality company.