From the field
Notes from testing recruiting software first-hand — limits, exports, pricing, and what happens when a trial ends.
Switching ATS? I tested what four of them let you export
I tested exports, re-imports and trial endings across four ATSs. Breezy HR kept 3 of 29 columns; none said how long data is kept after you leave.
BambooHR’s free trial emailed me meetings that never existed
BambooHR’s free trial sent me reminders for one-to-ones with people who do not exist, called six times from numbers it never gave me, and ended as a blank page.
Breezy HR pricing: the monthly price is not on the page
Breezy HR prints $157 a month for Startup. Billed monthly it is $189, a number the plan page never shows. Prices as I saw them, inside the account.
Manatal export: the columns that arrive empty
I exported seven candidates from Manatal during the trial. The file has 52 columns and 30 of them were empty on every row — including one the screen fills in.
Breezy HR’s 30-day limit does not delete. It scrambles names.
On Breezy HR’s free plan, candidates older than 30 days are not deleted. Their names become random strings that change on every page load.
Breezy HR’s free job ads need an approval it never mentions
Breezy HR's free plan lists job-board distribution. Using it needs a verification no plan page mentions, and the screen blocking it says only: contact support.
Breezy HR vs JazzHR: one let me in, one sent a salesperson
I signed up for both. Breezy HR opened in minutes. Eight days after the JazzHR form, no account had been created — but three sales emails had arrived.
Manatal’s free trial ended. The product became a checkout.
Manatal has no free plan. When my fourteen-day trial ended, the product became one payment page defaulting to $420 a year — with no export and no delete.
ATS for small recruitment agencies: what sourcing costs
Manatal is the only one of the two I tested that models a client. One search credit showed me 100 of 581,923 matches, and the contact details stayed masked.
Breezy HR vs Manatal: one stored a wrong number, one stored none
I ran the same CSV, résumés and job through Breezy HR and Manatal, then compared the exports. The price crossover sits at about ten seats.
I downgraded Breezy HR to the free plan. The AI kept scoring.
I downgraded a Breezy HR account to the free Bootstrap plan. Almost nothing disappeared — and the AI kept scoring candidates and spending credits.
Your ATS wrote a hiring history that never happened
Breezy HR's AI summarised a candidate's activity with dates. Two of the three events never happened. Its scoring AI then invented 14.4 years of experience.
I moved a candidate spreadsheet into an ATS. Four fields survived
Breezy HR imports any CSV you give it but maps only four columns. Custom fields you create are not offered, and your header row becomes a candidate.