Best ATS Software in India
An applicant tracking system used by an Indian hiring team has to fit local realities: notice periods measured in months, offer-drop rates that make backup candidates essential, high-volume campus and IT hiring, and pricing that works in rupees. These are the systems Indian teams most often shortlist.
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The distinctive constraint in Indian hiring is not the software, it is the gap between offer and joining. Long notice periods and counter-offers mean a system that stops at offer-accepted leaves you blind during the window where you actually lose people. Evaluate anything in this category on what it does between acceptance and day one, not just on how it manages the pipeline before that.
How this list was put together
This page is published by Pitch N Hire, which sells an applicant tracking system and therefore competes with the products below. So it is not a ranking: there is no score, no rating and no number one. Options are grouped by who they suit, drawn from our own product comparisons, and each links to the full comparison so you can read the trade-offs rather than take a verdict on trust. Pricing changes constantly and is usually negotiated, so none is quoted here — get a written quote for your seat count.
What to evaluate before you shortlist
Deciding the criteria before you look at vendors is what stops a demo deciding for you.
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What happens between offer accepted and joining date?
This is the Indian-market question. With long notice periods, the offer-to-join window is where candidates are lost to counter-offers and competing processes. Ask what the system does during that gap: engagement, check-ins, visibility of who has gone quiet, and how easily you can revive a backup candidate. -
Is it an ATS, or an HR suite with recruiting attached?
Several popular options in India are full HR platforms where recruitment is one module. That is genuinely better if you want payroll, attendance and hiring in one system, and genuinely worse if you want recruiting depth. Decide which purchase you are making before comparing feature lists. -
Does it handle the volume patterns you actually hire on?
Campus drives, bulk IT hiring and staffing-agency workflows are different problems from steady professional hiring. If any of these is your main pattern, test the system on that pattern specifically rather than on a single-role demo. -
How does pricing and support actually work?
Check whether pricing is quoted in rupees, what the seat model is, and what support hours look like in your time zone. These are unglamorous and they determine day-to-day experience more than any feature comparison.
Want to test one on a real role before you shortlist?
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How the options compare
Feature detail only — there is no score, no rating and no rank in this table. Every value is lifted from our own comparison page for that product.
| Product | Free plan | Pricing model | Target company size | Candidate sourcing | AI interviewing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keka | No permanent free plan; paid per-employee tiers | Per-employee subscription across HR and payroll modules | SMB to mid-market, India-focused | Applicant tracking within the HR suite; limited dedicated sourcing | Hiring module handles tracking and workflow; AI video interviewing is not its focus |
| Darwinbox | No free plan; enterprise contract required | Custom enterprise pricing across the HCM suite | Large enterprises and fast-scaling organisations | Enterprise requisition and pipeline management inside the suite | Recruiting module within the HCM; AI video interviewing is not its core |
| Zoho Recruit | Yes — limited free plan available | Per-recruiter monthly plans; free plan available for limited users | SMBs to mid-market; also staffing agencies | Job board integrations and resume sourcing tools built in | Some AI-assisted features; no dedicated native async AI video interview product |
| Talview | No public free plan; pricing arranged through sales | Custom, quote-based pricing scaled to volume and modules | Mid-market, enterprise, and education institutions | Not a sourcing tool; focused on interviewing, assessment, and proctoring | Core strength — async and live AI interviews plus assessments and proctoring |
| Manatal | No standing free tier; time-limited free trial | Accessible per-user monthly subscription; free trial | SMBs and recruitment agencies | Candidate enrichment, social-media sourcing, and resume parsing | AI candidate recommendations and scoring; no native async AI video interview product |
Best ATS Software in India: Free plan, Pricing model, Target company size, Candidate sourcing, AI interviewing for Keka, Darwinbox, Zoho Recruit, Talview, Manatal. Feature detail only, with no score, rating or ranking. A dash means that value is not published in our comparison for that product.
Keka
- Free plan
- No permanent free plan; paid per-employee tiers
- Pricing model
- Per-employee subscription across HR and payroll modules
- Target company size
- SMB to mid-market, India-focused
- Candidate sourcing
- Applicant tracking within the HR suite; limited dedicated sourcing
- AI interviewing
- Hiring module handles tracking and workflow; AI video interviewing is not its focus
Darwinbox
- Free plan
- No free plan; enterprise contract required
- Pricing model
- Custom enterprise pricing across the HCM suite
- Target company size
- Large enterprises and fast-scaling organisations
- Candidate sourcing
- Enterprise requisition and pipeline management inside the suite
- AI interviewing
- Recruiting module within the HCM; AI video interviewing is not its core
Zoho Recruit
- Free plan
- Yes — limited free plan available
- Pricing model
- Per-recruiter monthly plans; free plan available for limited users
- Target company size
- SMBs to mid-market; also staffing agencies
- Candidate sourcing
- Job board integrations and resume sourcing tools built in
- AI interviewing
- Some AI-assisted features; no dedicated native async AI video interview product
Talview
- Free plan
- No public free plan; pricing arranged through sales
- Pricing model
- Custom, quote-based pricing scaled to volume and modules
- Target company size
- Mid-market, enterprise, and education institutions
- Candidate sourcing
- Not a sourcing tool; focused on interviewing, assessment, and proctoring
- AI interviewing
- Core strength — async and live AI interviews plus assessments and proctoring
Manatal
- Free plan
- No standing free tier; time-limited free trial
- Pricing model
- Accessible per-user monthly subscription; free trial
- Target company size
- SMBs and recruitment agencies
- Candidate sourcing
- Candidate enrichment, social-media sourcing, and resume parsing
- AI interviewing
- AI candidate recommendations and scoring; no native async AI video interview product
Pitch N Hire is not a row in this table: we publish this page, so putting our own product in it would not tell you anything you could check. The free 1-user plan is there to test instead.
The options, and who each one suits
Keka
Best for Indian teams that want payroll, attendance and hiring in a single HR platform
Darwinbox
Best for Larger Indian and Asian enterprises standardising HR across multiple countries
Zoho Recruit
Best for Teams already using Zoho who want recruiting inside the same suite
Talview
Best for High-volume and campus hiring that needs assessment and proctoring built in
Manatal
Best for Cost-sensitive teams and small agencies wanting an affordable ATS with enrichment
Pitch N Hire
Published by us
Best for teams that want job posting, screening, structured interview scorecards and analytics in one pipeline, with a free plan for one user to test it on a real role
We are not going to rank ourselves against the products above. The useful thing we can offer instead is a free 1-user plan with no credit card, so you can run one real requisition end to end and judge it against your own process rather than against a feature table.
- Free Forever — ₹0 / month · up to 1 user · no credit card
- Startup — ₹500 / user / month · up to 5 users
- Pro Plan — ₹1,000 / user / month · up to 10 users
These are our own list prices, read from our billing system. We do not print the other products' prices here: published per-seat pricing changes often and a stale figure would be worse than none, so check each vendor's own pricing page for a current number.
Looking for what this category does rather than which vendor to pick? Best ATS software overall.
More buyer guides
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Best ATS Software in India — FAQs
What should an Indian hiring team look for in an ATS?
Should I buy an ATS or a full HR suite?
How much does ATS software cost in India?
Is there a free applicant tracking system?
Why do candidates drop out after accepting an offer in India?
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